Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/419

 of the public mind is of corresponding intensity. We are told, to be sure, that there is no necessity for agitation, and that soon the public mind will be tranquil, and the country will be in a state of repose and quiet—as it was at the introduction of this measure. The honorable Senator who has just taken his seat [Mr. Douglas], the chairman of the Committee on Territories, in his lecture to the South, exhorted them to stand by the principle of this bill, with the assurance that it will be good for them, and that the country will maintain it Sir, under proper circumstances I should recognize the exhortation; but is the principle such a one as should be adopted by this body, or can it be sanctioned by the nation? Whether it is expedient and useful at this time I shall take the liberty to examine.

Mr, President, I can not believe that the agitation created by this measure will be confined to the Senate Chamber, I can not believe, from what we have witnessed here to-night, that this will be the exclusive arena for the exercise of human passions and the expression of public opinions. If the Republic be not shaken, I will thank Heaven for its kindness in maintaining its stability. To what extent is it proposed to establish the principle of non-intervention? Are you extending it to a domain inhabited by citizens, or to a barren prairie, a wilderness, or even to forty thousand wild Indians? Is this the diffusive excellence of non-intervention? I, sir, am for non-intervention upon the principles which have heretofore been recognized by this Government. Hitherto, Territories have been organized—within my recollection Alabama, Missouri, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Wisconsin, and Iowa, have been organized—and the principle now proposed was not deemed essential to their well-being; and is there any infirmity in their constitutions or their growth? Sir, has any malign influence attached to them from their simple, economical organization? It may be that the word "economy" is deemed obsolete in the present condition of our Treasury. Were it otherwise, I am simple enough to confess that the organization of two Territories—when there are not people to constitute an ordinary county in one of the populous States of this Union, and when those who do inhabit the Territories are United States soldiers, who are not entitled to vote at elections in the States or Territories—is not a procedure that can be characterized as economical. If the principle of non-intervention be correct, it is correct where the Territories have been governed by laws of Congress until they are prepared to make application for admission as States. Then they have a right to elect their delegates to convention, for the purpose of framing State constitutions, which, if accepted by Congress, invest them with all the sovereign rights of States; and then, for the first time, they have the complete power of self-government. A Territory under the tutelage of Congress can form no organic laws, either admitting or excluding slavery. A people without organic laws might alternately enact and repeal all laws, and re-enact them without limitation, as they would have no local constitution. Congress has a supervision over the action of all Territories until they become sovereign States. In the formation of State governments, I can say that they have the exclusive right to determine whether they will come into the Union with or without slavery. There, sir, is the application of the prmciple of non-intervention, and one that I have always maintained. But gentlemen speak of sovereignty—they say that the people are sovereign, and supreme. Sir, I bow with all deference to that sovereignty; but I do not