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immediately interested, should see fit | silent respecting Slavery; but, while to change them. But this was exactly under discussion in Committee of what the majority determined should the Whole, the following amendnot be, and were working to prevent. ment was added: Yet they did not care tɔ make up an issue with the Ilouse majority on this point, and go to the country on the defeat of the chief Appropriation bill, and consequent embarrassment of the Government, for no other reason than that the IIouse had refused

to unite in opening the Territories to Slavery. And so, after spending most of the night in heated discussion much of it mere talking against time -the Senate, toward morning, struck out of the Appropriation bill its materially amended amendment, and passed the bill as it originally came from the House-at all events, with no provision for the organization or government of New Mexico and

California. And thus ended the

"And neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in said Territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall

have been duly convicted."

In the House, on coming out of demanded on this amendment, which Committee, the Yeas and Nays were was sustained: Yeas 108; Nays 44 only three or four Northern Democrats and five or six Southern Whigs being found among the Nays, whereof the residue were Southern Democrats. The bill, as thus amended, passed the House, but went to the Senate so near the close of the ses

sion that, though referred to and reported by the Committee on Territories, no further action was had

thereon.

On the assembling of this Con

Administration of Mr. Polk, along gress for its second session, Mr. with the XXXth Congress.

Douglas again reported to the House a bill to provide a Territorial Government for Oregon, which was read twice, and sent to the Committee of the Whole; where it was debated through the 11th, 12th, and 14th of January, and ordered to be taken

THE action of the XXIXth and XXXth Congresses respectively with regard to the Territory of Oregon, though proceeding simultaneously with the incidents already recorded in this chapter, and involving essentially identical principles, requires dis-out of Committee on the 15th. On that day, Gen. Armistead Burt, of tinct presentation, that the two diverse South Carolina, moved (having aland somewhat conflicting threads ready done so in Committee of the of narrative may not be blended in Whole) this addition to the clause hopeless entanglement. That action, inhibiting Slavery, as above given : briefly summed up, was as follows :

At the first session of the XXIXth Congress, Mr. Stephen A. Douglas reported to the House (August 6, 1846) a bill organizing the Territory of Oregon, whereof the northern boundary had just been fixed at latitude 49° by treaty with Great Britain. The bill, as reported, was

"Inasmuch as the whole of the said Ter

ritory lies north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, known as the line of the Missouri Compromise."

The object of this amendment was to obtain from the House a recognition of the parallel 36° 30' as a dividing line between Slave and Free territory across the entire continent,

ATTEMPT TO EXTEND THE LINE OF 36° 30'.

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or so far as our possessions might extend. The House voted down Gen. Burt's proposition: Yeas 82; Nays 114—every member from the Slave States, with four " Democrats from Free States, voting in the affirmative; while every Whig from the Free States, with every Democrat from those States but the four aforesaid, voted in the negative. The bill thereupon passed the House by 134 Yeas to 35 Nays-all from Slave States; but, on reaching the Senate, it was referred, reported, sent back again, and finally, on the last day of the session, laid on the table-Yeas 26; Nays 18-there to sleep the sleep of death.

In the next (XXXth) Congress, Mr. Caleb B. Smith (Whig), of Indiana (since Secretary of the Interior, under President Lincoln), was chairman of the Committee on Territories; and a bill creating a Territorial Government for Oregon, and prohibiting Slavery therein, was reported by him on the 9th of February, 1848.

This bill was made a

special order five weeks thereafter, but was so pertinaciously resisted by the Slavery Extensionists that it could not be got out of Committee till August 1; when an amendment made in Committee, striking out that clause of the original bill whereby the provisions of the Ordinance of '87 were extended to this Territory-in other words, Slavery was prohibited therein-was negatived; Yeas 88; Nays 114. On this division, Mr. John W. Houston (Whig), of Delaware, voted

11 PENNSYLVANIA.-Charles J. Ingersoll-1. ILLINOIS.-Stephen A. Douglas, Robert Smith —2. Iowa.—S. C. Hastings-1. In all, 4.

