33D CONG....2d Sess. APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE. colored brother, whom you have sold into Egypt, as an excuse for your cold-blooded treachery. As well might the hawk taunt the dove in his talons, because he does not fly away to the azure heavens, or the wolf upbraid the lamb in his clutches, because he does not skip and play. Rather does it become you to lay your hand on your mouth, and your mouth in the dust, and cry unclean! unclean! Execution of United States Laws-Debate. Africans into slavery. Two citizens of Wiscon 231 SENATE. Mr. GILLETTE. That is the Senator's ex sin have been condemned to fine and imprison-planation, but it does not alter the facts I have ment, by a United States court, for the alleged Sir, what would be thought of the father who should depress and degrade one part of his family, and permit another portion to trample upon the victims of his unnatural cruelty and injustice? He would be pronounced a miscreant, or a lunatic; and is not this equally true of the larger family of the State? What shall be said of that kind of statesmanship which treats one class of people with scorn and contumely, thus alienating their affections from the State, and filling their bosoms with hate and revenge; forcing upon them the maddening conviction that they are despised aliens and outcasts in their own country, with nothing to dread but peace, and something to hope from revolution? It is a dangerous and infatuated policy which, at some national crisis, might bring resultant disaster and ruin. The grand aim of all just Governments and all wise legislation is, not to depress, but to elevate; not degrade, but to ennoble; not to curse, but to bless every class and condition of people, and thus, while fulfilling theirginia, to rear slaves for market. How can an honorable "It is a practice, an increasing practice, in parts of Virappropriate functions, conciliate the patriotic regards of all, and fortify the State with a circling mind, a patriot, and a lover of his country bear to see this ancient dominion, rendered illustrious by the noble devorampart of true, devoted, loyal hearts. Well did tion and patriotism of her sons in the cause of liberty, Jefferson wax warm on this point, and exclaim: converted into one grand menagerie, where men are reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles? Is it better, is it not worse, than the [African] slave trade-that trade which enlisted the labor of the good and wise of every creed and every clime to abolish it? The trader receives the slave, a stranger in language, aspect, and manners, froin the merchant who has brought him from the interior. The ties of father, mother, husband, and child, have all been rent in twain; before he receives him his soul has become callous. But here, sir, individuals, whom the master has known from infancy, whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood, who have been accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the mother's arms, and sells into a strange country, among a strange people, subject to cruel taskmasters. In my opinion it is much worse." "With what execration should the statesman be loaded who, permitting one half of the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies; destroys the morals of the one part, and the patriotism of the other. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God, and not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot.. sleep forever; that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situations, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference. The Almighty has no attribute that can take side with us in such a contest." But, Mr. President, there is still another chapter in the history of the prostitution of the Federal Government to the purposes of slavery and slavery propagandism, to which I ask the attention of the Senate. By the act of 1807, Congress undertook to regulate the coastwise American slave trade, and directed in what vessels, and in what manner it should be carried on, thus abetting and protecting a traffic in the people of this country, which, if prosecuted on the coast of Africa, Congress has since declared to be piracy punishable with death. Can any political casuist tell us how it is that the Government of the United States should allow its own native-born people to be bought up and transported in vessels under its own authority and regulation, to be sold in the slave markets of the Republic; while at the same time, it prohibits the buying and shipping of native Africans under penalty of death? Or why it should hang a man as a pirate for trading in one African savage, and assume to regulate the trade in thousands of American Christians, as they are sometimes represented; thus withdrawing its protection from millions of its own native people, and lavishing it on a barbarous people in a distant land? If it be piracy to steal men from Africa, and sell them in the human shambles, how shall we characterize the stealing of Africo-Virginians, and transporting them under the regulation of United States laws, to be sold in the man-markets of the South and Southwest? We even hear the African slave trade palliated in a certain quarter, as a grand missionary enterprise, by which its poor benighted victims are translated out of their heathenish darkness into the marvelous light of the "Model Republic;" but no such plea can be urged in extenuation of the American slave trade, inasmuch as its victims are snatched from under the blazing light of the old slave-breeding States, and doomed to regions less blessed with the beams of the day-star. The trader's profit is the sole consideration, at the expense of the slave's interests and happiness. In the city of New York a man now awaits the execution of the sentence of death, pronounced by a United States court, for buying and selling' Said the Synod of Kentucky in 1825: "Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are torn asunder and permitted to see each other no more. These acts are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and the agony, often witnessed on such occasions, proclaim, with a trumpet-tongue, the iniquity of our system. There is not a neighborhood where these heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or road that does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts, whose mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from all that their hearts hold dear." The Richmond Inquirer, Virginia, in 1847, held the following language: "It is a melancholy fact that negroes have become the only reliable staple of the tobacco growing section of Virginia, the only reliable means of liquidating debts, foreign and domestic. They are sold here by hundreds, under the hammer of the auctioneer. The domestic cannot compete with the southwestern demand for them, for the plain reason the tobacco grower cannot make half of one per centum per annum on slave labor, while the cotton and sugar planters make, perhaps, from fifteen to twenty per centum. negroes are going by hundreds, yea, by thousands, to the southwest." Our Although the census is cautiously silent, and from these States? They were not swept away Mr. GEYER. Let me tell the Senator from stated. Mr. DAWSON. The increase being so great shows how well they have been taken care of, fed, and clothed. Mr. GILLETTE. What does the honorable appertaining to the old States, which show a large Senator from Georgia say in relation to the facts decrease? What does that indicate? Mr. DAWSON. Simply that they have been taken to the newer States where the land is better and cheaper, and there are better opportunities of living freely and liberally. Mr. BUTLER. My friend from Georgia