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Fourthly, the plan is broad enough. I am informed by what I believe credible evidence, that the number of slaves within the district, as ascertained by the census, male and female, old and young, great and small, is about six hundred,* and that their value is estimated by those who regard them as subjects of traffic, as I certainly do not, at three hundred dollars for each person, and in the aggregate one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. The amendment appropriates two hundred thousand dollars. If the sum is too great, nothing will be lost. If it is too small, the deficiency can be now or afterwards supplied.

But my honorable friend from Massachusetts, [Mr. WINTHROP,] objects that the amendment contains no provision for the support of the slaves, or of any of them, after their emancipation. Sir, if I could admit that this objection had weight, it would be a sufficient answer that, in the judgment of other senators, such a provision would only tend to defeat the object in view.

If honorable senators think I err in this, let them submit such a provision, and if it do not embarrass the bill, it shall receive my

vote.

But I think the objection itself is not well grounded. The slave is held in bondage, not for his own support and for his own benefit, but for the support and benefit of his master. It is the slave, then, that supports, or contributes to the support, of the master, and not the master that supports the slave. It is not in humanity that it should be otherwise. Relieve the slave, then, from the support of his master, and his whole energies will be directed to making provision for himself and his own family. The instincts of the common nature which he shares with us will do the rest. But you may reply that these persons are degraded, so as to be unable to take care of themselves. On the contrary, it is in this district that the institution assumes its most cheerful, or least repulsive aspect. Here, in the centre of the Union, in the capital of this free empire, the African race has been held in bondage from generation to generation, through a period of near two hundred years. We all trust, we all believe, that the ultimate result of the transfer of this foreign population to our own shores, is to be the bringing of them to a condition to support themselves, and to exercise the privileges of self-government. It is a sad commentary upon the operations of our own institutions, to say that two hundred

*The census returns afterward showed the number to be about 2000.

years have not been enough to bring these six hundred persons, under such favorable auspices, to the capability of providing for their own daily wants.

The next objection to the measure which I shall notice is, that it is an indiscreet one. This, I think, was the language of my honorable friend from Massachusetts, [Mr. WINTHROP.] The objection implies assent to the justice and wisdom of the measure itself, and takes issue only upon the time, occasion, or circumstances in which it is proposed. It concedes, moreover, that it would be proper at a different time, on some other occasion, or in some other circumstances.

Let us see, then, wherein the indiscretion consists. And, first, as to the occasion. One honorable senator [Mr. WINTHROP] says that by supporting it on this occasion we should incur the risk of losing the bill itself which is proposed to be amended, and thus losing the abolition of the slave trade within the District of Columbia. Suppose we do. What would be the loss? The amendment before you secures the abolition of the slave trade, for it abolishes slavery altogether. When slavery falls, the trade, which is only an incident of it, must instantly cease. But the senator is afraid that, between the two, both will be lost. That cannot happen. The passage of either will accomplish the object in view.

If the amendment shall pass, you will have a better law than the bill of the Committee of Thirteen. If the amendment shall fail, you will still have the bill of the Committee of Thirteen.

But the bill of the Committee of Thirteen is not put in jeopardy. It is lost, or worse than lost, to us already. If it had not been, I should not have offered my proposition as an amendment. The abolition of the slave trade, indeed, remains in the bill; but conditions have been annexed which cannot be accepted, and which compel us of the free states to reject the bill itself. One of these conditions is, the converting into a felony, punishable with ten years' imprisonment, the act of aiding or favoring the escape of a fugitive slave, or even the act of harboring a slave with a view to aid his escape. The punishment already denounced by the law is severe enough, in my judgment, for an act that is wrong, not because it is erroneous in itself, but only because it is declared by the statute to be wrong. The second condition which has been annexed to the bill is, the conferring of a right upon the corporations within the district to impose conditions upon which freed men shall be

allowed to enter and remain in the district, or depart from it; in other words, to proscribe free men, who are citizens of the United States and of the free states.

By the addition of these conditions, the bill has been converted from a law meliorating slavery within the district, into a law to fortify slavery and proscribe free men. When that was done, my last hope, my last purpose, my last thought of supporting the bill, was gone. And yet this bill is the bill which the honorable senator from Massachusetts complains that I am putting in jeopardy. This, sir, and nothing other or different from this, is the boon which he says was just within our grasp, and which I have struck down to the earth. Sir, when my amendment shall have been rejected, this bill will still remain. I wait to see whether he will embrace it, and take it to his bosom. I shall not harbor it; it would sting me to death.

