HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
FRIDAY, February 1, 1861.Mr. 8TOTSENBERG entered his motion to reconsider the vote indefinitely postponing the bill to amend section 476 of the practice act; and he entered another motion to reconsider Mr. Cason's bill [35] to amend the 288th section of the practice act so as to admit parties in civil actions to testify in their own behalf.
The SPEAKER suggested 11 o'clock as the proper time for the orders of the day to be taken up and referred to the necessity of such a fixed rule, in the large number of bills before the House which could not be acted on without it.
PETITIONS.
Mr. NEBEKER presented the petition of sundry Republicans of Jeffersonville, with reference to State Prison affairs, and the necessity of revising the militia law; which was ordered to the Committee of Thirteen.
On motion of Mr. ROBERTS, the petition of A. J. Cotton, presented by him yesterday, was taken from the table and referred to the Committee on Education.
REPORTS FROM THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.
By Mr. VEATCH, returning the resolution inquiring whether a law making a specified period to entitle a cttizen to a vote would be constitutional, and reporting the opinion that any such act would be unconstitutional; but that a law might be enacted declaring what shall be deemed evidence of residence, in the case of transient, persons having no fixed resdence.
He also returned the resolution inquiring into the expediency of a law requiring a residence of 60 days in the county, and not page: 152[View Page 152] less than 30 days in the township in which a man may offer to vote, and reported, that the 2d section of the 2d article of the Constitution fixes the qualifications of a voter, and the Legislature has no right to fix the residence. A residence in the township is all the Constitution requires, and a residence of one day is as valid as a residence of a year. But the Committee would state, that in the case of transient persons a law may be enacted as to what shall be deemed and taken as a residence, and that the object sought in the resolution may to a great extent be obtained in that way.
Mr. EDSON, returning Mr. Wood's bill [71] to amend the 14th section of the Misdemeanor act-[merely changing the penalty for destroying timber, so as to make it discretionary with the Court. The law now fixes it at five times the value of the timber]-with a favorable recommendation.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed, and these several reports were concurred in.
Mr. GROVER (by unanimous consent) submitted an order that the Committee on Education be authorized to employ a clerk for such time as they may need the same. He said the clerk was to serve the joint committee. And as they were now engaged in a revision of the school law, he invited gentlemen having suggestions to present them.
Mr. STOTSENBERG, from the Committee on Organization of Courts of Justice, returned the bill to repeal the act for the return of juries to the Common Pleas Court at the third day of the term, approved March 5, 1859, and reported that the present law provides a proper, sufficient and economical method for summoning juries; that it would not be expedient to legislate on the subject at this time ; and that the bill be laid on the table.
The report was concurred in.
Mr. MOODY, from the Committee on Swamp Lands, returned the petition of John I. Morrison, S. W. Holmes, and others, asking for an appropriation to pay for removing a mill dam on the Muscatatack river, and reported that there does not appear sufficient reason in said petitions to warrant the appropriation.
Mr. HEFFREN hoped the report would be laid on the table till these petitioners could be heard.
Mr. MOODY supposed the money asked for belonged to that county. If there was merit in their application, he was willing to hear them.
The report was laid on the table.
Mr. JENKINSON made an ineffectual application for leave for the Committee on the Northern States Prison Investigation to sit during the session of the House.
On the motion of Mr. COLLINS, of Whitley, (by unanimous consent,) his bill [152] to change the terms of the Common Pleas Courts in the counties of Lagrange, Steuben, De Kalb, Noble and Whitley, was considered on the 2d reading, and ordered to be engrossed.
Mr. ANDERSON, (by consent,) introduced bill [152] to amend the 107th section of the amended school act of March 5, 1859, so as to regulate the choice of teachers: which passed to the second reading.
On motion by Mr. ORR, (by consent,) tlio bill [S. 74] to change the times of the Common Pleas in the 7th Judicial Circuit, in the counties of Hancock, Hamilton, Tipton, &c., was considered, and (under a dispensatton) passed the first and secoad readings,and was referred to a select committee, to be composed of one member from each county in the Circuit.
STATE OF THE UNION.