ought to have answered that the process was very much like that in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other States, where, when they had no further occasion they had no further use for slaves, they sold the for their slaves, they sold them, and sent them to other places. In some States, years ago, when mothers and kept the children. the Senator from South Carolina, that there was Mr. GILLETTE. I will only say, in reply to sold their slaves; but another and a much more in Connecticut a class of the real slaveholders who numerous class who emancipated them. As for slave mothers, he knows more about them than I do. But, sir, to return to my argument. In several slave-importing States other than those which I have already mentioned, the increase is much above the average ratio, thus showing a vast domestic slave trade which numbers many thousands annually. Supposing the natural increase in the four slave-exporting States mentioned, to be thirty-three per cent., which cannot be too high, considering the mildness of their climate, the lightness of slave labor, and the leniency of slave treatment, compared with the climate, labor, and treatment endured by the same class in the rice, cotton, and sugar States, in some of which the consumption is reported to exceed the domestic increase, the number of slaves in the four States named should have amounted to.......1,050,699 Whereas the actual enumeration was but. 851,444 Thus making the number exported... 199,255 each, would amount to $119,535,000-the great between the years 1840 and 1850, which, at $600 consideration, after all that has been said to the contrary, for the perpetuation of slavery in those States. In this connection, Mr. President, and in conclusion of this topic, I will read a short extract from the speech of the Hon. T. B. Macaulay, delivered in the British Parliament, on the "sugar duties." The great name of its author must secure for it the attention of every Senator "who hath ears to hear:" "Then a new distinction is set up. The United States, it is said, have slavery; but they have no slave trade. deny that assertion. I say that the sugar and cotton of the United States are the fruits, not only of slavery, but of the slave trade. And I say further, that, if there be on the surface of this earth a country which, before God and man, is more accountable than any other for the misery and degradation of the African race, that country is not Brazil, the produce of which the right honorable baronet excludes, but the United States, the produce of which he proposes to admit on more favorable terms than ever. "I affirm, then, that there exists in the United States a slave trade not less odious or demoralizing, nay, I do in my conscience believe, more odious and more demoralizing than that which is carried on between Africa and Brazil. North Carolina and Virginia are to Louisiana and Alabama what Congo is to Rio Janeiro. The slave States of the Union are divided into two classes-the breeding States, where the human beasts of burden increase and multiply, and become strong for labor, and the sugar and cotton States, to which those beasts of burden are sent to be worked to death. To what an extent the traffic in man ginia are, as I have said, great breeding States. During is carried on, we may learn by comparing the census of 1830 with the census of 1840. North Carolina and Virthe ten years from 1830 to 1840 the slave population of North Carolina was almost stationary. The slave population of Virginia positively decreased. Yet, both in North Carolina and Virginia, propagation was, during those ten years, going on fast. The number of births among the plus? Look to the returns from the southern States, and slaves in those States exceeded by hundreds of thousands the number of the deaths. What, then, became of the surfrom the States whose produce the right honorable baronet proposes to admit with reduced duty or with no duty at all, and you will see. You will find that the increase in the breeding States was barely sufficient to meet the demand of the consuming States. În Louisiana, for example, where we know that the negro population is worn down by cruel toil, and would not, if left to itself, keep up its numbers, there were, in 1830, 107,000 slaves; in 1840, 170,000. In 33D CONG....2D SESS. Alabama, the slave population during those ten years much more than doubled; it rose from 117,000 to 253,000. In Mississippi it actually tripled; it rose from 65,000 to And 195,000. So much for the extent of this slave trade. as to its nature, ask any Englishman who has ever traveled in the southern States. Jobbers go about from plantation to plantation, looking out for proprietors who are not easy in their circumstances, and who are likely to sell cheap. A black boy is picked up here, and a black girl there. The dearest ties of nature and of marriage are torn asunder as rudely as they were ever torn asunder by any slave captain on the coast of Guinea. A gang of three or four hundred negroes is made up; and then these wretches, handcuffed, fettered, guarded by armed men, are driven southward as you would drive, or, rather, as you would not drive, a herd of oxen to Smithfield, that they may undergo the deadly labor of the sugar mill near the mouth of the Mississippi. A very few years of that labor in that climate suffice to send the stoutest African to his grave. But he can well be spared. While he is fast sinking into premature old age, negro boys in Virginia are growing up as fast into vigorous manhood, to supply the void which cruelty is making in Louisiana. God forbid that I should extenuate the horrors of the slave trade in any form. But I do think this its worst form. Bad enough it is that civilized men should sail to an uncivilized quarter of the world where slavery exists, should there buy wretched barbarians, and should carry them away to labor in a distant land; bad enough. But that a civilized man, a baptized man, a man proud of being a citizen of a free State, a man frequenting a Christian church, should breed slaves for exportation, and, if the whole horrible truth must be told, should even beget slaves for exportation*; should see children, sometimes his own children, gamboling around him from infancy; should watch their growth; should become familiar with their faces, and should then sell them for $400 or $500 a head, and send them to lead in a remote country a life which is a lingering death-a life about which the best thing that can be said is that it is sure to be short. This does, I own, excite a horror exceeding even the horror excited by that slave trade which is the curse of the African coast. And mark: I am not speaking of any rare case, of any instance of eccentric depravity. I am speaking of a trade as regular as the trade in pigs between Dublin and Liverpool, or as the trade in coals between the Tyne and the Thames."