12 the President of the United States, are not of such a character as to reconcile me to that revolution. That end is the establishment of human slavery within the Territory of Kansas. If I should go with you and the majority of the Senate in emasculating this army bill, as it came from the House of Representatives, I should thereby show that I was at least indifferent on so great an issue. Sir, I could never forgive myself hereafter, when reviewing the course of my public life, if I had assented to inflict upon even the present settlers of Kansas, few and poor, and scattered through its forests and prairies, as they are, what I deem the mischiefs and evils of a system of compulsory labor, excluding, as we know by experience that it always does, the intelligent labor of free men. But it is not merely on to-day and on this generation that I am looking. I cannot restrain my eyes from the effort, at least, to penetrate through a period of twenty-five years—of fifty years—of a hundred years—of even two hundred years—so far, at least, as a statesman’s vision ought to reach beyond the horizon that screens the future from common observation. All along and through that dimly-explored vista, I see rising up before me hundreds of thousands, millions, even tens of millions, of countrymen, receiving their fortunes and fates, as they are being shaped by the action of the Congress of the United States, in- this hour of languor, at the close of a weary day, near the end of a protracted and tedious session. I shall not, indeed, meet them here on the earth, but I shall meet them all on ihat day when I shall give up the final account of that stewardship which my country has confided to me. If I were now to consent to such an act, with my opinions and convictions, the fruit of early patriotic and Christian teachings, matured by reading of history; by observation in States where Freedom flourishes, as well as in societies where Slavery is tolerated; by experience throughout a life which already approaches the climacteric; by travel in my own and foreign lands; by reflection under the discipline of conscience and the responsibilities of duty; by social converse; and by a thousand collisions of debate—I should be obliged, when that last day shall come to me, (as it must come to all,) to call upon the rocks and the mountains to fall upon me, and crush me and my name, detested then by myself, into that endless oblivion which is the most unwelcome of all evils, real or imaginary, to the thoughts of a generous and illuminated human mind. Policy forbids me to do it. Justice forbids me to do it. Humanity forbids me to do it. And t Constitution of my country—wisest of all Co stitutions—most equal of all Constitutions—me humane of all Constitutions which the inventi genius of man has ever framed—forbids me do it. I Have arrived now, Mr. President, at anoth question much debated here, namely, whether t inhibition which is contained in the bill as came from the House of Representatives, and which the Senate objects, is germane to the bill that inhibition really has the importance wi which I have invested it, then the question wheth it is germane or not is worthless and trivial. Sir, in an act of such high necessity as the r sistance and suppression of revolution subversi of civil government and public liberty, questio of parliamentary form sink into insignificant But the question is germane. It is a normal pr vision, of a character identical with the bill itse The bill proposes an appropriation to defray tl expenses of the army of the United States for 01 year, and necessarily contemplates the charact and nature of the service in which the army is be employed. It is framed with such foresight i the House of Representatives can exercise of tl places where the army shall be employed, wheth' in the States or in the Territories, or in foreig campaigns, and of the nature and character of i employments—whether training in camp, built ing fortifications, suppressing Indian insurret tions, repelling invasions, or carrying the baun< of our stars and stripes in conquest over an em my’s battalions in hostile countries. It is cor fessed that Congress, and not the President < the United States, has power to direct the dest nation and employment of the army in all the' respects. And, now, what does the provision propose Simply this: that while it leaves the discret-io of the President free exercise to employ the arm where he shall think fit, in maintaining Feders laws, and, consistently with existing statutes, th laws .of every State in the Union, and of ever Territory in the Union, he shall not do this on thing—employ that army in executing the pre tended and obnoxious statutes of the usurpatio in Kansas. On the point whether this inhibitio is germane to the bill, you, Senators, think tha you are making an issue with the House of Rep resentatives, on which, when you go down befor the people, the Senate will stand and the Hous will fall. I know well the conservative powe that is lodged in twelve millions of dollars, Span ish milled dollars ; but I know also the virtue, th'
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