Year: 1860

iting, as they in their judgment believed to
be best for the country.


Such is tho lesson Of our experience as to
how this matter was originally settled. In
the progress of affairs, and in thus arranging
for the Territories and settling them pcaeeobly,
they brought up State after State in perfect
peace and success and prosperity untill believe
fourteen States had been admitted out Of those
Territories, one-half slave and one half free;
they had grown up, under this patronage and
this administration oftho GcucralGoyernmcnt,
in the full exercise Of this power. In the
progress Of this history a difficulty was found
in relation to the State Of Missouri. We had
then large tract of land utterly unsettled +,
the settlements in the Louisiana purchase had
commenced near the mouth of the Mississippi,
and gradually proceeded up; but large part
Of the Territory was entirely wilderness, and
Congress found themselves in difficulty as to
the question of slavery and freedom in that
Territory. What did they do 1t occurred
90 the mind at once " it cannot be slaveholding
and free territory at the same time, we cannot
have it both at once can hardly conceive
Of any result that would more naturally occur
10 the mind than to divided it. If two men
own field, and one wants TO SOW IL with oats
and the other with wheat, and they cannot
have oats and wheat together with any success
! do not know any other way TO get along
with il peaceably but to divide the field. and
then it may be cultivated with mutual advan-
/ tagc This is an old lesson; it began very early
Il have had occasion before to call attention
/ to it, and will again "And Abraham said unto
Lot, let there be no strife, pray thee, between
me and thee, and between my herdmen and
/ thy hcrdmen, for we be brethren" 4" If thou
| wilt take the left hand. then | viii &C to the
l right; or if thou depart to the right hand,
then | will go to the left.


This territory was divided; Missouri was
admitted the line of 36 9 80 was run,and it
was declared that shall be our division Was
( there anything wrong in that; Was there
/ anything so extravagant and extraordinary in
IL that We should now 60 to war with our
fathers who made peace among themselves by
il; Is not their example worthy of imitation
I lt certainly is by all those who really desire
/ peace but if politicians aud other men can
make themselves capital out Of a constant tur-
moil and trouble, l suppose they will never
/ agree to it.


Now, Mr.. President what is the PROPOSE
tion of the Republican party; Nothing more
nothing less than TO restore that line. / dc
not suppose that those who obliterated it will
render any assistance to again drawing il
upon the surface Of the earth, but that is the
proposition, and that is all there is to it fol
if we say that slavery shall not go into the
Territories, it amounts to that, for there arc
no Territories for slayery to go into, but what
arc arranged, as things now are, to any extent
' unless it is north of that line. If we 90 nc
further than that. we simply say you shall
take nothing by that vote that repealed it.
That is all. Exclusion Of slavery from the
Territories, and leaving it uninteriered with
IN the State where it exists. as insisted on b,
the Republican platform, is, in my estimation
but practically restoring the Missouri com
promise, and | shall call it in my remarks


There may be other aspects of the question
but really when we disembarrass it, strip it o.
its collaterals and contingencies, and present
it in its practical light, there is all there is OF
it. Is it then one of those subjects that call
SO loudly on all parts of the country, and es-
pecially on the South, for expressions Of ex-
ecration of us 1t seems to me not. There
is not only nothing new in it, but there i,
nothing Of the least apparent injustice in that
which has been once fully agreed to, and
think never should have been disagreed to.


Mr.. BENJAMIN. l will not interrupt the
Senator from Vermont by a question, if it en-
barrasses him at all in the course of his argu-
ment but would ask him if he intends re-
terring, in the course of his remarks, to which
am listening with great interest, to the
fact that the whole South endeavored, by every
possible means-by remonstranco, entreaty
and every other possible means--to get the
gentlemen who now compose the Republican
party to agree to just what that Senator says
is what they now want?


/ Mr.. CoLLAMER. You mean to extend it to
the Pacific:


Mr BENTAMIN. Yes to leave that line,
not only as a sacred line, as established in
1920, but to extend it to the Pacific and
the proposition now is to put it back, after
you have extended the free States south Of
that line.


Mr.. CoLLAMrR. What do you mean by
that? California;


Mr.. BENJAMIN. You took possession of a
Territory south Of the line and after you have
got that, now you say restore the line back
again


Mr.. CoLLAMER. If the gentleman will be
a little patient, he will find that | shall not
blink that point at all but do not under
stand it as 10 does. have. however, no de-
sire to avoid it. | expect to call attention to
it. l said that, in my opinion, that line should
not have been oblterated / cannot here but
remark in the first place, as to the making Of
it. The gentleman from Virginia Mr.. HUNT
ER) in the course of this session spoke of that
as being a northern aggression; and he made
a discovery new 10 me, when he supposed the
North made the line The truths is the
South made that line | do not say that no
/ northern men voted for it. There were a very
I few, enough, with the southern votes to make
a majority; but the great body, the majority,
of its supporters were southern men. They
made it. actually heard with astonshmont
the honorable Senator from Virginia put that
down as one of the northern aggrossions.-
That is a new discovery TO me. 70 my mind,
that is very much like the man of whom heard
during the Canadian difficulties, who said he
was willing to 80 over there and help the
Canadians to fight the British any time and
when asked why, he said, 1.-THE British are
always peeking at somebody's at one time
they came into Boston and threw all our tea
into the harbor, and we have not got over
that yet (Laughter.) think this is about
as new a reading Of history as that. But,
sir, what purpose had that compromise line
answered What had the South got out of
il; First, the making Of that line admitted
Missouri; it left Arkansas to be admitted
| south of IT, and left all the country that could