our hands of what is properly due will turn upon us and injure us.
Statesmen in the line of duty should never consult their fears.
Where duty leads, there we may never fear to tread. In the
political world, great events and changes are rapidly crowding
upon us. To these we should not be insensible. As wise men, we
should not attempt to ignore them. We need not close our eyes, and
suppose the sun will cease to shine because we see not the light.
Let us rather, with eyes and mind wide awake, look around us and
see where we are, whence we have come, and where we shall soon be,
borne along by the rapid, swift, and irresistible car of time.
This immense territory to the west has to be peopled. It is now
peopling. New States are fast growing up; and others, not yet in
embryo, will soon spring into existence. Progress and development
mark everything in nature--human societies, as well as everything
else. Nothing in the physical world is still; life and motion are
in everything; so in the mental, moral, and political. The earth
is never still. The great central orb is ever moving. Progress is
the universal law governing all things--animate as well as
inanimate. Death itself is but the beginning of a new life in a
new form. Our government and institutions are subject to this
all-pervading power. The past wonderfully exemplifies its
influence, and gives us some shadows of the future.
"This is the sixteenth session that I have been here, and within
that brief space of fifteen years, we have added six States to the
Union--lacking but one of being more than half the original
thirteen. Upward of twelve hundred thousand square miles of
territory--a much larger area than was possessed by the whole
United States at the time of the treaty of peace in 1783--have
been added to our domain. At this time the area of our Republic is
greater than that of any five of the greatest powers in Europe all
combined; greater than that of the Roman empire in the brightest
days of her glory; more extensive than were Alexander's dominions
when he stood on the Indus, and wept that he had no more worlds to
conquer. Such is our present position; nor are we yet at the end
of our acquisitions.
"Our internal movements, within the same time, have not been less
active in progress and development than those external. A bare
glance at these will suffice. Our tonnage, when I first came to
Congress, was but a little over two million; now it is upward of
five million, more than double. Our exports of domestic
manufactures were only eleven million dollars in round numbers;
now they are upward of thirty million. Our exports of domestic
produce, staples, etc., were then under one hundred million
dollars; now they are upward of three hundred million! The amount
of coin in the United States, was at that time about one hundred
million; now it exceeds three hundred million. The cotton crop
then was but fifty-four million; now it is upward of one hundred
and sixty million dollars. We had then not more than five thousand
miles of railroad in operation; we have now not less than
twenty-six thousand miles--more than enough to encircle the
globe--and at a cost of more than one thousand million dollars. At
that time, Prof. Morse was engaged in one of the rooms of this
Capitol in experimenting on his unperfected idea of an electric
telegraph--and there was as much doubt about his success, as there
is at present about the Atlantic cable; but now there are more
than thirty-five thousand miles in extent of these iron nerves
sent forth in every direction through the land, connecting the
most distant points, and uniting all together as if under the
influence of a common living sensorium. This is but a glance at
the surface; to enter within and take the range of other
matters--schools, colleges, the arts, and various mechanical and
industrial pursuits, which add to the intelligence, wealth and
prosperity of a people, and mark their course in the history of
nations, would require time; but in all would be found alike
astonishing results.
"This progress, sir, is not to be arrested. It will go on. The end
is not yet. There are persons now living who will see over a
hundred million human beings within the present boundaries of the
United States, to say nothing of future extension, and perhaps
double the number of States we now have, should the Union last.
For myself, I say to you, my southern colleagues on this floor,
that I do not apprehend danger to our constitutional rights from
the bare fact of increasing the number of States with institutions
dissimilar to ours. The whole governmental fabric of the United
States is based and founded upon the idea of dissimilarity in the
institutions of the respective members. Principles, not numbers,
are our protection. When these fail, we have like all other
people, who, knowing their rights, dare maintain them, nothing to
rely upon but the justice of our cause, our own right arms and
stout hearts. With these feelings and this basis of action,
whenever any State comes and asks admission, as Oregon does, I am
prepared to extend her the hand of welcome, without looking into
her constitution further than to see that it is republican in
form, upon our well-known American models.