-(Pp. 344, 348.) As additional proofs of the action of the Federal Government in behalf of slavery, I might speak further of its tolerance of slavery in the Territories where, by the Constitution, its jurisdiction is exclusive; of its unconstitutional and barbarous enactments for the rendition of fugitive slaves; of its persevering negotiations with foreign nations for the surrender of, or compensation for, fugitive slaves; of its invasion of Florida to capture absconding slaves; of its interference to prevent emancipation in Cuba; of its duplicity in its insincere attempts to suppress the African slavetrade; of its refusing to acknowledge the independence of Hayti, or receive an embassador from that Government; of its annexing Texas to extend and strengthen slavery, as avowed by the leading southern advocates of that measure; of its invasion of the right of petition; the liberty of the press, and the freedom of speech on the subject of slavery; of its admission into the Union of nine new slave States; of its wars of conquest for the acquisition of a vast area of territory, to be devoted to slavery; of its recent abrogation of the Missouri compromise; of its admitting the principle of property in man, by granting claims for lost slaves, as was done but two or three days since; and worse, and more revolting even, allowing claims for children of female slaves, that never were born, as was done in 1834 to certain citizens of Georgia, for depredations by Creek Indians, on the principle set forth in the report of the committee thereon, to wit, that "a much higher value is set on a female slave in consequence of an anticipation of increase a property in expectancy in the issue of such female slave." (Reports of committees, first session, Twenty-Third Congress, No. 140.) Thus, sir, the people of the free States were taxed many thousand dollars by the Government to pay for slave children which, happily for them, were never created, and lived only in the prolific imagination of the slaveholder, engendered there by his cupidity. "To such base uses" has this Government come at last-thus has it been perverted, debauched, prostituted, by a domineering negroöcracy, now numbering three hundred and fifty thousand members, and bound together by a mo * Soon after resuming my seat, upon this statement being called in question, I received a note from a stranger in the gallery, stating that "fourteen instances" of fathers selling their own children had fallen under his observation, several of which are known to members of Congress, and in two of which he himself was the purchaser. On subsequent inquiry, I have learned that the gentleman, who made the communication, is from a slave State, where he has held high judicial positions. in pieces," and pluck the human spoils out of his teeth. Great changes in public sentiment have occurred within the last twenty years, and greater changes are to come within the next ten years. The booming cannon which celebrated the fall of the Missouri compromise, just north of the Capitol, on the memorable, the "melancholy night" of my nopoly of at least $1,500,000,000 in human flesh. By this slaveholding oligarchy this Government has always been controlled and wielded, for the support and extension of slavery which, the late John Q. Adams truly said in a speech to his constituents, shortly before his death, "constitutes the very axle around which the administration of your national Government revolves. All its measures of foreign and domestic policy are but radia-induction into this body, also heralded the resurtions from that center. Mr. President, the Constitution under which we are legislating knows no man by his color, creed, or clime. Based on the great principle of natural law, as enunciated in the national declaration-the exact equality of all men in natural rights-it reads: "We, the people, do ordain and establish this Constitution," thus emanating from all, and embracing all within its ample scope. The illustrious men who formed it, had not made the profound discovery that human rights depend on complexion, or any other physical peculiarity. They embarked in the revolutionary struggle with the motto emblazoned on their banner-all men are equal in rights; under its inspiration, they conquered, and came out of the contest declaring it to be "the boast and pride of America that the rights for which she had contended are the rights of human nature." Deeply imbued with these noble sentiments, they formed the Constitution, and so far from admitting therein the possibility that man can be made property, they not only discarded the odious term slave, but went so far as to substitute the term service instead of servitude, it being understood that the former implied the state of freedom, and the latter the condition of slavery. No matter what physical difference may exist among men; no matter whether an African, an Asiatic, a European, or an American sun may have shone upon them; no matter whether the human soul be enshrined in ebony, bronze or ivory, "a man's a man for a' that," equal in rights before God and the Constitution of the country. To deny this is to contradict the spontaneous utterance of human nature herself, and strike at the center column of the temple of liberty. For how can any man's liberties be secure after this fundamental principle is overthrown? That moment we are all at the mercy of the strongest, and might usurps the place of right. Perfect equality of rights, and equal liberty to exercise those rights such is the organic law of the land; and though rejected and trampled now, it must and will prevail. “Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again; In conclusion, Mr. President, I can only deprecate the measure before the Senate, urged as necessary for the enforcement of the fugitive act, and designed to complete its supremacy over State authority. No effectual resistance can be made to its passage. The arm of the slave power is again uplifted, and another blow is about to fall upon the liberties of the States to crush them into Federal absolutism. I bow to what is inevitable by the fiat of a power that knows no forbearance, looking hopefully to a higher Power, to whom our fathers looked in the day of their calamity, and were signally delivered. I have no threats to fulminate, and but a word of admonition. I caution you not to drive the North to intenser exasperation. Her grievances are already greater than she can bear; do not throw another combustible upon the flame. Desist from your reckless crusade upon her rights; your aggressive war upon her liberties. Having crossed the Rubicon, I warn you to stop and count the cost, before pushing on to capture the last citadel of freedom. Constituted as the Senate now is, there can be no reasonable hope of resisting any decree registered here by the dominant power. That power, strongly backed as it is by its northern minions, is absolute for evil. But, sir, as said the elder Adams on a memorable occasion, "great is Truth; great is Liberty; great is Humanity; and they must and will prevail.' They who resist their march, whether Senators, Presidents, or Judges, will be scattered like chaff by the breath of the tempest. All the high and holy attributes of Omnipotence are pledged to "break the oppresor rection of liberty from her inglorious sleep, and the overthrow of that colossal power that has so long darkened and cursed the land. In the lurid flash of those cannon it might have read the hand-writing of its doom upon these walls, and heard in their roar its echoing dirge. I thank God the dark night of servility and shame is passing away, and the day-dawn of a regenerated freedom and manliness is shining upon our mountains and hills. Animated, quickened, transported by its cheering rays, I catch and echo the words of one of freedom's own poets: "Through all the long dark night of years, Though hearts brood o'er the past, our eyes Shall wear the crown to morrow." Mr. BROWN. I now rise for the purpose of asking permission to be allowed to have a change made in a vote which I gave this morning on a motion of the Senator from Ohio, [Mr. CHASE,] to strike out the words "under color thereof." I was mistaken in the question, and voted in favor of striking out. I intended to vote differently, and as it makes no difference in the result, I hope, by unanimous consent, I may be allowed to change my vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER, (Mr. Weller.) It cannot be done, except by unanimous consent. Mr. CHASE. I object. I should not do so but for the fact that I asked the same favor the other day, and it was refused on the ground that it could not even be done by unanimous consent. Mr. BROWN. Well, sir, it is a matter of no consequence. