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THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION OF THE STATES THEY "MUST BE PRESERVED.
Volume XVI RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 6, 1850. f Number 796.
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THE NORTH CAROLINA STANDARD
18 PUBLISHED WEEKLY, BY
WILLIAM W. HOLDEN,
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
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SPEECH OF MR. CL.INGMAN,
OF NORTH CAROLINA,
Delivered in the House of Representatives of the Uni
ted States on the Territorial Question on the 2Zd of
January, 1850.
Mr. Clingman said, that the committee was well
aware that he had, on yesterday, intimated a purpose .
to discuss the questions involved in the propositions j
relating to the Mexican territory. That subject was :
regarded by the whole country as one of such im- j
mense importance that be ottered no apology tor de
bating it. To prevent misconception, (said he,) I
say in advance that I have great confidence in the
judgment, integrity and patriotism of the Presi
dent. I further admit fully the right of citizens of
each State to settle for themselves all such domestic
questions as that referred to in the message. But
who are the people entitled so to decide, as well
as the time and manner of admission and boundary
of new States, are in themselves questions for the ,
judgment of Congress, under all the circumstances j
of each case. The territory of Louisiana, our first ;
foreign acquisition, was retained nearly ten years in j
that condidion before she was allowed to form a State i
constitution. In the case of Texas her people be- j
ing composed almost entirely of citizens of the Unit- j
edTstates, and having had a State government of their '
own for ten years she was admitted at once as a '
State into the Union. In the present case, there are j
considerations of the greatest importance connected j
directlv and indirectly with our action on this sub
ject. While adverting to them as fully as the time ,
limited by our rules will admit, I ask the attention i
of the House. J
With reference to this matter, I was placed at a j
-ta4c2dt2utage before the country by a publication made j
some time since. It is generally known that there :
was on the Saturday evening before the time for the
assembling of the House, a preliminary meeting or j
caucus of the Whig members. The proceedings of!
such meetings have usually been kept private. Con
trary, however, to the former usage in this respect,
some individual present furnished to one of the New .
York papers what purported to be a report of the j
proceedings. This report, being in some respects
authentic, was copied into other papers. The writer j
gave very fully the speeches of those persons whose
views coincided was his owu ; but, though he made
a reference to my position, he did not think proper ,
to set out what 1 did say so as to make that position j
at all understood. It will be remembered by those
present on that occasion, that, at the very outset of i
my remarks, 1 stated that l nao tnat morning naa a
very full and free conference with the gentleman
from Georgia, (Mr. Toombs,) who had moved the
resolution ; that there was, in relation to the whole
subject embraced in it, as well as with reference to
the mode of action proper to be adopted by the South,
an entire agreement between that gentleman and my- i
self. In fact, that there was not, as far as I know,
any difference of opinion between us, except as to the
expediency of making the issue at that time, and that
1 thought it preferable to await legislative action and i
stand on the defensive purely. This, among other I
reasons then given, induced me to request the with- j
drawal of the resolution. It is proper that I should
ay that, in my interview that morning with the gen-j
tleman from Georgia, and with his colleague, (Mr. j
Stephens,) I gave my reasons at length, founded 1
chiefly on my recent observation of the state of pub-
lie sentiment in the North, we believing that a colli
am was inevitable, and that the sooner it came on j
the better for all parties ; but that to enable us to make
our demonstration in the most imposing and success-
ful mode, it would be better to await the organiza-1
tion of the House. I expressed the fear that if we :
moved without the concurrence at the outset of a ma- j
jority of the southern members, we might place our
selves at a disadvantage before the public, and pre
vent our uniting the whole South in such a couse of
action as it might be found expedient to adopt.
Looking over the whole ground, however, I ana j
not at all dissatisfied with the course which things j
took. There has been no such division at the South j
as would be at all likely to impair efficient action j
hereafter. From the tone of the southern press, as j
well as from other indications, it is obvious that the I
South will, at an early day, be sufficiently united
to insure the success of whatever measures it may be
necessary to adopt to protect ourselves from the ag
gression menaced by the North. As to the election
of a Speaker, in the present condition of the House
and the country, 1 have never considered it of the
slightest moment to either political party, or to either
section of the Union. A Speaker without a majori
ty of the House would be of no advantage to the Ad
ministration, nor could any mere arrangement of com
mittees materially affect now the action on the slave
question.
Those, Mr. Chairman, who have observed my
course heretofore, know well that I have not sought
to produce agitation on this subject. Six years ago,
when I first took a seat on this floor, bettering that
the famous twenty -first role had been gotten up mere
ly as a fancy matter which was productive only of
ill feeling and irritation between different sections, I
both voted and spoke against it, and was then regard
ed as responsible to a great extent for its defeat. I
then stated, daring the discussion, that if without
cause we kept np a state of hostility between the
.North and the South, until a practical question arose
like that presented when Missouri was admitted,
(for I then saw the Texas annexation in the future,)
the " greatest possible mischief might .ensue." I
went on also, in the course of my armament, to say
that slavery could not be abolished in this District
without a dissolution of the Union. Two years
since, when it had become certain that we were at
the close of the then existing war to obtain territory,
I endeavored to place the question on grounds where
the North might meet us; conceding, for the sake of
argument, that the Government had complete juris
diction over the territory. I endeavored to show, :
that while it might be justified in dividing the ttrri-j
tory, it could not exclude us from the whole without
a palpable violation of the Constitution. I am sorry j
to say, however, that my effort, though well meant, j
did not produce the slightest effect upon- the action
of any one gentleman of my own party from the!
