MR. CLAY'S PLAN OF COMPROMISE.
Early in the session Mr. Clay brought into the Senate a set of
resolutions, eight in number, to settle and close up once and for
ever, all the points of contestation in the slavery question, and to
consolidate the settlement of the whole into one general and lasting
compromise. He was placed at the head of a grand committee of
thirteen members to whom his resolutions were to be referred, with a
view to combine them all into one bill, and make that bill the final
settlement of all the questions connected with slavery. Mr. Benton
opposed this whole plan of pacification, as mixing up incongruous
measures--making one measure dependent upon another--tacking
together things which had no connection--as derogatory and perilous
to the State of California to have the question of her admission
confounded with the general slavery agitation in the United
States--as being futile and impotent, as no such conglomeration
of incongruities (though christened a compromise) could have
any force:--as being a concession to the spirit of disunion--a
capitulation to those who threatened secession--a repetition of
the error of 1833:--and itself to become the fruitful source
of more contentions than it proposed to quiet. His plan was to
settle each measure by itself, beginning with the admission of
California, settling every thing justly and fairly, in the spirit
of conciliation as well as of justice--leaving the consequences to
God and the country--and having no compromise with the threat of
disunion. The majority of the Senate were of Mr. Benton's opinion,
which was understood also to be the plan of the President: but
there are always men of easy or timid temperaments in every public
body that delight in temporizations, and dread the effects of any
firm and straightforward course; and so it was now, but with great
difficulty--Mr. Clay himself only being elected by the aid of one
vote, given to him by Mr. Webster after it was found that he lacked
it. The committee were: Mr. Clay, chairman: Messrs. Cass, Dickinson,
Bright, Webster, Phelps, Cooper, King, Mason, Downs, Mangum, Bell,
and Berrien, members. Mr. Clay's list of measures was referred to
them; and as the committee was selected with a view to promote the
mover's object, a bill was soon returned embracing the comprehensive
plan of compromise which he proposed. The admission of California,
territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico, the settlement of
the Texas boundary, slavery in the District of Columbia, a fugitive
slave law--all--all were put together in one bill, to be passed or
rejected by the same vote! and to be called a system. United they
could not be. Their natures were too incongruous to admit of union
or mixture. They were simply tied together--called one measure; and
required to be voted on as such. They were not even bills drawn up
by the committee, but existing bills in the Senate--drawn up by
different members--occupying different places on the calendar--and
each waiting its turn to be acted on separately. Mr. Clay had made
an ample report in favor of his measure, and further enforced it by
an elaborate speech: the whole of which Mr. Benton contested, and
answered in an ample speech, some extracts from which constitute a
future chapter.