12 NEW YORK.-Ausburn Birdsall-1. ОнIO.William Kennon, jr., John K. Miller-2. ILLI

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with the majority, which was otherwise entirely composed of members from Free States; eight " Democrats from Free States voted in the minority, otherwise composed of all the members from Slave States present, Mr. Houston, of Delaware, excepted. The bill then passed the House by a "sectional" vote-Yeas 128; Nays

71.

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In the Senate, Mr. Douglas promptly (August 5th) reported this bill with amendments, and a proposition from Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, that it "do lie on the table," was defeated by 15 (ultra Southern) Yeas to 36 Nays. Among the amendments reported by Mr. Douglas was a reproduction in substance of Gen. Burt's, defeated the year before in the House, which now received but two votes-those of Messrs. Bright and Douglas. Mr. Douglas thereupon moved to amend the bill, by inserting as follows:

"That the line of thirty-six degrees and

thirty minutes of north latitude, known as the Missouri Compromise line, as defined in Act to authorize the people of the Missouri the eighth section of an act entitled, 'An Territory to form a Constitution and State Government, and for the admission of such State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, and to prohibit Slavery in certain Territories, approved March 6, 1820,' be, and the same is hereby, declared to extend to the Pacific Ocean; and the said eighth section, together with the compromise therein effected, is hereby revived, and declared to be in full force, and binding, for the future organization of the Territories of the United States, in the same sense, and with the same understanding, with which it was generally adopted.”

This was carried by 33 Yeas-in

NOIS.--Orlando B. Ficklin, John A. McClernand, William A. Richardson-3. INDIANA.-John L. Robinson, William W. Wick-2.

13 Recently transferred from the House; now chairman of the Senate's Committee on Terri tories.

cluding Messrs. Calhoun, Jefferson | the minority. So the bill was reDavis, John Bell, Benton, and every member present from the Slave States, with Messrs. Cameron, of Pennsylvania; Douglas, of Illinois; Bright, of Indiana; Dickinson, of New York; and Fitzgerald, of Michigan, from Free States-to 21 Nays, including Messrs. Webster, of Massachusetts, Hamlin, of Maine, Dix, of New York, and Breese, of Illinois. The bill, thus amended, passed the Senate by 33 Yeas to 22 Nays.

turned to the Senate with its amendment struck out; and that body thereupon receded-Yeas 29; Nays 25-from its amendment, and allowed the bill to become a law in the shape given it by the House. On this memorable division, Messrs. Benton, Bright, Cameron, Dickinson, Douglas, Fitzgerald, Hannegan, Spruance, of Delaware, and Houston, of Texas, voted to yield to the House, leaving none but Senators from Slave States, and not all of them, insisting on the partition demanded. So Oregon became a Territory, consecrated to Free Labor, without compromise or counterbalance; and the Free States gave fair notice that they would not divide with Slavery the vast and hitherto free territories then just acquired

But the House, on its return, thus amended, utterly refused (August 11th) to concur in any such partition of the territories of the Union, on the line of 36° 30', between Free and Slave Labor. The proposition of Mr. Douglas, above cited, was rejected by the decisive majority of 39: Yeas 82; Nays 121-only three members from Free States voting in from Mexico.

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XV.

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850.

GEN. ZACHARY TAYLOR was inau- | Slavery Restriction. gurated as President on the 4th of March, 1849. He had received, as we have seen, both an electoral majority and a popular plurality, alike in the Free and in the Slave States, mainly by reason of his persistent and obstinate silence and reserve on the vexed question of Slavery in the Territories. He had written letters -not always wise nor judicious during the canvass, mainly in its early stages; but they were not calculated, decisively, to alienate either the champions or the opponents of

It is among

the traditions of the canvass that he, some time in 1848, received a letter from a planter running thus : "Sir: I have worked hard and been frugal all my life, and the results of my industry have mainly taken the form of slaves, of whom I own about a hundred. Before I vote for President, I want to be sure that the candidate I support will not so act as to divest me of my property.' To which the General, with a dexterity that would have done credit to a diplomatist, and would have proved

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14 NEW YORK.-Ausburn Birdsall-1. PENNSYLVANIA.-Charles Brown, Charles J. Ingersoll-2.