North. On this side of the House they regularly I
voted that the North should have the whole of the !
territory, and went against any compromise. I re- j
gret to be compelled to say, that instead; of showing
themselves in any respect conservative, as 1 used to !
consider them, the northern Whig members proved '
themselves, on this the great question, eminently de- j
structive. 1
To those gentlemen in the North who sided us in j
an attempt to settle the question in some manner not j
disgraceful or destructive to us. I tender my thanks.
In standing by the right of rae South they have '
shown themselves friends of the Constitution and of;
the Union..
Sir, the force and extent of the present anti-slavery
movement of the North is uo understood by the South.
Until within the last few months I had supposed that
even if California and New Mexico should come in
as free States, the agitation would subside so as to
produce no further action. A few months travel in
the interior of the North has changed my opinion.
Such is now the condition of public sentiment there,
that the making of the Mexican territory all free, in
any mode, would be regarded as an anti-slavery tri
umph, and would accelerate the general movement
against us. It is not difficult for us to preceive how
that state of public sentiment has been produced
there. The old abolition societies have done a good
deal to poison the popular mind. By circulating an
immense number of inflammatory pamphlets, filled
with all manner of falsehood and calumny against
the South, its institutions, and its men, because there
was no contradiction in that quarter, they had created a
high degree of prejudice against ns. As soon as it
became probable that there would be an acquisition
of territory, the question at once became a great prac
tical one, and the politicians Immediately took the
matter in hand. With a view at once of strengthen
ing their position, they seized upon all this matter
which the abolition societies (whose aid both parties
courted in the struggle) had furnished from time to
time, and diffused and strengthened it as much as
possible, and thereby created an immense amount of
hostility to southern institutions. Every thing there
contributes to this movement ; candidates are brought
out by the caucus system, and if they fail to take
that sectional ground which is deemed strongest there,
they are at once, discarded. The mode of nominat
ing candidates, as well as of conducting the canvass,
is destructive of any thing like independence in
the representative. They do not, as gentlemen often
do in the South and West, take ground against the
popular clamor, and sustain themselves by direct ap
peals to the intelligence and reason of their constitu
ents. Almost the whole of the northern press co
operated in the movement. With the exception of
the New York Herald, (which, with its large circu
lation, published matter on both sides,) and a few
other liberal papers, every thing favorable to the
South has been carefully excluded from the northern
papers. By these combined efforts a degree of feel
ingand prejudice has been gotten up against the South,
which is most intense in all the interior.
I was surprised last winter to hear a northern Sen
ator say, that in the town in which he lived it would
excite great astonishment if it were known that a
northern lady would, at the time of the meeting of
the two Houses, walk up to the Capitol with a south
ern Senator ; that they had been taught to consider
southernors generally as being so coarse and ruffian
ly in manner that a lady would not trust herself in
such a presence. This anecdote, sir, does not pre
sent too strong a picture of the condition of sentiment
in portions of the interior o; the northern country.
How far gentlemen on this floor are to be influenced
in their action by such a state of opinion, I leave them
to decide.
The great principle upon which the northern move
ment rests, which is already adopted by most north
ern politicians, and to which they all seem likely to
be driven by the force of the popular current there,
if the question is unsettled till die next Congression
al election, is this : that the Government of the Uni
ted States must do nothing to sanction slavery ; that
it must therefore exclude it from the Territories;
that it must abolish it in the District of Columbia,
forts and arsenals, and wherever it has jurisdiction.
Some, too, carrying the principle to its extent, insist
that the coasting slave trade, and that between the
States, should also be abolished, and that slave labor
should not be tolerated in a public office of the Uni
ted States, such as custom-houses, post offices, and
the like. As these things all obviously rest on the
same general dogma, it is clear that the yielding of
one or more points would not check, but would mere
ly accelerate, the general movement to the end of the
seiies. Before this end was reached they would pro
bably append, as a corollary, the principle that the
President should not appoint a slaveholder to office.
It is, sir, my deliberate judgment that, in the present
temper of the public mind at the North, if the terri
torial question remains open till the next election,
few if any gentlemen will get here from the free
States that are not pledged to the full extent of the
abolition platform. It is, therefore, obviously the
interest of all of us to settle this question at the pres
ent session.
