Then would our territorial soil be free-not by restrictions, provisions, and the threatening mandates of federal legisla tion, but free and sacred to the cause of freedom; free for its people to lay the foundations of its government on such principles, and organize its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness, freedom of opinion, of the press, of religion, of education, of commercial intercourse. Having vindicated for the people of the Territories the same rights of self-government enjoyed by every other political community, I forbear to speculate whether they will be less discreet in its exercise than would those who desire to subject them to the influences of an external government. Let those who fear to intrust a people with their own domestic concerns, lest they should prove too weak or wicked to conduct them judiciously, resort to the mistaken and mischievous policy of restrictive legislation-a system founded in blind and selfish conceits, and as impotent in effect as it is narrow in design. Such territory as we acquire will be free, and thus I would leave its people and its domestic government; free as are the people of New York or of Virginia to lay the foundation of their government on such principles and organize its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their security, prosperity, and happiness. If they shall fail to do this, the experiment of self-government will fail with them.

It is nought to me how various, crude, or inconsistent are the speculations upon the principles which these resolutions contain, and what would be their effect if established. They stand upon the immutable basis of self-government, and will ultimately be vindicated and sustained by the American people in every section of the Union. But they will be opposed on grounds as various as the motives by which the opposition is induced. This is already evidenced by sections of the pubpress; which I notice, not as newspaper paragraphs merely, but for the interests they represent. Already the Charleston Mercury of South Carolina-a paper of conceded ability and extensive local influence-declares that their effect would be, to prohibit forever slavery in the acquired territory, and therefore, as a guardian of the slave interest, calls for their rejec tion; and papers in other sections, which employ the slave

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question as a political stalking-horse, to minister to the appetites of the morbid and alarm the fears of the timid, discover in them not only the effect but the design to propagate and extend slavery. But I leave these conflicting theories to be adjusted by those who are thus enabled to penetrate the future, and draw opposite results from the same premises; I leave the practical tests with those who shall be charged with the high responsibilities of their own government, under our glorious free system, under the Constitution it has framed and the Providence which has watched over it.

It would doubtless be well for those who represent these antagonisms, who feel that all newly acquired territory may be pre-occupied and monopolized, either by free labor on the one hand or by slave labor on the other, as the case may be, unless their favorite ideas are indulged, to remember that there are other dangers, either real or imaginary, to which it may be exposed if left to the free government of its own people. Our institutions invite the children of every clime to sit down under the wide-spreading branches of the tree of liberty, and we have no prohibitory or even protective impost duties upon social manners and customs, political opinions, or religious rites. It may be that the rugged Russian, allured by the gentle breezes of Mexico, may fall down from his hyperborean regions with his serfdom and his military rule; or the Tark choose to regale himself there with his pipes and mocha, his Georgian houris, sensual delights, and Mohammedan divinity; or, what is equally probable, as our Pacific possessions place us in direct communication with Asia, that the plains of Mexico may be desecrated by the trundling of the car of Juggernaut; or the subjects of the Celestial emperor-the brother of the sun and moon-may hurry thither, and ruin all agricultural interests by converting them into an extensive field of hyson.

But let those who entertain them dismiss all selfish and idle fears, regard others as wise, and as virtuous, and as capable of their own government, as themselves, and all will be well. The spirit of freedom will enlarge her own boundaries, and people the area, in obedience to laws stronger than the laws of Congress. The rich heritage we enjoy was won by the common blood and treasure of the North and South, the East and

the West, and was defended and vindicated by the same, in the second war of independence; and in the present war with a reckless and semi-barbarous foe, the brave sons of every section of the Union have fought and fallen side by side; the parched sands of Mexico have drunk together the best blood of New York and South Carolina. These recollections should renew and strengthen the ties which unite the members of the confederacy, and cause them to spurn all attempts at provoking sectional jealousies and irritations, calculated to disturb the harmony and shake the stability of the Union. In the language of Mr. Jefferson, they who indulge "this treason against human hope will signalize their epoch in future history as the counterpart of the model of their predecessors."

SPEECH,

ON THE BILL TO ESTABLISH TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENTS IN OREGON, CALIFORNIA, AND NEW MEXICO,

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, July 22, July 28, and August 13, 1848.

Mr. PRESIDENT-It will be recollected that the motion to refer this subject to a select committee was made by the honorable Senator from Delaware,* after an irritating debate of many days, which gave, at that time, no promise of termination, which was entirely sectional in its character, and was every day and every hour making the breach wider and the line broader which separates members of this Union from each other upon the question of domestic slavery. I hailed the motion to refer as a proposition of peace, and so announced at the time upon the floor of the Senate. To such a pitch, indeed, had the feelings of some become excited, that upon a motion to raise this committee, with a view to some satisfactory disposi tion of the question, the Senator from Connecticut † denounced all action, or even the attempt to adjust it, in advance; and declared, in substance, that Senators who should vote for any compromise of this question would be burned in effigy in some sections of the Union. This, sir, had very little influence upon me at the time; for I regard it as a very suitable proceeding, that those who have no better reasons or arguments to offer, should make images, as heartless and worthless as themselves, upon which to vent their brutal fury. Such threats, or even their execution, have no terrors for me;-they did not influence nor control my action at the time, nor will they now or hereafter. This committee was raised upon the

*MR. CLAYTON

+ MR. NILES.

motion of an experienced Senator, whose views upon the question which so much disturbs the harmony of the Union are known to be moderate and conciliatory. It was raised for the purpose of effecting a fair, honorable and constitutional adjustment, and of giving law and order to three great empires, now destitute of either.

The vote of the Senate ordering the committee, though strongly resisted by those who desire to keep the question open, was about three to one, and the members were elected nearly unanimously. They entered upon their labors with every disposition to discharge the duties cast upon them by the Senate, with the strictest fidelity. They saw Oregon-which had long been without law, except such as its inhabitants, without legal organization, but associated as a provisional government, had furnished-the prey of ferocious tribes of savages, who were murdering its defenceless people; and they felt deeply the necessity of extending the protecting ægis of our laws and Constitution over it-of strengthening its hands, and placing it on its way to the Union; and they placed the Oregon bill in a form to which none, as it seems to me, can object, unless such objection is taken without comprehending its provisions, or for the mere purpose of cavil. They saw the provinces of California and New Mexico destitute of any law whatever, except such as had been left by a subjugated people, and with no authority to administer even that-all military authority having terminated with the treaty of peace. They found the subject of organizing these. Territories-divided in opinion as they were, and as they knew the Senate to be-full of difficulty; and, after much labor and interchange of opinion, presented the bill in its present form, as the best and most acceptable that could be presented with any approach to unanimity or hope of success before the Senate.

If the South asked too much, and the North was willing to concede too little, they have neither given to the one nor taken from the other. They have not encroached upon the rights of either. They have left the question of slavery where they found it-subject to the Constitution and laws of the United States; while, at the same time, they have placed the Territories on their way to the Union, by the organization of pro