No, sir, we use no such language; nor do we for a moment, harbor such a thought, whatever may be our fate. Dissolve the Union! destroy the relations and amity now existing between these States! What State will first lift its fratricidal hands in this unholy work? What man, like Cain, would murder his brother? They are not, Sir, to be found among those with whom I act, who are the friends of liberty and law. No, Sir! we throw back the charge upon those who are endeavoring to deprive us of our unquestionable rights. Is it from the deep fountain of the heart they speak, when they talk of dissolving the Union? To deny to any the right of petition, he thought, was a thrust aimed at one of the Union's strongest ligaments; but he trusted the vital principle of the Constitution was sufficient to restore it to its wonted vigor, from injurious assaults like this. This, Sir, is a disagreeable subject for discussion. He had always held, that to utter such sentiments, either in public or in private, that the Union would, for any cause whatever, be dissolved, was in bad taste. Gentlemen. he was sure, were mistaken, if they thought that by threats of this kind, the people could be induced to surrender an iota of their Constitutional rights. The safety and perpetual continuance of the Union, he considered, mainly depended on the preservation and full enjoyment of all those rights in their pristine purity. For himself, he was not disposed to falter in his course, or fail to perform his duty, here or elsewhere, on the ground that if he did so, others threatened to rush upon crime. He wanted further to say, to the Senate and to the country, that though himself, and those with whom he thought on this subject, were disposed to bear and suffer much; yet they, as well as others, could think and could feel; and if that ill-fated hour should ever come when, in defense of their dearest rights, it was found necessary, they could, and would, also act. CHAPTER XII. INCREASED AGITATION - Numbers of Petitioners - Confessions of Senators - Calhoun's Resolutions - Counter-Resolutions, by Morris - His Remarks - Record in his Memorandum Book of this Struggle in the Senate. THE session of Congress of 1837-8 was marked with a deeper and more extended agitation of Slavery, both in the country and in Congress. The vexed question, like an ever present apparition, would return and demand a re-hearing. To restore tranquillity appeared to be beyond the magical wand of Senatorial Wisdom. The great sea of public commotions, and agitations, rolled higher and deeper. The public mind and conscience of the nation had quickened and deepened, and went up with increased power to the tribunal of our national legislature. The session of Congress for 1834-5 received and rejected 34,000 petitioners; the session of 1835-6, 110,000; and the session of 1837-8, witnessed 300,000 American citizens petitioning Congress on the subject of Slavery. It was in view of this increasing agitation, and augmenting power of freedom, that Mr. Morris, in a tone of triumph, asked his co-Senators, "Is abolitionism dead, or is it just awaking into life? Is the right of petition forgotten, or is it increasing in strength and force? Let me bring back the minds of Senators from their delightful visions of the death of abolition to sober realities and solemn facts. I have now lying before me the names of thousands of living witnesses, that slavery has not conquered liberty; that abolitionists (for so all these petitioners are called) are not all dead. But suppose abolitionism is dead, is liberty also dead, and slavery triumphant? Is liberty of speech, of the press, and the right of petition also dead? True, it is strangled here, but Senators will find themselves in great error, if they suppose it is also strangled in the country. It is a living principle which slavery can not extinguish." Southern Senators were compelled to confess the same fact: Mr. Clay said; "it was manifest that the subject of slavery in the District of Columbia, was extending itself in the public mind, and daily engaging more and more of the public attention." Mr. Preston said: "The fire is wider, and is spreading wider and wider; the fire is not put out, but is kindled worse and worse." Mr. Calhoun said: "Abolitionism was interwoven with the political condition of the North, and it runs, and must run into their struggles for State ascendency. It was impossible to prevent its having a control over the political parties of the North. Abolition efforts would begin with the lowest grades of society, but it would go up and spread. However much he and others were opposed to its doctrines, it would one day spread so as to drive him from public life, or compel him to yield to its dictates." To counteract and arrest these efforts against slavery, Mr. Calhoun applied all his great abilities as a statesman. In December, 1837, he presented the following resolutions: Resolved, That in the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the States adopting the same acted, severally, as free, independent, and sovereign States; and that each by itself, by its own voluntary assent, entered the Union with the view to its increased security against all dangers, domestic, as well as foreign, and the more perfect and secure enjoyment of its advantages, natural, political and social. Resolved, That in delegating a portion of their powers to be exercised by the Federal Government, the States retained, severally, the exclusive and sole right over their own domestic institutions and police, and are alone responsible for them, and that any intermeddling of any one, or more States, or a combination of their citizens, with the domestic institutions and police of the others, on any ground, or any pretext whatever, political, moral, or religious, with a view to their alteration, or subversion, is an assumption of superiority not warranted by the Constitution; insulting to the States interfered with; tending to endanger their domestic peace and tranquillity; subversive of the objects for which the Constitution was framed, and by necessary consequences, tending to weaken and destroy the Union itself. Resolved, That this Government was instituted and adopted by the several States of the Union, as a common agent in order to carry into effect the powers which they had delegated by the Constitution for their mutual secиrity and prosperity; and that in the fulfillment of this high and sacred trust this Government is bound so to exercise its powers as to give, as far as may be practicable, increased stability and security to the domestic institutions of the States, that compose the Union; and that it is the solemn duty of the Government, to resist all attempts by one portion of the Union to use it as an instrument to attack the domestic institutions of another, or to weaken or destroy such institutions, instead of strengthening and upholding them, as in duty bound to do. Resolved, That domestic slavery, as it exists in the Southern and Western States of the Union, composes an important part of their domestic institutions, inherited from their ancestors, and existing at the adoption of the Constitution, by which it is recognized, as constituting an essential element in the distributions of its powers among the States; and that no change of opinion, or feeling, on the part of the other States of the Union, in relation to it, can justify them or their citizens in open and systematic attacks thereon, with a view to its overthrow; and that all such attacks, are in manifest violation of the mutual and solemn pledges to protect and defend each other, given by the States, respectively, on entering into the Constitutional compact, which formed the Union, and as such is a manifest breach of faith, and a violation of the most solemn obligations, moral and religious. Resolved, That the intermeddling of any State or States, or their citizens, to abolish slavery in this District, or any of the Territories, on the ground, or under the pretext, that is immoral or sinful; or the passage of any act or measure of Congress, with that view-would be a direct and dangerous attack on the Constitution of all slave-holding States. Resolved, That the Union of these States rests on an equality of rights and advantages among its members; and that whatever tends to destroy that equality, tends to destroy the Union itself; and that it is the solemn duty of all, and more especially of this body which represents the States in their corporate capacity, to resist all attempts to discriminate between the States, in extending the benefits of the Government to the several portions of the Union, and that to refuse to extend to the Southern and Western States, any advantage which would tend to strengthen or render them more secure, or increase their limits or population by the annexation of new Territory or States, on the assumption or under the pretext that the institution of slavery, as it exists among them, is immoral, or sinful, or otherwise obnoxious, would be contrary to that equality of rights and advantages which the Constitution was intended to secure alike to all the members of the Union, and would, in effect, disfranchise the slave-holding States, withholding from them the advantages, while it subjected them to the burdens of the Government. |