That the general principle above stated is at war
with the whole spirit of the Constitution of the Uni
ted States, which sanctions slavery in several of its
provisions, I need not argue here. Taking, however,
a practical view of the matter in controversy, look
for a moment at the territorial question, the great
issue in the struggle. I will do northern gentlemen
on this floor the justice to- admit that they have ar
gued themselves into the belief that they are right in
claiming the whole of the territory for free soil. Let
me state, for a moment, the converse, or opposite of
their proposition. Suppose it were to be claimed
that no one should be allowed to go into this public
territory, unless he carried one or more slaves with
him, it might then be said, just as gentlemen now
tell us, that it would be perfectly fair, because it
placed every man who might be inclined to go there
on an equal footing, and might by means of having
thus a homogeneous population advance the general
interest. Northern men would at once, I suppose,
object to this arrangement. Then we should say to
them, if you do not like this restriction, let it he set
tled, then, that every citizen of the United States
may go into the common territory and carry slaves
or not, just as he pleases. This would seem to be a
perfectly equitable and fair arrangement. Northern
men, however, object to this, and say that they are
not willing to live in a territory where others own
slaves. Then we of the South' say to them, that we
will consent to divide, the territory, and limit our
possession with slaves to a part of it, and allow them
to go at will over the whole. Even to this they ob
ject, and insist that they will not allow us to occupy
one foot of the territory. Remember, sir, that this
very territory was acquired by conquest, and that
while the South, according to its population, would
have been required to furnish only one-third of the
troops, it in point of tact did furnish two-thirds of
the men that made the conquest. And the North,
deficient as it was comparatively in the struggle, now
says that hs conscience, or its cupidity, will not per
mit o to have the smallest portion of that territory.
Why, sir, this is the most impudent proposition that
was ever maintained by any respectable body of men.
Sir, 1 give the North full credit for its feelings in
favor of liberty. I can welf suppose that northern
gentlemen would resist, in the most emphatic man
ner, the attempt to make any man who is now free
a slave ; but I regard them as too intelligent to be
lieve that humanity, either to the stave or the mas
ter, requires that they should be pent up within a ter
ritory wbieh, after a time, will be insufficient for
their subsistence, and whore they must perish from
want, or from the collisions that would occur between
the races. Nor can I suppose that they think it
would be injurious to New Mexico and California
for oar people to go and settle among them. Promi
nent northern statesmen, both in this House and in
the Senate, have described the population of those
Territories, and have represented it as being not only
inferior to those Indian tribes that we know most of,
viz S the Cherokees and Chectawsr but aa being far
below the Flat Heads, Black Feet, and Snake In
dians. I cannot, therefore, suppose that they really
believe those territories would be injured by having
infused into them, such a state of society as produces
such parsons as George Washington, John Marshall,
and thousands of other great and virtuous men, living
and dead. Your opposition to our right will be re
garded as resting on the lust for political power of
your politicians, or on the rapacity of your people.
The idea that the conquered people should be per
mitted to give law to the conquerors, is so preposter
ously absurd, that I do not intend to argue it. Doubt
less these people would be willing, not only to ex
clude slaveholders, but all other Americans, if, by a
simple vote, they were allowed to do so. I may re
mark further,, that hat for the anti-slavery agitation,
our southern slaveholders would have carried their
negroes into the mines of California in such numbers,
that I have no doubt but that the majority there
would have made it a slaveholding State. We have
been deprived of all chance of this by the northern
movements, and by the action of this House, which
has, by northern votes, repeatedly, from time to time,
passed the Wilmot proviso, so as in effect to exclude
our institutions, without the actual passage of a
law for that purpose. It is a mere farce, therefore,
without giving our people time to go into the coun
try, if they desire to do so, to allow the individuals
there, by a vote, to exclude a whole class of our cit
izens. This would imply that the territory belong
ed to the people there exclusively, and not to all the
people of the United States.
Compared with this great question, the abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia is of little re
lative moment. One effect, however, of the anti
slavery agitation here is worthy of a passing notice.
Within the last two years, since the matter has be
come serious, it has seemed not improbable that the seat
of Government might be removed from the District.
As this woujd be extremely prejudicial to the inter
ests of the citizens here, many of them have so far
changed in their feelings as to be willing to allow
slavery to be abolished, yielding to the force of the
pressure from the North ; besides, so many of their
slaves are from time to time taken away by the Abo
litionists, as to satisfy them that such property here
is almost worthless. A great impression was mode
on them by the coming in last year of a northern ship,
and its carrying away seventy slaves at once. See
ing that there was no chance of getting Congress to
pass any adequate law for their protection, as most of
the States have Hone, they seem to be forced to as
sent, to some extent, to the northern movement. Sir,
it is most surprising that the people of the southern
States should have home, with so little complaint,
the loss of their slaves incurred by the action of the
free States. The Constitution of the United States
provided for the delivery of all such fugitives, and
Congress passed an act to carry it into effect ; but
recently, most, if not all of the northern States, have
completely defeated these provisions, by forbidding
any one of their citizens to aid in the execution of
the law, under the penalty of fine and imprisonment
for as long a term usually as five years. There is
probably no one legal mind in any one of the free
States which can regard these laws as constitutional.
For though the States are not bound to legislate affir
matively in support of the Constitution of the Unit
ed States, yet it is clear that they have no right to
pass laws to obstruct the execution of constitutional
provisions. Private citizens are not usually bound
to be active in execution of the law, but if two or
more combine to prevent the execution of any law,
they are subject to indictment for conspiracy in all
countries where the common law doctrines prevail.
