Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

DEBATES OF CONGRESS. 405 MAucH, 1826.] Negro Slavery in South America. rSENATE. rights ceased to be dear to us? Do they not with the manner in which words slip from their imply neutral duties? How long since the original meanings, and come to purport somefaith of the United States has become so cheap? thing very different from what anybody ever atThe warlike attitude and armor of these bel- tached to them when they first came into use: ligerents will, with every man of sober sense, the word sophist (a wise man) got so much into enter into the calculation of their means of en- disrepute, that philosopher (a lover of wisdom) forcing their principles of universal emancipa- had to supply its place; the word libertine tion upon us, through the instrumentality of an meant what a liberal means now; that is, a invasion and servile war of insurrection in Cu- man attached to enlarged and free principlesba-for, sir, a wise man will disregard threats a votary of liberty; but the libertines made so coming from a quarter which has no capacity ill a use of their principles, that the word has to enforce them; they indicate only a silly ma- come (even since the days of Shakspeare) to be lignity, that is best treated with contempt. taken in a bad sense; and liberal will share Any man who should be blockhead enough the same fate, I fear, if it contracts this black now to say, that he would take the President alliance. There are some other words, such as of the United States out of his palace in the pqrinciple, "conscience," which are also in great dead of night, and put him into a boat, and danger. But I am coming to a word which take him down the Potomac, and ship him off is in the mouth of every man in this country to a foreign country, would be taken for a every day, and all day long-it is Congress. moon-struck madman. Yet he who is said to Why, sir, although this body, this Senate, be have once uttered that threat, passed for a man indeed, in some sense, a Congress of deputies of very uncommon abilities. But this, sir, is a from sovereign States, yet-the constitution to threat which the parties have not only the ca- the contrary notwithstanding-(for if there is pacity, as well as the disposition, but the pecu- any thing that I find in the constitution itself liar capacity to carry into execution; and shall which I deem not to be true, I shall not scruple we stand idle? Shall we sit still, like those to deny it-or in any bill of rights, or declaraRoman Senators who had no other resource, tory act, or anywhere else-always excepting Mr. President, until the Gauls shall come into the Bible-because I do not believe that there this room, and after offering indignity to our is any thing in that book that is not true —not persons, finish the tragedy with our blood? meaning, however, to make a confession of my No, sir; we are not brought to that point-the faith)-this word Congress was properly apcapitol is untouched; the sentinels, it is to be plied to the deputies first assembled at Albany, hoped, are vigilant; the God Terminus has not to bring about a closer colonial union, and gone back-yes, sir, he has gone back -he has afterwards at Philadelphia, to create a Confedgiven way, and, at the very point, too, of weak- eracy that might enable us to carry on the war ness; and he who is now considered to be the with more effect against the common enemy. right arm of this administration, was the loud- At first, she was not the common enemy-we est and fiercest denouncer of that retrograde did not so consider her, or call her-we did, movement, and of the councils under which it indeed, call her our unkind mother, but we was made. I speak of the cession on the professed the most dutiful love for her, and south-west; I speak of Texas, of the cession only asked to be treated on the footing of her adjacent to the country known to us as New other children. We distinguished between her Mexico; of the cession of the Upper Red Riv- and the unworthy hands to which she had er; of the cession of the Gates, of the Keys committed her authority —but avowed that, if of New Orleans; and shall Louisiana support she would deny us the rights which we claimed this, whether it be the man or the measure? I as British subjects, as her legitimate children, hope not. Yes, sir; they have the capacity and of voting away our own money; would insist they have the will; and, unless we take some and persist to do what we suffer every day to steps to arrest it, the evil must come home to your be done here-plunge her hands into our pockbosom, to mine; and we must then do what all ets ad libitum con amore, dea capo, for purposes other people do under like circumstances, never utterly foreign to our interests-we should be fail to do, or perish: for, sir, when things get driven, however reluctantly, to resist her injusto extremes, the ink and parchment fail. It tice. will signify very little what my notions, or This was a Congress-its object was the foryours, or any other man's notions may be, of mation of a new Confederacy, and the name is the powers of the Federal Government or the endeared to every man of the good old thirteen rights of the States, because, according to the States of America, and is deservedly dear to exigence of the case, we shall act for our self- them and to the shoots, the scions that have preservation: " for, as self-preservation is in sprung from them-the other States; and what individuals the first law of nature, so it is with are the other States? They are bone of our societies." The Southern States will look to bone, and flesh of our flesh. This word Congress, their safety as States and as individuals, what- sir, was deservedly dear to the American peoever the ink and sheepskin may say, or be pie: for out of it grew their Confederation and made to say; whatever Congress may decree. their Independence; and when the new constiIf, said Mr. R., Iwere, what I amnot-anacute tution was made, the framers of it were men philologer-I should sometimes amuse myself well enough versed in human nature to know

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 405
Publication: New York, [etc.]: D. Appleton and company [etc.]; 1857-61.
Subject terms: United States -- Politics and government

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Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

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