Mr. McLEAN asked and obtained leave to have the following spread on the Journal:
Mr. Speaker:
The undersigned, one of the members of the Committee of Thirteen, who submitted the minority Report of said committee to this House, desires to enter his dissent from so much of said minority report as reflects upon the ministers of the gospel. The undersigned would say that although the allusions contained in the said report reflecting upon the ministry may be lamentably true to a certain extent, yet he must regard the said charges as entirely too general, wholesale and sweeping in their character, in bad taste, foreign to the real object which should have been kept in view by the report, and not calculated to allay the bad feeling unfortunately existing among our people. The undersigned would say that the principal features and great body of the said minority Report meet his hearty and cordial approbation, but he cannot endorse the offensive allegations above referred to. The undersigned regards it due to himself to state that the said minority Report was presented to him for his signature at his desk in the House only a few minutes before the hour for which it was made the special order, not affording him either time or opportunity to examine the same. The undersigned cannot concur in the said minority report, unless the said offensive charges are stricken from the same, and would recommend the House that the same should be stricken out.
WM. E. McLEAN
Mr. McLEAN. was probably due to himself to state that his name was affixed to the report before he had time to consider that part to which he now excepted.
The House now resumed the consideration of the reports of the Committee of Thirteen.
The SPEAKER stated that the order of yesterday to restrict debate applied only to the consideration of that part of the report which refers to the appointment of Commissioners to the Washington Convention.
Mr. FRASIER. He had listened to the speech of the gentleman from Floyd, more in. sorrow than in anger. Was sorry to hear such sentiments on this floor. But the sentiments uttered by that gentleman were as harmless as the cooing of a dove, when compared with the treason, rank and foul, which breathes throughout this minority report. He was glad his honorable friend from Vigo had dissented from it. He was glad to learn under what circumstances his name was attached to that report. But he was sorry to see attached to that report the name of a gentleman, who a few days back had introduced a resolution to the effect, that the State of Indiana was ready to back up the General Government in any attempt to put down the treason of the south. When he page: 153[View Page 153]chargeded that the spirit of treason breathes through that report, he spoke what he knew. "When the language of the Declaration of Independence comes to be prostituted to the purpose of justifying a band of rebels and traitors, marshalled under their rattle snake ensign, it did seem to him that it must cause the very bones of our patriot fathers to rattle in their graves. What does this report say? It assumes that these men are justly, and rightfully and properly defending their rights, and tins minority of the committee more than intimate where they will be found in the conflict. Would it be in defence of the Constitution? No sir; they tell us that they are ready to shoulder the musket and assist rebellion and treason-assist to overthrow the best Government ever constituted on earth. And yet they denounce us as traitors to the country, because we see lit to stand up and boldly advocate our principles for the defense of the constitution and the enforcement of the laws, which are saered and next in our hearts, to the book of God. But this portion of the committee had invited investigation into the causes which have brought about this state of affairs He agreed with Mr. Stotsenberg that it was useless to inquire after the causes which have brought the country to the present crisis. But gentlemen have invited investigation, and we have heard it charged not only on the streets, but on the authority of leading newspapers repeating the sentiment of the late Goverdor Hammond, that it has been the work of demagogues and hypocritical ministers of the gospel.
He proceeded at length to examine the record of the past ten or twelve years, and to throw back the charge of responsibility for the Federal difficulties upon the Democratic party, and to convict them of various inconsistencies on the slavery issue; closing with strictures on the plans of adjustment and remedy for national difficulties proposed by them.
He referred to the Convention of the Democratic party in. 1849, in this State. Leading members of it were the late Gov. Willard, Attorney General McDonald and their late candidate for Governor. No man raised his voice in that Convention against the doctrines set forth in its platform. There is nothing in it recognizing the State rights about which they talk so much at this time.
He then read the platform, condemning the introduction of slavery in the territories. He also referred to the Joint Resolutions in the General Assembly at the ensuing session. In Ohio, the Democratic party assumed bolder ground and determined to eradicate slavery. Yet this party by its press and by its speakers have represented to the South, that it was the object of the Republican party to destroy slavery in the States where it now exists. When a United States Senator was to be elected, at that time, it was deemed necessary to learn the opinions of the leading men of their party and receive pledges of hostility to the extension of slavery, even to its abolishment in the District of Columbia. These facts are well known to all. Yet some of these rnen, thus pledged, cannot now take part in the raising of the flag of the country, but make it an occasion of especial denunciation of the very opinions they then so zealously advocated. He then read the correspondence with Mr. Fitch, in which he pledges himself to hostility to slavery, where it had long been existing.