If the several States could rightfully legislate to de
feat the action of Congress, they might thereby com
pletely nullify most of its laws. In this particular
instance such has been the result ; for though the
master is allowed to go and get his negro if he can,
yet, in point of fact, it is well known that the free
; negroes, Abolitionists, and other disorderly persons,
j acting under the countenance and authority of the
i State laws, are able usually to overpower the mas
i ter and prevent his recapture.
I The extent of the loss to the South may be under-
stood from the fact, that the number of runaway slaves
now in the North is stated as being thirty thousand
j worth, at present prices, little short of fifteen mill-
ions of dollars. Suppose that atnocnt of property
: was taken away from the North by the southern
i States acting against the Constitution : what com-
plaint would there not be ! what memorials, and
legislative resolutions would come down upon us!
How would this hall be filled with lobby members
'coming here to press their claims upon Congress!
i Why, sir, many of the border counties in the slavehol-
ding States have been obliged to give up their slaves
I almost entirely. It was stated in the newspapers the
other day, that a few counties named in Maryland
' had, by the efforts of the Abolitionists within six
months, upon computation, lost one hundred thousand
dollars worth of slaves. A gentleman of the highest
standing, from Delaware, assured me the other day that
that little State lost, each year, at least that value of
such property in the same way. A hundred thousand
dollars is a heavy tax to be levied on a single Con
gressional district by the Abolitionists.
Suppose a proportional burden was inflicted on the
northern States. How would Massachusetts bear the
loss annually of one million one hundred thousand
dollars not only inflicted without law, but against an
express provision of tha Constitution 1 we may in
fer from the complaint she has made of a slight incon
venience imposed on her by that regulation of South
Carolina which prevented ship-captains from carrying
free negro servants to Charleston.
This whole action on the part of the North is not
only in violation to the Constitution, but seems to he
purely wanton, or originating in malice towards the
South. It is obvious that they do not want our slaves
among them ; because they not only make no adequate
provision for their comfort, but, in fact, in many of
the States, have forbidden free negroes to come among
them on pain of imprisonment, Ice. It cannot be a
desire to liberate slaves, because they have never to
my knowledge, attempted to steal negroes from Cuba
or Brazil. It is true, however, that having the right
now to come among us both by land and water, they
have greater ad vantages and immunities. For if they
went into a foreign country, they would incur the
risk of being shot or hanged, as robbers and pirates
usually are.
Sir, if any evils have grown out of the existence
of slavery, they have not at least affected the North.
During the days of the slave trade, which (as I for
merly had occasion to remark) was continued down
to 1808 by New England votes in the convention, the
northern ship-owners realized large profits by purcha
sing negroes on the coast of Africa at thirty or forty
dollars per head, and selling them to southern plant
ers for several hundred dollars. The bringing in of
these slaves caused large tracts of southern country,
too unhealthy to have been cleared by white men, to
be brought under profitable cultivation. The price
of cotton has thereby been brought down from fifty
to tan and even five cents per pound. An immense
amount of capital and labor is employed profitably
in its manufacture at the North. In England, also,
not less than six hundred millions of dollars is thus
invested, and a vast population exists by being em
ployed in the manufacture. It is ascertained that
at least five millions of white persons, in Europe and
this country, get their employment, are fed, and ex
ist, on the manutaeture of cotton alone. The cheap
southern production of the raw material not only is
the means of thus giving subsistence to a great portion
of the population of this country and Europe, but is
clothing the world at a cheap rate. In addition to
cotton, rice, sugar, coffee, tobacco, and various tropi
oal productions are supplied at a cheap rate for north
ern consumption. On the other hand, our slaves sel
dom come in competition with northern labor, and are
good consumers of its productions. While the North
has derived these great ad vantages, the negroes them
selves have not been sufferers. Their condition not
only compare most advantageously with that of the
laboring .population of the world, but is in advance
of the position they have been able, at any time, to
occupy at home. The researches of Gliddoa and
other antiquarians show that four thousand years ago
in Africa they were slaves, and as black as they now
are. Since then, in that country where they were
placed by Providence, and where, from their peculiar
constitution, tbey enjoy the best health, they have ex
isted only as savages. They are there continually
made slaves of by the men of more intelligent and
enterprising races. Nor have they ever gotten out
of the tropical parts of Africa, except when they
were carried as merchandise. It remains to be proved
however, yet to the world, that the negro, any more
than the horse, can permanently exist, in a state of
freedom, out of the tropical regions. Their decay at
the North, as well as other circumstances which Is
have not time to detail, are ad verse to the proposition.
And yet, sir, the journals of the North, while they
deny that the French and the German, the most en
lightened of the continental nations of Europe, are
capable of freedom, stoutly maintain that the negro is
-the negro, who has never any where, when left to
himself, gotten up to the respectable state of bar
barism which all the other races have attained, not
even excepting our Indians in Mexico and Peru.