"When aggression comes, if come it ever shall, then the end
draweth nigh. Then, if in my day, I shall be for resistance, open,
bold, and defiant. I know of no allegiance superior to that due
the hearthstones of the homestead. This I say to all. I lay no
claim to any sentiment of nationality not founded upon the
patriotism of a true heart, and I know of no such patriotism that
does not centre at home. Like the enlarging circle upon the
surface of smooth waters, however, this can and will, if
unobstructed, extend to the utmost limits of a common country.
Such is my nationality--such my sectionalism--such my patriotism.
Our fathers of the South joined your fathers of the North in
resistance to a common aggression from their fatherland; and if
they were justified in rising to right a wrong inflicted by a
parent country, how much more ought we, should the necessity ever
come, to stand justified before an enlightened world, in righting
a wrong from even those we call brothers. That necessity, I trust,
will never come.
"What is to be our future, I do not know. I have no taste for
indulging in speculations about it. I would not, if I could, raise
the veil that wisely conceals it from us. 'Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof,' is a good precept in everything pertaining
to human action. The evil I would not anticipate; I would rather
strive to prevent its coming; and one way, in my judgment, to
prevent it, is, while here, in all things to do what is right and
proper to be done under the Constitution of the United States;
nothing more, and nothing less. Our safety, as well as the
prosperity of all parts of the country, so long as this government
lasts, lies mainly in a strict conformity to the laws of its
existence. Growth is one of these. The admission of new States, is
one of the objects expressly provided for. How are they to come
in? With just such constitutions as the people in each may please
to make for themselves, so it is republican in form. This is the
ground the South has ever stood upon. Let us not abandon it now.
It is founded upon a principle planted in the compact of Union
itself; and more essential to us than all others besides; that is,
the equality of the States, and the reserved rights of the people
of the respective States. By our system, each State, however great
the number, has the absolute right to regulate all its internal
affairs as she pleases, subject only to her obligations under the
Constitution of the United States. With this limitation, the
people of Massachusetts have the perfect right to do as they
please upon all matters relating to their internal policy; the
people of Ohio have the right to do the same; the people of
Georgia the same; of California the same; and so with all the
rest.
"Such is the machinery of our theory of self-government by the
people. This is the great novelty of our peculiar system,
involving a principle unknown to the ancients, an idea never
dreamed of by Aristotle or Plato. The union of several distinct,
independent communities upon this basis, is a new principle in
human governments. It is now a problem in experiment for the
people of the nineteenth century upon this continent to solve. As
I behold its workings in the past and at the present, while I am
not sanguine, yet I am hopeful of its successful solution. The
most joyous feeling of my heart is the earnest hope that it will,
for the future, move on as peacefully, prosperously, and
brilliantly, as it has in the past. If so, then we shall exhibit a
moral and political spectacle to the world something like the
prophetic vision of Ezekiel, when he saw a number of distinct
beings or living creatures, each with a separate and distinct
organism, having the functions of life within itself, all of one
external likeness, and all, at the same time, mysteriously
connected with one common animating spirit pervading the whole, so
that when the common spirit moved they all moved; their appearance
and their work being, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a
wheel; and whithersoever the common spirit went, thither the
others went, all going together; and when they went, he heard the
noise of their motion like the noise of great waters, as the voice
of the Almighty. Should our experiment succeed, such will be our
exhibition--a machinery of government so intricate, so
complicated, with so many separate and distinct parts, so many
independent States, each perfect in the attributes and functions
of sovereignty, within its own jurisdiction, all, nevertheless,
united under the control of a common directing power for external
objects and purposes, may natural enough seem novel, strange, and
inexplicable to the philosophers and crowned heads of the world.
