and has contributed as much, perhaps, as any other to popular delusion,
was the act known as the Missouri Compromise. It will be remembered
that the agitation of 1819 on the subject of slavery, was not masked as
it has been since, by pretensions of philanthropy—it was an avowed
opposition to the admission of a slave-holding State. A long and bitter
controversy was terminated by the admission of the State of Missouri,
and the prohibition of slavery north of the parallel of 36 deg. 30
minutes. He, and those with whom he most concurred, had always
contended that Congress had no constitutional power to make the
interdiction. But the people having generally acquiesced, the matter
was considered settled; and when Texas, a slave-holding State, was
admitted into the Union, Southern men, regarding the Missouri Act as a
compact, assented to the extension of the line through the territory of
Texas, with a provision that any State formed out of the territory
north of 36: 30: should be non-slaveholding. But when, at a subsequent
period, we made extensive acquisitions from Mexico, and it was proposed
to divide the territory by the same parallel, the North generally
opposed it, and after a long discussion, the controversy was settled on
the principle of non-intervention by Congress in relation to property
in the territories. The line of the Missouri Compromise was repudiated.
And a Senator who had been most prominent in denouncing the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise as a violation of good faith on the part of the
South, in 1850, described it as a measure which had been the grave of
every Northern man who supported it, and objected to the boundary of
36: 30: for the territory of Utah, because of the political implication
which its adoption would contain.
The act having been thus signally repudiated by the denial in every
form of the power of Congress to fix geographical limits within which
slavery might or might not exist; when it became necessary to organize
the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, it was but the corollary of the
proposition which had been maintained in 1850 to repeal the act which
had fixed the parallel of 36: 30: as the future limit of slavery in the
territory of Louisiana.
Consistency demanded so much; fairness and manhood could not have
granted less. He was not then a member of Congress; but if he had been,
he should have voted for that repeal; for although in 1850 he had
favored the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific
Ocean, and believed that it would most conduce to the harmony of the
States, he had yielded to the action of the Government, and considered
the position then taken as conclusive against the retention of the line
in Louisiana and Texas, which its beneficiaries had refused to extend
through the territories acquired from Mexico. As a general principle,
he thought it was best to leave the territories all open. Equality of
right demanded it, and the federal government had no power to withhold
it. Whatever validity the Missouri Compromise act had, it derived from
the acquiescence of the people. After 1850 then it had none. The South
had not asked Congress to extend slavery into the territories, and he
in common with most Southern statesmen, denied the existence of any
power to do so. He held it to be the creed of the Democracy, both in
the North and the South, that the General Government had no
constitutional power either to establish or prohibit slavery anywhere;
a grant of power to do the one must necessarily have involved the power
to do the other. Hence it is their policy not to interfere on the one
side or the other, but protecting each individual in his constitutional
rights, to leave every independent community to determine and adjust
all domestic questions as in their wisdom may seem best.
Politicians of the opposite school seemed to forget the relation of the
General Government to the States; even so far as to argue as though the
General Government had been the creator instead of the creature of the
States. He had learned that attempts had been made to impress upon the
people of Maine the belief that they were in danger of having slavery
established among them by decree of the Supreme Court of the United
States. He scarcely knew how to answer so palpable an absurdity. The
court was established, among other purposes, to protect the people from
unconstitutional legislation; and if Congress, in the extreme of
madness, should attempt thus to invade the sovereignty of a State, it
would be within the power, and would be the duty of the court, to check
the aggression by declaring such law void. The court have, on more than
one occasion, asserted the right of transit as a consequence of the
guarantees of the Constitution, but it would require much ingenuity to
torture the protection of a traveller or sojourner into an assertion of
a right to become resident and introduce property in contravention of
the fundamental law of the State, or of a citizen to hold property
within a State in violation of its constitution and its policy. The
error of the proposition was so palpable that, like the truth of an
axiom, it could not be rendered plainer by demonstration.
