Reply of Hon. John J. McRae, to the speech of Senator Foote

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Mr. FOI >TE. J will detain th^ Senate l>nt a moment longer, J was not ono ol the

Commiltco of Thirteen, but I was one who most cordially applauded their labors ; and I think they did a great deal. Certain it is that these hills were reported by the Committee mi Territories ; but it was equally certain — and 1 believe 1 maysay that without egotism — that tho report of the Committee on Territories was based upon hills introduced by my-

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi, (in his seat.) Oh, yes, I give you all the credit for that.

Mr. FOOTE. Now I feel bound to say, in reply to my colleague, that I differ with him mnch upon a certain delicate point which he brought to our notice this morning. Vv e differ, sir, now as we always differ — as friends ; and whatever difference of opinion may exist between us, I tako pleasure in uniformly referring to him as a gentleman whoso motives are as good as my own, though his judgment with regard to certain measures is not in accordance with mine. Ho has concluded by saying that ho does not represent that public opinion which is in accordance with this plan of adjustment. I am gratified at having it in my power to say that I do represent that precise state of public opinion which he repudiates. I feel bound to say, in addition, (and I say it with my hand on my heart, and with the solemn determination to tell the truth about this matter, as I understand and believe it,) that my opinion is, that nine-tenths of the enlightened freemen of the State of Mississippi are now, and have been all along, cordially in favor of this much abused plan of adjustment; and I predict that they will deliberately and formally sanction hereafter all that the Committee have done. I believe they will declare their approbation of all tinlabors of the Committee, and avow their concurrence in all that I have done and said al any time, as one of their Senatorial representatives. Such is my opinion. My colleague entertains a different opinion. We shall soon be at home among our constituents, where we shall confer together as friends, and where we shall consult our mutual constituents also as friends. I go for consulting them, and if they decide against me, I shall be no longer an occupant of a seat in this body.

Mr. HALE. Mr. President, I rise to enquire what is the question before the Senate.

The PRESIDENT. It is on the passage of the bill to "suppress the slave trade in the District of Columbia."

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. Mr. President, I have heretofore declined to state by vulgar fractions the opinions of the State which I represent. I do not intend to do so now. I have heretofore stated that I believed I represented tho opinions of my constituents in opposing these measures. I am firm in that belief. But I do not intend to argue with my colleague about his opinions. I am well assured he will find no nine-tenths in any one county, still less in the State of Mississippi, favoring his course on these measures. Tho language expressed by my colleaguo here on other occasions excited surprise in Mississippi, and has been remarked upon by the public press. I know of no community in Mississippi, not a single town or county, whero I believe ho can find a majority in favor of all these measures — and nine-tenths is such a majority as scarcely leaves oposition to any proposition. That nine-tenths of the people of the Stato are in favor of a system of measures which nearly every prominent man in the State has condemned, is an assertion that marks clearly how far the warm impulses of the gentleman, when pursuing any measure to which he attaches himself, will lead him from the calmer feeling of his maturer judgment.

As to tho opinion of my colleague, I know him too well to doubt that he says what he thinks. I know him well enough to be assured that his excitability has led him into error iii relation to thi matte Wkenl ind [ visit our constituents at tho short perio I

he refers, he will find where public opinion is.

Mr. FOOTE Mr. President, a single word.

The PRESIDENT. Tho Chair is under the necessity of stopping this course of debate. It is not at all relevant to the question under consideration.

Mr. FOOTE. I hope tho chair will bear with mo while making a single remark. I am perfectly willing to obido by tho decision to which my colleague refers. And I am willing to leave it to tho Senato and to the country to decide whether he or 1 urn tinmore " excitable " man of the two. [Laughter.]

Mr. MASON called for the yeas and nays on the passage of the bill, and they were ordered, and were as follows :

Yeas — Messrs. Baldwin, Bright, Cass, Chaso, Clark, Clay, Cooper, Davis, of Massachusetts, Dayton, Diekiuson, Dodge, of Wisconsin, Dodge of Iowa, Douglas, Ewing, Felch, Fremont, Green, Gwin, Hale, Hamlin, Houston, Jones, Norris, Seward, Shields, Spruauce, Sturgeon, Underwood, Wales, Walker, Whitcomb, and Winthrop — 33.

Nays — Messrs. Atchison, Badger, Barnwell, Bell, Berrien, Butler, Davis, of Mississippi, Dawson, Downs, Hunter, King, Mangum, Mason, Morton, Pratt, Sebastian. Soule,Turney, and Yulee — 19.

