CHAPTER VIII

THE GREAT DEBATES

THE climax of the debate on the Compromise of 1850 was reached early in March, when three remarkable addresses were delivered, differing in point of view and expression, each setting forth certain phases of public opinion. The speakers were Calhoun, Webster, and Seward. speech of the first, delivered by Senator Mason, was, in a sense, his valedictory to the Senate, his last pregnant utterance upon the theme which had been the passion of his life.

The

The speech was delivered on the 4th of March and was interesting mainly because of its statement with carefulness and precision of the numerical preponderance of the North and the reasons for Southern discontent. He declared that the ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise had excluded the South from territory that should have been left open to the emigration of masters with their slaves." He declaimed against the tariff and the system of internal improvements as militating against the interests of his section, and inveighed against the steady assumption of increased powers by the Federal government at the expense of the rights of the States. He declared that the dissimilar interests of the North and South were swinging them out of a common orbit, and pointed to the split in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Baptist Church, and to the impending separation in the Presbyterian Church as portentous

signs of national dissolution.

He added that the salvation of the Union rested with the North and that the method was by according to the South equal rights in the acquired territory; satisfaction in the matter of fugitive slaves; the cessation of abolition agitation; and consent to an amendment to the Constitution "which will restore to the South, in substance, the power she possessed of protecting herself before the equilibrium between the two sections was destroyed by the action of this government." He further said that the test of the attitude of the North toward the South would be furnished by its action in the case of California. He declared that its admittance with a free-clause constitution would be construed as notice served upon the South that the opposing section had a fixed determination irretrievably to destroy the equilibrium between the two

sections.

The nature of the constitutional amendment which Calhoun proposed should be adopted in the interests of the South appears in a posthumous essay. It was to provide for the election of two presidents, one for the North and the other for the South; both of whom were to have the power of veto upon legislation. The effect of the system of compromise upon the subject of slavery distribution is seen in this curious proposition of checks and balances upon the national executive. The constitutional amendment suggestion was not regarded with favor in the South, but Calhoun's personal leadership insured him a following of some fifty members of Congress.

Two of the great triumvirate had now spoken. There was a third to be heard. Daniel Webster rose to deliver his "Seventh of March Speech." Webster had maintained a haughty reserve throughout the winter. Unplacated and unapproachable, he declined all attempts of persons to give him advice. Now that he was to express himself upon the great theme, he gathered all the forces of his mighty nature together, marshalled the resources of his intellect, called to his aid the keenness of satire, the power of pathos, the

sublimity of figures of speech and set forth in a ponderous speech that carried his auditors by its very force, the theme as he had framed his convictions upon it. There was no one more versed in the history and structure of the national government than Webster. The man, who had during his public career written the nation's history into the annals of his own life, could command the attention not only of those who were his auditors upon this occasion, but the attention of the country and of the world. Edward Everett well said of him: "Whosoever in after times shall write the history of the United States for the last forty years will write the life of Daniel Webster." His profound legal sagacity might well evoke from Seward the tribute "Whatever else concerning him has been controverted by anybody, the fifty thousand lawyers of the United States conceded to him an unapproachable supremacy at the bar."

He had given to his speech the title "For the Union and the Constitution." He knew that he was going to offend the conscience party in his own State, but he consoled himself for the loss of home allegiance with the declaration. that, henceforth an American, he should have no locality but America. The speech was in effect an approval of Clay's resolutions without an acknowledgment of Clay, and at the same time compliment almost to the point of adulation was bestowed upon Calhoun and his Southern associates. Clay might speak for the sentiment of compromise, Calhoun might be the exponent of the Southern conscience, but it remained for Webster to announce the limits of concessions to be expected from Northern-born Whigs, who, like himself, were swayed by strong anti-slavery convictions. Clay called for compromise and conciliation, but Clay could pledge the South nothing of that which Webster, with ant ampleness that astounded his hearers, laid at her feet. Concessions indeed! Rather were they the elements of a complete capitulation. Webster appealed to the South to behold the brotherly love of the North. He called to the South to

"come out into the light of day and enjoy the fresh air of liberty and union.” He began his speech as follows: "I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the United States. It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United States; a body not yet moved from its propriety, not lost to a just sense of its own dignity and its own high responsibilities, and a body to which the country looks with confidence for wise, moderate, patriotic, and healing counsels. It is not to be denied that we liye in the midst of strong agitations, and are surrounded by very considerable dangers to our institutions of government. The imprisoned winds are let loose. The East, the West, the North, and the stormy South, all combine to throw the whole ocean into commotion, to toss its billows to the skies, and to disclose its profoundest depths. I do not affect to regard myself, Mr. President, as holding, or as fit to hold, the helm in this combat of the political elements; but I have a duty to perform, and I mean to perform it with fidelitynot without a sense of surrounding dangers, but not without hope. I have a part to act, not for my own security or safety, for I am looking out for no fragment upon which to float away from the wreck, if wreck there must be, but for the good of the whole, and the preservation of the whole; and there is that which will keep me to my duty during this struggle, whether the sun and the stars shall appear, or shall not appear, for many days. I speak to-day for the preservation of the Union. Hear me for my cause.' I speak to-day, out of a solicitous and anxious heart, for the restoration to the country of that quiet and that harmony which make the blessings of this Union so rich and so dear to us all. These are the topics that I propose to myself to discuss; these are the motives, and the sole motives, that influence me in the wish to communicate my opinions to the Senate and the country; and if I can do anything, however little, for the promotion of these ends, I shall have accomplished all that I desire."

When the speaker came to the subject of peaceable secession, which had been broached by Calhoun, he said: "I should much prefer to have heard from every member on this floor declarations of opinion that this Union should never be dissolved, than the declarations of opinion, that, in any case, under the pressure of any circumstances, such a dissolution was possible. I hear with pain, and anguish, and distress, the word 'secession,' especially when it falls from the lips of those who are eminently patriotic, and known to the country, and known all over the world, for their political services. Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, your eyes and mine are never destined to see that miracle. The dismemberment of this vast country without convulsion! The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep without ruffling the surface! Who is so foolish-I beg everybody's pardon-as to expect to see any such thing? Sir, he who sees these States now revolving in harmony around a common centre, expecting to see them quit their places, and fly off, without convulsion, may look, the next hour, to see the heavenly bodies rush from their spheres, and jostle against each other in the realms of space, without producing the crash of the universe. There can be no such thing as a peaceable secession. Peaceable secession is an utter impossibility. Is the great Constitution under which we live here, covering this whole country-is it to be thawed and melted away by secession, as the snows on the mountain melt under the influence of a vernal sun-disappear unobserved, and die off? No, sir! No, sir! I will not state what might produce the disruption of the States; but, sir, I see it as plainly as I see the sun in heaven-I see that disruption must produce such a war as I will not describe in its twofold character!

"Peaceable secession! peaceable secession!

The con

current agreement of all the members of this great republic to separate! Why, what would be the result? Where is the line to be drawn? What States are to secede? What is to remain American? What am I to be? An