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. I do not mean, Mr. President, to enter into this debate. The truth is, I did not know that this bill was coming up, nor did I know the purport of the bill. There are, however, some things which have occurred here to-night to which I desire to allude. We have heard two speeches from the Senator from Ohio, [Mr. WADE,] each about an hour or an hour and a half in length, deprecating the introduction of this question suddenly, asserting that it was sprung upon them; that they were not prepared for it; and that they were astonished that it was sprung on them. Now, we have sat here for one hour and a half listening to the elaborate essay which we have just heard, written out, every i dotted and every t crossed, which must have required days, if not weeks, in its preparation. What are we to think of the frankness, candor, or sincerity of that party who are fighting this measure? We are upbraided for hours with forcing the question on them suddenly, and we have just heard delivered an essay written out in advance, which no man in the Senate could have prepared in a week; and in that essay the Senator refers to this very measure, showing that he had his eye to it and had prepared himself for it. Now, gentlemen, if you can find it in your hearts to be honest for once, just tell us that you knew all about it, and were ready to come up and fight it. Just try and be honest for once. (Laughter.] Another thing, Mr. President, to show you that this is a concocted scheme, and that it is perfectly understood by this little band, I will not say of traitors, because that would not be respectful, but if I were to say what I think I should say so. Mr. SEWARD. Speak it out. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. I believe it on my own personal responsibility. I do not say it senatorially, but personally I do. [Laughter.] I 33D CONG....2D Sess. Execution of United States Laws-Debate. Mr. GILLETTE. I look that picture full in the face, and I tell the Senator that the honored man whom it portrays uttered sentiments as hos the floor of this Chamber. He deprecated it with all his heart, and declared, over and over again, that his vote should not be wanting to abolish it. That face, I see, darkly frowns upon the Senator himself for the atrocious sentiments which he is uttering. wish to say that there is a perfect understanding, a secret understanding, between these men. How did the Senator who has just addressed us, [Mr. GILLETTE,] who has all the urbanity of a gentle-tile to slavery as any I have uttered this night on man-and I hope I shall deport myself to him as such-happen to allude to the remark contained in the address of the Senator from Ohio [Mr. WADE] about the booming cannon and its lurid flames, unless he knew precisely what that Senator was going to say? There is no mistake about it. Just own like gentlemen that you knew all about it. [Laughter.] Here, (pointing to Mr. GILLLTTE,) how did you know that the Senator from Ohio was going to say that, unless you con. ferred with him about it, and how did you happen to have an allusion to it in your speech written out, covering about fifty pages of manuscript? Mr. PETTIT. If the Senator from Tennessee will allow me, I should like to have him press this further question, whether it was not one of those gentlemen who had the subject referred to the Committee on the Judiciary for consideration. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. I will ask that question. I did not know anything about it before, but I put the question whether any one of them did that? Answer the question, gentlemen; come out like men, and answer it. [Laughter.] I put the question whether any of you did have this question referred to the Committee on the Judiclary, or not? Mr. PETTIT. Silence gives consent. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. I am afraid there is a little cheating here. [Laughter.] Both the Senators from Ohio said that this subject had been precipitated upon them, but yet, we are now led to believe that one of them did have it referred to the Committee on the Judiciary; that they did know the bill was to be reported, because here is an elaborate speech, requiring a week to write it out, (I think it would have required a week for me to write it out,) in which he refers to remarks that were made by another Senator who preceded him. You are not playing fair; there is no mistake about it; you are dodging this question. [Laughter.] But, sir, I wish to say a word on another point, which is more important. I do not mean to answer, I do not suppose I could answer, the essay of the gentleman from Connecticut; but there are one or two points in it to which I wish to advert. He has read to us extract after extract from foreign journals, foreign reviewers, and foreign witnesses, all for what? To throw dishonor and discredit upon his own country. He has read to us abuse, lower, meaner, more servile, falser than the low miserable abuse of Mrs. Trollope herself. Mr. GILLETTE. Will the gentleman allow me to say a word? Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. Certainly. Mr. GILLETTE. I stated distinctly that my object was to show the position which we occupied in the estimation of foreign nations, while I deeply regretted the fact that there was occasion for any such opinions abroad. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. Mr. President, God forbid that I should ever reach that point when sectional prejudice or influence will induce me to throw dishonor on my country! The Senator has reviled not only the slaveholders, but the slaves themselves; but, sir, if even the separation were to take place between me and my slaves, and my rights and my paternity were to be sacrificed, if to maintain them were at the expense of the pride, the character, and the honor of this country, God forbid that I should ever avail myself of it. If in assailing the fanaticism of the North, which I think worse than the treachery of Judas, I am driven to assail my own country, I will submit to that treachery. When the time comes that I shall so far forget my duty to my country as to revile her, I ask God to paralyze the tongue that does so. Sir, (addressing Mr. GILLETTE,) look upon that picture, (pointing to the portrait of Washington, which is suspended above the President's chair,) I fear you dare not look up to it; but when the time comes that I shall forget the presence of the Father of his Country, and revile that country for the purpose of ministering to the low, the mean, the sordid passions and prejudices of fanaticism, may the God who made me sacrifice me on an altar purer and better than that. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. Ah! Mr. President, if the dead could rise, if that mighty form which is represented there could stand up here erect, in all its majesty, and he who was the master of hundreds of slaves, he who gave his whole life and services to his country, could stand here and hear his name invoked to vindicate the foulest treachery against the Constitution of his country, we should Mr. COOPER. I call the Senator from Tennessee to order. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania will state his point of order. Mr. COOPER. The language which the Senator from Tennessee uses is not in order. The PRESIDING OFFICER. What is the point of order? Mr. COOPER. That he is addressing himself to another Senator, denouncing him as a traitor. