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Page 45
MR. BARNWELL:--It is not my intention to reply to the argument of the
Senator from Kentucky, but there were expressions used by him not a
little disrespectful to a friend whom I hold very dear. * * * It is true
that his political opinions differ very widely from those of the Senator
from Kentucky. It may be true, that he, with many great statesmen, may
believe that the Wilmot proviso is a grievance to be resisted "to the
utmost extremity" by those whose rights it destroys and whose honor it
degrades. It is true that he may believe * * * that the admission of
California will be the passing of the Wilmot proviso, when we here in
Congress give vitality to an act otherwise totally dead, and by our
legislation exclude slaveholders from that whole broad territory on the
Pacific; and, entertaining this opinion, he may have declared that the
contingency will then have occurred which will, in the judgment of most
of the slave-holding States, as expressed by their resolutions, justify
resistance as to an intolerable aggression. If he does entertain and
has expressed such sentiments, he is not to be held up as peculiarly a
disunionist. Allow me to say, in reference to this matter, I regret that
you have brought it about, but it is true that this epithet "disunionist"
is likely soon to have very little terror in it in the South. Words do
not make things. "Rebel" was designed as a very odious term when applied
by those who would have trampled on the rights of our ancestors, but I
believe that the expression became not an ungrateful one to the ears
of those who resisted them. It was not the lowest term of abuse to call
those who were conscious that they were struggling against oppression;
and let me assure gentlemen that the term disunionist is rapidly
assuming at the South the meaning which rebel took when it was baptized
in the blood of Warren at Bunker Hill, and illustrated by the gallantry
of Jasper at Fort Moultrie. * * *
MR. CLAY:--Mr. President, I said nothing with respect to the character
of Mr. Rhett, for I might as well name him. I know him personally,
and have some respect for him. But, if he pronounced the sentiment
attributed to him--of raising the standard of disunion and of resistance
to the common government, whatever he has been, if he follows up that
declaration by corresponding overt acts, he will be a traitor, and I
hope he will meet the fate of a traitor.
THE PRESIDENT:--The Chair will be under the necessity of ordering the
gallery to be cleared if there is again the slightest interruption. He
has once already given warning that he is under the necessity of keeping
order. The Senate chamber is not a theatre.
MR. CLAY:--Mr. President, I have heard with pain and regret a
confirmation of the remark I made, that the sentiment of disunion is
becoming familiar. I hope it is confined to South Carolina. I do not
regard as my duty what the honorable Senator seems to regard as his. If
Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance unjustly, I never
will fight under that banner. I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole
Union--a subordinate one to my own State. When my State is right--when
it has a cause for resistance--when tyranny, and wrong, and oppression
insufferable arise, I will then share her fortunes; but if she summons
me to the battle-field, or to support her in any cause which is unjust,
against the Union, never, never will I engage with her in such cause.
WENDELL PHILLIPS,
OF MASSACIUSETTS. (BORN 1811, DIED 1884.)
ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT, BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS
ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, AT BOSTON, JANUARY 27, 1853.
Mr. CHAIRMAN:
I have to present, from the business committee, the following
resolution:
Resolved; That the object of this society is now, as it has always been,
to convince our countrymen, by arguments addressed to their hearts and
consciences, that slave-holding is a heinous crime, and that the duty,
safety, and interest of all concerned demand its immediate abolition
without expatriation.
I wish, Mr, Chairman, to notice some objections that have been made to
our course ever since Mr. Garrison began his career, and which have been
lately urged again, with considerable force and emphasis, in the
columns of the London Leader, the able organ of a very respectable and
influential class in England. * * * The charges to which I refer are
these: That, in dealing with slave-holders and their apologists, we
indulge in fierce denunciations, instead of appealing to their reason
and common sense by plain statements and fair argument; that we might
have won the sympathies and support of the nation, if we would have
submitted to argue this question with a manly patience; but, instead of
this, we have outraged the feelings of the community by attacks, unjust
and unnecessarily severe, on its most valued institutions, and gratified
our spleen by indiscriminate abuse of leading men, who were often honest
in their intentions, however mistaken in their views; that we have
utterly neglected the ample means that lay around us to convert the
nation, submitted to no discipline, formed no plan, been guided by no
foresight, but hurried on in childish, reckless, blind, and hot-headed
zeal,--bigots in the narrowness of our views, and fanatics in our blind
fury of invective and malignant judgment of other men's motives.
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