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CONGRESS, TT. S 



the House. He thus expressed his reason for 

 his course : 



" la the outset permit me to say that, until a 

 few moments ago, I was in the same condition 

 with my colleague, not having received official 

 information of the passage of the ordinance of 

 secession by the convention of my State. Nor 

 have I received from the Legislature of my 

 State, now in session, any information of the 

 passage by that body of a resolution, instruct- 

 ing her Senators or requesting her liepresenta- 

 tives to withdraw from Congress. For one, 

 although I respect that body, I shall not obey 

 its request. I was not elected by that body, 

 and I have nothing to do with it, or it with me. 



" Mr. Speaker, there is another reason which 

 compels me to differ with the Senators and 

 Representatives of my State. I am the only 

 member of Congress from Louisiana who was 

 elected as an American Union man. To those 

 principles I shall stand forever." [Great ap- 

 plause in the galleries.] 



" Again : when I came here, I took the oath 

 to sustain the Constitution of the United States. 

 "What does that mean? Does not the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States mean the Union of 

 the United States ? I so understand it ; and to 

 that oath I shall adhere firmly to the end. 

 Whenever I am instructed by my immediate 

 constituents, and am requested by them to with- 

 draw from Congress, I shall comply with those 

 instructions as soon as they are received. Then, 

 and not until then, I shall resign ; and after re- 

 signing my position here, I shall yet be a Union 

 man, and stand under the flag of the country 

 which gave me birth." [Great applause in the 

 galleries and on the floor.] 



The following resolution was offered at a sub- 

 sequent session of the House, and unanimously 

 adopted : 



Resolved, That neither the Federal Government, nor 

 the people or the governments of the non-slaveholding 

 States, have the right to legislate upon or interfere 

 with slavery in any of the slaveholding States in the 

 Union. 



The proposition to organize new Territories 

 was brought forward in the Heaise by a motion 

 of Mr. Thayer, of Massachusetts, to constitute 

 the Dakota Land District, and to provide for 

 the admission to the House of Representatives 

 of a delegate therefrom. 



Mr. Cox, of Ohio, wished to inquire of the 

 chairman whether the committee, of which he 

 is chairman, proposed any legislation with re- 

 spect to this or the other territories? And if 

 so, whether they proposed to change the bills 

 they reported last session, so as to obliterate 

 those obnoxious provisions which caused them 

 to be defeated ? 



Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, replied that the 

 Committee on Territories propose, when they 

 have an opportunity, to submit to this House 

 bills for organizing territories for the people in 

 the region around Pike's Peak ; for the people 

 in the region of the Washoe silver mines, called 

 Nevada ; for the people of what is called Ari- 



zona ; and for the people of this very Dakota 

 Territory, and for the territory above it, which 

 will cover all the territory of the nation ; and 

 thus arranging the whole matter, they will get 

 rid of this whole territorial legislation. And 

 they propose to report the bills in the usual 

 form. 



Mr. Cox further asked : " And do they pro- 

 pose the same proviso in respect to slavery that 

 was contained in the former bills ? That is the 

 point." 



Mr. Grow replied : " We shall, I take it, re- 

 port the same proviso as before, with the priv- 

 ilege of any member to move to strike it out ; 

 and if a majority is against us upon that ques- 

 tion, we propose to vote for those bills. If a 

 majority shall strike the clause out, then you 

 have not a word in the bills about slavery no 

 reference to it whatever. We propose to leave 

 it to be settled by a majority of the House, 

 whether they will retain that proviso or not ; 

 and if a majority say no, it will be out of the 

 bills." 



On a subsequent day, bills were introduced 

 by Mr. Grow to provide temporary govern- 

 ments for all the territories above mentioned. 

 These bills were passed after the proviso had 

 been struck out. 



Apprehensions began to exist in the minds 

 of many Southern members of the House that 

 the army and navy were to he used for the 

 purpose of coercion against a portion of the 

 States which had endeavored to place them- 

 selves out of the Confederacy. These appre- 

 hensions were expressed in the House, and an 

 opportunity for discussion was demanded on 

 the naval bill. It was refused on this bill, but 

 when the army appropriation bill was taken up 

 the field for general debate was thrown open. 



Mr. McClernand, of Illinois, was the first to 

 address the House. He argued that no State 

 had any lawful or constitutional right to with- 

 draw from the contract of the national Union : 

 first, because that contract was made by the 

 people, and not the States ; and second, because, 

 if made by the States, still, as artificial persons, 

 they were bound by it, and have no independ- 

 ent, constitutional right to withdraw from or 

 rescind it. And again, because, in such case, 

 the contract of Union subordinates the States 

 to a paramount sovereignty ordained by their 

 own act and consent. And again, because that 

 sovereignty acts directly upon the people of the 

 " United States ;" and by its own independent 

 force must act upon them, despite of whatever 

 the States, as such, may do. Being sovereign, 

 its first duty was to preserve itself; and being 

 sovereign, where is there a power more than 

 sovereign to control it, disintegrate it, or dis- 

 solve it? When the States show their right to 

 do so, the paradox will have been established, 

 that the minor is the greater proportion ; that 

 the inferior has the right to substitute himself 

 for the superior ; that inferiority is sovereignty, 

 and that sovereignty is subordination ! 



Mr. Cox, of Ohio, followed : " Mr. Chairman, 



