FEDERAL RELATIONS.
On motion by Mr. ANTHONY, the rules of order were suspended-yeas 34, nays 14-and the unfinished business taken up-being the minority report of the Committee on Federal Relations, [identical with the joint resolution (S. 4) printed on pages 44 and 45 of these Reports.]
[A message from the Governor was received, transmitting resolutions adopted by the Tennessee Legislature condemnatory of the resolutions lately passed by the Legislature of New York.]
Mr. DE HART. The proper time to have answered the eloquent and poetical Senator from Lawrence, [Mr. Cobb] would have been at the time he took his seat, whilst his propositions and effusions were fresh upon the memory. But cut off by that motion which is always in order, he has slept over the argument, "and slept soundly." Thanking the Senate for the floor this morning, he would now proceed to review it. The length forbade him to follow the entire course of the Senator, as he began with the creation, and closed with the Kansas and Nebraska bill. It would have been safer for the Senator if history had not been written-his charges of outrage against the "peculiar institution" of the South, more plausible to the public ear, if they had not been so often refuted upon every stump in the North. The Democratic party, by their own ruthless hands, had plunged this fair land of ours into its present ruinous condition. Faithless to time-honored compromises, chained to the Juggernaut of slavery, and desperate in their unholy endeavor to amend that time-honored Constitution of our country, so as to nationalize and make real that "wild and guilty fantasy that man can hold property in man'' they were only to be checked by the firmness and courage of the Republican party. The immutable principle of right afforded the only true basis for political organization. The framers of our Constitution, and the patriots who laid its foundation, fixed their minds up on the eternal throne, and appealed to the Supreme Ruler to witness that they were in earnest. To amend that, Constitution, as demanded by the report under discussion, would be to mar its beauty, defeat its purpose, and make this the land of slavery. He summoned the Fathers to bear testimony that this Government was made to protect "the rights of human nature." That they looked forward to the time when slavery should cease to exist, and carefully avoided the words-slavery op slave in framing the Constitution, so that when it ceased to exist, there should be no evidence in that instrument to show that it. ever existed cursed our common country. All this was now changed. Slavery had grown bold, defiant and impudent, and sought the sanction of the Supreme law of the land. The Republican party had just triumphed upon this issue, and they would defend the ground they had now. He would not deprive the South of a single right they enjoyed under the Constitution as it now stands. That there was a wide difference between compromise and the change of that supreme organic act. Compromises and concessions were usually made before verdicts were returned. That there were patriots everywhere, who, at the right time, would rush to the defence of their country's flag, as did the heather-hidden natives ef Clan Alpin to the shrill whistle of their chief.
[The delivery of this speech occupied two hours and a quarter.]
Mr. LANDERS. I would be loth to my duty if I were not to cast my vote in favor of this minority report. Though not as a first proposition, my constituents are in favor of compromise and concession, and Republicans in my county are surprised when I tell them that members on the other side of this Chamber oppose it. This proposition is intended to settle the question of slavery, and drive it out of our council halls; in other words, to quiet agitation. The right of transit of slaves over the free States should not be objected to.
page: 129[View Page 129][A message from the House announced the concurrence in the joint resolution, [S. 9,] directing the State Treasurer to call upon county treasurers for State revenue, which they may have collected by the 10th proximo.]
Mr. Landers yielded the floor for the noon recess.
