THE ORGANIZATION OF OREGON TERRITORY AND THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
Bills for Oregon Territory--Thirty-six Degrees and Thirty Minutes to
the Pacific--Mr. Rhett on the Rights of the South in the
Territories--The Third Oregon Bill--The Party Platforms of 1848--The
President Urges the Organization of California and New Mexico--Mr.
Clayton's Attempt at Compromise--Passage of the Oregon Bill by
Congress--The Free-soil Party in 1848--The President's Approval of the
Oregon Bill--Gold and Silver in California--The Election of Taylor,
and the Disaffection of the Northern Democrats--Plans for the
Organization of California and New Mexico--The House Bill for the
Territorial Organization of Upper California--Mr. Walker's Scheme in
the House--Mr. Webster and Mr. Berrien on the Status of Slavery in the
Territory Acquired from Mexico--Emigration to California--President
Taylor's Scheme--The Convention at Monterey--The Policy of the
Administration--The Policy of the Slavery Extensionists--The Elements
of the Slavery Question in Congress--Mr. Clay's Plan of
Compromise--Objections to Mr. Clay's Plan--California's Application
for Admission--Mr. Calhoun's Last Speech--Mr. Webster's March 7th
Speech--Mr. Bell's Proposition--The Death of Mr. Calhoun--Mr. Foote's
Motion and the Committee of Thirteen--The Report and Recommendations
of the Committee--The Debate Upon the Bills Proposed by the Committee,
and the Failure to Pass Them--The Temper of the Country--The
Succession of Fillmore and His Message of August 6th--The Passage of
Bills, Separately, Covering All Questions Contained in Mr. Clay's
Compromise Measures.
[Sidenote: First bill for Oregon Territory.]
On August 6th, 1846, Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, chairman of the
committee on Territories, asked the House {341} of Representatives to
consider a bill prepared by that committee for the organization of
Oregon as a Territory. The House consented, and immediately upon the
second reading of the bill, Mr. Thompson, of Pennsylvania, a Democrat
and friend of the Administration, moved to amend the bill by the
provision "that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever
exist in said Territory, except for crimes, whereof the party shall
have been duly convicted." The amendment was adopted by a very large
majority, and the bill, as thus amended, was passed. On the following
day, the bill was presented in the Senate, and referred by that body
to its Judiciary committee, which committee did not report the bill
during the session.
[Sidenote: The second bill.]
At the beginning of the next session, Mr. Douglas introduced a new
bill for the same purpose. This bill virtually contained the Thompson
amendment in the proviso that all the restrictions in the Ordinance of
1787, in regard to the Northwest Territory, should apply to Oregon.
[Sidenote: Thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes to the Pacific.]
On January 12th, 1847, Mr. Burt, of South Carolina, moved to insert
before this proviso the words, "inasmuch as the whole of the said
Territory lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north
latitude, known as the line of the Missouri Compromise." The purpose
of this was, of course, to commit Congress and the North to that line
to the Pacific. This was so evident that the Northern members voted
the amendment down. We can, however, hardly charge the invention of
this idea to the South Carolinian. On August 8th preceding, Mr. Wick,
of Indiana, had moved to amend the Wilmot proviso, so as to make it
read, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should exist, in
any territory {342} acquired from Mexico _north of thirty-six degrees
and thirty minutes_.
[Sidenote: Mr. Rhett on the rights of the South in the Territories.]
It was during the debate on this bill, just after Mr. Burt's amendment
had been rejected, that Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, made his noted
speech, in which the new view, which the South was now beginning to
take upon the rights of the two sections in the Territories, was first
pronounced. That view was, briefly expressed, that the "States" were
joint owners of the Territories, and "co-Sovereigns" in them; that the
general Government was only the agent of the "States" therein, and had
only the power "to dispose of, and make all needful rules and
regulations respecting the territory, or other property of the United
States," from which power, the power to determine in what property
should consist within the Territories could not be derived; and that
the "ingress of the citizen" of any "State" into any Territory, "is
the ingress of his Sovereign," his "State," who is bound to protect
him in his settlement.
Mr. Rhett qualified this conclusion by saying that it did not mean
that each "State" should set up government in the Territories over its
citizens immigrating into them, but that it meant that the citizens of
each "State" should have equal right to enter the Territories and
settle and occupy them with their property, with whatever was
recognized as property by their respective "States." Stated more
clearly, it meant that the general Government must execute the laws of
each "State;" defining and protecting property, in each Territory of
the Union--of each "State" from which citizens had emigrated into the
Territory concerned--and must execute these several "State" laws over
the immigrants from the several "States" separately.
{343} In plain, blunt Anglo-Saxon, it meant that the general
Government must recognize and protect, as property, in any Territory,
anything which was so recognized and protected by any "State" of the
Union. It meant the establishment of slavery in every Territory of the
Union.