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. Not at all. Mr. COOPER. You were denouncing his conduct as treacherous. Mr. ADAMS. I insist that the Senator from Pennsylvania shall address the Chair and not the Senator from Tennessee. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee will proceed. SENATE. But I do not mean to answer the speech. I would not lower myself so much as to do so. I listened to the Senator as patiently and as respectfully as I could, considering the circumstances, and I found that one half hour of his speech was devoted to prove the wrongs and injustice perpetrated by the white man upon the black man. He even quoted higher than any earthly authority to prove the gross injustice and iniquity of the servitude of which he spoke. Half an hour of his speech was devoted to prove equality between the black and the white man. Now, I ask that Senator if he is sincere in his declaration that the black man is entitled to equality with the white man, socially or politically?" I put that question to the Senator. Mr. GILLETTE. Mr. President, the Senator from Tennessee, unintentionally, I trust, quotes but a part of my language, and thus misrepresents me entirely. I endeavored to show the reason why the black man is not equal to the white man in this country to be, because the whole legislation of this Government, and of many of the States, has been wielded to crush him. 1 did say that, under the Constitution of the United States, all men are equal in natural rights, and have the same title to the enjoyment of those rights. That was my language, and not as the Senator quotes me as saying that all men in this country are equal. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. I did not say that; but I mean that this issue shall be met fairly. I put the question now to the Senator. Does he believe that a black man is entitled to an equality of rights, socially and politically, with the white man? That is a plain issue. I put the question directly to the honorable Senator, and respectfully; do you believe that the black man is entitled to an equality of rights with the white man, either socially or politically? Mr. WILSON. 'Mr. President Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. I do not yield the floor to the Senator from Massachusetts. I am speaking to the Senator from Connecticut. I will take you one at a time. Mr. GILLETTE. I thought that, I before Senator could understand me. I do believe, and I have the highest authority for the belief, that all men are equal in natural rights, that they have the same right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, irrespective of color, or of any other physical peculiarity. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. I understand I am in order. I do not mean to be disrespectful, but I will never stand in my place in this Chamber and hear the name of the Father of his Country invoked in support of a tirade of denunciations against the institutions of that country for whose benefit he gave his whole life and his whole services. Make all the questions of order on me you please; I will never submit to it. But, sir, I did not mean to say that much. I sat here and list-expressed myself in such a manner, that every ened, I think, with Christian forbearance, to a tissue of the strangest misconception-if that term will suit gentlemen, but if I were to express myself plainly I should say misrepresentationsphantasies of the imagination, chimeras of the brain. He has told us of a woman hawked through the streets with a rope around her body. Nobody saw it done; there was no witness to testify to it. It may have been so. I do not know the facts, but I submit to the Senator whether that is the sort of argument which dignified and honorable Senators ought to use here. The honorable Senator stated in his address that this question had been precipitated upon him, and yet in that very address he quoted remarks made by the Senators who preceded him. The Senator from Connecticut must suppose that gentlemen of the South are utterly abandoned to all ideas of self-respect. Does he think they can sit here, quietly and submit to hear such statements as are contained in a publication which he read from one of his foreign witnesses, to the effect that it was not unusual to see men separated from their wives, and children from their parents, and that under the operation of the slave trade between the States, even they were selling their own children in the market. Those are his words. I call upon that Senator to tell me, to tell the Senate, to tell the world where he ever knew a Southern man to put his own children in the market. Yet, sir, if we sit here and, after hearing charges of this kind preferred against us, open our mouths, we are said to be agitators, or are called to order. A fouler calumny against the South was never perpetrated. Name your man, wherever he lives, wherever he be; if there be such a man, and I will join you in the bitterest execrations and denunciations of such a wretch as you may feel it in your own heart to bestow on him. Yet, sir, you stand upon the floor of the American Senate and read charges of that sort against Southern men! Where is the man who will stand up and prove any such charge? I can take the whole speech and prove that more than half of it is as ridiculous and as false as that. Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. That is not answering the question. Natural rights are one thing, and social and political rights are a wholly different thing. It is a natural right to breathe the air of the atmosphere, to drink water, to eat food. Every animal upon God Almighty's earth, the horse, the mule, the ass, all are entitled to those benefits. My question was not in relation to them. My question is this: While these gentlemen are waging a war against the institutions of the South, and contending for the equality of the rights of the black man with the white man; while they are inveighing against the cruelties which they say we perpetrate on our negroes; while they are maintaining all this philanthropy, I put a naked, an isolated, an abstract question: Do you believe in the equality of the two races? But, sir, I will vary the question, and put it in this form-are you willing that the black man. shall participate equally with the white man, in all the social and political benefits of this country? Mr. GILLETTE. Mr. President, I certainly am willing, yea, desirous, that all men, irrespective of color, should have the same rights and the enjoyment of the same privileges to work out the great problem of their existence; and to "participate equally" in that social equality to which the gentleman alludes. I do not know, however, by what right it is he questions me on a topic that I never brought into consideration in the remarks which I made. I do not see why he should take occasion thus to travel out of the record, and call me to my feet for that purpose. If I hadrought the matter of social rights into consideration, there would have been some apology for the interrogatory which has been put to me. But I will answer the Senator on that point, by saying again, that I think "all men are entitled by their Creator to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and 33D CONG....2D SESS. have the same right to all the privileges, immunities, and benefits of society, in every department, that I have, or that the honorable Senator himself has. Is that satisfactory? Mr. JONES, of Tenneseee. It is not satisfactory, and certainly cannot be to any Senator here. Sir, I like frankness; and I think, if you would allow the Senator from Ohio [Mr. WADE] to come up here and sit by me, he would answer better than that. I think he has nerve to say just what he pleases, and to do what he