4 House of Representatives proposes, and which the Senate disapproves, grows out of the conflict of opinion which divides the Senate unequally, which divides the House of Representatives itself nearly equally, and which, if the prohibition itself expresses the opinion of a majority of that House, separates it from the Senate, and from the President of the United States. It is manifestly a conflict which divides the country by a parallel of latitude. In this conflict, one party maintains, as I do, that the legislation, and the Territorial Legislature itself, of Kansas, are absolutely void. The other party, on the contrary, insists that the legislation and Legislature of the Territory of Kansas are.valid, and must remain so until they shall be constitutionally superseded or abrogated. The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Hunter] argues that the act of the House of Representatives, in inserting the prohibition in this bill, is revolutionary, and that persistence in it would effect a change of the Constitution of the Government. I refrain from arguing that question elaborately now, because, while I am satisfied, from my knowledge of the temper and habit of the Senate, that it is likely enough to adhere to the course which it has indicated, I am at the same time by no means so certain that the House of Representatives will not ultimately recede from the ground which, by the act of a bare majority, at all times unreliable during the present session, it has assumed. I speak with the utmost respect towards the House of Representatives,.and with entire confidence in the patriotic motives of all its members; but, I must confess that, in all questions concerning Freedom and Slavery in the United States, I have seen Houses of Representatives, when brought into conflict with the Senate of the United States, recede too often and retreat too far to allow me to assume that in this case the present House of Representatives will maintain the high position it has assumed with firmness and perseverance to the end. I saw a House of Representatives, in 1850, which was delegated and practically pledged to prohibit the extension of Slavery within the unorganized Territories of the United States, then newly acquired from Mexico, refuse to perform that great duty, and enter into a compromise, which, however intended, practically led to the abandonment of all those Territories to universal desecration by Slavery. I saw a House of Representatives, in 1854, forget the sacred reverence for Freedom of those by whom it was constituted, and abrogate the time-honored law under which the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska had until that time remained safe, amid the wreck which followed the unfortunate compromise of 18.50, and thus prepare the way for that invasion by Slavery of all that yet remained for the sway of Freedom in the ancient domain of Louisiana, which has since taken place in Kansas. Sir, ever since I adopted for myself the policy of opposing the spread of Slavery in the train of our national banner, consecrated to equal and universal Freedom, my hopes have been fixed, not on existing Presidents, Senates, or Houses of Representatives, but on future Presidents and future Congresses—and my hopes and faith grow stronger and stronger, as each succeeding President, Senate, and House of Representatives, fails to adopt and establish that policy, so eminently constitutional and conservative. My hopes and my faith thus grow on disappointment, because I see that by degrees, which are marked, although the progress seems slow, my countrymen, who alone create Presidents and Congresses, are coming to apprehend the wisdom and justice of that beneficent policy, and to accept it. The shortcomings of the present House of Representatives do not discourage me. I do not even hold that body responsible. I know how, in the very midst of the canvass in which its members were elected, the public mind was misled, and diverted to the discussion of false and fraudulent issues concerning the principles and policy of the Church of Rome, and the temper, disposition, and conduct, of aliens incorporated into the Republic. But although I hold the present House of Representatives excusable, I must, nevertheless, in assigning its true character, be allowed to say of it, that it is like the moon, which presents a broad surface, all smooth and luminous when seen at a distance, but covered with rough and dark mountains when brought near to the eye by the telescope. I shall vote, therefore, on this occasion, with the House of Representatives, against a majority of the Senate, careless whether that House itself shall, like other Houses of Representatives which have gone before it, renounce and repudiate its own decision which I thus sustain, and complaisantly range itself with the Senate and the President of the United States, against myself and those Senators who shall have gone with me to its support. Mr. President, the subject under consideration is legitimately within the jurisdiction of Congress, and consequently within the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives. There must be authority somewhere to decide whether the Territorial Legislature of Kansas is a legal and constitutional body, and whether its statutes are
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