Tho Senator did not vote but he says I may consider him as having voted for the bill. This places him in tho category with Chase, Seward, and Hale, and I understood my friend, Judge Smith, in his opening speech to say that the Senator, ouly a day or two since at Hillsboro,' pledged himself to resign his seat in the Senate if his name could be found recorded in the vote with these gentlemen on any question involving the interests of the South connected with slavery.

Mr. FOOTE. I so stated, but do you ask me to resign for saying that you may consider mo as having voted for this bill ?

Mr. McRAE. Not at all. I do not ask the Senator to risign for anything. A Senator who disobeys the instructions of the Legislature, his immediate constituents, cannot be expected to yield to the request of the citizen, nor to bo held responsible to his private pledges. But if the Senator will abide by his pledges, I will show him before I conclude, that ho will be compelled to resign, The Senator nods assent that he will. Then ho will have to resign, as I will show him in the sequel.

The second position of the Senator and his party, in their Lhiion platform, is, " that any act of Congress, repealing or materially modifying the laws now in force for tho recovery of fugitive slaves, is to be resisted to the disruption of every tie whichbinds the Stub to the Union." Now, the Senator, I believe, supported and voted for the Fugitive Slave law. He believes it the great compensating advantage which tho South received in tho legislation of Congress, for the spoliation from her of the territories, and tho admission and assertion of the power of Congress to liberate and free slaves. Though the large majority of Southern Senators believed that it was the mere carrying out of a plain, express, constitutional right, which did not admit of compromise. He believes in the constitutional power of Congress to pass this law, and of the constitutional power of Congress to " repeal or modify it." Tho constitutional power of Congress over this subject, with a few exceptions, is generally conceded. I believe myself, with Mr. Webster, that it is peculiarly tho duty of the States to deliver up fugitive slaves, and to provide suitablo laws for this purpose. He says in his great speech of tho 7th of March, on Mr. Clay's resolutions :

" No man fulfils his duty in any legislature who sots himself to find excuses, ova^i^n scapes from this constitutional obligation. I have always thought that tin- Constition addressed itself to tho Legislatures of the States, or to the States themselves. It says that those persons escaping to other States shall he delivered up, and I confess I have always been of tho opinion that it was ail injunction upon the States themselves. Where it is said that a person escaping into another State, and becoming, therefore, within the jurisdiction of that State, shall bo delivered up ; it seems to me tho import of the passage is that tho Stato itself, in obedience to tho Constitution, shall cause him to bo delivered up. That is my judgment. I havo always entertained that opinion, and I entertain it now."

" In this opinion of Mr. Wohstor, fellow-citizens, I concur, but at sho samo time, I believe, that if tho States fail or rofuso to do their duty on this subject, Congress has concurrent jurisdiction with them under tho Constitution, and has the power to pass laws to enforce this constitutional provision. Tho Senator, however, believes in the constitutional power of Congress over this subject to its fullest and most unlimited extent, ho oven went so far as to advocate a proposition to make tho United States liable to tho owner of the :;lavo which was not recovered, for its value, instead of the State, by whoso opposition tho fugitive escaped, by which tho South would havo to pay, through tho national treasury; one-half or two-thirds of the valuo of her slaves, stolen by the abolitionists. Ho boliovos in tho entiro constitutional power of Congress to enact, and by consequence, to repeal or modify tho fugitive slave law, and yet he says in his great devotion to Union, that " if ( longress repeals or materially modifies this law," which they have a porfoct constitutional right to do, and provido any other sullicient law, or leavo standing the old law of 1793, enacted under Washington, as good a law as the South desires, if tho Northern States and peoplo would faithfully execute it, ho is for "resistance," " to a disruption of emery tic which hinds the State to the Union." Tho Senator and his party must bo great lovers of the Union, or else they aro endeavoring to play tho greatest and clumsiest farco that ever was enacted, on so serious a question, before an intelligent peoplo.

But there is another view of tho Senator's great Union platform, to bo taken. It is this, that in tho event of tho violation of either of tho propositions, laid down in it, which I havo discussed, "secession," "disunion," is to take place, as a separate stato measure: by single, separato Stato action. Tho language of tho platform is: "Tho Stato of Georgia, in tho judgement of this Convention, will and ought to resist, even as a last. resort, to a disruption of every tio which binds her to tho Union, any action of Congress upon the subject of slavery in tho District of Columbia," &€., "or any act repealing or materially modifying the laws now in force for tho recovery of fugitivo slaves." Tho Senator, "avows his purpose to abide by tho Georgia platform, which ho thinks should bo introduced into tho November State Convention, verbatim, and passod without delay, and that tho Convention should then immediately adjourn." Tho Stato of Mississippi, then separately, single-handed, and upon her own hook, in tho judgement of the Senator, and his most excellent Union Party, in tho event of a violation of either of tho abovo articles of their faith will and outfltt to resist, even as the last resort to a disruption of evert/ tic which hinds her to the Union."