This was a new doctrine in 1847, and it could not immediately prevail,
but its appearance is a mark of the progress which the political
system of the United States was making toward confederatism and
dissolution.
[Sidenote: The failure of the bill in the Senate.]
The bill passed the House on January 16th, 1847, by a vote of nearly
four to one, and was immediately sent to the Senate. The Senate
referred it to its Judiciary committee. The committee reported on it,
and the bill was laid on the table, the last day of the session.
[Sidenote: The third Oregon bill.]
During the next session, bills were introduced into both Houses for
organizing Oregon as a Territory. On January 10th, 1848, Mr. Douglas,
who had been transferred from the House to the Senate, presented in
the Senate a bill for the organization of a Territorial government for
Oregon, which provided, among other things, that the laws which the
Oregon settlers had constructed for themselves should, in so far as
they were compatible with the Constitution and laws of the United
States, remain in force until the Territorial legislature should
change them. These laws excluded slavery. Here was the germ of
"squatter-sovereignty," afterward developed by Mr. Douglas in his
Kansas-Nebraska bill.
The House bill, containing substantially the same provision as the
bill of the preceding session, was introduced on February 9th, 1848,
but this time it met with much more opposition, and the discussion on
it revealed the fact that Mr. Rhett's doctrine had, within the year,
made many converts.
{344} [Sidenote: The President urging action on the bill.]
The bills were dragging along slowly in both Houses, when, on May
29th, the President sent a special message to Congress urging
immediate action on the subject. This gave some impetus to the
proceedings in both Houses.
[Sidenote: Mr. Hale's amendment.]
[Sidenote: Mr. Davis' amendment.]
On May 21st, Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, moved to amend the Senate
bill by a provision excluding slavery, and insisted upon the power and
the duty of Congress to settle the question of slavery in the
Territories, and to settle it in the interest of freedom. The debate
in the Senate upon Mr. Hale's motion was long and acrimonious, during
which the Southerners advanced to more and more radical ground, until
Mr. Calhoun and his disciple, Mr. Jefferson Davis, expressed the same
constitutional doctrine upon the subject of the extension of slavery
to the Territories as Mr. Rhett had done, which was, in brief, that
neither Congress nor the inhabitants of a Territory had any
constitutional power to abolish slavery in, or exclude it from, a
Territory. On June 23rd, Mr. Davis moved to amend the Oregon bill by
the provision that nothing in the bill should be so construed as to
authorize the prohibition of domestic slavery in said Territory while
it remained in the condition of a Territory. The direct contradiction
between the two amendments expressed, at last, the difference of
attitude now assumed between the North and the South upon the question
of the extension of slavery.
[Sidenote: The party platforms of 1848.]
It cannot be said, however, that it represented the difference of
attitude of the two great parties upon the subject. The National
conventions of these parties for the nominations of candidates for the
presidency had just been held. The convention of the Democratic party
had refused to insert the declaration in its platform that Congress
had no {345} power to interfere with slavery in the Territories, in
spite of the fact that the candidate nominated by it, General Cass,
had acknowledged a leaning to something akin to that view, some five
months previous, in a letter to Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, which was
probably intended for circulation in the South. The exact wording of
Mr. Cass' letter does not warrant us in representing him as holding to
anything more, at that time, than that it was sound policy for
Congress to leave the matter of the admission of slavery to, or its
exclusion from, the Territories to the people of the Territories
themselves. It was hardly time for Northern men to take the view of
Congressional impotence in the matter held by Messrs. Rhett, Calhoun,
and Davis.
On the other hand, the convention of the Whig party had refused to
make the principle of the Wilmot proviso a plank in its platform, in
fact had dodged the whole question of principles by adopting no
platform at all, and by nominating a military man, with no political
record at all, for its candidate, the old hero of Buena Vista, General
Taylor.
The contradiction of view upon the question of the extension of
slavery to the Territories was, thus, not one between the parties, but
one between the sections. The parties were yet to be transformed by
the differences between the sections. That this was to be the outcome
no far-seeing eye ought then to have failed to perceive.
[Sidenote: The President urges the organization of California and New
Mexico.]
For a fortnight more the confusion produced by the contradictory
propositions of Mr. Hale and Mr. Davis paralyzed the efforts of the
Senate to pass the Oregon bill, when, on July 6th, 1848, the President
sent a special message to Congress urging the immediate organization
of Territorial governments for California and New Mexico, {346} which
were still under the military regime established at the time of their
occupation.
[Sidenote: Mr. Clayton's attempt at compromise.]
It appeared to some of the Senators that here was now offered the
opportunity for settling the whole question of the extension of
slavery to the Territories, by compromise; and, on July 12th, Mr.
