188 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



which shall he unalterable that shall recognize 

 distinctly and fully the rights of the Southern 

 maa to his slave as property, and other points 

 of much importance connected with the fugi- 

 tive slave-law. This the South demands, or it 

 demands secession or revolution. He then al- 

 luded to a border State Convention, to deter- 

 mine on these guarantees as a matter of ex- 

 treme importance. 



No direct reply was made to this speaker. 

 Mr. Oollamer, of Vermont, who followed, con- 

 fined his remarks strictly to the question of the 

 admission of Kansas. Much time was afterwards 

 occupied in the details of the bill, and it was 

 passed by the Senate ayes, 36 ; noes, 16. 



Subsequently the bill to provide a temporary 

 government for the territory of Arizona being 

 before the Senate, 



Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, moved an addi- 

 tional section, providing that the act of the 

 Legislature of New Mexico, providing for the 

 protection of property in slaves, be extended to 

 Arizona. To this motion Mr. Trumbull, of 

 Illinois, moved an amendment, providing that 

 the law of Mexico, respecting African slavery, 

 as it existed in said territory upon its acquisi- 

 tion, should remain unchanged. 



Mr. Doolittle, of "Wisconsin, then took the 

 floor, and declared that he should support the 

 amendment. The people of this country have 

 lived together in peace for more than seventy 

 years. That peace has rested upon two fun- 

 damental ideas : first, that the Federal Govern- 

 ment and the citizens of the free States shall 

 make no aggression upon slavery in the States ; 

 and the other, equally fundamental, that neither 

 the Federal Government nor the slaveholders 

 of the slave States shall make any aggressions 

 upon or undertake to overturn freedom in the 

 territories. Upon these grounds the people may 

 live for generations to come ; but if the citizens 

 of the free States or the Federal Government 

 shall undertake, directly or indirectly, to over- 

 turn slavery in the States where it exists, or if 

 the citizens of the slave States or the Federal 

 Government shall undertake to overturn free- 

 dom in the territories, they cannot have peace. 



After examining the Constitution on the sub- 

 ject of slavery, and the objections urged to the 

 Republican platform by Senator Nicholson, he 

 emphatically declared his sentiment thus : " I 

 say to these gentlemen that, upon that idea 

 that the Constitution establishes slavery, you 

 cannot have peace on the slavery question ; and 

 you may just as well know it first as last. The 

 people of the United States do not believe that 

 the Constitution is, and will never consent that 

 it shall be altered so that it will become, a 

 slavery-extending Constitution by force of its 

 own terms. We do not ask either that you put 

 upon it that construction which shall abolish sla- 

 ery in any State or in any territory. We say, 

 let the Constitution be as our fathers made it ; 

 let it be neutral neither affirming nor deny- 

 ing, and then you caft have peace." 



After discussing the various causes of irrita- 

 tion, he observed that those men who are re- 

 garded as the Abolitionists in this country ; 

 those men who have denounced the Constitu- 

 tion as being a covenant with hell, because they 

 were bound to return these fugitives to slavery, 

 stand looking on with an anxiety and intensity 

 of interest which cannot be conceived. Their 

 prayers go up, day and night, that this Union 

 may be broken that the free States of the 

 North may no longer be compelled by the bond 

 of Union to surrender the fugitive slaves ; and 

 proceeded by saying that the Constitution of 

 the United States is the supreme law of the 

 land, and every citizen of the United States, 

 therefore, owes a double allegiance ; one to 

 this Federal Government, and another to the 

 State in which he lives. He may be guilty of 

 treason against either ; he may be guilty of 

 treason against both ; but within their spheres 

 each government is sovereign and supreme. If 

 Congress steps beyond the powers delegated by 

 the Constitution, to enact any law, it is abso- 

 lutely void. If the State should step beyond 

 the Constitution of the United States, which 

 limits the power of the States to enact a law in 

 conflict with it, it is simply unconstitutional, 

 null, and void. 



Mr. Benjamin, of Louisiana, wished to ask 

 the gentleman from Wisconsin, if, in his opin- 

 ion, under that form of government a citizen 

 can be placed, by the conflict between these 

 two governments, in a position where he must 

 of necessity be guilty of treason to the one or 

 the other, and therefore be bound to be hung 

 any way ? 



Mr. Doolittle replied : " No, sir ; he cannot ; 

 for if the State declares that to be treason 

 which by the Constitution of the United States 

 is void, as being in conflict with it, it is no 

 treason ; for the Constitution of the United 

 States is the fundamental law of your State, 

 and any act or declaration making it treason to. 

 do an act which is in conflict with the Consti- 

 tution of the United States, cannot be made 

 treason by the State, although they may de- 

 clare it so." 



Mr. Benjamin : " If they declare it so, and 

 hang the citizen because they declare it so, 

 what advantage would it be to him that in 

 theory the decision was wrong ? " 



Mr. Doolittle : " The citizen must judge at 

 his peril. If a law is enacted by Congress 

 which is within the Constitution of the United 

 States, the citizen will judge at his peril ; and 

 if he undertakes to break up the Government 

 of the United States, and to be guilty of trea- 

 son against the Government of the United 

 States, any act which the State may declare 

 in conflict with it is simply unconstitutional, 

 null, and void." 



Mr. Benjamin : " As a practical proposition, 

 if the citizen of a State is, by the action of his 

 State, which he cannot control, commanded to 

 do a certain thing under the penalty of being 

 hanged under the law of the State ; and if that 



