resentatives of slave states, and I say it because the rights of petition and of debate on that subject are effectually suppressednecessarily suppressed-in all the slave states, and because they are not always held in reverence even now, in the two houses of Congress. When freedom of speech on a subject of such vital interest shall have ceased to exist in Congress, then I shall expect to see slavery not only luxuriating in all new territories, but stealthily creeping even into the free states themselves. Believing this, and believing, also, that complete responsibility of the government to the people is essential to public and private safety, and that decline and ruin are sure to follow, always, on the train of slavery, I am sure that this will be no longer a land of freedom and constitutional liberty when slavery shall have thus become paramount. Auferre trucidare falsis nominibus imperium atque ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant. Sir, I have always said that I should not despond, even if this fearful measure should be effected; nor do I now despond. Although, reasoning from my present convictions, I should not have voted for the compromise of 1820, I have labored, in the very spirit of those who established it, to save the landmark of Freedom which it assigned. I have not spoken irreverently, even of the compromise of 1850, which, as all men know, I opposed earnestly and with diligence. Nevertheless, I have always preferred the compromises of the constitution, and have wanted no others. I feared all others. This was a leading principle of the great statesman of the South [Mr. CALHOUN]. Said he: "I see my way in the constitution; I can not in a compromise. A compromise is but an act of Congress. It may be overruled at any time. It gives us no security. But the constitution is a statute. It is a rock on which we can stand, and on which we can meet our friends from the nonslaveholding states. It is a firm and stable ground, on which we can better stand in opposition to fanaticism than on the shifting sands of compromise. Let us be done with compromises. Let us go back and stand upon the constitution." I stood upon this ground in 1850, defending freedom upon it as Mr. CALHOUN did in defending slavery. I was overruled then, and I have waited since without proposing to abrogate any compromises. It has been no proposition of mine to abrogate them now; but the proposition has come from another quarter-from an adverse one. It is about to prevail. The shifting sands of compromise are passing from under my feet, and they are now, without agency of my own, taking hold again on the rock of the constitution. It shall be no fault of mine if they do not remain firm. This seems to me auspicious of better days and wiser legislation. Through all the darkness and gloom of the present hour, bright stars are breaking, that inspire me with hope, and excite me to perseverance. They show that the day of compromises has passed for ever, and that henceforward all great questions between freedom and slavery legitimately coming here- and none other can come shall be decided, as they ought to be, upon their merits, by a fair exercise of legislative power, and not by bargains of equivocal prudence, if not of doubtful morality. The house of representatives has, and it always will have, an increasing majority of members from the free states. On this occasion, that house has not been altogether faithless to the interests of the free states; for although it has taken away the charter of freedom from Kansas and Nebraska, it has at the same time told this proud body, in language which compels acquiescence, that in submitting the question of its restoration, it would submit it not merely to interested citizens, but to the alien inhabitants of the territories also. So the great interests of humanity are, after all, thanks to the house of representatives, and thanks to God, submitted to the voice of human nature. Sir, I see one more sign of hope. The great support of slavery in the South has been its alliance with the democratic party of the North. By means of that alliance it obtained paramount influence in this government about the year 1800, which, from that time to this, with but few and slight interruptions, it has maintained. While democracy in the North has thus been supporting slavery in the South, the people of the North have been learning more profoundly the principles of republicanism and of free government. It is an extraordinary circumstance, which you, sir, the present occupant of the chair [Mr. STUART], I am sure, will not gainsay, that at this moment, when there seems to be a more complete divergence of the federal government in favor of slavery than ever before, the sentiment of universal liberty is stronger in all free states than it ever was before. With that principle the present democratic party must now come into a closer contest. Their prestige of democracy is fast waning, by reason of the hard service which their alliance with their slaveholding brethren has imposed upon them. That party perseveres, as indeed it must, by reason of its very constitution, in that service, and thus comes into closer conflict with elements of true democracy, and for that reason is destined to lose, and is fast losing the power which it has held so firmly and so long. That power will not be restored until the principle established here now shall be reversed, and a constitution shall be given, not only to Kansas and Nebraska, but also to every other national territory, which will be, not a tabula rasa, but a constitution securing equal, universal, and perpetual freedom. APPENDIX. SINCE the preceding pages were sent to the press, Mr. SEWARD has been re-elected to the Senate of the United States for the term of six years commencing the 4th day of March, 1855. The votes stood in the Senate as follows: The Senators who voted for Mr. SEWARD were Hon. WILLIAM H. ROBERTSON, of Westchester county. In the Assembly the votes were as follows:-- For WILLIAM H. SEWARD Daniel S. Dickinson Horatio Seymour John A. Dix . Millard Fillmore Scattering. The members of the Assembly who voted for Mr. SEWARD were as follows: NAMES. COUNTIES. NAMES. COUNTIES. Hon. Silas Baldwin, of St. Lawrence. Hon. C. Littlefield, of Jefferson. R. M. Blatchford, of New York. N. C. Boynton, of Essex. Aaron B. Brush, of Madison. Elisha W. Bushnell, Columbia. A. Churchill, of Otsego. J. V. H. Clark, of Onondaga. Edmond Cole, of Rensselaer. S. B. Cole, of Steuben. Robert B. Coleman, New York. W. Comstock, of Otsego. Alexander Davidson, of Albany. James Donnan, of Schenectady. F. S. Dumont, of Tompkins. Moses Eames, of Jefferson. Jonathan Edwards, Rensselaer. Josiah T. Everest, of Clinton. Lewis Fairchilds, of Chenango. Edward Fitch, of Franklin. Wesley Gleason, Fulton and Hamilton. A. W. Hull, of Montgomery. "Daniel Hunt, of Westchester. D. W. C. Littlejohn, of Oswego. James I. Lourie, of Washington. W. I. Machan, of Onondaga. P. H. Maguire, of New York. Joshua Main, of Jefferson. C. Miller, of Delaware. James M. Munro, of Onondaga. J. H. Ramsey, of Schoharie. David Rhoda, of Columbia. B. Smith, of Monroe. S. Smith, of Steuben. J. W. Stebbins, of Monroe. John Terhune, of Saratoga. |