Bright, of Indiana, moved to refer the whole matter of the
organization of Territorial governments in Oregon, California, and New
Mexico, to a select committee, composed of four Whigs and four
Democrats, two of each party from the North and the South,
respectively. Mr. Bright's motion was in the form of an amendment or
suggestion to a motion made by Mr. Clayton, that the Oregon bill be
referred to such a committee. Mr. Clayton accepted Mr. Bright's
modification of his motion, and the Senate immediately voted the
resolution, and appointed the committee, with Mr. Clayton as chairman.
On the 18th, Mr. Clayton reported the bill from his committee, which
provided for the organization of Oregon, with its existing
anti-slavery laws, and with the recognition of the power to the
Territorial legislature to change them; and for the organization of
California and New Mexico, referring the question of the legality of
slavery in them to the Territorial courts, with appeal to the Supreme
Court of the United States, as a constitutional question. That is, the
proposition with reference to slavery in California and New Mexico
was, that slaveholders might take their slaves into these Territories
upon their own responsibility, and that if any slaveholder should be
disturbed in the possession of his slave, he might bring an action in
the Territorial courts against the party disturbing him, with the
right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, which final
tribunal should determine the question as a matter {347} of
constitutional law, and, therefore, upon its own independent
interpretation of the Constitution.
[Sidenote: Passage of Mr. Clayton's bill in the Senate, and rejection
of it in the House.]
The Senate debated this bill for a week, during which time the flimsy
character of the makeshifts became painfully apparent. The Senate
passed the bill, however, on the 26th, and sent it to the House.
The House rejected it, and proceeded with its own bill, and, on August
2nd, passed the latter by a strict sectional vote, and sent it to the
Senate for concurrence.
[Sidenote: The House bill in the Senate, and Mr. Douglas' amendment.]
[Sidenote: Passage of the Oregon bill by Congress.]
On the 10th, the Senate passed this bill, with an amendment, proposed
by Mr. Douglas, extending the Missouri Compromise line of thirty-six
degrees and thirty minutes to the Pacific. The House immediately
rejected the amendment, and the Senate was compelled to recede, or let
Oregon go without Territorial government. It wisely voted, on the
12th, to recede from its amendment, and passed the bill, with the
Congressional prohibition of slavery, and without compromise as to the
settlement of the slavery question in California and New Mexico. Among
the Senators who changed their votes upon the amendment were Douglas
from the North, and Benton and Houston from the South.
[Sidenote: The Free-soil party in 1848.]
The feeling aroused outside of Congress by the contest within the body
was most intense, and had, for its permanent result the organization
of the Anti-slavery-extension party. It called itself then the
"Free-soil" party. It held a National convention at Buffalo, New York,
on August 9th, and nominated Mr. Van Buren for the presidency, on a
platform which distinctly affirmed the power of Congress to exclude
slavery from the Territories, and its duty to exercise the power. Here
was, at last, the {348} principle and the party of the future. Those
who composed it held to the Union and the Government, vindicated the
national character of both, and while they denied none of the
constitutional rights of the Southern Commonwealths, and none of the
compromises of the Constitution with the slaveholders, yet they
refused to allow the great evil under which the country suffered to
spread into regions uncontaminated by it.
[Sidenote: The President's approval of the Oregon bill.]
The President signed the Oregon bill, on August 14th, for the reason,
he said, among other reasons, that it preserved the principle of the
Missouri Compromise, making the territory north of thirty-six degrees
and thirty minutes free soil. And in his message of December 5th,
following, he urged the speedy organization of California and New
Mexico, either upon that principle, or upon the principle of
non-interference by Congress with the question of slaveholding in
them, or upon the basis of an appeal of the question to the Supreme
Court of the United States, which body should interpret the
Constitution upon the subject. He said he believed the first way
contained the true principle, and was the fair thing, but that he was
willing to proceed in either of the other two ways.
[Sidenote: Gold and silver in California.]
At the same time, the President gave official verification to the
rumors of the discovery of great quantities of gold and silver in
California, which quickened the emigration of the bold and adventurous
spirits from all parts of the country to the new El Dorado.
[Sidenote: The election of Taylor, and the disaffection of the
Northern Democrats.]
[Sidenote: Plans for the organization of California and New Mexico.]
The temper of Congress against slavery extension was even stronger in
the session of 1848-49, than in the preceding session. The Whig
majority in the House of Representatives remained, and now came a
support to the anti-slavery-extension principle of the Northern {349}
Whigs from Northern Democrats, which had not been before accorded. The
elections of 1848 had greatly surprised the Northern Democrats. The
Whig candidate, General Taylor, carried a majority of the Southern
Commonwealths, and was chosen President. The Democrats of the North
considered that they had been left in the lurch by the Democrats of
the South, and came to the session of 1848-49 with revenge in their
hearts. They were disposed to join hands with the Northern Whigs
against the extension of slavery into any more of the Territories of
the Union. This spirit was, however, far more manifest in the House of
Representatives than in the Senate. On December 11th, 1848, Mr.
