Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/40

 28 Southern Historical Society Papers.

John C. Calhoun's resolutions passed in the United States Senate January 12, 1838, are of the same tenor, but more elaborate:

^ Resolved, That domestic slavery, as it exists in the Southern and Western States of this Union, composes an important part of their domestic institutions inherited from their ancestors, and existing at the adoption of the Constitution, by which it is recognized as con- stituting an important element in the apportionment of powers among the States, and that no change of opinion or feeling on the part of the other States of the Union in relation to it can justify them or their citizens in open and systematic attacks thereon, with the view to its overthrow; and that such attacks are in manifest vio- lation of the mutual and solemn pledge to protect and defend each other given by the States respectively on entering into the consti- tutional compact which formed the Union, and as such are a mani- fest breach of faith and a violation of the most solemn obligations.

1 l Resolved, That any attempt of Congress to abolish slavery in any Territory of the United States in which it exists would create seri- ous alarm and just apprehension in the States sustaining that do- mestic institution; would be a violation of good faith towards the inhabitants of any such Territory who have been permitted to set- tle with and hold slaves therein, because the people of any such Territory have not asked for the abolition of slavery therein, be- cause when any such Territory shall be admitted into the Union as a State, the people thereof will be entitled to decide that question exclusively for themselves."

Passed the Senate yeas 35, nays 9 Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island voting in the negative.

CALHOUN'S BILL OF WRONGS.

Mr. Calhoun, in his speech in the Senate, March 4, 1850, sets forth the long course of injustice perpetrated by the North on the South in their attempt to abridge the constitutional rights of the South in regard to slavery, and shows hov; the citizens of the South were excluded from far the larger portion of the territory controlled by the United States, and how the industry of the South was sapped by the protective tariff for the benefit of the North.

Mr. Calhoun says: "What was once a constitutional Federal Re- public is now converted into one in reality as absolute as that of