WHIG ZEAL FOR SLAVERY RESTRICTION.

exceedingly useful to Mr. Clay, responded: "Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I, too, have been all my life industrious and frugal, and that the fruits thereof are mainly invested in slaves, of whom I own three hundred. Yours," etc. South Carolina did not see fit to repose her faith in him; no more did Texas his own son-in-law, Jefferson Davis, went against him: so did the great body of Slavery Propagandists; yet it is, nevertheless, true that he received many more votes at the South than would have been given for Mr. Webster, or even Mr. Clay.

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In the Free States, very many Northern Whigs1 had refused to support him, and given their votes to Van Buren as an open, unequivocal champion of Slavery Restriction; and it was by the votes thus diverted from Gen. Taylor that Ohio, with perhaps Indiana and Wisconsin also, were given to Gen. Cass. The great body of the Northern Whigs, however, had supported the nominees of

1 Among those Whigs who took this course in New York City, the names of Willis Hall, Joseph L. White, Philip W. Engs, and Wilson G. Hunt, are conspicuous.

2 The following are extracts from Mr. Webster's speech at Abingdon, Mass., Oct. 9, 1848: "The gentlemen who have joined this new party, from among the Whigs, pretend that they the Whigs, pretend that they are greater lovers of Liberty and greater haters of Slavery than those they leave behind them. I do not admit it. I do not admit any such thing. [Applause.] I think we are as good Free Soil men as they are, though we do not set up any such great preeminence over our neighbors. * * * There was an actual outbreak, years ago, between these two parties of the Democracy of New York, and this 'Barnburning' party existed long before there was any question of Free Soil among them-long before there was any question of the Wilmot Proviso, or any opposition by that party to the extension of Slavery. And, up to the Annexation of Texas, every man of the party went straightforward for that Annexation, Slavery Extension and all.

199

their party, not fully satisfied with Gen. Taylor's position on the Slavery question, but trusting that the influence necessarily exerted over his Administration by the desires and convictions of the far greater number of its supporters, whether in or out of Congress, led by such determined Slavery Restrictionists as Mr. Webster and Gov. Seward, would insure his political adhesion to the right side. Many acted or voted in accordance with this view who were not exactly satisfied with it; and the Whig canvassers were doubtless more decided and thorough in their "Free Soil" inculcations than they would have been had their Presidential candidate been one of themselves. Mr. Webster claimed "Free Soil" as a distinctive Whig doctrine, and declared that, were the Whigs to join the peculiar “Free Soil" organization, they would only make that the Whig party with Martin Van Buren at its head. Gov. Seward declared the Slavery question the great, living, and pre

2

'But the Whigs, and they alone, raised a strong opposition to the measure. I say the Whigs alone for nobody else, either in the East, West, South, or North, stirred a finger in the cause-or, at least, made so small an effort that it could not be discerned until the Whigs roused the people to a sentiment of opposition to the further spread of the Slave Power. Then this portion of the New York Loco-Focos, these Barnburners, seized upon this Whig doctrine, and attached to it their policy, merely to give them the predominance over their rivals. *** "In this Buffalo platform, this Collect of the new school, there is nothing new. Suppose all the Whigs should go over to the Free Soil party: It would only be a change of name; the principles would still be the same. But there would be one change which, I admit, would be monstrous-it would make Mr. Van Buren the head of the Whig party. [Laughter.]"