Douglas brought into the Senate a plan for avoiding the question in
respect to slavery in California and New Mexico, by immediately
erecting the whole of the territory acquired from Mexico into a single
Commonwealth, and reserving the right to Congress to create new
Commonwealths in that part of this territory lying east of the Sierra
Nevada Mountains. This proposition was referred to the Judiciary
committee for report; but before the report was presented Mr. Smith,
of Indiana, chairman of the committee on Territories, brought in bills
for the organization of Upper California and New Mexico, with the
slavery restriction of the Ordinance of 1787 in them. On January 9th,
1849, Mr. Berrien, chairman of the Judiciary committee, reported
adversely upon Mr. Douglas' proposition, on the grounds, alleged by
him, that Congress could not create a Commonwealth, but could only
admit a Commonwealth into the Union after it had been created by the
sovereign act of the people residing in it, for the performance of
which act the status of Territorial organization was necessary, and
that Congress could never {350} constitutionally disconnect from any
Commonwealth any portion of its territory for the purpose of forming
it into another Commonwealth, without the consent of the Commonwealth
itself.
[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas' plan.]
Mr. Douglas immediately modified his bill so as to meet the latter
objection; and on January 24th, offered a substitute for his former
proposition, which provided for a Commonwealth of California that
would not quite cover the territory which the Mexicans included under
the title of the Province of Upper California. On Mr. Douglas' own
motion, this proposition was referred to a select committee, of which
he was appointed chairman; and, on the 29th, he reported a bill from
the committee for forming the territory acquired from Mexico into two
Commonwealths, to be called California and New Mexico; but the Senate
showed so much opposition to the project that it was dropped. More
than half the session had now passed, and the Senate appeared to be
farther than ever from any consensus in regard to what should be done
for California and New Mexico. It was a serious condition of things.
The inhabitants of these Territories were importunately demanding the
establishment of civil government over them for the protection of
life, liberty, and property, and Congress was apparently to do nothing
for them during the current session.
[Sidenote: Mr. Walker's expedient.]
On February 19th, Mr. Walker, of Wisconsin, came forward in the Senate
with an expedient. He moved to attach to the Civil and Diplomatic
Appropriation Bill a provision for extending the Constitution, and the
laws of the United States naturally applicable, over all the territory
acquired from Mexico, and for authorizing the President to make all
needful rules and regulations, and to appoint civil officials, for
their execution. The Senate passed this amendment, {351} and sent the
Appropriation Bill thus modified back to the House for concurrence.
[Sidenote: The House bill for the Territorial organization of Upper
California.]
Meanwhile the bill in the House for the Territorial organization of
Upper California, with the slavery prohibition clause in it, was
proceeding through a most exciting debate, but with increasing
prospect of final passage. On February 27th, it was passed, by an
almost sectional vote, and sent to the Senate. The Senate referred it
to its committee on Territories, and there it slept as in "the tomb of
all the Capulets."
[Sidenote: Mr. Walker's scheme in the House.]
On March 1st, the House took up the Senate's amendment to the Civil
and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill, and referred it to the committee on
Ways and Means. This committee reported, on March 2nd, an amendment to
the Senate's amendment, which provided for the continuance of the
status of military possession and of the Mexican laws in all the
territory acquired from Mexico, until six months after the close of
the next session of Congress. The purpose of this amendment was the
continuance of the Mexican law excluding slavery. The House did not,
however, adopt this proposition, but sent the Appropriation Bill back
to the Senate stripped of the Senate's amendment. The Senate asked a
conference upon the subject, which was granted by the House, but the
Conference committee could come to no agreement.
[Sidenote: Mr. Webster and Mr. Berrien on the status of slavery in the
territory acquired from Mexico.]
The House now passed the proposition of the Ways and Means committee,
slightly modified in form, and sent it to the Senate. Mr. Webster
moved concurrence with the House in this proposition, and said that it
meant no more than the existing status, which would continue if
nothing were done. Mr. Berrien contended, on the contrary, that only
the private law of the ceding country, {352} the law regulating the
relations between individuals, remains in force in the territory
ceded, until changed by the positive acts of the country receiving the
cession; that the public law of the receiving country is extended at
once, by virtue of the occupation, over the cession; and that slavery
was a part of the public law of the United States, since both the
system of taxation and that of representation rested in part upon it.