pleases, though he dares to do a great many things that are wrong. [Laughter.] These gentlemen will not answer the question I put to them, because they are afraid of it. It only unveils their duplicity and hypocrisy when they attempt to answer it, because, the very moment they say the black man is on an equal footing with the white man, they strike a fatal blow at the prejudices of their own part of the country. Let me ask those Senators how they would be willing, how would the Senator from New York be willing to sit side by side with a colored man as his coequal in the Senate of the United States? How would you like to see a colored man sitting upon the Supreme bench of the United States to advocate the rights and to vindicate the honor of this country? How would you like to see them in your Legislatures? How would you like to dare go to that desk and vote to confirm the nomination of a colored man to a foreign court, as the Representative of this Government? Not one of you is so lost to self-respect as to be willing to do that; and yet you stand here uttering your lamentations against the wrongs of the black man, and talk about his rights, and also his equality. Execution of United States Laws-Debate. Mr. PETTIT. Mr. President, I was a member of the committee who reported this bill; I took the responsibility of assisting to order its report; I am, therefore, in favor of the bill. I did not, however, believe it was politic-not to say policy -to bring up the bill for discussion at so late a period of the session. I supposed that it would involve the whole cycle of the discussion in reference to the negro, and negro slavery; and especially the entire review of the Nebraska question, or the Nebraska debate of last year. I do not believe that any good will come from a continuation of its discussion, and if I can have the promise of the Senate that they will now take a vote and end it, I will say no more; or if I can have the promise of the Senate that they will now lay it upon the table for this session, I will agree to say no more. Mr. RUSK. I believe every friend of the bill will promise to vote upon it immediately. Mr. PETTIT. Can I get the enemies of the bill to say that? Mr. RUSK. I am not responsible for them. Mr. PETTIT. Then I cannot take the gentleman's promise. Mr. MASON. Will the Senator indulge me in one word? Mr. PETTIT. Certainly. Mr. MASON. The whole Senate cannot but see that those who are in favor of the bill have, by participating in the discussion, given a character to the opposition which it does not deserve, and that they ought to say nothing more. I would, therefore, respectfully suggest that if those Senators who choose to oppose the bill protract the discussion, let them be permitted to do it without reply. || Mr. PETTIT. That would have been a good suggestion to have been made two or three hours ago. 1 proposed the same thing. I insist that a or four speeches-that a Senator who had not participated in bringing it in should not insist on being heard three or four times. So far as that is concerned, it would have been good policy to have pursued then; and the Senator from Virginia might well have suggested it hours ago; but he saw fit not to make the suggestion to anybody but myself; therefore I cannot take his advice. Mr. MASON. I hope the Senator will not suppose that I made the suggestion with any desire to interfere at all with him in pursuing the discussion. Certainly that was not my intention. I only made it because he himself suggested that he desired the debate should end. But, sir, that is only one side of the question. How would you like to bring them into the social relations of life? How would you like to invite a black man to your table-to the social table, sur-Senator in favor of the bill should not make three rounded by gentlemen? How would you like to be found walking Pennsylvania avenue with a colored woman upon your arm? God forbid that I should be indelicate; but how would you like to see the daughter of one of your neighbors married to a colored man? How would you like to see your son take to his bosom a colored woman? Now, gentlemen, if you do not mean what you say, why do you not say what you mean? If you do not mean that the negro is equal to the white man, why consume the time of the United States, and the time of the Senate, in your lamentation over the wrongs of the colored man, when you deny an equality in all the relations of life? You scorn to associate with him. You scorn to make him your equal. You scorn, as you would the leprosy, a social contact with him. And yet here you are continually, from day to day, urging this question forward on the great principle that they are entitled to as many benefits as we are. When the Abolition party become honest on that subject, and practice what they preach, I shall have some respect for them; but as long as they preach one thing and practice another I am constrained to question their sincerity and their frankness. I have done with this question, sir; I did not mean to say this much. Mr. CHASE. I think it is now pretty evident that I was right when I first objected to the introduction of this bill to-day. We have consumed a great deal of time on it which might have been appropriated to other business. It is now getting late in the evening, and I move that the Senate adjourn. Mr. SUMNER called for the yeas and nays, and they were ordered; and being taken, resulted -yeas 7, nays 30; as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Brainerd, Chase, Fessenden, Gillette, Seward, Sumner, and Wade-7. NAYS-Messrs. Adams, Badger, Bayard, Bell, Bright, Brown, Butler, Clay, Dawson, Dadge of Wisconsin, Douglas. Evans, Fitzpatrick, Geyer, Hunter, James, Jones of Iowa, Jones of Tennessee, Mallory, Mason, Morton, Pearce, Pettit, Rusk, Sebastian, Shields, Slidell, Thomson of New Jersey, Toucey, Weller, and Wright-30. So the Senate refused to adjourn. Mr. FETTIT. If the honorable Senator from Massachusetts, who has been recently elected, [Mr. WILSON,] desires the floor, as I understand from a friend that he does, I will yield it cheerfully to him. Mr. WILSON. The Senator from Indiana may go on. Mr. PETTIT. That I would be very glad to do, but I know that another Abolition speech or two is to be made, and that will provoke three or four of our friends. Those who have already spoken three or four times will not be the last to take the floor. I cannot be mistaken in this; I am too conversant with the practice here to be mistaken in regard to it. I propose, sir, then, to detain the Senate for a short time on this subject, and first upon the bill itself. Why this whole range of debate has been brought about, no man can tell, but to gratify a morbid and preconceived determination to redebate the whole question of negro slavery, the equality of the races, and every question that can, by any possibility, be appropriated by you to hang discussion upon. The bill simply proposes to provide that those charged with violating the United States laws shall be tried by the courts of the United States. That would seem to be, in itself, a simple proposition, and one that it is the right of every citizen to demand, and the duty of every Government-not only ours, but every other-to provide. England might as well impose duties and denounce penalties, and leave France or Germany to provide courts to enforce those penalties. The State of Ohio might as well denounce penalties and impose duties and obligations upon her citizens, and leave the municipality of Cincinnati or Cleveland to provide courts to inflict penalties for the non-performance of the duties so enjoined. You might as well say that you will organize a Government, with power to impose duties and obligations, and