It is not within the scope of human foresight to see the embarrassments
which may arise in the execution of any policy. When it was declared
that soil, climate, and unrestrained migration should be left to fix
the _status_ of the territories, and institutions of the States to be
formed out of them, no one probably anticipated that companies would be
incorporated to transport colonists into a territory with a view to
decide its political condition. Congress, as he believed, yielding too
far to the popular idea, had surrendered its right of revision and thus
had recently lost its power to restrain improper legislation in the
territories. From these joint causes had arisen the unhappy strife in
Kansas, which at one time threatened to terminate in civil war. The
Government had been denounced for the employment of United States
troops. Very briefly he would state the case.
The movement of the Emigrant Aid Societies of the North was met by
counteracting movements in Missouri and other Southern States. Thus
opposing tides of emigration met on the plains of Kansas. The land was
a scene of confusion and violence. Fortunately the murders which for a
time filled the newspapers, existed nowhere else; and the men who were
reported slain, usually turned up after a short period to enjoy the
eulogies which their martyrdom had elicited. But arson, theft and
disgraceful scenes of disorder did really exist, and bands of armed men
indicated the approach of actual hostilities. What was the Government
to do? Perhaps you will say, call out the militia. But that would have
been to feed and arm one of the parties for the destruction of the
other. To call out the militia of neighboring States would have been
but little better. The sectional excitement then ran so high, that they
would probably have met upon the fields of Kansas as combatants, the
government in the meantime furnishing the supplies for both armies. It
was necessary to have a force—one which would be free from sectional
excitement or partisan zeal and under executive control. The army
fulfiled these conditions. It was therefore employed. It dispersed
marauding parties, disarmed organized invaders, arrested disturbers of
the peace, gave comparative quiet and repose to the territory, without
taking a single life, aye, or shedding one drop of blood. The end
justified the means, and the result equaled all that could have been
anticipated.
The anomalous condition of a territory possessing full legislative
power, but not invested with the sovereignty of a State, justified the
anxiety exhibited by Congress to be relieved from the embarrassment
which the case of Kansas presented. The Senate passed a bill to
authorize a convention for the preparation of a constitution for the
admission of Kansas as a State. It however failed in the House of
Representatives, and the legislature of Kansas, availing themselves of
the plenary power conferred upon them by the organic act, proceeded to
provide for the assembling of a convention, and the formation of a
constitution. The law was minute and fair in its provisions, so nearly
resembling the bill of the Senate that the one was probably copied from
the other. It seemed to secure to every legal voter every desirable
opportunity to exercise his right. One of the parties of the territory,
however, denying the legal existence of the legislature, chose to
abstain from voting. The other elected the delegates who formed the
constitution. The validity of the instrument he has been denied,
because it was not submitted for popular ratification. He held this
position to be wholly untenable, and could but regard it as a gross
departure from the principle of popular sovereignty. A people—he used
the word in its strict political sense—having the right to make for
themselves their fundamental law, may either assemble in mass
convention for that purpose, or may select delegates and limit their
power to the preparation of an instrument to be submitted to a popular
decision; or they may appoint delegates with full powers to frame the
fundamental law of the land. Whether they adopt one mode or the other
is a question with which others have no right to interfere, and he who
claims for Congress the power to sit in judgment on the manner in which
a people may form a constitution, is outside of the barrier which would
restrain him from claiming for Congress the right to dictate the
instrument itself. If the right existed to form a constitution at all,
the power of Congress in relation to the instrument was limited to the
simple inquiry: is it republican? In this view of the case it would not
matter to him the ninety-ninth part of a hair whether a people should
chose to admit or exclude slave property. Their right to enter the
Union would be a thing apart from that consideration.