Mr. Berrien concluded from these postulates of international and
constitutional law that, if Congress did nothing in the premises, the
President would continue to administer, by means of his military
officials, the private law of Mexico, and the public law of the United
States, in the territory acquired from Mexico, and that this would
allow slaveholders to take their slaves into this territory, and hold
them in slavery; but that if Congress, by a positive enactment, should
adopt the Mexican laws, _en bloc_, for this territory, slavery would
be thereby excluded from it. In a word, he demonstrated, or thought he
did, that the proposition of the House of Representatives contained
the principle of the Wilmot proviso. The Senate was so deeply
impressed by Mr. Berrien's argument, and so much opposition to the
proposition of the House was manifested, that Mr. Webster offered to
withdraw his motion, if the Southerners would agree to recede from the
Senate's amendment. The bargain was struck, and the Thirtieth Congress
expired without having done anything for the governmental organization
of California and New Mexico, and without having advanced, in the
slightest measure, toward the solution of the fateful question of
slavery extension in the vast empire conquered from Mexico.
[Sidenote: Emigration to California.]
The official announcement made by President Polk of the mineral wealth
of California had increased the excitement for emigration thither to a
fever, and by the {353} close of the spring of 1849, California had a
population within her provincial limits numerous enough, according to
prevailing conceptions, to make a Commonwealth.
[Sidenote: President Taylor's scheme.]
The new President, Taylor, thought that all further controversy about
the Territorial organization of California might now be avoided, by
skipping the Territorial period and status altogether, and organizing
California immediately as a Commonwealth. He sent a commissioner to
examine the situation on the ground and make report. Whether the
commissioner imparted the President's scheme to General Riley, the
military Governor, or not, we are not informed. We have good reason,
however, to suspect it, since Riley immediately issued a call for a
convention of the people of California to frame a Commonwealth.
[Sidenote: The convention at Monterey.]
The people quickly responded by choosing delegates, and the delegates
met at Monterey on September 1st, 1849. By October 13th, their work
was completed, and the organic law which they drafted was ratified by
the people, on November 13th. One of its provisions was the
prohibition of slavery. The filling up of California by immigration
had been too sudden for the holders of slaves to take part in the
movement. It was accomplished, it could be accomplished, only by bold,
alert, shrewd adventurers, untrammelled by families or stupid African
retainers. It was reported that every delegate in the convention voted
for the prohibition of slavery, and the people ratified the instrument
containing it by a vote of fifteen to one.
[Sidenote: The policy of the Administration.]
The President informed Congress, in his message of December 4th, 1849,
of the proceedings in California, and manifested his desire to admit
California into the Union at once. He also predicted that the people
of {354} New Mexico would soon follow the example of the Californians.
The policy of the Administration in reference to this question was
thus clearly defined, and was, whether intentional or not, a policy
favorable to the prohibition of slavery in both California and New
Mexico. The slaveholders, or rather the slavery extensionists,
regarded the President's position as treachery to his section.
[Sidenote: The policy of the slavery extensionists.]
The policy of the slavery extensionists was to organize California and
New Mexico as Territories, without the prohibition of slavery in them,
giving thus time and opportunity for slaveholders to settle in them,
with their slaves, and, when the time should come for the formation of
Commonwealth governments in them, to vote an organic law perpetuating
slavery. This policy was manifested anew in the bill introduced into
the Senate, on the last day of December, 1849, by Mr. Foote, of
Mississippi, for the organization of the entire Mexican cession into
three Territories--California, Deseret or Utah, and New Mexico.
[Sidenote: The elements of the slavery question in Congress.]
The slavery question in Congress had now come, however, to include
more than the matter of the governmental organization of the territory
acquired from Mexico. There was, in the first place, the question of
the Texas boundary, in that, by the Joint Resolution annexing Texas,
the adjustment of that boundary, as regarded foreign states, at least,
was reserved to Congress. Texas, as we know, claimed the Rio Grande
from mouth to source, and thence the longitude to the forty-second
parallel of latitude as her southwestern and western boundary. She
came into the Union with a law on her statute book asserting this
boundary. The Treaty with Mexico, recognizing the line of the Rio
Grande to the {355} limits of New Mexico, and ceding New Mexico, made
the question of the Texan boundary a purely internal question for the
United States, if it was any longer a question. The Abolitionists and
anti-slavery-extensionists wanted to reduce Texas in area, since
slavery was established by the law of the Commonwealth throughout its
entire extent. They therefore interpreted the Resolution of annexation
as reserving that power to Congress, even after the question had
become purely internal. The slavery extensionists, on the contrary,
contended that the power reserved to Congress in reference to the
Texan boundary was now obsolete, since it expressly related only to
the adjustment of the same with Mexico, and that had been accomplished
by the Treaty. Then, there was the war debt of Texas, which was justly
a charge upon the United States--although the Resolution of annexation
repudiated it--since it was hypothecated upon revenue, the proceeds
from which were being covered into the United States Treasury, the
customs collected in the Texan ports. And, then, there was the
question of the rendition of fugitive slaves, since the execution of
the existing law, that of 1793, in regard to this matter, had been
rendered so difficult by the movements of the Abolitionists, after
1835, as to make a more strenuous measure necessary, unless the
slaveholders would abandon their constitutional rights to the
rendition of their escaped slaves. And, lastly, there was the
ever-recurring question of slavery and the slave-trade in the District
of Columbia, which was still clamoring for a hearing.
