190 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



great man, jpid those who concurred with him 

 in opinion, to say this : that a slave is property, 

 and nothing but property ; and that the Consti- 

 tution of. the United States would protect that 

 property in the territories, or upon the high 

 seas as it would protect any other property. It 

 establishes nothing; it recognizes property 

 because it is property. That he understood to 

 be Mr. Calhoun's view. Again he remarked : 

 " We say, not that the Constitution establishes 

 slavery anywhere, but that there is the same 

 obligation upon those who administer the Con- 

 stitution to protect the property in a slave as 

 property, as in any thing else, wherever the 

 Constitution is administered. That is what we 

 claim." 



Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, observed that here 

 was a region of country about to be organized 

 into a territorial government, which, at the 

 time we acquired it, was under a law excluding 

 African slavery from it. Now, the question 

 was, when it becomes incorporated with this 

 Government, without any action of the people 

 there, or any desire to have that law changed, 

 whether we should not continue the existing 

 state of things. 



Mr. Green, of Missouri, urged that this was 

 a mistaken view. The law which the Senator 

 from Mississippi proposes to make the perma- 

 nent law, is the existing law. 



The debate here dropped, and the bill was 

 subsequently passed without any provision for 

 the exclusion of slaves from the territory. 



On the llth of January a resolution was 

 offered in the Senate by Mr. Hunter, of Vir- 

 ginia, authorizing the retrocession by the Pres- 

 ident of the forts and arsenals within any State 

 upon the application of the Legislature, or a 

 convention of the people of such State, taking 

 at the same time proper security for their safe- 

 keeping and return, or payment for the same. 



To this an amendment was offered, by Mr. 

 Trumbull, of Illinois, approving the act of Ma- 

 jor Anderson in abandoning Fort Moultrie and 

 taking possession of Fort Suinter. 



Mr. Hunter followed in a lengthy speech, 

 embracing all the important points of the 

 crisis. To him it appeared to be a question of 

 reunion. " I say that, so far as I can weigh 

 the question, it is no more a question of Union, 

 but one of reunion. To produce reunion it is 

 essential that the Southern States should be al- 

 lowed to take that position which it is obvious 

 they are going to take, in peace. You must 

 give, too, all the time you can, and offer all the 

 opportunities you may, to those who desire to 

 make an effort for the reconstruction of this 

 Confederacy. Sir, I say I am one of those ; 

 for while I believe that the South owes it to 

 itself first to secure its own position, to provide 

 for its own protection, to unite in such strength 

 as will enable it to defend itself against all 

 goers and comers, I also believe that the inter- 

 ests of mankind, our own interests, and the in- 

 terests of our confederates, would then require 



that we should reconstruct the old Union if w 

 can, or rather construct a new Union on terms 

 of equality and of justice." 



Mr. Harlan, of Iowa, replied : " Whatever 

 may be pretended to the contrary, the real 

 grievance inflicted on ' the South by the North,' 

 is the invitation extended to the Southern De- 

 mocracy, on the 6th day of last November, to 

 resign, the reins of Government into the hands 

 of their political opponents. This will become 

 manifest on an examination of the alleged 

 causes of complaint. These are all stated in 

 general amd ambiguous terms, without specifi- 

 cation. The most usual allegation, which has 

 been reiterated to-day, is that the provisions 

 of the Constitution have been violated. The 

 secession argument which follows is, that when 

 a contract has been violated by one party it 

 may be declared void by the other party to its 

 provisions ; that the Constitution of the United 

 States is such a contract between the several 

 States ; that the Federal Government is merely 

 their agent appointed to carry out its pro- 

 visions ; that this contract having been broken 

 by some of the States, the other States may 

 voluntarily secede, and demand a division of 

 liabilities and assets." 



In regard to the apprehensions expressed rel- 

 ative to the future policy of the Republican 

 party he thus expressed his views : " You may 

 feign fear that we will interfere with your in- 

 stitutions in the slave States. Time at last 

 will develop the fact that all those fears are 

 groundless. If any man will read the speeches 

 and the letters of the President of the United 

 States elect, he can come to no other conclusion 

 than that he will administer the Government, 

 so far as he has power, precisely on the policy 

 originally proposed by Henry Clay, who par- 

 ticipated so largely in securing the compromise 

 measures to which I have alluded. Why not 

 consent to this ? Why attempt the fearful ex- 

 periment of destroying this Government, which 

 has stood the test of time so well, under the" 

 vain hope of forming a better? But if you 

 must do something to raise a smoke under 

 which to retire from your unenviable position, 

 admit the territories as States, and thus end 

 the controversy forever. If this proposition is 

 acceptable to the Republicans, surely it ought 

 to be acceptable to you." 



Mr. Polk, of Missouri, followed on the oppo- 

 site side, and described the commercial con- 

 dition of the country as of the most alarming 

 character : " What," he asked, " is the condition 

 of things all over the entire Confederacy, both 

 North and South ? Universal panic, prostra- 

 tion of credit, public and private. Our Gov- 

 ernment has just advertised for a loan of 

 $5,000,000, and she could only get half of it 

 bid for ; nor even that except at usurious rates 

 of interest, running up to the extreme of thirty- 

 six per centum per annum. Failures and bank- 

 ruptcies, stagnation and embarrassments every- 

 where and among all classes. Business lan- 

 guishing ; trade crippled ; commerce curtailed ; 