He had felt great doubt as to the propriety of admitting Kansas, and
had only yielded those doubts to the peculiar necessities which seemed
to make the case exceptional. The inhabitants of the territory had
however decided not to enter the Union upon the terms proposed, and he
thought their decision was fortunate. They had not the requisite
population; their resources were too limited to give assurance that
they would be able to bear the expenses of their government and
properly to perform the duties of a State. But more than this, their
legislative history shows that they are wanting in the essential
characteristics of a community; whichever party has had the control of
the legislature, has manifested by its acts not a desire to promote the
public good, and protect individual rights, but a purpose to war upon
their political opponents as a hostile power. The political party with
which he most sympathized had marked its legislation by requiring test
oaths, offensive to all our notions of political freedom; and the other
party had assumed to take from the territorial executive the control of
the militia and to place it in irresponsible hands, where, it reports
speak truly, it has been employed in the most wanton outrages and
disgraceful persecution of citizens of the opposite political party. He
held, therefore, that the decision of the inhabitants was fortunate and
wise. It was well, that before they assume the responsibilities of a
State, they should gather population, develop the natural resources of
the country, and above all acquire the homogeneous character which
would give security to person and property, and fit them to be justly
denominated a community.
A stranger, and but a passing observer of events in Maine, he had
nevertheless seen indications of a reaction in popular opinion, which
promised hopefully for the future of Democracy, _hopefully_, it might
be permitted for one to say who believed that the success of the
Democracy was the only hope for the maintenance of the constitution and
the perpetuation of the Union which sprung from and cannot outlive it.
If the language of his friend who preceded him should prove prophetic,
the waving of the banner he described would be the dawning of a day
which would bring gladness and confidence to many a heart now clouded
with distrust, and loud would be the cheers which, on distant plain and
mountain, would welcome Maine again to her position on the top of the
Democratic pyramid. He saw a brighter sky above him; he felt a firmer
foundation beneath his feet, and hoped ere long through a triumph
achieved by the declaration of principles, suited to every latitude and
longitude of the United Slates, to receive the assurance that we have
passed the breakers —that our ship may henceforth float freely on—that
our flag, no longer threatened with mutilation or destruction, shall
throw its broad stripes to the breeze and gather stars until its
constellation shines a galaxy, and records a family of States embracing
the new world and its adjacent islands.
Speech at State Fair at Augusta, ME.
[From the Eastern Argus, Sept 29,1858.]
On Thursday evening a large and brilliant audience assembled in the
Representatives’ Hall, in the Capitol, to listen to the distinguished
statesman from Mississippi, who, upon brief notice and without a
moment’s leisure for preparation, had kindly consented to address the
Agricultural Society. We have already spoken of the gratifying
character of what he termed his desultory remarks and of the cordially
enthusiastic manner in which both the orator and his address were
received. As the occasion, as well as the character of the remarks,
will make them interesting to the whole people of our State, we are
gratified in being able to lay before our readers a more extended and
accurate report of them than has before appeared.
At about half-past eight o’clock, the Society came into the Hall,
already crowded in every part, and its President, Hon. Samuel F.
Perley, in brief and complimentary terms, introduced Col. Davis, who
advanced to the speaker’s stand, and was received with loud and
prolonged applause. He said:
Ladies and gentlemen, friends and countrymen: To the many acts of
kindness received from the people of Maine, I have to add the welcome
reception this evening. The invitation of the Agricultural Society,
with the attendant circumstances, serve further to impress me with the
hospitality of ray fellow citizens of this State. Coming here, an
invalid, seeking the benefits which your clime would afford, and
preceded by a reputation which was expected to prejudice you
unfavorably towards me, I have everywhere met courtesy and considerate
attention, from the hour I landed on your coast to the present time. It
was natural to ask, whence come these manifestations? Is it because the
opinion which had been formed has been found to be unjust, and the
reaction has been in proportion to the previous impulse? Or is it the
exhibition of your regard for loyalty to one’s friends, and devotion by
a citizen to the community to which he belongs? Either the one or the
other is honorable to you; but there is a broader and more beneficent
motive—the prompting of that sentiment which would cause you to
recognize in every American citizen a brother. That feeling which
Daniel Webster indicated when he met me in company with your
distinguished townsman, ex-Senator Bradbury, and taking us with the
right hand and with the left, said in the peculiarly impressive manner
which belonged to him, “My brethren of the North and of the South, how
are ye?”