Already, before the closing week of January, 1850, had bills been
brought forward, both in the Senate and in the House, touching all of
these subjects, except, perhaps, the last, when, on the 29th, Mr. Clay
came forward with his famous proposition for the adjustment of them
all in one grand scheme.
{356} [Sidenote: Mr. Clay's plan of compromise.]
This proposition provided, in the first place, for the immediate
admission of California as a Commonwealth, with suitable boundaries,
and without any restrictions as to slavery; in the second place, for
the establishment of Territorial governments in all of the remainder
of the Mexican cession, without any restrictions as to slavery; in the
third place, for fixing the western boundary of Texas, so as to
exclude any portion of New Mexico; in the fourth place, for the
assumption of the Texan debt contracted before annexation and
hypothecated upon the Texan customs, on condition of the
relinquishment by Texas of all claims on New Mexico; in the fifth
place, for the abolition of the slave-trade in the District of
Columbia, in slaves brought into the District from the outside for the
purpose of sale; and in the sixth place, for a more effective law for
the rendition of fugitive slaves. The resolutions also contained
declarations that slavery did not then exist in any of the territory
acquired from Mexico, and that Congress had no power to prohibit or
obstruct trade in slaves between the slaveholding Commonwealths.
[Sidenote: Slaveholders' objections to Mr. Clay's plan.]
In spite of the fact that Mr. Clay asked the Senators to consider his
propositions carefully before committing themselves, and suggested
that they should lay over for a week, the Southern Senators
immediately proceeded to attack the plan at several points. They
objected to California being allowed to jump the Territorial period of
probation and preparation for Commonwealth government. They declared
Mr. Clay's dictum about the existing illegality of slavery in the
territory acquired from Mexico to be an assumption, and asserted that
slavery was legal everywhere in the United States, unless a positive
law forbade it. They vindicated the claims of Texas to the boundaries
designated by the Act of the Texan {357} Congress in 1836. And while
some of them were not decidedly opposed to the abolition of the
slave-trade in the District of Columbia, most of them deprecated
meddling with the subject at all, and wanted to substitute for Mr.
Clay's proposition on the subject a declaration of the lack of any
power in Congress to deal with slavery in the District. The
improvement of the fugitive slave-law was about the only thing in the
entire plan which met with their approval. Mr. Jefferson Davis said
outright that he wanted a positive recognition from Congress of the
legality of slavery in the new territory south of the parallel of
thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes.
[Sidenote: Anti-slavery objections to Mr. Clay's plan.]
On the other hand, the Abolitionists and the
anti-slavery-extensionists insisted upon the immediate admission of
California, with its anti-slavery constitution; upon the insertion of
the principle of the Wilmot proviso in the Territorial organization of
the remainder of the acquisition from Mexico; upon the contraction of
the Texan limits, without any compensation to Texas; upon the
abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, and a
declaration of the power of Congress to deal with slavery in the
District; and upon a jury trial, at the place of apprehension, for
every claimed fugitive from labor.
[Sidenote: California's application for admission.]
The contradiction between these views appeared irreconcilable. We may
say, however, that a start toward an approach was caused by the
transmission of California's application to Congress for admission, as
a Commonwealth, into the Union.
This happened on February 13th. On the following day, Mr. Douglas
moved to take up the President's message accompanying the application,
and thus to consider the California question separately from the
others. Mr. Clay agreed to this. Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, scolded
Mr. Clay for thus betraying the South, but the {358} Southerners were
made to feel that they must modify their opposition to Mr. Clay's
plan, if they desired to avoid something like this.
[Sidenote: Mr. Calhoun's last speech.]
On March 4th, Mr. Calhoun made his last great speech upon the whole
political situation, its threatening character, and its possible
rectification. He was too feeble to pronounce it himself, and it was
read for him by Senator Mason. Mr. Calhoun's propositions were, that
the Union was endangered; that the immediate cause of the danger was
the universal discontent prevailing in the South from the feeling that
the South could no longer remain with safety and honor in the Union;
and that the cause of this feeling was the fact that the balance of
power between the two sections of the country in the Government was
gone, and the stronger section was endeavoring to make the Government
an unlimited centralized democracy, and use it for interfering in the
internal affairs of the weaker, and for absorbing the substance, as
well as destroying the rights, of the weaker.
He suggested as remedies for the evils, which he thought existed and
impended, an equal division of the territory to the Pacific between
the North and the South, an amendment to the Constitution restoring
the balance of power between the two sections, proper laws for the
rendition of fugitives from labor, and cessation of the agitation of
the slavery question.