Was it constitutional, then, to prohibit slavery from the Territories? Was it not extraordinary that no one of its ablest men then discovered, what all of the party now see so clearly, the unconstutionality of prohibiting slavery from the Territories?
He challenged any one of them to show that the Republican party, in any particular, went beyond these Democratic pledges and opinions of 1849. He then showed that by the decisions of the United States Courts in the slave States themselves, slavery was declared not to exist beyond the States under whose authority it existed. All these decisions, made during a long period of time, were in direct conflict with the principles of the Dred Scott decision.
The change of the party, so complete in its inconsistency, has been caused by its attempt to uphold a rotten and corrupt dynasty, which the people had so justly hurled from power. Even in last June the Democratic party refused to assume the position that is now taken in defense of those who are banded together in avowed rebellion against their Government. They did this, well knowing that the North would utterly repudiate the then demands of the South.
Some of the party admit that the Government has a right to enforce its laws by arms, but they should read the minority report, which now takes the position that a State has a right to secede whenever it chooses. He never would consent to the adoption of the Crittenden amendment, because it takes the opposite of that position assumed by the great Henry Clay, when he declared that no earthly power could force him to extend slavery where it does not now exist. Yet now, in open rebellion against the Government, in violation of the Constitution itself, in resistance to the law, with arms in their hands which they have stolen, there is a portion of the country demanding what Henry Clay thus declared no human power could force him to consent to. And now, in this minority report, men thus in open rebellion are sustained, and the State is menaced with the threat, that if any attempt is made to enforce the laws and defend the General Government, a power will arise in our own State, to withstand, by force of arms, such attempt.
He then referred to the evils of slavery as evidenced by the progress of the slave and free States, and maintained that the result was occasioned by this institution, and in the nature of things no prosperity could be expected where labor was based on the denial of the rights that belonged to a man.
page: 154[View Page 154]Mr. HEFFREN here desired to know whether a negro was a man.
Mr. FRASIER. He would reply to that by asking: whether Mr. Heffren thought he was not a man?
Mr. HEFFREN said he was not.
Mr. FRASIER. He is a man, although not enjoying the political rights which we do; just as our wives and daughters are women, although they are denied the right to vote, and are subjected to other legal disabilities. The negro had a right, no matter what his position by local legislation, to the product of his labor. It is a right that belongs to every human being, and this right is recognized by our State Constitution, the production of a Convention largely Democratic.
He maintained that if the Democratic party had stood up in support of the principles it advocated in times past, the present difficulties never would have existed, but to hold on to their political ascendancy they renounced every one of their principles, descending so low in their subserviency as here to maintain that a negro is not a man, and that he had no lights as a human being that can distinguish him from property, and, hence, that rebellion is to be supported in its demands to take this property wherever it shall be their pleasure to take it.
As to our Constitution it shall be supported; its flag shall be defended; the liberty of which it is an emblem shall be maintained at all hazards, and if destruction comes in their defence, that defence shall be made to the last drop of our hearts blood.
Mr. PACKARD supposed he shared in the feeling of all the members on this floor when he said the subject under consideration could not be overestimated. It must be acknowledged that the present is a time of great danger and difficulty, and to one as young as himself in political life, it was almost dangerous to approach the subject. Scylla is on the one hand, and Charyhdis on the other. But the heart that falters in the hour of peril, the spirit that quails when danger and difficulty surrounds, is unworthy the name of freeman. Therefore, whether he erred or not, he had an earnest heart and purpose in the matter, and by the indulgence of the House, he would-five utterance to the sentiments he cherished. The history of our coutry for eighty-four years had been a proud one. Our penury had become opulence; our feebleness had become a mighty power; our commerce had become the hope of the world, and our feeble and restricted colonies had become an ocean-bound empire.
