Year: 1860

Mr.. Regan, of Texas having concluded


speech, As


Mr.. Edgerton took the, floor


Mr.. Morris of Illinois. With the gentle
mans consent, will PROFOUND an interroga
tory to the gentleman from Texas


Mr. Edgerton. will yield if it will no
be taken out of my time. for want all of tn
hour to which am entitled. =.eai


A colloquy then ensued between Messrs
Morris and Regan, after which Mr.. Edgerto
spoke as follows:


Mr. Chairman, should not have elaine,
the attention of the House so early in the ses
sion, aud perhaps not at all. but from the ex-
traordinary violence which has cha-acterizet
the discussion on the other side. Who. tha
has been an observer of the proceedings O
this House since we first met, can doubt th,
existence of an irrepressible conflict? Hard
ly had we taken our seats here before an hon
orable member representing a slareheIdins
constituency threw the apple of discord int
our midst, and for more than eight week
kept this House disorganiz ed, during which
time southern gentlemen and their northern
allies stigmatized the free and inteIiigen
people of the North as false to the Consiitu
tion and as traitors 10 the country Week
after week we have patiently listened to the
most violent abuse of our people Rhetoric
and epithet have both been exhausted hy pat
riotic gentlemen in their eff ,rts to blacken the
character of our constituents; and am sorry
to say, ,sir, that the most bitter assailants anG
eXultant tradueers of our northern people have
been found among that little band of north
ern Democrats who on this floor are monu-
ments Of the sparing mercy and long suffering
of the North.


But. Mr.. Chairman, do not complain that
this subject of slavery has been introduced;
nor do regret that it was first introduced and
discussed for weeks by those who profess to
deprecate its agitation. l knew that, sooner
or later, it must come up for discussion There
is no political legerdemain that can keep il
down. Congressional compromises and party
platforms have in vain attempted to silence
agitation, and settle the controversy but the
strife has gathered intensity and force from
the very efforts made to suppress it. The con
fict is irrepressible! 1t is idle-worse than idle
| 1T is madness-to attempt to ignore this ques.
ton of the age, and it will moi be- ignored; If
pervades every part of our wide extended
land, and comes up here into the Halls OF
Congress, meeting US at the very threshold =
ibis conflict grows out of the very nature OF
things. 1t has its origin in conflicting ideas
which form the basis of our two systems OF
labor. The system of free labor rests upon
the Declaration of Independence it finds its
development at the North, and is sustained by
the great Republican party. The slave sys-
tenn rests upon the idea that man, like the
horse, IS the subJect-matter of property. This
system finds its development at the South, and
is supported by the Democratic party. These
two ideas, which underie these systems of la
| hnr fnr 6Yo
no evading the issue, and the North does not
desire it. Let it be settled. now and forever
Let Us know whether this Government is for
ever to be prostituted to the extension and
support of slavery or not


Mr. Chairman. there is growing spirit OF
freedom at the North, which will brook no de
lay and will tolerate no evasiun. 1t insists
that this Government shall no longer build up
and support labor; but that, wherever the
General Government is responsible for its ex-
istence, we shall smite to the dust. We say
to slavery, take what is nominated in the bond
but not tithe more. 1t has been made a
subject of complaint on this floor that our
northern people are educated to believe that
slavery is wrong | admit that the people of
the North abhor your cherished institutions
They believe. with Bolivar, that slavery is an
Infringement of all laws, and that law hav-
ing tendency to preserve slavery would be
| the greatest saerilege.' They believe, with
Fox. that personal freedom is the right OF
every human being;' and with Burke, that
slavery is a state so improper, so degrading
and so ruinous to the feelings and capacities OF
human nature. that it ought not to be suffered
to exist For myself can say that look
upon slavery as the climax of wickedness-
peerless and unapproachable in its atrocious
preeminence. Talk as you will about your
rights of property in man; the Almighty has
written with the finger of love upon the heart
of every human being the consciousness that
he has right to himself. II we of the North
err on this subject, we err with the greatest
and best men of all ages The founders OF
our Government believed as we believe, that
man has rights by virtue of his manhood; and
they went so far as to say that all men had
these rights-the right to life the right to lib.
erty-and that these rights were inalienahle
They stood just where the Republican party
stands to-day. Not enc of those great men
ever endorsed the cardinal doctrine of the
modern Democratic party which was SO con-
cIsely stated by the gentleman from South
Carolina, Mr. Bonham:1 @
| DO uot look upon slavery as social NOR
al. and political evil. but l look upon it as a
social, moral, and political blessing and good
AS early as l773 Patrick Henry in letter
te Robert Pleasants, says


Believe me, shall honor the Onakers for
their noble efforts to abolish slavery. 1t is a
debt we owe to the purity of our religion to
show that it is at variance with that law that
warrants slavery. exhort you to persevere
in so worthy resolution; believe the time
will come when an opportunity will be offered
to abolish this lamentable evil


General Washington in writing to Robert
Morris, says:


/ can only say that there is not a man liv.
ing who wishes more sincerely than do to see
some plan adopted for the abolition of slave
ry.'.. ...


And in his letter to Sir John Sinclair, he
said


There are in Pennsylvania laws for the
gradual abolition of slavery, which neither
Virginia nor Maryland have at present, bui
which nothing is more certain than they must
have, and at period not remote


And at the close Of his eventful life, as the
crowning glory of his matchess career, he be-
came practical Abolitionist making every
slave he possessed free. Thomas Jefferson, in
his notes on Virginia. says:


| There must, doubtless, be an unhappy in
hoeEce on the manners of our people produc
ed by the existance of slavery among u.s.
The whole commerce between master and
slave is perpetual exercise of the most
boisterous passions, the most unremittirg des
potisrn on the one part, and degrading sub
missions on the other. Our children see this,
and learn to initiate it; for man is an initiative
animal This quality is the germ of all edu-
cation in him. From his cradle to his grave
he is learning to do what he sees Others do
II a parent could find no motive, either in his