What should be the provisions of the amendment, restoring the balance
of power in the Government, and how the cessation of the agitation
could be compelled, were not explained. It was not easy to see how
these points could be advanced beyond the position of general
propositions. It was, however, a great and solemn presentation of the
whole question, and it made a great impression.
{359} [Sidenote: Mr. Webster's March 7th speech.]
On March 7th, Mr. Webster made his famous speech, giving his great
influence to pacification and compromise, and to the preservation of
the Constitution. He told the Northerners that they were bound by the
agreement with Texas to admit four new Commonwealths from Texan
territory, under the usual conditions; that they were bound by the
Constitution to deliver up fugitive slaves; and that since nature had
made slavery impossible in California and New Mexico, they ought not
to irritate the Southerners by demanding a Congressional prohibition
of slavery therein. He told the Southerners, on the other hand, that
they should desist from denying to citizens from Northern
Commonwealths, temporarily within the jurisdiction of Southern
Commonwealths, the rights of citizens. And he told the Abolitionists
that they should measure their ideas of right, in some degree at
least, by the standard of the common consciousness of the country, and
modify them, in some degree, thereby. His words were received with
great satisfaction by all moderate and prudent men. Of course, they
did not satisfy the extremists, either in the North or the South, but
they settled the minds of many who were wavering, and moved the work
of temporary pacification, at least, several stages onward.
[Sidenote: Mr. Bell's proposition.]
During the course of the debate upon Mr. Clay's resolutions, and
before the great efforts either of Mr. Calhoun or Mr. Webster, Mr.
Bell, of Tennessee, had offered some propositions, looking to the
admission of California as a Commonwealth, and to the formation of
Territorial government for New Mexico. On the day after Mr. Webster's
great speech, Mr. Foote moved the reference of Mr. Bell's resolutions
to a select committee of thirteen members. No vote, however, was
immediately taken, but the debate upon {360} both sets of resolutions
dragged on from day to day, and was made more complicated by the
introduction of a bill from the committee on Territories, providing
for the immediate admission of California, and the formation of
Territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah.
[Sidenote: The death of Mr. Calhoun.]
On March 31st, Mr. Calhoun passed away. The announcement of his death,
the eulogies pronounced upon his memory, and the funeral rites, were
most solemn and impressive occasions. The influence of the sad event
seemed, for the moment, to soften the hearts of those who had
associated with him toward one another. It seemed as if political foes
would be willing to join hands across his bier.
[Sidenote: Mr. Foote's motion and the Committee of Thirteen.]
On April 11th, Mr. Mangum, of North Carolina, moved to refer the
resolutions of Mr. Clay, along with those of Mr. Bell, to the
committee suggested by Mr. Foote. Mr. Foote accepted Mr. Mangum's
motion as an amendment to his own. After a most determined opposition
by Senator Benton to Mr. Foote's motion, during which temper rose so
high that Mr. Benton threatened to cudgel Mr. Foote, and Mr. Foote
actually drew a pistol upon Mr. Benton, both in the course of the
debate in the Senate chamber, Mr. Foote's motion was passed. On the
next day, April 19th, the members of the committee were chosen by
ballot. They were Mr. Clay, Mr. Bell, Mr. Berrien, Mr. Bright, Mr.
Cass, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Downs, Mr. King, Mr. Mason, Mr.
Mangum, Mr. Phelps, and Mr. Webster. Seven members, including the
chairman, Mr. Clay, were from the South and six from the North.
[Sidenote: The report and recommendations of the committee.]
On May 8th, Mr. Clay made the report, and offered the bills, from the
grand committee, covering all the {361} subjects referred. The first
bill provided for the admission of California, with the Commonwealth
organization formed by her people the preceding autumn; for the
Territorial organization of Utah and New Mexico, without any slavery
restriction, and with restrictions upon the Territorial legislatures
against passing any acts in regard to slavery; for fixing the northern
boundary of Texas upon a line drawn from a point on the Rio Grande
twenty miles above El Paso to the point on the Red River where the
line of the one hundredth degree of longitude intersects this river;
for quit-claiming, so to speak, to Texas the claims of the United
States to the country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande; and for
paying Texas a sum of money, in consideration of the discharge of the
United States from all obligations to pay the Texan debt, and of the
surrender of all claims by Texas to country north of the northern
boundary as fixed in the bill.