It is usual to offer to an Agricultural Society nothing less than a
prepared address, and had I come with an intention to speak to you, I
should not have failed to make that preparation which is evidence of
due regard for the audience. The invitation under which I now speak,
having been given and accepted this evening, I have no power to do more
than to offer you desultory remarks on such subjects as my visit to the
Fair have suggested, and which may occur to me as I progress.
With great pleasure I have witnessed evidences of much attention and
deep interest in agriculture. It is the basis of all wealth. It is the
producer—brings all new contributions to the general store. The
mechanic arts are essential to its success, and they serve by changing
the form, to multiply the value of agricultural products. And commerce
too, by exchanging the products of individuals and of countries,
enhances the value of labor, and increases the comfort of man. They are
all essential to each other. I have no disposition to magnify or
depreciate either, but my proposition is, that the soil is the source
from which human wealth springs. In addition to these pursuits, society
requires what are termed liberal professions. They are not producers,
though they may contribute, by diffusing knowledge, to increase
production. They may be necessary to give security to property and to
take care of some physical wants. For instance you have lawyers and
doctors; and the less need you have of them the better; for though
necessary, like government, it is evil which makes them so. As to
another class—those who have the cure of souls—their mission is so
sacred, their function so high as to place them beyond comment; and of
them I have nothing to say, except that I propose to say nothing.
Among the products of agriculture I of course intended to include the
farmer’s stock, and I must here bear my tribute of admiration to the
fine display which has been made of horned cattle; particularly of work
oxen, remarkable for their size, their adaptation to the purposes for
which they are kept and the docility and yet the unflagging spirit
which they manifested in the trials of strength and of deep ploughing.
I have not before seen such fine specimens of the Devon cattle,—of
course I speak of them as they present themselves to the eye—not
pretending to judge of their relative value to other stock exhibited.
Improvement in the breed of domestic animals goes hand in hand with
agricultural mechanism, to give the ability to make two blades of grass
to grow where but one grew before, and thus to render you indeed
benefactors. Skill in the use, and ingenuity in devising and
constructing implements, serve to render labor productive, and relieve
it of its most dreary drudgery. It is this mechanical ingenuity which
has compensated for the high price of labor among us, and aided in the
development of resources which makes our country the greatest of the
earth. Blest by soil, climate and government, if we are, as claimed,
pre-eminent among nations, it is because we have added to other
advantages a more general cultivation of the mind. The superiority is
attributable not so much to physical energy, activity and perseverance,
as to the improvement of that portion of the man which lies above the
eyes.
Though you have done much for the improvement of agricultural
implements, your work is far from being completed. It is not a little
surprising that we should, to this day, have no reliable rule by which
to make a plough, and though the model has been improved, certainly it
is yet not unlike, and so far as exact science is concerned, is on a
par with that implement as used by the Romans, and as it appeared in
ancient architecture; the form, proportion and angular relation of the
parts, and the adjustment of the whole to the power to be applied,
offer problems alike interesting to the mechanic, and useful to the
cultivator. In your ploughing matches sufficient evidence was afforded
of the fitness of the implements employed to turn deep and wide
furrows; but should we be content with such result as is obtained by
trying different models, and then copying one which is found to be
good?
Maine was so richly endowed with harbors and forests of ship timber
that it was naturally to be expected, as it has fallen out, that the
pursuits of navigation would most occupy the attention of her people.
