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Page 4
And what does Slavery ask for now? Why, sir, it demands that a
time-honored and sacred compact shall be rescinded--a compact which has
endured through a whole generation--a compact which has been
universally regarded as inviolable, North and South--a compact, the
constitutionality of which few have doubted, and by which all have
consented to abide.
It will not answer to violate such a compact without a pretext. Some
plausible ground must be discovered or invented for such an act; and
such a ground is supposed to be found in the doctrine which was advanced
the other day by the Senator from Illinois, that the compromise acts of
1850 "superseded "the prohibition of slavery north of 36� 30', in the
act preparatory for the admission of Missouri. Ay,sir, "superseded" is
the phrase--"superseded by the principles of the legislation of 1850,
commonly called the compromise measures."
It is against this statement, untrue in fact, and without foundation in
history, that the amendment which I have proposed is directed.
Sir, this is a novel idea. At the time when these measures were before
Congress in 1850, when the questions involved in them were discussed
from day to day, from week to week, and from month to month, in this
Senate chamber, who ever heard that the Missouri prohibition was to be
superseded? What man, at what time, in what speech, ever suggested the
idea that the acts of that year were to affect the Missouri compromise?
The Senator from Illinois the other day invoked the authority of Henry
Clay--that departed statesman, in respect to whom, whatever may be the
differences of political opinion, none question that, among the great
men of this country, he stood proudly eminent. Did he, in the report
made by him as the chairman of the Committee of Thirteen, or in any
speech in support of the compromise acts, or in any conversation in the
committee, or out of the committee, ever even hint at this doctrine of
supersedure? Did any supporter or any opponent of the compromise
acts ever vindicate or condemn them on the ground that the Missouri
prohibition would be affected by them? Well, sir, the compromise acts
were passed. They were denounced North, and they were denounced South.
Did any defender of them at the South ever justify his support of them
upon the ground that the South had obtained through them the repeal of
the Missouri prohibition? Did any objector to them at the North ever
even suggest as a ground of condemnation that that prohibition was swept
away by them? No, sir! No man, North or South, during the whole of
the discussion of those acts here, or in that other discussion which
followed their enactment throughout the country, ever intimated any such
opinion.
Now, sir, let us come to the last session of Congress. A Nebraska bill
passed the House and came to the Senate, and was reported from the
Committee on Territories by the Senator from Illinois, as its chairman.
Was there any provision in it which even squinted toward this notion of
repeal by supersedure? Why, sir, Southern gentlemen opposed it on
the very ground that it left the Territory under the operation of the
Missouri prohibition. The Senator from Illinois made a speech in defence
of it. Did he invoke Southern support upon the ground that it superseded
the Missouri prohibition? Not at all. Was it opposed or vindicated
by anybody on any such ground? Every Senator knows the contrary. The
Senator from Missouri (Mr. Atchison), now the President of this body,
made a speech upon the bill, in which he distinctly declared that the
Missouri prohibition was not repealed, and could not be repealed.
I will send this speech to the Secretary, and ask him to read the
paragraphs marked. The Secretary read as follows:
"I will now state to the Senate the views which induced me to oppose
this proposition in the early part of this session.
"I had two objections to it. One was that the Indian title in that
Territory had not been extinguished, or, at least, a very small portion
of it had been. Another was the Missouri compromise, or, as it is
commonly called, the slavery restriction. It was my opinion at that
time--and I am not now very clear on that subject--that the law of
Congress, when the State of Missouri was admitted into the Union,
excluding slavery from the Territory of Louisiana north of 36� 30',
would be enforced in that Territory unless it was specially rescinded,
and whether that law was in accordance with the Constitution of the
United States or not, it would do its work, and that work would be to
preclude slave-holders from going into that Territory. But when I came
to look into that question, I found that there was no prospect, no
hope, of a repeal of the Missouri compromise excluding slavery from that
Territory. Now, sir, I am free to admit, that at this moment, at this
hour, and for all time to come, I should oppose the organization or
the settlement of that Territory unless my constituents, and
the constituents of the whole South--of the slave States of the
Union,--could go into it upon the same footing, with equal rights and
equal privileges, carrying that species of property with them as other
people of this Union. Yes, sir, I acknowledge that that would have
governed me, but I have no hope that the restriction will ever be
repealed.
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