The second bill provided that a fugitive from labor must be delivered
up on the order of any judge or commissioner of the United States
authorized by the laws of the United States so to act, and that such
judge or commissioner was authorized to issue such order on
presentation to him, by the claimant of the fugitive, of a copy of the
record of a competent court in the Commonwealth, Territory, or
District from which the fugitive was said to have escaped, before
which the facts of ownership, identity, and escape had been
satisfactorily proven. The judge or commissioner issuing such order
was required, in case the fugitive declared himself to be a free man,
to demand of the claimant of the fugitive a bond, with surety, for
$1,000, pledging the claimant to accord the fugitive a trial by jury
of the question of his freedom, in a competent court of the
Commonwealth, {362} Territory, or District from which he was said to
have escaped.
The third bill provided for the abolition of the slave-trade in the
District of Columbia, and for the liberation of any slave brought into
the District for the purposes of sale or depot.
[Sidenote: The debate upon the bills proposed by the committee, and
the failure to pass them.]
The debate began immediately upon the first bill, and the opposition
to it from both sections advanced about the same arguments as were
employed against these same subjects when presented in the form of Mr.
Clay's resolutions. The discussion continued through May, June, and
July, until, at the end of July, nothing remained of the bill but that
part of it which provided for the Territorial organization of Utah.
The general plan of the compromise was lost.
[Sidenote: The temper of the country.]
The whole country was amazed, disappointed, and angry. The Senators
were quickly and decidedly made to feel that they dare not separate
without doing something to heal the distractions of the land.
[Sidenote: The succession of Fillmore and his message of August 6th.]
The death of President Taylor, on July 9th, and the accession of Mr.
Fillmore, made the Administration more favorable to the measures
included in the compromise plan. On August 6th, he communicated to
Congress the fact that the Governor of Texas, P. H. Bell, in execution
of an act of the Texas legislature, was extending the jurisdiction of
Texas over the disputed territory on the eastern border of New Mexico,
and that the President, as military Governor, in highest instance, of
New Mexico, felt obliged to resist the movement, and that he had
informed the Governor of Texas of his purpose. He besought Congress to
avert the calamity which now threatened, by attending at once {363} to
the matter of the boundary between Texas and New Mexico.
[Sidenote: The passage of bills, separately, covering all the
questions contained in Mr. Clay's compromise measures.]
Under this pressure, the Senate took up the Texan boundary bill,
introduced by Mr. Pierce, of Maryland, which provided that the
northern boundary of Texas should be the parallel of thirty-six
degrees and thirty minutes from the one hundredth degree of longitude
to the one hundred and third degree; that the western and southwestern
boundary should be the one hundred and third parallel of longitude
from the northern line to latitude thirty-two degrees, thence along
this parallel westward to the Rio Grande, thence the Rio Grande to the
Gulf; and that ten millions of dollars should be paid Texas for
agreeing to this boundary, and for relinquishing all claims on the
United States in regard to the payment of her public debt. On August
9th, the bill passed the Senate.
On the 13th, the Senate took up the bill for the immediate admission
of California, reported from the committee on Territories, and passed
it by a large majority.
On August 15th, the Senate passed the bill from the committee on
Territories for the Territorial organization of New Mexico, without
any provision as to slavery. The bill for the organization of Utah had
passed, it will be remembered, on August 1st, as the remnant of the
compromise plan.
The Senate then took up the Fugitive Slave Bill reported in March from
the Judiciary committee. Inasmuch as the United States Supreme Court
had given its opinion, in the case of Prigg versus Pennsylvania, that
Commonwealth officers were not required by the Constitution of the
United States to render any assistance in the rendition of fugitive
slaves, the Judiciary {364} committee had so constructed its bill as
to make use of the machinery of the central Government alone in the
execution of the proposed law. The bill was a somewhat more stringent
measure than that proposed by Mr. Clay's committee. It did away with
the right of a fugitive claiming to be a freeman to a trial by jury of
the question of his freedom in a competent court of the Commonwealth,
Territory, or District from which he was said to have escaped. It made
it the duty of the marshals and deputy marshals of the United States
courts to obey and execute all of the warrants and precepts issued
under the provisions of the Act. It imposed a penalty of fine and
imprisonment upon any person knowingly hindering the arrest of a
fugitive, or attempting to rescue one from custody, or harboring one,
or aiding one to escape. And it made the fee of the commissioner $10
in case he should issue the certificate of arrest to the claimant of
the fugitive, and only $5 in case he should not. Otherwise it was
substantially the same as the bill proposed by the Clay committee. The
Senate passed this bill, on August 26th.
At last, on September 16th, the Senate passed the bill recommended by
Mr. Clay's committee, for the abolition of the slave-trade in the
District of Columbia.
One after another, all these bills passed the House of
Representatives, against great opposition, but with no material
alteration, except the connection of the bill for the organization of
Territorial government in New Mexico with that for the adjustment of
the Texan boundary, in which change the Senate acquiesced, and were
all signed by the President; and before the first session of the
Thirty-first Congress expired, on September 30th, 1850, the great work
of pacification, as it was hoped and believed to be, had been
accomplished.
{365}