While the people of the northern States and the
negroes have been benefited, I am not prepared to ad
rait that the South (if injured at all) has suffered as
generally supposed. The influx of foreign emigrants,
and some other circumstances to which I will pres
ently advert, have in some respects put the North
greatly ahead. But if you deduct the foreign popu
lation which goes chiefly to the North the little we
get not being equal to that portion of our own peo
ple who go to the northwestern States if you de
duct this, I say, it will be found that the white pop
ulation of all the slaveholding States has increased
faster than that of the free States. Owing to the
comfortable condition of our population, if there had
been no emigration from abroad, the descendants of
our portion of the American white family would be
more numerous than the northern. Nor is it true
that we are the poorer : on the contrary, if we are to
take the valuations of property in thedifferent States
as assessed by the public officers, it appears that the
slaveholding States are" much richer in proportion to
their population than the free. Even if you exclude
the negroes as property, and count them in the popu
lation, it appears that the citizens of Virginia the
oldest of the slave States are richer per head than
the citizens of any one of the free States. It will
also appear that the slaveholding States have vastly
less pauperism and crime than the northern Slates.
Looking, therefore, at all these different elements,
viz : greater increase of population, more wealth, and
less poverty and crime, we have reason to regard our
people as prosperous and happy.
Sir, I have not, for want of time, gone into details
on these points, but contented myself with the state
ment of those general views which every candid in
quirer will, lam satisfied, find to be true. I do not
seek to make comparisons that might be regarded as
invidious, unless by way of defence against habitual
attacks on us ; but I regard it as right to say on this
occasion, that whether considered with reference to
the physical comfort of the people, or a high state of
public or private morals, elevated sense of honor, and
of all generous emotions, I have no reason to believe
that a higher state of civilization either now exists
elsewhere, or has existed at any time in the past,
than is presented by the southern States of the
Union.
W hen we look to foreign countries, these views are
confirmed and sustained. Brazil, with a population
of two slaves to one freeman, is the most prosperous
of the South American States, and the only one
which has a stable political system. Cuba is "great
ly in advance of the other West India islands, though
St. Domingo and Jamaica once equaled her before the
emancipation of their slaves. Besides the expense of
maintaining her government at home, Cuba pays
Spain a revenue of nearly fourteen millions. This is
a greater sum for her population than two hundred
millions would be for the United States. Could our
people, in addition to the expense of our State gov
ernments, pay six times as much as the Federal Gov
ernment has ever yet raised by impost and taxes?
That Cuba should be able to bear this burden and
still prosper, is evidence of the high productiveness
of the system.
In spite, however, of these great facts, which ought
to strike all impartial minds, the course of the North
has been constantly aggressive on this question. The
ordinance of 1787, adopted cotemporancously with
the Constitution, made the territory north of the Ohio
free, and left the south of that river slaveholding, giv
ing the North more than half of all the existing ter
ritory. When Louisiana was acquired, slavery could
legally exist in every part of it. The State of Mis
souri, having formed a republican constitution, pro
posed to come into the Union, but the North resisted
her application. Though her constitution recognising
slavery was precisely like those of a majority of the
old States, yet they, against all constitutional princi
ples because they had the power in one branch of
Congress, obstinately refused her admission, until it
was provided by act of Congress that no other slave
State should exist north of 36 30 By that means,
after leaving the South only territory for a single
State, (Arkansas,) they acquired enough in extent to
make ten or fifteen large States. Now, encouraged
by their former success, and having become relatively
stronger, they claim the whole of the territory.
Should we give way, what is to be the result5!
California, Oregon, New Mexico, Deseret, and Min
nesota, will come into the Union in less than five
years, giving the North a clear majority of ten oi fif
teen votes in the Senate. The census of the coming
year will, under the new apportionment, give them
nearly two to one in the House. With immense
controiing majorities in both branches, will they not
at once, by act of Congress, abolish slavery in the
States ! Mr. Adams, who, in his day, controlled
northern opinion on this question, said that there were
twenty provisions of the Constitution which, under
certain circumstances would give Congress the pow
er. Would not this majority find the power, as easi
ly as they have done in their State Legislatures where
they have complete sway, to nullify the provision of
the Constitution for the protection of fugitive slaves ?
Have not prominent northern politicians, of the high
est position and the greatest influence, whose names
are well known to all gentlemen on this floor, already
declared that there is nothing in the Constitution of
the United States which obstructs or ought to ob
struct the abolition of slavery, by Congress, in the
States? Supposing, however, this should not occur,
in twenty years or less, without new acquisitions of
territory, they would get the power, by the coming
in of new free States, to amend the Constitution for
that purpose. But I have no doubt, Sir, that other
acquisitions of territory will be made. Probably,
after the next Presidential election we shall get that
part of Mexico which lies along the Gulf, as far as
Vera Cruz; and from which, though well suited to
the profitable employment of slave labor, we should
be excluded, nevertheless, by the adoption of the
principle that slavery should not be extended in area.
Conceding, however, that I am wrong in both these
suppositions, and that Congress would neither violate
the Constitution nor annul it thus : what are we to
expect? Slavery is to be kept, they say, where it
now is; and we are to be surrounded with free States.