"It is for us, and those who shall come after us, to determine
whether this grand experimental problem shall be worked out; not
by quarrelling amongst ourselves; not by doing injustice to any;
not by keeping out any particular class of States, but by each
State remaining a separate and distinct political organism within
itself--all bound together for general objects, and under a common
Federal head; as it were, a wheel within a wheel. Then the number
may be multiplied without limit; and then, indeed, may the nations
of the earth look on in wonder at our career; and when they hear
the noise of the wheels of our progress in achievement, in
development, in expansion, in glory and renown, it may well appear
to them not unlike the noise of great waters; the very voice of
the Almighty--_Vox populi! Vox Dei!_ (Great applause in the
galleries and on the floor.)
"THE SPEAKER.--If the applause in the galleries is repeated, the
chair will order the galleries to be cleared.
"MANY MEMBERS.--It was upon the floor.
"MR. STEPHENS, of Georgia. One or two other matters only I wish to
allude to. These relate only to amendments. I trust that every
friend of this bill will unite and vote down every amendment. It
needs no amendment. Oregon has nothing to do with Kansas, and
should in no way be connected with her. To remand her back, as the
gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Marshall) proposes, to compel her to
regulate suffrage as we may be disposed to dictate, would be but
going back to the old attempt to impose conditions upon Missouri.
There is no necessity for any census if we are satisfied, from all
the evidence before us, that there are sixty thousand inhabitants
there. Florida was admitted without a census. Texas was admitted,
with two members on this floor without a census. So was
California.
"To our friends upon this side of the house, let me say, if you
cannot vote for the bill, assist us in having it voted upon as it
is. Put on no riders. Give us no side-blows. Aid in keeping them
off. Let the measure stand or fall upon its merits. If you cannot
vote for the bill, vote against it just as it stands.
"I see my time is nearly out, and I cannot go into the discussion
of other branches of the question; but may I not make an appeal to
all sides of the house to come up to do their duty to-day? I have
spoken of the rapid development of our country and its progress in
all its material resources. Is it true that the intellectual and
moral development of our country has not kept pace with its
physical? Has our political body outgrown the heads and hearts of
those who are to govern it? Is it so, that this thirty-fifth
Congress is unequal to the great mission before it! Are we
progressing in everything but mind and patriotism? Has destiny
cast upon us a heavier load of duty than we are able to perform?
Are we unequal to the task assigned us? I trust not. I know it is
sometimes said in the country that Congress has degenerated. It is
for us this day to show whether it is true or not. For myself, I
do not believe it. It may be that the _esprit de corps_ may have
some influence on my judgment. Something may be pardoned to that.
But still I feel that I address men of as much intelligence,
reflection, talent, integrity, virtue and worth, as I have ever
met in this hall; men not unfit to be the Representatives of this
great, growing and prosperous Confederacy. The only real fitness
for any public station is to be up to the requirements of the
occasion, whatever that be. Let us, then, vindicate our characters
as fit legislators to-day; and, with that dignity and decorum
which have so signally marked our proceedings upon other great,
exciting questions before, and which, whatever may be said of our
debates, may be claimed as a distinguished honor for the present
House of Representatives, let us do the work assigned us with that
integrity of purpose which discharges duty regardless of
consequences, and with a patriotism commensurate with the
magnitude of the subject under all its responsibilities."
Mr. Stephens took very decided ground in favor of the Lecompton bill
in 1857-8, and when that was likely to fail in favor of the English
Compromise. He is also, while a Union man, very much in sympathy with
the Southern Rights school of politicians, and has made two or three
speeches in defence of filibusterism in the house. He has not entirely
forgotten that he was once a Whig, for last winter he spoke in favor
of, and supported heartily the French Spoliation bill. He is a very
fair political opponent, doing everything in an open and frank manner,
but a very shrewd tactician. He has rarely allowed himself to be led
into excited, partisan or sectional speeches, and, therefore, has long
been looked upon in Congress as an admirable party manager.
N. P. BANKS.
Few men in the country have, in these latter days of politics, been so
uniformly successful, even when circumstances were untoward, as
Governor Banks. He is known by the people as _a lucky man_. He
succeeds in whatever he undertakes. He has risen from an obscure young
man to be Speaker of the National House of Representatives, and
Governor of one of the first States of the Union. What may not such a
man expect if he be ambitious?