But in the midst of all this prosperity there have been those who have gone about all over our free land sowing the seeds of discord ; and the cloud which, at the first, was no larger than a man's hand-than that seen by the servant of Elijah on the mountain top-has grown fearfully large and lowering, ready to break over our country in all the fierce horrors of a revolution. As the physician who would treat skillfully a fearful disease, inquires first into the cause, so in order that we may be able to prescribe a proper and wholsesome remedy, we should first seek out and find the true source of our troubles. In discussin the source and origin of our troubles, it was not his purpose to advert to them at great length, nor to indulge incriminations and recriminations! He believed that the great fault, the great source of the error of the American people, if they are in error, had arisen from this fact: We talk of the secession of South Carolina, but he affirmed that this Union was virtually dissolved long before the State of South Carolina declared her ordinance of secession. Dissolved! How? Not by any civil, overt act of dissolution; by no means.
But what was this Union? It was a great political constitution which rests on the popular good will-on the mutual feeling of love and respect of the people of the United States, Its foundations rest where all liberal and Constitutional Governments must rest. There was but one other bond of strength for government, and that was slavish fear. Then if this Union rests on the mutual good will of the people of the States, he said, the Union was destroyed when that feeling was destroyed. Joshua R. Giddings never utteard a greater Republican truth than when he said there was no enmity between any two foreign nations greater than that between the people of the Northern and the people of the Southern States. But certainly gentlemen would not accuse the Democracy of the North with entertaining that hatred. No; but it was a fearful fact that for a long time past a rancorous hatred had sprung up in the bosom of the people of the North against the people of the South. This feeling had assumed a political character, and increasing in power and momentum, had rolled wave after wave of its power in a reckless crusade on the peculiar institution of the South, in utter disregard of their right of protection, as recognized under the Constitution and in the solemn edicts of Congress.
The North had fostered and strengthened a hostile feeling against the South, until it had become a rankling hatred, as shown by the laws passed by these Northern States. They have refused the poor boon of allowing the slaveholders to pass through their States with their slaves; their leader has declared that slavery and freedom can not exist together; yet the North is dependent on the South for its prosperity, and hence it refuses to grant the request of the South when it asks a peaceable division of the property that belongs to both, and the right to live in peace separately, He would not justify all the South had done; but who can expect a people in a revolution to observe the laws. The grievances of the South have become intolerable, and, as in our revolutionary struggle, they had a right to demand another government. Legally they could not revolutionize, but the Republicans, who have caused all the difficulties, have no reason to complain of their own acts. They have elected to the Presidency a man pledged to hostility against the rights of the South.
But now the Republicans have grown belligerent ; they desire to conquer the cotton States. If they do subdue them, how could page: 155[View Page 155]they govern them? If disunion, however disgraceful must come, let it come rather than civil war. Never would he consent to vote men or money, or arms, or consent to any measure that will lead to a conflict.
A great difficulty arises from our not remembering the nature of the difficulty. If it was limited to Charleston, we might properly coerce her and force her to obedience; but the true nature of it may be seen in the answer of the Tennessee Legislature to the New York resolutions. The dominant party in the North have crushed out all fraternal feeling by their Constant denunciations of slavery-their abolition lectures in every school house in the country. If they loved this country half as much as they do their party, they could bring peace and harmony back again. But they oppose the Crittenden propositions, because they deny the principles of concession it embodies. He referred to the positions assumed by Mr. Seward in the telegraphic reports of last night, as indicating that he was ready to abandon his party platform rather than bring civil war upon the country.
The apathy of the Republican party is one of the chief things one of the most clangerous that stands in the way of conciliation. They seem to depend wholly upon Abraham Lincoln, but unless the difficulties are settled before he takes his seat, he will preside over but a small portion of our Confederacy.
Why do they not allow the people to vote on the adoption of the Crittenden amendments? If they could speak, fifty thousand majority in this State would demand their adoption. It had been asserted that the people had decided these questions in the recent elections. He denied this. The principles of the Republicans never have been endorsed by the majority of the people, The Democrats had made the country ; he rejoiced that they have had the control of the State, and now if they could have their way, they would soon preserve it from the dangers that threaten its destruction. Instead of meeting the Democrats in their efforts to preserve it, they bring forward resolutions cunningly worded with terms of peace and fraternal feeling, but so limiting the powers of the Commissioners, as to prevent any action that could harmonize the country.