These States not only prohibit the introduction of
slaves, but also of free negroes into their borders. Of
course the whole negro population is to be hereafter
confined to the territory of the present fifteen slave
States. That population in twenty-five years will
amount to seven or eight millions, and in fifty years
to fifteen millions. However dense the population
might become, the negroes will not be gotten away,
but the wealthier portion of the white population (I
mean such as were able to emigrate) would leave
the territory. The condition of the South would, for
a time, be that of Ireland, and soon, by the destruction
of the remnants of the white population, become that
of St. Domingo. There are those now living who
would probably see this state of things ; but it would
be certain to overtake our children or grandchildren.
These facts are staring us in the face as distinctly as
the son in the heavens at noon-day. Northern men
not only admit it, but constantly in their public
speeches avow it to be their purpose to produce this
very state of things. If we express alarm at the
prospect, they seek to amuse us with eulogies on the
blessings of the Federal Union, and ask us to be still
for a time. They do well, for it is true that commu
nities have usually been destroyed bv movements
which, in the beginning, inflicted no immediate inju
ry, and which were therefore acquiesced in till they
had progressed too far to be resisted. They have,
too, constant examples in the conduct of brute ani
mals, that do not struggle against evils antil tbey be
gin to feel pain. Tbey are doubtless, too, encouraged .
to hope for our submission on account of oar acqui
escence under their former wrongs. They know that
the evils already inflicted on us, to which I have re
ferred, greatly exceed in amount any injury that Great
Britain attempted when she drove the colonies info
resistance. Besides, sir, their aggressions have in
finitely less show of constitutional right or color of
natural justice. But what they now propose is too
palpable even for our southern generosity. If, after
having been free for seventy years, the southern
States were to consent to be thus degraded and en
slaved, instead of the pity, they would meet the scorn
and contempt of the universe. The men of this gen
eration, who would be responsible, ought to be whip
ped through their fields by their own negroes. I
thank God that there is no one in my district that I
think so meanly of, as to believe that he would not
readily come into whatever movement might be ne
cessary for the protection of our rights and liberty.
I tell northern gentlemen, who are in hopes that the
South will be divided, that we shall not have half as
many traitors to bang as we did Tories in the Revo
lution. .
4 If gentlemen mean that the Union, upon the prin
ciples of the Constitution, is desirable, I will not
controvert that opinion. But the Union never could
have been formed without the written Constitution.
So, if you now, bv vour action, practicallv destrov
the Constitution, those injured, if able to resist, will
not submit. That instrument was ordained, in its
own language, to "establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty" to
all parties to it namely, the freemen of the Union.
If, therefore, under its form, gross injustice is done,
insurrection excited, and the citizens of part of the
States politically enslaved, then the Union ought not
to stand, as an instrument of wrong and oppression.
There is throughout the South a strong attachment
to the union of the States. This sentiment rests not
so much upon any calculation of interest as on histo
ric associations, and the recollections of common an
cestral struggles and triumphs. Our people take a
pride in the name of the United States, and in being
members of a great republic that furnishes a cheering
example to the friends of liberty throughout the world.
But events of the last few years are rapidly weaken
ing this feeling. Seeing that there appeared to be a
settled purpose in the North to put them to the wall,
many ot our people, regarding a dissolution of the
Union as the inevitable result of this aggression, have
looked forward to the consequences of such a state of
things.
I will tell northern gentlemen, in the hope that
many of them have not yet passed the point of reason,
what is the view presented in prospect to many of the
highest intellects in the South. It is well known
that the existing revenue system operates hardly on
the South and the West. The Government raises
upwards of thirty millions annually hy a duty or tax
upon imports. But this system arts very unequally
on the different sections of the country. For illustra
tion of the mode of operation, I will take a single ar
ticle. Railroad iron is produced in England at so
cheap a rate, that itcan.be brought to this country and
sold, we may say, for $40 per ton. This is much
cheaper than our people can afford to make it at.
They therefore ask the Government to require the
payment of $20 per ton by way of duty. The im
porter, therefore, instead of selling for $40 per ton,
must ask $60, to reimburse himself for what he has
paid out abroad, and to the Government. Every per
son, therefore, in the United States, who purchases
railroad iron, has to pay $20 more for each ton. There
are, however, some advantages to counterbalance this
loss. In the first place, some of our people, finding
that they can make a profit by selling railroad iron at
$60 per ton, engage in the manufacture, and thus
find employment. While so engaged, these persons
consume the produce of the farmers and others, and
thus make a home market for agricultural productions.
We see, however, that the loss of $20 per ton falls
on all those in any part of the United States who may
consome the iron. But the benefit is confined to
those persons who are engaged in making iron, and
those who live so near them that they can conveni
ently get their produce to The factories. In fact, this
sort of manufacturing is confined to the State of Penn
sylvania, and perhaps a few other localities. But
my constituents can no more pay the manufacturers
of Pennsylvania for iron in the productions of their
farms, than they could the British iron-masters. It
is therefore to our advantange, as we must pay for it
in cash, to get the iron at the lowest rate. This is
true of the southern and western people generally.
