14 tunity which presented itself has been seized to revive it with still greater virulence. . Mr. President, I do not propose to go further on this subject. It has been so often discussed that it would be an unnecessary waste of the time of the Senate for me to attempt to discuss it again; but this agitation seems to have arisen out of the question of slavery; and on that I have something to say, though but very little. Sir, the South—the slave States’—are not propagandists; they are content with their institutions as tliey are; they are content with that form of civilization which exists amongst them; they desire not to extend it to New. England or to any other portion of the United States, who do not choose to receive it. But, sir, whilst they are willing to do this, there is nothing in their nature, and there is nothing in their institutions, which inclines them to submit tamely to any aggressions on their rights. If slavery be a sin, it is ours, and we are willing to bear it. Neither New England nor, any other section of the country comes in for any participation of it. If, as has been said, it is an incubus on the advance of civilization—if it is an incubus on the energies of any people—that incubus rests on our people, and does not paralyze any other section. If we are willing to bear it, why should others desire to relieve us of that of which we do not complain? But it is said, “ You are not content to keep your institutions in your own section, but you desire to extend them to Kansas.” Well, sir, if we desire to extend them to Kansas, have we not a right to do so ? Does not Kansas belong in part to the Louisiana purchase? Did we not pay equally—I do not say we paid more—but we faid our full share of the price of that country, f gentlemen wish to know why we particularly desire to have Kansas, I can tell them. If the slavery agitation had ceased, and if, after the Missouri compromise, those who live in the free States would have been content to allow things to remain as they were, there would never have been any movement to change that understanding between the two sections of the country. But, sir, no sooner had they succeeded in placing the Missouri restriction on our settlement of that northwestern country, than both Houses of Congress were flooded with petitions to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, to abolish what was called the slave trade between the States, and, more than that, to abolish it in the fortsand garrisons and every other, place over which Congress had any jurisdiction. Did I not hear the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Wilson] say, that it was the intention of his party to abolish slavery in the Territories, in the District of Columbia, and everywhere else where they had power? If they will abolish it wherever they have the power, they will get rhe power whenever they can : The same spirit which would exercise the power will get the power whenever it can. Let any man cast his eye on jhe map of this immense domain, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, and he will see a space there, outside of the existing States, abundantly large to make States enough to give the gentlemen what they desire. Whenever you have sixty States in this Union, three rourths of them can alter the Constitution, and abolish slavery everywhere. You have thirty-one now; you want only twenty-nine. Where are they to come from ? Kansas and Nebraska can make six; New Mexico will make half as many; California may be well divided into three States; and there is no doubt of the fact, I venture to say, that within the next forty or fifty, years it will be accomplished—:that the Indians will be driven out, and those large territories, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, will be divided into States of this Union. Was it strange, then, that the South should_.be alarmed at this state of things? I did not hear it; but I have understood that, in 1850, a Senator here from one of the free States said their object was to build a wall around slavery—a Avail of freemen, to render slave property unproductive, and to force its emancipation. Mr. BUTLER. “ Cordon,” was the word. Mr. EVANS. Well, sir, Kansas, although it is but one State when added, will be good against three more. And was it strange, then, that the South should desire possession of Kansas merely as a guarantee ? There is no pretense that they can occupy any other portion of that immense region. Everybody knows that slavery will not do for a farming country merely. It is of no value in a graining country; it is of no value in the mechanic arts; it can only be used to advantage in the cultivation of the great staples. There is no pretense that any one of the great staples that constitute the great material of our foreign commerce, can be cultivated anywhere within the limits of these Territories outside of the Territory of Kansas. I ought, Mr. President, to say, in this connection, that, although I have expressed our fears as to the future, yet, with such gentlemen as I see around me from the free States, I have nothing to fear. I know that the honorable Senator from Connecticut [Mr. Foster] would do no such act of foul injustice as to interfere with slavery in the States. And if the question was to-morrow, whether the Constitution should be altered, and this great and crying wrong perpetrated, he would not do it; and I can say the same of many others whom I see here to-day; but can I forget, or can anybody forget, what is the progress of this thing? Why, sir, was not Daniel Webster refused the use of Faneuil Hall because it was supposed he had expressed some degree of toleration for the institution of slavery? What guarantee have I—what guarantee can anybody have; that, in twenty or thirty years from this time, those who are here how will not be I elbowed out as they have been in some of the i States by some more illiberal persons than them- 1 selves ? I These, Mr. President, are the reasons why we j desire Kansas; but it was not allowed. The very I instant it was opened to the slave population, tliat I instant there sprung up a contrivance—a machin- ’ ery was set in operation of which 1. do not choose t to speak—the object of which was to defeat this I act of Congress, and, as was said by the Senator [ from Massachusettss, to devote this Territory to j freedom. Well, sir, if they can devote it to free h population in the ordinary way; without the use j of this new scheme of immigration of which he ' spake—and which I suppose is that which has J been in operation—if they can get possession of J it without resort to this new scheme of immigra- lition, we cannot object; I, for one, would not il object.
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