Mr. Banks was born in Waltham, Mass., January 30, 1816, where he
received a common school education. At a very early age he was placed
to work in a cotton-mill, in his native town, as a common hand. His
father was an overseer in the same mill. Here he remained for some
time, but not liking the business left the mill, and learned the trade
of machinist. While thus engaged, a strolling theatrical company
passed through Waltham, and young Banks was so much taken with their
acting, that he learned to perform several parts himself. He succeeded
so well that a tempting offer was made to him to follow the fortunes
of the company. He was sufficiently wise to refuse the offer. There
can be no doubt that to this dramatic corps Mr. Banks owes much of his
after success. They taught him much of that gracefulness which, to
this day, distinguishes him as an orator and a presiding officer.
Banks now joined a village lyceum and made himself a ready
speaker--then delivered temperance speeches, and at last drifted into
politics as a Democrat. He edited a village paper in Waltham, a
Democratic paper, and Mr. Polk gave him an office in the Boston Custom
House. In attending political meetings, Mr. Banks often acted as
presiding officer, and it was soon discovered that he possessed a
remarkable talent for such a post. In 1849, Mr. Banks was elected to
the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and put himself down in
the list of members as a "machinist." The very next year he turned to
the law--in 1851 was chosen Speaker of the State Legislature, and was
a prominent advocate of the coalition between the Democrats and Free
Soilers. This was his first step out of the Democratic party toward
Republicanism. The next year he was reelected speaker, and in the
autumn was elected to Congress. While in Congress, during his first
term, he voted against the Kansas-Nebraska bill, though he was one of
those Democrats who _voted to take the bill up_, a movement which
insured its final success.
In 1854, Mr. Banks was taken up by the Americans and Republicans, and
sent again to Congress, where, after a memorable _two months'_
contest, yet fresh in the reader's memory, he was elected Speaker of
the House of Representatives. No man has ever surpassed, if one has
ever equalled him, as a speaker of that turbulent body, and he left
the post with the highest honors. He was reelected to Congress, but
after taking his seat and remaining a month at Washington, he resigned
it to assume the governorship of Massachusetts, to which office the
people of the State had elected him by a tremendous majority.
He was reelected in the fall of 1858 by a heavy majority, and at this
time fills the Governor's chair. This, in a few words, is Governor
Bank's political career. As a politician, he has shown himself shrewd,
as a presiding officer prompt, graceful, commanding, and as an
administrator, a governor, he has proved himself to be a man of rare
genius. This, in fact, is Governor Bank's _forte_. He has a genius
_for governing men_--that most rare of all gifts. He cannot be said to
have made a political blunder in his life, speaking after the fashion
of political men.
It is of great importance to the people what are the _political
opinions_ of such a man as Governor Banks. But he is so cautious, so
reticent, that upon some points it is difficult to state his exact
position. In a letter, addressed by Mr. Banks to the Republican
Convention of Worcester--in the fall of 1857, Mr. Banks states his
opinions upon some of the prominent questions of the day. We will make
a few extracts:
"My opinions upon all questions relating to the General Government
of the States, have been made public during my connection with an
office from which I have been but recently relieved, and also by
my course in the late Presidential canvass. I resisted the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise, and I am still opposed to that
measure, as I am to all acts of the late and present
administration, whether of an executive, legislative, or judicial
character, which have been devised to maintain or to perpetuate
the original purpose of that flagitious wrong; and I shall
earnestly advocate the admission of Kansas into the Union of
States, under its own charter of freedom. I am opposed to the
further extension of slavery, or to the increase of its political
power. I believe that the Constitution confers upon Congress
sovereign power over the territories of the United States for
their government; and that, in the exercise of its authority, it
is its duty to prohibit slavery or polygamy therein. I shall
support the most energetic measures which the Constitution admits,
for the development of the moral and material interests of the
American people, defend the sovereignty of the States against
executive or judicial encroachment, and contribute all in my power
for the restoration of the General Government to the principles of
the fathers of the Constitution and the Union.