But let not her sons look to the period when her forests have
disappeared as that beyond which her prosperity may not continue. There
are large tracts of land which when labor is no longer directed to
lumber, will become, in the hands of the farmer, what the valley of the
Kennebec now is. The land may not offer soil so deep as alluvial
districts, nor be at first as productive as those on which a deep
vegetable mould has accumulated, yet its productiveness may not be less
permanent than those. In them the elements which support the farmer’s
crop may be exhausted by cultivation or carried down into substrata of
gravel or sand. In the remote West to which so many are pressing, the
emigrant will encounter an arid climate in which irrigation is
necessary to ensure a return for the labor of husbandry, and this
involves an original expenditure which it will usually require large
capital to bear. In this climate the sun, like a mighty pump, is daily
raising the water which the currents of cold air from the mountains, or
from the sea, precipitate in the form of genial showers during the
period of your growing crops; and the granite of the mountains slowly,
but steadily disintegrating, gives up its fertilizing property to be
scattered by unseen hands over plain and over valley. With care and
with skill in its use I can see no end to the productiveness of that
portion of your land which is fit for cultivation.
Your crops, and your mode of tillage are different from that to which I
am accustomed, and the result is that each supplies a different segment
in the circle of man’s wants. I am glad that it is so, that it must
necessarily be so. Glad, because it is an everlasting bond between us;
one which, whilst it binds, renders both doubly prosperous. Blessed is
our lot in this, that our fathers linked us together, and established
free trade between us. In the diversity of climate, and of crops, there
is an assurance that entire failure cannot occur. If disaster and
blight should fall upon one section, it need not go to a foreign land
in search of bread. Famine, gaunt famine, with its skeleton step, can
never pass our borders whilst the free trade of the Union continues.
But difference in pursuits, in population, and domestic institutions,
have been made the basis of hostile agitation, and urged as a cause of
separation. To my mind the reverse would be the rational conclusion.
Each exchanging, the surplus of that which it can best produce for the
surplus of another which it most requires, the benefit must be mutual,
and the advantage common. Here is a commercial, a selfish bond to hold
us together. But I will stop here, because the current of my thought is
carrying me beyond the limit of topics proper to the occasion, and I
must offer as an apology the fact, that though myself a cultivator of
the soil, my mind has for several years been given so much to political
subjects, that in speaking without having previously arranged what to
say, the thought inadvertently runs from the matter I wished to
present, into collateral questions of governmental concern. Before
turning back, however, into the original channel, permit me to say that
the diversity of which I have been speaking, formed no small inducement
to the union of the States, and that it has been through that union
that we have attained to our present position, and stand to-day, all
things considered, the happiest, and among the greatest in the family
of nations.
In looking around upon the evidences you have brought of mechanical and
agricultural improvement, I have viewed it not with the curiosity of a
stranger, but with the interest of one who felt that he had a part in
it, as an exhibition of the prosperity of his country. The whole
confederacy is my country, and to the innermost fibres of my heart I
love it all, and every part. I could not if I would, and would not if I
could, dwarf myself to mere sectionality. My first allegiance is to the
State of which I am a citizen, and to which by affection and
association I am personally bound; but this does not obstruct the
perception of your greatness, or admiration for much which I have found
admirable among you.
Yankee is a word once applied to you as a term of reproach, but you
have made it honorable and renowned. You have borne the flag of your
country from the time when it was ridiculed as a piece of striped
bunting, until it has come to be known and respected wherever the ray
of civilization has reached; and your canvass-winged birds of commerce
have borne civilization into regions, where it is not boasting to say,
but for your prowess it would not have gone. You have a right to be
proud of your achievements as well on the land as the sea. Well may you
point as you do with satisfaction, to your school houses and your
work-shops, and to the fruits they have borne on the forum and in the
council chamber, and in the manufactures which have increased the
comforts of our own people, and have encircled the globe to find
exchangeable products required at home. Those are the greatest and most
beneficent triumphs—the triumph of mind over matter. These are the
monuments of greatness, which resist both time and circumstance.