He asked what had been the policy of the country toward foreign nations. Did it settle conflicting claims by war? No! But by sending peace commissions, invoking every kindly feeling, as in the Canada boundary and the Oregon disputed line. Shall we not pursue the same course toward our own brethren?
Mr. CAMERON obtained the floor.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Mr. HENRICKS rose to a question of privilege. He held in his hand this morning's Cincinnati Commercial newspaper, containing an article which he desired to be read at the Clerk's table-in which there was reflection cast on the members of this body.
The article read was the New York Tribune's notice of the refusal in the Richmond (Va.) Theater to hear Miss Caroline Richings sing " The Star Spangled Banner," but when she sung the Southern Marseillaise, and trampled on the American Flag she received the most tumultuous applause; and the inquiry of the Commercial whether this was " the same Miss Richings who sang " The Star Spangled Banner" for the Indiana Legislature the other day, and received from that agust body a vote of thanks?
The Speaker laid before the House a communication from the Auditor of State responding to the resolution of the House, inquiring after $255,000 of the Common School Fund paid into the State Treasury and withheld from the schools, referred to in the last report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The Auditor says the practice has been to issue the Auditor's warrant in favor of the County Treasurer for the distributive share (of the School Fund) of each county, which warrant is placed to the credit of the county treasurer in settlement. Practically, only the excess has been paid into the Treasury. The reason of the accumulation of what is due to the Common School Fund is because the literal execution of the school law of 1855 is rendered impracticable by the failure of the county officers to report the collections in the time prescribed by law; and hence the Superintendent has been compelled to make an estimated distribution or none at all.
STATE OF THE UNION.
The SPEAKER announced the consideration of the reports of the Committee of Thirteen.
Mr. CAMERON took the floor, but gave way to-
Mr. PROSSER. Mr. Speaker, I have been one of those humble individuals that, if I have stood for anything, it has been for a calm and peaceable discussion of every question before this body, and but yesterday I was in favor of limiting speeches in this discussion to ten minutes, because I felt that no good could grow out of a protracted discussion. The propriety of this suggestion has become more apparent since, from the course that has been taken. There was a minority report from the Committee of Thirteen, of which I am a member ; and that report has been assailed by the majority on this floor in the most insulting and bitter terms. I was one who subscribed to that report. I put my name to it, believing it to be right. I have never, on this floor, or elsewhere, made the discussion of politics with my opponents, a personal matter. I have uniformly acted with the strictest courtesy to all political opponents. But now my sentiments and motives have been impugned. They have been assailed in most violent terms. The gentleman from Laporte yesterday evening commenced the attack, the gentleman from Jasper page: 156[View Page 156] followed it up, and to-day the gentleman from Kosciusko has capped the climax-until, I say to you, Mr. Speaker, forbearance on my part has ceased to be a virtue. If I have any principle, sir, it is to be true to myself and to my constituents; and when I am impeached as a traitor-when I am accused of being guilty of that for which, if proven, I should be strung up between heaven and earth-it is a matter of no small importance to me. I know that there are Republicans on this floor who do not countenance such remarks-who are not in favor of them, who discuss subjects upon their merits, without personal abuse, or pandering to passions and prejudices. And while there may have been some offensive remarks given out by the gentleman from Marshall, on this side, it was only by way of offset against what had been before heaped upon the minority. These gentlemen-three of them-have gone on to state that they are for war, that they are fighting men. The gentleman from Kosciusko was willing to spill the last drop of his blood in the conflict. They seem to be without fear. But I tell these gentlemen that it is beneath the dignity of the pot-house politician to indulge in such a line of remark. These questions can be better decided without going so far. I tell them, when they say l am a traitor, it is a base falsehood, and I cram it down their vile throats, and stand here to defend myself.
Mr. BUNDY and others called to order.
Mr. PROSSER. If I am not in order, why, in God's name, were not those men called to order when they denounced me as a traitor ? The call to order conies with a bad grace from them at this time, and again I hurl their denunciations back, and again cram the lie down their wide throats.
