Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/605

 Taylor, as incapable of saving the Union. He would pasa by the former without remark, as Mr. Clay had been replied to by several senators. The executive plan could not save the Union, because it could not satisfy the smith that it could safely or honorably remain in the Union. It was a modification <>f the Wilmot proviso, proposing to effect the same object, the exclusion of the south from the. new territory. The executive proviso was more objectionable than the Wilmot. Both inflicted a dangerous wound upon the constitution, by depriving the southern states of equal rights, as joint partners, in these territories; but the [sic]formerinflicted others equally great. It claimed for the inhabitants the right to legislate for the territories, which belonged to congress. The assumption of this right was utterly unfounded, unconstitutional, and without example. Under this assumed right, the people of California had formed a constitution and a state government, and appointed senators and representatives. If the people as adventurers had conquered the territory and established their independence, the sovereignty of the country would have been vested in them. In that case, they would have had the right to form a state government; and afterward they might have applied to congress for admission into the Union. But the United States had conquered and acquired California; therefore, to them belonged the sovereignty, and the powers of government over the territory. Michigan was the first case of departure from the uniform rule of acting. Hers, however, was a slight departure from established usage. The ordinance of 1187 secured to her the right of becoming a state when she should have 60,000 inhabitants. Congress delayed taking the census. The people became impatient; and after her population had increased to twice that number, they formed a constitution without waiting for the taking of the census; and congress waived the omission, as there was no doubt of the requisite number of inhabitants. In other cases there had existed territorial governments.

Having shown how the Union could not be saved, he then proceeded to answer the question how it could be saved. There was but one way certain. Justice must be done to the south, by a full and final settlement of all the questions at issue. The north must concede to the south an equal right to the acquired territory, and fulfill the stipulations respecting fugitive slaves; must cease to agitate the slave question, and join in an amendment of the constitution, restoring to the south the power she possessed of protecting herself, before the equilibrium between the two sections had been destroyed by the action of the government."

Mr. Webster, on the 7th of March, spoke at length on the resolutions of Mr. Clay, and in reply to Mr. Calhoun. In the course of his history of the slave question in this country, he remarked, "that a change had taken place since the adoption of the constitution. Both sections then held slavery to be equally an evil, moral and political. It was inhuman and cruel; it weakened the social fabric, and rendered labor less productive. The eminent men of the south then held it to be an evil, a blight, a scourge, and a curse. The framers of the constitution, in considering how to deal with it, concluded that it could