it has been held that the Territories were to be governed by a constitution of their own, framed by a convention, and, in approving that constitution, that Congress was not necessarily confined to those principles which bind it in the case of legislation for the States.

SENATOR CALHOUN. I had supposed that all the Territories were a part of the United States. They are called so. SENATOR WEBSTER (in his seat). Never.

SENATOR CALHOUN. At all events they belong to the United States.

SENATOR WEBSTER (in his seat). The colonies of England belong to England, but they are not a part of it.

SENATOR CALHOUN. Since the United States have authority over whatever belongs to them, I care not in what light the subject may be placed.

Senator John M. Berrien [Ga.] moved to modify the Walker amendment to read that the Constitution extended over the Territories, insofar as its provisions could apply; this was accepted by the mover, and the amendment was adopted by a vote of 29 to 27.

Senator Webster made a determined effort to have the Walker amendment revoked, and succeeded in doing so in the last hour of the session.

On February 27, 1849, the House, by an almost sectional vote of 126 to 87, passed a bill organizing California as a free Territory. The Senate did not act on the bill. The organization of New Mexico did not come to a vote in either House or Senate.

CHAPTER VIII

THE COMPROMISES OF 1850

President Zachary Taylor Advocates Popular Sovereignty in the Territories-Sketch of Taylor-Senator Stephen A. Douglas [Ill.] Reports Bill to Admit California into the Union with Popular Sovereignty-Compromise Resolutions of Senator Henry Clay [Ky.] on Slavery-Debate: in Favor, Mr. Clay, Thomas H. Benton [Mo.], Daniel Webster [Mass.]; Opposed, Henry S. Foote [Miss.], Jefferson Davis [Miss.], John C. Calhoun [S. C.]—Sketch of FooteResolutions are Referred to Committee of Thirteen-Its ReportThe "Omnibus Bill"-Death of President Taylor and Accession of President Millard Fillmore-Sketch of Fillmore.

OLD had been discovered in California on January

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19, 1848, and within a year the population had so greatly increased that the people applied for admission to the Union. In a special message to Congress, January 21, 1850, President Taylor urged the admission of California under the constitution which she had prepared, and announced himself in favor of the principle of Popular Sovereignty.

Sketch of Taylor. Taylor was born in Orange county, Va., in 1784. In the following year his father, a colonel in the Revolution, removed to a farm near the present city of Louisville, Ky. In 1808 Zachary was appointed a first lieutenant in the regular army. He was promoted to major for his services against the Indians in the War of 1812. Reduced to the rank of captain in the limitation of the army that followed the

war, he resigned and retired to his farm, but was recalled, and appointed lieutenant-colonel in charge of Fort Snelling (now St. Paul, Minn.). In the Black Hawk War he became colonel. In 1836 he defeated the Seminoles in the decisive battle of Okechobee, and received the office of brigadier-general and chief command of Florida. In 1840 he was made commander of the southern division of the western army, and made his family home at Baton Rouge, La. His early services in the Mexican War have been recounted. After his victories within the present borders of Texas, he crossed the Rio Grande, and captured Monterey on September 24, 1846. On February 24, 1847, he defeated Santa Anna at Buena Vista. His military reports exhibited unusual vigor of thought and literary quality, the result of his extensive reading of history. Because of the ability thus displayed, and the fact that he was in hearty accord with the Whig attitude toward the war, he was, as we have seen, nominated for President by that party. When elected President, being conscious of his lack of knowledge in civil affairs, he chose a Cabinet of distinguished statesmen, all of whom were lawyers. Among these may be mentioned Senator John M. Clayton [Del.], Secretary of State, and Reverdy Johnson [Md.], Attorney-General. He died in office on July 9, 1850. In his short administration he revealed an unusual breadth of statesmenship, refusing to remove able Democratic office-holders at the demands of Whig partisans.

The Senate referred the question of the admission of California to a select committee of which Stephen A. Douglas [Ill.] was chairman. On January 29, 1849, Douglas reported a bill to admit California “upon an equal footing with the original States in all respects

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whatsoever, so soon as it should establish constitution and republican form of government." As it was certain that this constitution would prohibit slavery, this condition rendered the first declaration a mere sop to the South, and implicitly recognized Popular Sovereignty.

Clay's Resolutions on Slavery. On the same day, Henry Clay [Ky.], who had returned to the Senate for this express purpose, presented to that body his famous compromise resolutions on the subject of slavery. Upon them a prolonged debate occurred, in which the other chief speakers in favor of the resolutions were Thomas H. Benton [Mo.], and Daniel Webster [Mass.]; those opposed were Henry S. Foote [Miss.], Jefferson Davis [Miss.], and John C. Calhoun [S. C.].

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Senator Clay's preamble stated the desirability, for concord of the Union, of settling the slavery controversies upon an equitable basis. His first resolution was that California ought to be admitted into the Union without restriction of slavery. His second was that, as slavery does not exist by law in the territory acquired from Mexico, it was inexpedient for Congress to provide for its introduction, and that territorial governments ought to be established over all the Mexican acquisition without restriction of slavery. On the California resolution he said:

Foote was a lawyer, who had entered the Senate in 1847. In 1852 he was elected Governor of Mississippi after a hard-fought contest with Jefferson Davis over the issue of the State remaining in the Union in despite of Northern anti-slavery activity, Foote taking this position. In the Senate he was an ardent republican of world-wide sympathies, supporting the resolution to recognize Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot who had fled to America, and the resolution to extend sympathy to the Irish revolutionists. He was a member of the Confederate Congress.

California in convention, by a unanimous vote, embracing slave-holders from Mississippi and other Southern States, has declared against the introduction of slavery.

The third and fourth resolutions fixed the boundaries of the State and provided for Federal assumption of its obligations to Texas. The fifth resolution declared the inexpediency of abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia without consent of Maryland and the people of the District, and compensation for the slaves. The sixth, that it was expedient to abolish in the District the trade in slaves brought from or to be transported beyond its limits.

The fifth resolution was one which he had introduced in the Senate, in 1838, and which had been adopted by a four-fifths vote. The sixth struck at an evil which had been pronounced an abomination many years before by John Randolph [Va.].

"Let the slave dealer of Virginia or Maryland go to ports in these States; let him not come here and establish his jails and put on his chains, and shock our sensibilities by a long chain of slaves passing through that avenue leading from this Capitol to the house of the Chief Magistrate of one of the most glorious republics that ever existed."

The seventh resolution declared that more effective provisions than the Act of 1793 should be made for the return of fugitive slaves. The eighth was that Congress had no power to interfere with the trade in slaves between the slaye States, this depending exclusively on State laws.

All these resolutions, said Mr. Clay, ought to be acceptable to both parties, because of their equal concessions. He