Well, fellow citizens, looking to tho position of tho Senator and his party, and their efforts to deceived tho poople with tho false cry of Union, under which thoy mask themselves, this plathform is going a littlo farther towards " disunion " per He in rem ami in a-, than any thing I havo yet seen ; and a little farther, than I had supposed ouroxccllent I hiion loving friends would have dared to venture. In making these remarks T would uot bo understood, to oppooo rosititanco to legislation by Congress " Upon tho subject of slavery in the District of Columbia." " or the repeal, or essential modification of the fugitive slave law." I think they ought to bo resisted, but I think the friends of Southern Rights, the friends of equality of right, and the safety of the South at this moment of peril to her liberty, and her institutions, the party upon whose platform I stand, occupy the true position on that question, and are tho true Union men, by whose efforts alone, the Union must bo sustained, if it can be at all, as it was framed for us by our fathers ; granting to each State, and to every American citizen, equality of right and dignity in the Union, and in all its territory whether North or South, or upon the Atlantic or Pacific shores.

That tho Senator and his party, who have been instrumental in bringing upon u wrongs which have been done, us, by the legislation of Congress, under what is called the " scheme of adjustment," acquiescing in, submiting to, and rejoicing over these measures, by which the South has been despoiled of the Territories — a sovereign slave State, shorn of a part of her domain, to make it free soil, for a price offered for her acceptance, with the alternative of the sword, if rejected — the power of Congress, asserted, to liberate and free slaves in tho District of Columbia, and thereby encouraging and inviting further aggres sion, should sot themselves up as the "par excellence *' friends of tho Union, and at tho same time lay down a platform of their faith, declaring that " any action of Congress upon the subject of slavery in the District of Columbia,'' which they have admitted, tho principle, the power and tho right of Congress to take, "or any act repealing or materially modifying the fugitive slave law," over which they acknowledge the constitutional power of Congress, are to bo resisted by the separate State action of Mississippi, "to a. disruption of every tic which binds her to the Union!'' — I say that tho Senator and his party under such circumstances, and occupying such a position should claim to bo the genuine Simon pure union men, and denounce all others who differ with them, as "disimionists" and "traitors," is simply to my mind ridiculous, and too shallow a pretence to deceive the intelligent people of Mississippi, whoso rights and whoso interests have been so grossly betrayed, by the "scheme" of the pretended "compromise."

" I come now, fellow citizens, to consider the position of the friends of Southern Rights, tho platform upon which I stand, upon which in my judgment, tho safety of tho South and the integrity of tho Union depends, and upon which I believe the great majority of the people of Mississippi will stand at the ballot box in September and November, when the questions are fairly understood by them. This position can be best and most concisely presented by an extract from a letter of your distinguished and faithful Senator, Col. JefF. Davis, written at Jackson, Nov. 19th, 1850, and addressed to Messrs. Nabors, Ames, and other self-styled Union gentlemen, and by reference to a very able address to the people of Mississsippi, by the Hon. A. M. Clayton, one of the judges of tho high Court of our State. Col. Davis says, as his opinion of our duty in the present crisis.

" I am in favor of tho execution of the plan indicated by the State Convention of October, 1849, the address of that Convention to the slaveholding states, and by the Legislature of the state at its last session, which I consider may be stated thus : to submit the question to tho people, in a law, for the assembling of a Convention of tho State, to consider of and decide on our present condition and future prospects, and the measures which should bo adopted. To prepare for the defence of the State, armed if needed be. To propose a Convention of the slaveholding States, to be composed of formly elected delegates, which should unit© all those States who were willing to assert their equality, and right to equal protection, and equal enjoyment of tho common property. Tho States thus united should, in my opinion demand of tho other States, such euranties as would secure to them tho safety, the benefits, tho tranquility which the Union was designed to confer."

Tho Clayton Address defines that these "guaranties" are, which Col. Davis says should be demanded of the other States through a Convention of the slave-holding States, composed of formly elected delegates, to secure to the South, the safety, the benefits, the tranquility which the Union was designed to confer. The Address suggests that this convention should demand:

A guarantee that fugitive slaves should be delivered up, in the same way that fugitives from justice are, and that the Stato authority shall assist in and compel their delivery.

A guarantee that all future discussion or agitation of the subject of slavery in the halls of Congress shall be excluded, unless with a view to extend to it the protection given to other descriptions of property.

A guarantee by which either of the two great sections of the confederacy should, in future, be deprived of the power of oppressing the other by unequal and unjust taxation, whether direct or indirect.