This illustrates the effect of our revenue and protec
tive system. The burden is diffused over the whole
country, but the benefit is limited to the manufactu
rers and to those persons who reside so near as to
have thereby a better market ; very little more than
one-third of the Union gets the benefit of the system,
in exclusion mainly of the South and West.
It is not easy to measure the precise extent of this
burden. It has been estimated that two-thirds of all
the articles which would, if imported, be subject to
pay a duty, are produced in the United States. To
return, for ready illustration, to the case of railroad
iron. If two of every three tons of iron consumed in
the United States were made in this country, it would
foil ow that the person who consumed those three tons
of iron, while he paid twenty dollars to the Govern
ment on the ton imported, would pay forty dollars to
the home manufacturer; and if he lived so far from
the manufacturer that he could not pay him in pro
duce, it would follow that, in fact, while he paid the
Government but twenty dollars, he would lose sixty
himself on account of the duty. When, therefore,
the Government gets, as it is doing, thirty millions of
dollars revenue, the whole burden to the consumers
of this country would be one hundred millions of
dollars ; of this amount, the South pays, according
to its population and consumption, forty millions of
dollars. This sum I think too low in fact.
In the Patent Office report, made to the last ses
sion of Congress, (the last one published,) it is sta
ted by the Commissioner, Mr.' Burke, a northern
man, that the annual value of articles manufactured
in the United States is five hundred and fifty millions
of dollars. This statement does not include iron,
salt, coal, sugar, wool, the products of fisheries, and
other articles, on which a duty is collected ; adding
these, swells the amount to nearly seven hundred
millions. Our imports for that year were unusually
large, on account of the famine abroad. Neverthe
less, all the articles imported, on which a duty is col
lected, including the above omitted in the statement
of manufactures, are in value only one hundred
and eleven millions one hundred and fifty-four thou
sand three hundred and fifteen dollars. It thus ap
pears that the amount manufactured in the country is
more than six times that imported. It is not preten
ded, however, that this comparison affords a proper
measure of the amount of the burden which the coun
try may sustain ; and that while it pays to the Gov
ernment thirty-three millions, it pays two hundred to
the manufacturers indirectly, thereby making the
whole loss to the consumers, in the first instance,
two hundred and thirty-three millions. Some few
are manufactured here as cheaply as they can be else
where; and a very large number, at the places where
they are made, are cheaper to the consumer than
would be the foreign article when transported there.
It is also true, however, that in a great many cases
the consumer loses even more than the whole duty,
because he is not only obliged to pay it to the manu
facturer or refund it to the' importer, but also a profit
or per cent, on this duty to each trader through whose
hands the article passes before it reaches him. In
other instances the price is intermediate between
what it would be without any duty and that which
it would amount to by the addition of the duty.
Want of accurate knowledge of alt the facts renders
it impossible to determine precisely the effect which
our revenue system-produces; but that it is most pow
erful and controlling cannot be dented. The Gov
ernment actually raises more than thirty millions per
year by these duties. The manufacturers, who are
certainly interested in selling their productions at a
high rather than a low rate, and who understand
their true interests, attach the greatest importance to
the tariff system, and attribute to its operation effects
even greater than I have stated: them to be. There
has been leas complaint among consumers, because
the cost of most manufactured articles' has been di
minishing from time to time. This fall Of prices,
however, is partly attributable to the great discove
ries made during our day in chemistry, mechanism,
and the arts generally, by which these articles are
produced with much more facility. It is also attrib
utable to the comparative repose of the world, which
has directed capital and labor, formerly consumed in
wars, to industrial pursuits.
Hence, fhnncrh there in a trraArtal nutnuiin f iL
! ces in the United States, yet it is still more striking
! on the nlhor aiAa nf (U Atlantic T . T
---- "m - ii wieai xj rim I II
particularly, as well as in certain portions of the Con
tinent, such is the accumulation of capital, .and so
great the number of laborers who are obliged to work
for a mere subsistence, that prices are at the lowest
possible rate. We have a right to take advantage of
this state of things, just as the Europeans do of oaf
cheap production of cotton; Instead of giving us
half a dollar a pound, as they used to do, (hey, aa
well as the people of the northern States, seem glad
to get it for five cents a pound, in consequence of our
over production of the article. We have, therefore,
a natural right to purchase their productions at the
lowest rate at which we can obtain them, to counter
balance the disadvantage we suffer from the accumu
lation of a different kind of capital and labor. To
alleviate this burden we of the South get back very
little in the form of protection. Why then have
Southern men been willing to submit to a system
so unequal in its operation! Becouse, as I have
formerly had occasion to state, in the Convention
which made the Federal Constitution there was a
bargain made between the North and the Sooth, that,
provided ithey would allow our slaves to be repre
sented, to permit importation for a time, and to de
liver up fugitives, the South would, on its part, agree
that a majority of Congress might have power to
pass navigation or tariff laws. As the gift of the pow
er under the circumstances necessarily implied that
it was to be exercised, We felt bound in honor to ac
quiesce ;in the action of the majority. Because, in
the second place, protection to such extent as might
give our infant manufactures a fair start, was calcu
lated to advance the interest of the nation as a whole,
tnougn lor a time it might bear hardly cm us. And
because, thirdly, we hoped that the Southern States
would after a time get to manufacturing themselves,
as their interest required them to do, and thus escape
the burden. It was thus that Southern gentlemen,
even after the. North had partially failed to pay its
share of the consideration, with great magnanimity
continued to sustain the system.
