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Page 12
* * * * *
A single word, sir, in respect to this supposed principle of
non-intervention on the part of Congress in the subject of slavery in
the territories. I confess I am surprised to find this brought forward,
and stated with so much confidence, as an established principle of the
Government. I know that distinguished gentlemen hold the opinion. The
very distinguished Senator from Michigan (Mr. Cass) holds it, and has
propounded it; and I pay all due respect and deference to his authority,
which I conceive to be very high. But I was not aware that any such
principle was considered a settled principle of the territorial policy
of this country. Why, sir, from the first enactment in 1789, down to the
bill before us, there is no such principle in our legislation. As far as
I can see it would be perfectly competent even now for Congress to pass
any law that they pleased on the subject in the Territories under this
bill. But however that may be, even by this bill, there is not a law
which the Territories can pass admitting or excluding slavery, which it
is of in the power of this Congress to disallow the next day. This
is not a mere _brutum fulmen_. It is not an unexpected power. Your
statute-book shows case after case. I believe, in reference to a
single Territory, that there have been fifteen or twenty cases where
territorial legislation has been disallowed by Congress. How, then, can
it be said that this principle of non-intervention in the government of
the Territories is now to be recognized as an established principle in
the public policy of the Congress of the United States?
Do gentlemen recollect the terms, almost of disdain, with which this
supposed established principle of our constitutional policy is treated
in that last valedictory speech of Mr. Calhoun, which, unable to
pronounce it himself, he was obliged to give to the Senate through the
medium of his friend, the Senator from Virginia. He reminded the Senate
that the occupants of a Territory were not even called the people--but
simply the inhabitants--till they were allowed by Congress to call a
convention and form a State constitution.
* * * * *
A word more, sir, and I have done. With reference to the great question
of slavery--that terrible question--the only one on which the North and
South of this great Republic differ irreconcilably--I have not, on this
occasion, a word to say. My humble career is drawing near its close,
and I shall end it as I began, with using no other words on that subject
than those of moderation, conciliation, and harmony between the two
great sections of the country. I blame no one who differs from me in
this respect. I allot to others, what I claim for myself, the credit of
honesty and purity of motive. But for my own part, the rule of my life,
as far as circumstances have enabled me to act up to it, has been, to
say nothing that would tend to kindle unkind feeling on this subject. I
have never known men on this, or any other subject, to be convinced by
harsh epithets or denunciation.
I believe the union of these States is the greatest possible
blessing--that it comprises within itself all other blessings,
political, national, and social; and I trust that my eyes may close long
before the day shall come--if it ever shall come--when that Union shall
be at an end. Sir, I share the opinions and the sentiments of the part
of the country where I was born and educated, where my ashes will be
laid, and where my children will succeed me. But in relation to my
fellow-citizens in other parts of the country, I will treat their
constitutional and their legal rights with respect, and their characters
and their feelings with tenderness. I believe them to be as good
Christians, as good patriots, as good men, as we are, and I claim that
we, in our turn, are as good as they.
I rejoiced to hear my friend from Kentucky, (Mr. Dixon), if he will
allow me to call him so--I concur most heartily in the sentiment--utter
the opinion that a wise and gracious Providence, in his own good time,
will find the ways and the channels to remove from the land what I
consider this great evil, but I do not expect that what has been done in
three centuries and a half is to be undone in a day or a year, or a few
years; and I believe that, in the mean time, the desired end will be
retarded rather than promoted by passionate sectional agitation. I
believe, further, that the fate of the great and interesting continent
in the elder world, Africa, is closely intertwined and wrapped up with
the fortunes of her children in all the parts of the earth to which they
have been dispersed, and that at some future time, which is already
in fact beginning, they will go back to the land of their fathers, the
voluntary missionaries of Civilization and Christianity; and finally,
sir, I doubt not that in His own good time the Ruler of all will
vindicate the most glorious of His prerogatives, "From seeming evil
still educing good."
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