"I am opposed to the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States, not only upon the ground that it controverts the
principles and overthrows all the precedents of our history upon
the subject of slavery, but that it assumes to decide, as a
judicial problem, the question whether slavery shall be
established in this State, which has been, and ought to be, left
as a political question for the people of the State to determine
for themselves.
"It is pleasant for us at all times to recall the traditions of
our fathers, to repeat their affirmation of principles, which seem
to us to be self-evident truths, and which were announced to the
world by men who were ready and able to support them in council,
and to defend them in the field. But it is a pleasure that cannot
be enjoyed apart from the conviction that it is for us an equal,
if not a higher duty, vigilantly to course every means that will
tend to insure and perpetuate their supremacy, on this continent
at least. If it shall hereafter appear that our Government has
departed therefrom, and joined itself to other and false political
doctrines, I trust that it may never be said of the people of
Massachusetts, that an unreasonable refusal of minor concessions,
or their immaterial diversities of opinions--always the bane of
republics--gave success and perpetual power to their opponents. No
one can doubt that a vast majority of the people of the United
States are opposed to the policy represented by the slavery
propagandists; and still less can we doubt that it is their
diversity of opinion in non-essentials that encourages the
Government with hopes of success, and constantly defeats the
purposes of the people. It is no less a shame for us, under such
circumstances, to admit our incapacity to maintain our principles,
than to acknowledge a defection from the faith of our fathers.
"In our age, with our lights, success is a duty. The graves of the
past proclaim that failure must be the fault of the people, and
not of their cause. But there will be no permanent failure. There
was never a more auspicious hour for the friends of freedom than
the present. To whatever policy the Government may now devote its
energies, political power must soon fall into new hands. And when
power shall pass into the hands of the young men of this age, I
can entertain no doubt that, like the young men of a past age, to
whom Jefferson appealed, and who were his constant supporters in
the great battles of his day, for the suppression of the slave
trade, and the ultimate supremacy of Liberty in the early councils
of our people, they will give renewed life to a national policy of
freedom, traditional and true, which must be the basis of all
moral or material prosperity, and which is dictated alike by
conscience and common sense. I rejoice with an inward joy, that
the young men of Massachusetts, as it were by spontaneous
movement, and with a true appreciation of their duty and power,
have assumed a position and unfurled a flag that will be hailed in
other States as a harbinger of a better age--a radiant star, that
shall lead to new and decisive victories for the good old cause.
"The affairs of our State demand no less our attention. There is
now an unusually favorable opportunity for the initiation of
political changes of great importance, which cannot fail to be
acceptable to all classes of people. Of these, restricted sessions
of the legislature, and heavy retrenchment in State expenditures,
are of lasting importance. Our people, constantly engaged in
pursuits of commerce, manufactures, mechanic arts, and
agriculture, have a right to demand of the Government that it
shall meet, without evasion, the necessities of the time, and
enable them, without following the constant changes of
partisanship, to hold their servants to an immediate and direct
responsibility."
It is not easy to say how closely Mr. Banks has been connected with
Americanism in Massachusetts. It is very certain that he _used_
Americanism, and that he guided it, but to what extent he has adopted,
at any time, its doctrines, we cannot say. It has been said that Mr.
Banks was opposed to the "Two Years' Amendment" recently adopted by
the voters of Massachusetts, but he failed to show his hand upon it
one way or the other. The Americans, we believe, claim that Mr. Banks
is one of them in principle, but upon what grounds we know not.
Mr. Banks, though formerly a Democrat, is understood to be in favor of
a moderately protective tariff. He is, as the extracts we have quoted
show, decidedly opposed to the extension of slavery, but does not
occupy, as an opponent of slavery, such advanced ground as that upon
which Mr. Seward stands. He is opposed to agitation upon the slavery
question, except in self-defence, while Mr. Seward is for battle, open
and decided, but constitutional, till slavery is driven from the
continent.
JOSEPH LANE.