The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Brown will take his seat. The chair will not permit such language from any member of the House, and he begs to say that hereafter, when gentlemen take such advantage of the chair, he will see if there is not some way to protect both the chair and the House.
Mr. CAMERON thought there had been enough of this bad blood. Gentlemen should not stir up the fires of the volcano. He intended to discuss this question, not as it relates to men, but in view of the imminence of the peril that overhangs the country. We have been told here that the time is past for indulgence in "glittering generalities" that we must look the fact in the face ; that the Union is already begun to be dissolved; that in our political heavens one sun after another was fading out-ready to vanish, and leave only dark spots in their places. He proposed more particularly, to consider the remarks of his friend from Marshall [Mr. Packard.] That gentleman had said this difficulty of secession and dissolution is not the effect of the election of Mr. Lincoln, but that the cause of it existed long ago, when the people lost their devotion to the common country.
The gentleman right. So far back as the day when this government was formed, there was engendered by the dreamers of South Carolina an which never loved the Union which itself from time to time, and in Jackson's d broke forth in almost open rebellion.
The gentleman from Marshall referred to the causes which gave rise to the present unfortunate condition of the country. He attributed them to the discussion of slavery. He was sustained by those who were the leaders in this secession movement. He would read their declarations, and then it could be seen what the causes were.
In the convention of South Carolina, which passed the ordinance of secession, the following declarations were made by delegates :
"Mr. Inglis. Mr. President : If there is any gentleman present who wishes to debate this matter, of course this body will hear him ; but as to delay for the purpose of discussion, I for one am opposed to it. As my friend (Mr. Parker) has said, most of us have had this matter under consideration for the last twenty years, and I presume we have by this time arrived at a decision upon the subject,"
"Mr. Keitt-Sir, we are performing a great act, which involves not only the stirring present, but embraces the whole great future of ages to come. I have been engaged in this movement ever since I entered into political life"
"Mr. Rhett-The secession of South Carolina is not an event of a day. Is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by the non-execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. It is a matter which has been gathering head for thirty years."
Here it is seen that secession has not been caused by any recent political events. It has not been produced by the election of Mr. Lincoln. So declares the greatest leader in this secession movement. But for the last twenty years it has been agitated, and to present the consummation of the schemes of disunion, everything has been yielded- to the Southern disunionists for the last twenty years.
And now we are asked to make more concessions-to yield up every political principle that was decided by the election of Mr. Lincoln. If we do not comply with these demands the country is to be destroyed and the Union dissolved. To resist a dissolution of the government by the enforcement of the laws is denounced as unjustifiable coercion, and pictures are drawn of the calamities which must follow civil war. No one could more regret this than he, but if these are to be the results of enforcing obedience, he would endure them all. The rights of labor are to be maintained. The Republicans are made responsible for opinions held by the old Whig party, but he would defend them, although in past times he had been a Democrat. That party had stood by Jackson when the peace of the country was menaced and the Union threatened with destruction, Eminent men, as Scott and Taylor, of that party, were seen in prominent positions in the Mexican war.
We are told that the Union is dissolved. It is not so ; thirty-four stars are yet seen on our flag. It now represents Kansas, and South Carolina is still there. It has been admitted page: 157[View Page 157]that Charleston should be coerced, if the secession movement was confined to it; but what difference is there in the offense of a city or State? If it would be right to subdue the one-coercion, is it not right in the other, also?
But Mr. Packard charges that the Republican party meets the present crisis with apathy. This is not so; it acts coolly-calmly. Did Major Anderson act with apathy when he refrained from firing on the forts? or have we acted with apathy when we forbore to send boats against the battery at Vicksburg ?
The Crittenden propositions are nothing more than a slave code for the Territories, and whenever it is tried by the vote of the people,it will be found that they will again reject it, for it embodies the Breckinridge platform of the last canvass.
But the Republican party is charged with the acts of John Brown. That man was a dis-unionist, like those of the South-as Wendell Phillips and Lloyd Garrison are.