Also, that it should ask that Congress shall extend the Missouri Compromise line to tho Pacific Ocean, and to that end, obtain the consent of California that such line may constitute her southern boundary, and that the right of the people of the slave-holding states, to carry their slaves to all territory south of it, shall be acknowledged and secured.

To make these guarantees effectual, the Addresses suggested that the three first shall be made a part of the fundamental law — that they shall be incorporated as additional articles in the constitution of the United States. The last is an application to the descretion of Congress to do justice to the South and establish her equality of right in tho Union.

This, fellow-citizens, is the platform of the friends of Southern Rights — in my judgment the true Union party, desiring to preserve the Union as it was established, not as a means of degradation, and an engine of oppression, but to "establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity "

The two first of the above guarantees, if made a part of the fundamental laws, would be incorporated as additional articles in the Constitution, simply as articles of construction ; it being now the judgment and position of all parties in the South, that Congress has strictly under the Constitution, no power to agitate or act upon the subject of slavery anywhere except to give to it tho protection which is given to all other property ; and it been further the opinion of all parties in the South, corroborated by that of many northern statesmen, especially of Mr. Webster, which I have already presented to you, that the Constitution is now directory to the States — is a command to them to deliver up fugitive slaves, and that it is their special duty to do so, and to provide by law for their most early and effectual delivery.

The third guarantee, if made a part of the fundamental law, would bo incorporated as a positive additional article in the Constitution, rendered necessary by the destruction of the equal powers of tho two sections in confederacy, by tho lato action of Congress in depriving the South of her equal right in the territory, thereby securing to the North a permanent sectional majority in the control of the government, and making it absolulely essential, looking to the spirit of hostility in tho North against our institutions, and the antagonist interests of northern to southern labor, for tho advantage and support of which they use tho government against us, that the South shall have certain security against unjust and oppressive taxation either directly or indirectly. Should this guarantee bo obtained, and Congress should fail in an honest effort to obtain from California her consent to make the line of 36 30 her southern boundary, in its extension to the Pacific on the terms demanded, it would afford tho south in some measure redress for the past, by giving her assurance that the equal power of the two sections was not destroyed in the settlement of the territorial questions for the purpose of oppressing her, and would leave her a just hope of security in the future.

Col. Davis, in his letter, further says :

" If" these guarantees "bo granted, the minorty could live in equality under the temple of our federal compact ; if refused, it would be conclusive evidence of the design of the majority, to crush all paper barriers beneath the heel of power ; the gulf of degradation would yawn before us. The equality to which we were born being denied, and tho alternative of slavish submission or manly resistance being presented to us, I shall be in favor of the latter. Then, if full provision has been made, in the preparation of arms, of munitions of war, of manufacturing establishments, and all the varieties of agriculture to which our climate and soil are adapted, the slave-holding States, or even the planting States, may apply the last remedy — the final alternative of separation without blood-shed or severe shock to commercial interests. Painful under any circumstances it must be to those who have through life cherished the hope of perpetuity to our Union, to see it destroyed ; but faithful history will record our many sacrifices to preserve it, and the responsibility of its destruction must attach to those who, by assailment of the constitution, which they have the power to violate and not the will to observe, have stifled in the Union the breath of its existence. A most unfair attempt has been made to put in the foreground the question of Union or Disunion by those who were violating or surrendering our constitutional rights. To yield to aggression is to produce, certainly in the future, that condition from which dissolution must and civil war probably will spring ; unless it be assumed, that the southern minority will hereafter consent to occupy such a position, towards the northern majority as the colonies of North America, on the 4th July, 1776, determined not to hold towards the Kingdom of Great Britian."

Again, he says :

" If any have falsely and against the evidences before them, attempted to fix on me the charge of wishing to dissolve the Union, under existing circumstances, I am sure your information and intelligence have enabled you to detect the shallow fraud. If any have represented me as skeeing to establish a southern confederacy, on the ruins of that which our revolutionary fathers bequeathed to us, my whole life, and every sentiment I have ever uttered, in public or private, give them the lie.

If any have supposed gratuitously, (they could not otherwise,) that my efforts in tho Senate were directed to the secession of Mississippi from the Union, their hearts must have been insensible to the obligations of honor and good faith, which I feel are imposed upon me, by the position of an accredited agent from Mississippi, to the Federal Government."

The Clayton Address says: "If redress like this (the guarantees demand) can be obtained the whole difficulty will be ended, by means which cannot meet objection from any quarter."