to denounce penalties for their non-performance, but that you will provide no judiciary, no judex, no power to inflict those penalties or enforce those obligations at all. SENATE. This is all that need be said in reference to the propriety of the bill itself. You impose duties upon your marshals, your district attorneys, and your judges; you denounce penalties for the violation of your laws, yet you provide no court in which you can enforce those penalties, or in which those against whom you denounce them can show their innocence or non-liability to your law. No greater solecism could exist in Government, than the idea of leaving to foreign tribunals and foreign jurisprudence the enforcement of the law and the trial of those who make opposition to it. You have compelled, by law, your citizens to perform duties; you have imposed upon them penalties for their non-performance, but you have not provided a court of your own, in which they may be heard and the penalties enforced, or themselves be screened from the penalties. I repeat that this is all the argument that can be legitimately urged upon this bill. There is not another. You owe it to your citizens, they have a right to demand it at your hands; that wherever you impose an obligation, wherever you inflict a penalty, you shall provide a court in which such contest may be decided. But this debate has taken a wide range. I am not disposed to follow the Senator from Connecticut [Mr. GILLETTE] in all his mazy dance upon the subject of negro slavery, and of beating women and children with ropes, or otherwise. To no man could such a scene be more disgusting than to myself. But there are other questions which have been brought to our consideration in this discussion. A question arose between the Senator from Ohio [Mr. WADE] and the Senator from Illinois, [Mr. DouUGLAS,] in reference to the elements that were brought into the recent elections, not only in the West, but in the North, in the free States. I take great pleasure in saying, so far as my judgment and observation are concerned, that I fully indorse what the Senator from Illinois said in reference to the arguments, the policy, and the views of the Nebraska men, as they were called. The grounds that they assumed were none other than the right of the people, under our form of Government, to establish in the Territories, as well as in the States, their own domestic institutions. Further, sir, I join with that Senator in saying, that so far as my judgment and my conviction go, the question of Nebraska had nothing to do with the result of the election in Indiana. I now aver, and I believe solemnly as I believe that I exist, that it gave us strength in Indiana-that we got more national Whigs with us in the contest there upon that question, than we lost Democrats upon it; but that the real ground of defeat in Indiana-it is said, and it was supposed to be a defeat-was Know-Nothingism, a secret political organization for persecuting purposes. Here, Mr. President, allow me to add, further, for my own justification, for I saw in a paper from Indiana to-day, resolutions that had an existence, I presume, as they are in a Democratic paper alleged to have been the handiwork of my colleague and my friend from Indiana, as being the expression of his views which they said they had taken from a New York paper. It is commended as an expression, by at least one of their Senators, of his views upon Know-Nothingism. I know that no one would be more ready than he to bear me testimony that I as cordially would indorse those resolutions, and go as far against such a political organization as my colleague; but I will not dilate upon it, nor upon its effects. Any policy of a political secret organization which seeks to elevate a man or strike down a man, has now and shall forever have my utter hatred and contempt. Added to that was the excitement in reference to what is called the Maine liquor law, a law to prohibit either the manufacture or sale of spiritous liquors. Those questions were the ones which carried the election in our State. That the people of Indiana are to-day largely in favor of leaving to all other people the rights they claim for themselves, I entertain not a doubt. Mr. President, another remark has been made which struck me as singular, and in regard to it I will trespass upon the attention of the Senate for a moment. I confess that whether in their closets I differ from my friends or not, in their public debates I do, and with none more than my friend from Virginia, [Mr. Mason,] upon the subject of 33D CONG....2D SESS. APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE. State sovereignty. I heard long years ago a Virginia Representative in the other House complain that a sovereign State, and that old Virginia too, was not allowed more than five minutes to express her views. I hear to-day the Senator from Ohio proclaim the sovereignty-the absolute, unconditional sovereignty of Ohio. I heard him proclaim that he was in favor of the resolutions of 1798, which I suppose from the view he is now taking, insist that all the States of this Union are absolute, unconditional, unrestricted, unlimited sovereignties. Sir, I totally and wholly dissent from that. We are for certain purposes a consolidated Union; for other purposes there are reserved sovereignties and rights. Execution of United States Laws-Debate. this, I say I am as much of a State-rights man as have not got it now. Yet, sir, having said all can be found. I will take the charter, and see authority, and where you have reserved it; and where you have yielded to this Government the reservation is made, but I will not stultify myself, to the utmost farthing will I claim it where the States are sovereign arbiters short of a resort to or render myself ridiculous, by saying that the arms. Arms alone constitute them the sovereign Porte, any Black Hawk, or any other chieftain arbiters. The Autocrat of Russia, the Sublime that may exist, if he has the power, is the sov. ereign arbiter of all matters. Sovereignty for all Allow me to suppose a thing that could possibly the main purposes of a nation is in the Union, and never exist; that I should be in possession myself, exercise the power. Here you have to exercise not in the separate States. Here you have got to as a prince, as a stadtholder of all the political the influence that will bind you together. Sovpowers of Virginia. Suppose, in my sovereignereign are the States in everything, it is said, and right, I should proclaim to the world that the soVereign prince of Virginia proclaimed or decreed so yet here we have the power to fix the time, places, and so, and a quizzical man should come to me and the manner of the election of members of the and say: "You claim to be sovereign; you have other House, and to fix the time and manner of all the rights vested in you that Virginia has the election of the members of this body; yet your now." I reply, "Yes, certainly; I am a soveStates are sovereign! Sir, no greater absurdity reign prince. "Well, when are you going to could possibly be uttered. Here is the error that declare war? A nation has offered you an indig- power that it actually possesses under the Constigives us trouble. Yield to this Government the nity, or insulted you." "" "When am I going to declare war! I cannot declare war at all." tution, and you will have no trouble in the settle"What! and you a sovereign! Is not that one ment and understanding of this question; but if of the attributes of sovereignty?" we say that all power is in the States, then, as a not declare war at any rate?" If at war, he might Connecticut, [Mr. GILLETTE,] and the Senator Well; I can- matter of course, you will find the Senator from