He then dwelt upon the benefits that the South had under the Constitution. They had those peculiar benefits, on account of which Wendell Phillips denounces it as a covenant, with hell, and seeks to destroy it. Here we see both these extremes resolved upon the destruction of the Constitution, because it is not as extreme as themselves.
The Republican party stands on the platform that the Union must and shall be preserved, and it will use all means necessary to preserve it. He declared his readiness to do all that he could to avoid a civil war, but when it was demanded of'him to make the country a slave country, lie would not consent.
Mr. BUNDY promised to be brief in his remarks, for he knew there were many members here who desired to be heard. He had heard the appeals of gentlemen for the preservation of the Union with great pleasure. He yielded to no man in the intensity of his desire to maintain this Union of these States. He would go any reasonable length for pacification, but he would never submit to yield to demands that required him to give up everything. He could not give up the principles on which the Government was founded. No objection had been made to the majority report except that it did not go far enough.
The Crittenden amendment was the only remedy proposed for healing the disease of the body politic. What is the Crittenden amendment? As has been truly said by Mr. Cameron, it is the Breckinridge platform with a slave code added. It is to apply not only to all the Territories now owned by the United States, but to cover all Mexico, when it may gradually become a part of the country. Squatter sovereignty was no more. That great party was already among the things that were. For one he could never accept this remedy. We are told it is a compromise. But how ? Slavery cannot go north of 36 30, but the God-of nature made ail this free territory. What is given up to the North? What does the South yield up? Nothing at all. They do not guarantee safety to our people when in their States on business. Is a proposition of this kind a compromise ? They are to have all the territory that may hereafter be acquired It is all to be given up to slavery. The compromise was all on one side-that the South shall have all the Territory they want, and we all the disadvantages. The people of the North never could make such a compromise.
But we are denounced because the General Assembly will not consent to submit this compromise to the people. The party that has been twice beaten before the people now asks for a new trial. There is a provision in our law which admits ot but two trials in the same matter. There is no justice in the demand. As the Crittenden amendments are the embodiment of the Breckinridge creed, and as it received but twelve thousand votes in this State, what right has a party so signally defeated to have the new trial they ask?
The language of the Minority report was objectionable, and he must be pardoned if he referred to it. The denunciations against the Ministry and the Bible reminds us of the attempt made to destroy both these, in a revolution not a hundred years ago. The consequences of that attempt were such as will make them never to be forgotten.
But another objectionable portion is where it declares that the attempt to enforce the laws will meet with resistance in this State. It is an extraordinary doctrine, one not ever heard of until lately, that a State may secede; yet the Government has no power to execute its laws. In 1833 this was not the doctrine then acted upon. It brings us back to the old Articles of Confederation, when the Government had no power to execute its own laws. What is the result of such a declaration as the minority report contains, but that those who make it will prevent the enforcement of the laws. If they do this, what else is it but giving assistance to the secessionists-to aid them to defy the laws and break up the Union. Is such a course consistent with the duty of patriots ? Is it not rather intended to overthrow the Government, and what else can this be but treason ?
The report declares that the negro is of an inferior race; but if true, does his inferiority make him the creature of slavery ? Yet, unless such a doctrine is enforced, we are threatened, and the country is to be involved in ruin.
He argued further in defense of the principles of the Republican party, and by way of review and criticism of the matter of the minority report. When he had concluded
Mr. HEFFREN spoke at length on the other side. A report of his speech, too long for these pages, is reserved for revision.
Mr. Veatch has the floor for to-morrow. page: 158[View Page 158] Mr. Underwood obtained leave of absence two days.
The SPEAKER. There had been a disposition manifested to charge the Chair with allowing remarks out of order on one side of the House, and not on the other. No such thing was intended. If, as he had been informed, remarks had been indulged in his temporary absence, requiring the restraints of the Chair, he desired to say now, that under no circumstances will he permit any gentleman to proceed when he reflects on motives and character. He regretted that remarks were made this afternoon which were decidedly out of order. The gentlemen on his right now could not complain that they were not at least equal to those on his left.
Mr. FRASIER called the House to witness that he had made no personal allusions in this debate; but he claimed his right to speak of measures as became a representative of a free people.
The House then adjourned.