Again it says : " If the North shall refuse to accede to our just demands, then will come up for decision the question, whether we shall submit to grievous wrongs, and take the position of inferiority assigned to us in the Union, or look to ourselves for the protection of our rights and our institutions out of it. The evidence of hostility on their part will be complete — the cup of submission ononis will'be full. Non-action beyond that point, will

1)0 unconditional submission. If wo would remain a free people, wo must resort to such remedies, as, under existing circumstances, should then promise to be most effectual."

Again, the Address says : "We are by no means prepared to recommend to the people of Mississippi at this time, to take this step ("secession") in advance of her sister states, even should our complaints go unheeded ; but as a measure of precaution, it will become the duty of the Convention to act with reference to the consequences of a refusal, on the part of the Government of the United States, to redress these grievences and to afford guaranties for our future protection and safety, and to that end to provide for the appointment of delegates, whose duty it shall be, in case of such refusal, to meet the delegates of the other Southern States in Convention, and jointly to consider of the grievences, and the mode and measure of redress. — The plan of action thus to be devised by their united wisdom, to bo laid before the people of the States therein represented, for their final adoption or rejection."

And again : "We have no desire for a severanco of this Union. Long may it survive if it can be brought back to its pristine purity, to dispense equal justice, and insure domestic tranquility, to a free, united and happy people. We are ready to surrender much to preserve it."

T have thus, fellow-citizens, presented to you fairly the platforms of the two parties. The one upon which the Senator stands contemplates a dissolution of the Union, as I have shown, upon the happening of either of two contingencies, which by his action heretofore and his admissions now, Congress has a right to create, and which, looking to the progress of freesoil sentiment at the North, in its triumphs of fanaticism and power over the popular and legislative assemblies, by the conduct of the Senator and his party, acquiescing in, submitting to, and rejoicing over the wrongs which have been done to the South by the legislation of Congress, thereby inviting further aggressions upon our rights, it is rendered most certain will take place. He stakes, and hazards, the dissolution of the Union, upon the happening of either of two events, which he says the state of Mississippi, singly, separately, by her own separate State action, "will and ought to resist, in the last resort, to a disruption of every tie which binds her to the Union," at the same time daring, and chalenging, his Northern adversaries, who are steadily and deliberately marching up to his marks, to the accomplishments of these results, having, by his former and present conduct, invited and welcomed them, to their performance.

The platform upon which I stand, and the party of Southern Rights, states no such hazard of the Union. It seeks its preservation under the Constitution, by a course of reasoning with our adversaries at the North who would destroy it. — It seeks organization through the Union of the southern states, to demand reasonable redress for past wrongs with just security for our future safety, and places the alternative upon the Northern people, who have a majority in the Government, of deciding upon the dissolution of the Union, if such an event must occur, in the preference to granting us these demands, which call upon them for no sacrifice of their honor, their interests, or their rights. And in the event of their refusal, it refers back to the peoplo of the aggrieved states looking to the condition of things at the time to decide upon the mode and moasnre of redress — the means to be adopted for their security and safety, the preservation of their rights, their liberties, their honor and their independence as a free and happy people.

You will easily dctermino, fellow-citizens, under this state of facts whether the

Senator or myself, is nearest the "dismrionist," or the "traitor."' He stands with the position indelibly stamped upon him, of the enemy of his country, contemplating tho dest ruction of the Government, by hazarding its existence upon a mark to which he chalenges his adversaries with the acknowledement, on his part, of their constitutional rio-ht to come to it, and to which by his conduct, he welcomes and invites them.

The Senator closed his remarks by refering to the letter which, with his colleague, Col. Davis, and our Representatives in Congress, he addressed to Gov. Quitman, declaring the admission of California as a State under all the circumstances of her application, as the Wilmot Proviso in another form. He says it was a mere private letter, deemed of so little importance that he even signed Col. McWillie's name to it — that Gov. Brown was surprised, and regretted as much as anybody that it was made by the Governor, an official communication to the Legislature, and that poor Quitman, wishing to raise an excitement, or produce a new issue, thought proper to make it an official document, as the basis of a special message to the Legislature.

Now, fellow-citizens, this is a truly new phase to this matter. Such an allusion as that made by the Senator to Gov. Quitman, passes away into contempt, with the breath which utters it, I shall not notice that. But to the letter, I hold it in my hand and it refutes upon its face every statement of the Senator. A private letter ! It is addressed to "His Excellency John A. Quitman, Governor, &c, &c. Not to be communicated to the Legislature ! It calls directly for an "expression of opinion by the Legislature, the Governor, and if practicable by the people." To make a new issue. It declares " the proposition to admit California as a state under all circumstances of her application as an attempt to adopt the "Wilmot Proviso" in another form. But I read you tho whole letter.