The manner of disbursement is also adverse to our
interests. Of the forty odd millions which the Gov
ernment proposes to disburse this year, I do not be
lieve that five millions will in any way be expended
in all the slaveholding States. North Carolina, for
example, is burdened to the extent of not less than
three millions, and yet does not get back one hun
dred thousand dollars in any way from the Govern
ment. The clear loss in a pecuniary point of view,
on account of the action of the Government, may be
set down at three millions annually. The southern
States general lyare in the same situation.
What would be our condition if separated from the
North t It is difficult to determine the precise amount
of the exports of the slaveholding States, because it
is not practicable to arrive at the exact value of that
portion which is sold to the free States. But the
amount of our leading staples being pretty well
known I mean cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar, &c. we
can arrive at the whole value of our exports pretty
nearly. They cannot fall short of one hundred and
thirty millions of dollars; and this year, perhaps,
considerably exceed that sum. This is nearly as
much as the whole of the exports of the United States
to foreign countries. It must be remembered, how
ever, that though the free States- furnish part of our
exports, yet that which they do afford is scarcely so
much as the portion of our own products which goes
to them for consumption. If, therefore, we were
separated, our whole exports to the North, and to
foreign countries generally, would be equal to that
sum. Of course we should import as much, and in
fact do at this time consume as much. A duty of
thirty per cent, on these imports (and most of the
rates of the present tariff are higher) would yield a
revenue of nearly forty millions of dollars.
As the prices of almost all manufactured articles
are regulated by the production of the great work
shops of Europe, where the accumulation of capital
and labor keeps down production to the lowest pos
sible rates, I have no doubt but that sum would be
raised without any material increase of the prices
which our citizens now pay. We might therefore
expend as much as .the Government of the Unitod
ever did in time of peace up to the beginning of Gen.
Jackson s administration, and still have on band
twenty-five millions of dollars to devote to the mak
ing of railroads, opening our harbors and rivers, and
for other domestic purposes. Or, by levying only a
twenty per cent, duty, which the northern manufac
turers found ruinous to them, as they said under M
Clay s compromise bill, we should be able to raise
some twenty-five millions of dollars. Half of this
sura would be sufficient for the support of our army,
navy, and civil government. The residue might be
devoted to the making of all such improvements
as we are now in want of, and especially checkering
our country over with railroads. Subjecting the
goods of the North to a duty, with those from other
foreign countries, would at once give a powerful
stimulus to our own manufactures. We have already
sufficientcapital for the purpose. But if needed, it will
come in from abroad. English capitalists have ailed
Belgium with factories. Whu li,l ... i
ply because provisions were cheaper and tales low
er than in England. The same motives woaid bring
till m a n L . - il Kw
wiciu imu me Houmern country, since both the rea
sons assigned are much stronger in our case. It has
already been proved that we can manufacture some
kinds of goods cheaper than the North. In New Eng
land, too, owing to her deficient agriculture, every
thing is directed to manufacturing, and the System is
strained up to a point which is attended with great
social disadvantages, so as to retard population. In
the South it need not hp an. Tia j :i
are very favorable to agricultural pursuits. Out slaves
migut uc ciufny occupied on the farms, while the
poorer class of onr White population, and a portion
of our females, could be advantageously employed
ih manufacturing. WTe should thus have that diver
sity in our pursuits which is most conducive to the
prosperity and happiness of a people;
Our carrying trade would probably for a time be
in the hands of the English and other foreigners.
This, however, would not be to our disadvantage,
since northern ship-owners now charge aa much for
freight between New York and New Orleans as they
do for carrying it to Canton, on the opposite side of
a I 1 t r9r i i r .s -
me giooe. i ne wnoie amount of the freielrt on Sou
thern productions, received by the northern ship-
vncio, vu a minute calculation, been set down
ai tony mil nons one nunared and eighty-six thou-
sana seven nunared and twenty-eight dollars. (i0
186,728.) The whole value which the North de
rives from its southern connection has been estima
ted, by some persons most familiar with these statis
tics, at more than eighty millions of dollars. Who
ever looks info the condition of the differeut States
prior to tne formation of the Union, and compares it
nriui uieir vuuauon at nrsi, under low duties, i
the war and tariff of 1816, and its successors, hi
protective as they have been, will find the facta i
up to
sustaining the opinions I have expressed. Northern
wriiers of elementary books made for school-children,
of course represent things differently, and deceive
the careless and the ignorant. My opinions on these
Joints have been settled tor a long while past, though
have not heretofore been in a position where I
thought I could exert any controlling influence, or ef
fect any desirable object, by giving utterance to (jham.
In throwing Out these views, Mr. Chairman, 1
have not sought the utmost degree of precision, but
I have no doubt bat that all the nets will be found
on examination not less favorable to my conclusions
than I have stated them. My purpose now is sim
ply to present to northern gentlemen such general