say to me: "When are you going to make from Ohio, [Mr. WADE,] insisting that the sovpeace?" "I can never make peace. are you going to raise an army?" "When ereign arbitrament is in the States; that they can raise an army. "I can never "When are you going to raise constitute courts, and can suppress, and annihia navy?" "I can never raise a navy. late, and overrule the decisions of the national "When are you going to do the pitiful business of carrycourts. They are sovereign only in things reserved ing the mail?" "Oh, never; I have no such things that are delegated to it. to them, and this Government is sovereign in power at all." "When are you going to determine in your courts of law all the rights of the citizens arising under foreign treaties, foreign contracts, foreign alliances?" "Oh, never, never; I have no such power." "Well, are you not a pretty sovereign prince!" (Laughter.] Sir, it is the greatest and the grossest fallacy that ever existed. There is no such thing; no, I will not say there is no such thing, for there is a Sovereignty in a most limited, shadowy, flickering, remaining form in the States, and none other. I always prefer, Mr. President, that we should have the truth, whether it is wholesome or unwholesome. What are the attributes of sovereignty in a nation? The greatest and most glaring is that of levying taxes in the first place, in all their forms, directly and indirectly. Because you have a right in the different States to levy taxes directly upon the people do you say you have a sovereignty? Where is the right that pertains to every sovereign to levy foreign taxes, or taxes upon foreign importation? Sir, it does not exist in the States; you have no such power; you have surrendered it and yielded it up to another Govern ment. Where, I ask you, is that next highest attribute of sovereignty, to declare war, and compel your citizens to bare their breasts to the bayonet or the bullet of the enemy, and lend their lives to be sacrificed for the good of the whole. You have no such sovereignty; it does not exist; you have surrendered it here. So with a dozen other instances which I might refer to. Where are your emblems of sovereignty? Where is your national flag of the State? Where is the sovereignty of the seas that belongs to you? You have surrendered it here; yet you say you are a sovereign! You have a right to punish a man if he stabs another, if he steals his money, or if he knocks him down with his fist or a cudgel, or if he blackens his eye; you have a right to punish him, and that is about the extent of your sovereignty. Show me the emblems of your sovereignty, and the right to exercise them, and then 1 will admit it, and not before. It does not exist, Mr. President. Then all the essentials of sovereignty for national purposes are delegated here, and exist here, and nowhere else. Talk, then, to me no more of it. You might as well say that your city corporations are sovereign because they can compel the construction of a jail, or because they can enforce local penalties, as to say that the States are sovereign. They were sovereign, I know, but they yielded and surrendered that sovereignty, and they Government? Is it not delegated to this Gov- Mr. President, this debate has taken a wide First, allow me to say that the people of a State I conclude, I shall enunciate some unpleasant and 235 SENATE. ing, noon, and night, that "God out of his mere good pleasure from all eternity elected some to everlasting life, and others to everlasting damnation; and all for the glory of God.' you a discourse upon theology, but I take great and that it applies as well to nations and races of This I believe, men as to individuals. I am not going to deliver pleasure in saying that these precepts were early instilled, and the twig being so bent in early life, the tree continues so inclined. I as firmly believe as I do that I exist, that so far as the disposition of races is apparent, nature designed that certain races of men should come upon earth, and that for a time they should inhabit it; that upon this quarter such an one should exist, and upon that another, and that they might either be improved another, it is as impossible, as I have said it would to some extent, or supplanted by a better race; but that if you attempt to make one race out of be to change the meanest of animals into the noblest. things. The decrees of nature are beyond my Mr. President, I have no lamentation over these control. I lament not the disappearance of the red man who formerly trod the very ground on which we now are. It is the order of nature that he should give way before us. have no such disposition. If I should see in God's It is the order of nature that we should occupy it still. No, sir; I decrees, the doom of my own race written and the end of its duration fixed, I would stand up and say: "Rest, mortal rest, on God's decree, And, thankful, own his power." Let the races have their run. might I repine at the deluge that the Almighty Let them in their turn be swept from the face of the earth. As well brought upon the earth. As well, Mr. President, might I complain of Divine wisdom for having written the significant language on the walls of the palace of Belshazzar. As well might I complain though all those things be written in much plainer because a Daniel was found to interpret it; but, language than the hieroglyphics and the marks would not take, it would seem to me, a Daniel to of the shadow finger upon the wall; though they takable destiny of the races of men on the earth interpret them, we are loth to admit the unmisor in our own country. As well might I complain of the downfall of Babylon and Nineveh, of Sodom and Gomorrah. As well might I complain of the downfall of the Jews and Jerusalem. As well might I complain of the overthrow of Tyre and of Sidon. As well might I complain or mourn pened, and if we allowed ourselves to reflect upon over the obliteration, and bondage, and almost the subversion of Rome. All these things have hapthe cause, we should not be at a loss to know what has produced them. Different races of men coming in contact, sir; that was all. In some instances the attempt was made to amalgamate and unite them, which always did, and always will prove different races came into contact, and the stronger an abortive and fallacious thing. In other cases, overpowered and annihilated the other. Such, sir, is the true solution of the question. Mr. President, what destroyed Rome? That is cussed in your schools and your colleges, in Fourth a question that you have heard asked and disUnited States. A thousand answers have been of July orations, and perhaps in the Senate of the given, but has the true one ever been given, is the next question? Let me remind Senators, carrying together, in the same country and under the same classes of persons cannot live upon terms of equality out the view which I have presented, that distinct Government; that Rome, in her course of supposed collected together different races under its Governof seeming oppression-for I do not hold that that which appears to be oppressive is always 80— ment. Was it oppressive or wrong that the Jews human vision it would appear so; and by human were held in bondage four hundred years? To but God, for higher purposes, and higher designs, wisdom it would have been pronounced wrong; promised land, with more prospects and certainty ordered it so, that they might be restored to the of perpetuity. Rome had pursued a long course of conquest, both north and south. She had crossed the Mediterranean; she had extended her rica, north of the mountains of Atlas, upon which power from the Atlantic ocean to the Red sea, not to go any further, upon the whole borders of Af |