So much, sir, for the occasion. And now for the indiscretion, so far as it depends upon time and circumstances. I think it wrong to hold men in bondage at any time and under any circumstances. I think it right and just, therefore, to abolish slavery when we have the power, at any time, at all times, under any circumstances. Now, sir, so far as the objection rests upon the time when this measure is proposed, I beg leave to say that if the present is not the right time, then there must be, or there must have been, some other time, and that must be a time that is already past, or time yet to come. Well, sir, slavery has existed here under the sanction of Congress for fifty years, undisturbed. The right time, then, has not passed. It must, therefore, be a future time. Will gentlemen oblige me and the country by telling us how far down in the future the right time lies? When will it be discreet to bring before Congress and the people the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia? Sir, let not senators delude themselves. I had the honor to submit to the Senate some weeks ago, a proposition to admit New Mexico as a state. It was rejected then by a vote unanimous, except my own-those who were in favor of the measure voting with its opponents, because it was not the right time. They said the Constitution had not been officially received. It was not a fit occasion. The measure was offered as an amendment to a bill.

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Well, sir, the constitution was officially received yesterday, and the senators of the state were in waiting here. But New Mexico,

in the meantime, had been organized as a territory, and now her state constitution is not even honored with a reference. There is no right time, no fit occasion, for New Mexico to enter the Union as a free state. So, sir, it will be with the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. The right time, if it be not now, will never come. Sir, each senator must judge for himself. Judging for myself, I am sure the right time has come. Past the middle age of life, it has happened to me now, for the first time, to be a legislator for slaves. I believe it to be my duty to the people of this district, to the country, and to mankind, to restore them to freedom. For the performance of such a duty, the first time and the first occasion which offers is the right one. The people who sent me here knew my opinions and my principles on that subject. If I should waive this time and this occasion, such is the uncertainty of human life and of human events, that no other may offer themselves to me. I could not return to the people who sent me here, nor could I go before my Maker, having been here, without having humbly, but firmly, endeavored to discharge that great obligation.

Sir, I can spare one word of reply, not to the wretched imputation that I seek by this measure to dissolve the union of these states, but to the argument that the measure itself tends to so disastrous a consummation. This Union is the feeblest and weakest national power that exists on earth, if with twenty millions of freemen now it cannot bear the shock of adding six hundred to their number. The Union stands, as I have demonstrated at large on former occasions, not upon a majority of voices in either or both houses of Congress upon any measure whatever, but upon enduring physical, social, and political necessities, which will survive all the questions and commotions and alarms of this day, and will survive the extinction of slavery, not only in the District of Columbia, but throughout the world. Others may try to save it, by concessions to slavery, from imaginary perils. I shall still seek to perpetuate it by rendering the exercise of its power equal, impartial, and beneficent to all classes and conditions of mankind.

FREEDOM IN NEW MEXICO.

JULY 26, 1850.

Mr. SKWARD submitted an amendment authorizing the President to issue a proclamation declaring that New Mexico should be admitted as a state on the presentation of her constitution heretofore adopted, and also authorizing New Mexico to appoint three commissioners, to be associated with the commissioners to be appointed by the United States and by Texas, in settling the boundary question between Texas and New Mexico

THE object of this amendment is to bring before the Senate an important question-the admission of New Mexico as one of the states of this Union, upon an equal footing with the original states, under the constitution which her convention has adopted.

I have heard here much of nationality-of national principles, sympathies, and feelings. Such principles, sympathies, and feelings, meet my highest respect and admiration; but I differ very much from many who bestow that commendation, in regard to what principles, sympathies, and feelings, deserve the character of nationality. So far as I have heard here, it has generally been bestowed upon those movements which left out of view everything of paramount and ultimate importance, in regard to the perfection and permanence of the institutions of the country, and which were distinguished on the other hand by a disposition to concede and compromise for the present hour and for temporary purposes. I have no part in such principles, sympathies, or feelings. I believe that concession to-day only increases the evils and embarrassments of to-morrow. I will show how the question of boundary between New Mexico and Texas-that great question upon which the peace and harmony of the country are supposed to depend—may be, not postponed, but definitely and justly settled. That is the object of my proposition.

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