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3 In his speech at Cleveland, Ohio, October 26, 1848, Gov. Seward said:

"A sixth principle is, that Slavery must be abolished. I think these are the principles of the Whigs of the Western Reserve of Ohio. I

National parties, and urged the duty of abolishing Slavery as a reason for supporting Gen. Taylor. Mr. Washington Hunt* wrote an elaborate letter to Ohio, urging the duty of standing by Whig principles by electing Gen. Taylor, and by choosing at the same time members of Congress who would inflexibly resist, and legislate to prohibit, the Extension of Slavery. At no time previously," had Whig inculcations throughout the Free States been so decidedly and strongly hostile to the Extension of Slavery, and so determined in requiring its inhibition by Congress, as during the canvass of 1848.

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dominant issue between the two alienation of many Northern Democrats from their former devotion to Southern ideas and docility to Southern leadership. This alienation was further evinced in the coalitions formed the next summer between the Democratic and Free Soil parties of Vermont and Massachusetts, which in Vermont proved too weak to overcome the Whig ascendency, but in Massachusetts ultimately triumphed in the election of George S. Boutwell (Democrat), as Governor, and Charles Sumner (Free Soil), as Senator. In New York, a fusion was with difficulty effected (in 1849) of the parties which had in 1848 supported Van Buren and Cass respectively-the nominal basis of agreement being a resolve of mutual hostility to the

Among the results of that canvass was--as we have seen-a temporary

am not now to say for the first time that they are mine.

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"There are two antagonistic elements of society in America, Freedom and Slavery. Freedom is in harmony with our system of government, and with the spirit of the age, and is therefore passive and quiescent. Slavery is in conflict with that system, with justice, and with humanity, and is therefore organized, defensive, active, and perpetually aggressive.

"Freedom insists on the emancipation and development of labor; Slavery demands a soil moistened with tears and blood-Freedom a soil that exults under the elastic tread of man in his native majesty.

"These elements divide and classify the American people into two parties. Each of these parties has its court and its scepter. The throne of one is amid the rocks of the Alleghany Mountains; the throne of the other is reared on the sands of South Carolina. One of these parties, the party of Slavery, regards disunion as among the means of defense, and not always the last to be employed. The other maintains the Union of the States, one and inseparable, now and forever, as the highest duty of the American people to themselves, to posterity, to mankind,” etc., etc.

"The party of Freedom seeks complete and universal emancipation."

4 Then a Whig member of Congress; since, Governor of New York.

5 Mr. James Brooks, Editor of The New York Express, reported to the New York Whig State Convention of 1847 (October 6th), an Address condemning the objects of the Mexican War

then raging, which was unanimously adopted. In the course of it, he said:

"Fellow Citizens: Disguise the Mexican War as sophistry may, the great truth cannot be put down, nor lied down, that it exists because of the Annexation of Texas; that from such a cause we predicted such a consequence would follow; and that, but for that cause, no war would have existed at all. Disguise its intents, purposes and consequences, as sophistry may struggle to do, the further great truth cannot be hidden, that its main object is the conquest of a market for slaves, and that the flag our victorious legions rally around, fight under, and fall for, is to be desecrated from its holy character of Liberty and Emancipation into an errand of Bondage and Slavery. ** *We protest, too, in the name of the rights of Man and of Liberty, against the further extension of Slavery in North America. The curse which our mother country inflicted upon us, in spite of our fathers' remonstrances, we demand shall never blight the virgin soil of the North Pacific. * * * We will not pour out the blood of our countrymen, if we can help it, to turn a Free into a Slave soil; we will not spend from fifty to a hundred millions of dollars per year to make a Slave market for any portion of our countrymen. * * * The

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Union as it is, the whole Union, and nothing but
the Union, we will stand by to the last-but No
More Territory is our watchword-unless it be
Free."

6 The last Convention of the Cass Democrats, or "Hunkers," which was held at Syracuse in September, 1849, proposing a conciliatory course toward the "Barnburners," as an overture to

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