.Cf^ P 685 .C36 Copy 1 SPEECH OP HON. WILL: CUMBACK, OF INDIANA, ON THE AFFAIRS IN KANSAS. DKUVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 7, 1856. WASHINGTON: 5t»RINTEb AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 1S56. recently acquired from Mexico, A PROVISJON FOKEVER EXCLUDING FROM SUCH TERRITORY SLAVERY AND INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE, otherwise than in the punishment for crimes whereof the party has been duly convicted." Mr. Speaker, I take the principle contained in that resolution — the constitutional power to inhibit the further spread of the blighting curse of slavery — for my instructions, and commend to it my col- leagues — each and all of them from my own State. It is sound and healthy doctrine. But to put this matter entirely at rest, I will offer a word or two of corroboration. But a short time since, our Legislature had a Senator to elect to reprasent us in the other end of the Capitol, and of course there were several patriotic gentlemen who were willing to make the sacrifice on that occasion. But before the De- mocracy would commit such an important trust to any member of their party, they appointed a committee to investigate their soundness on the question of slavery extension. Mr. Whitcomb's answer to the interrogatories of the committee was most satisfactory, and they chose him. His answer is as follows: Indianapolis, December 9, 1848. Gentlemen : Your letter of this date, in relation to the subject of the extension of slavery into our newly-acquired Territories of New Mexico and CaUfornia, has been re- ceived. I have time to give but a brief reply — one, however, which I trust will be sufficiently intelligible for your pur- pose. As stated in my recent message to the Legislature, these Territories have come to us free, by their own laws, from tlie institution of slavery. It is incontrovertible that slavery there or elsewhere cannot exist without the sanction of positive law. I AM OPPOSED TO THE PASSAGE OF ANY SUCH LAW. I BELIEVE THAT CONGRESS CAN CONSTITUTIONALLY PASS SUCH ORGANIC LAWS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY AS WILL, IN THEIR OPERATION, PREVENT THE-a^ER- RITORIAL LEGISLATURE FROM PASSING ANY SUCH LAW. IT FOLLOWS THAT CONGRESS CAN, IN MY JUDGMENT, PREVENT THE INTRODUC- TION OF SLAVERY INTO THOSE TERRITORIES. In relation to your second question, I will add that, still regarding slavery as I did nearly twenty years ago, in a report I made in the Legislature of this State, as a draw- back upon the prosperity of any country, I would, if a member, use my influence, and vote for the passage by Congress of a law of the kind referred to: that is to sav, A LAW WHICH WILL OPERATE EFFECTUALLY TO PREVENT THE INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY INTO THESE TERRITORIES. I am, very respectfully, j-our obedient servant, JAMES WHITCOMB. Messrs. J. P. Milliken, and others. We propose, in Indiana, to see to it that men are still sound as the Senator then chosen by the Democracy, before wc make Senators of them; and if they, like he, prove to be right on this question, we propose, like the Democracy did then, to give them commissions; and if their knees become feeble, and their spines weak, we will then point them to the instructions upon the Journal of our Legislature, to which I have re- ferred, to give them "aid and comfort." But, sir, I presume this will be sufficient, so far as the Democracy of my own State is con- cerned. I might read a few chapters from Ohio, from New Hampshire, from Michigan, from Pennsylvania, and, indeed, from all the northern States; but I am not desirous of going into that now, and would not have said one word on the subject, but for the question propounded by the honorable gentleman, [Mr. Oliver,] to whom I rose to reply. He, sir, is a new convert to De- mocracy — or rather, to the galvanized article now attempting to pass itself off as such; and let me say to him this word of advice now, that he will find that they " play upon a harp of a thousand strings;" but the "just men made perfect" will be remarkable for their scarcity. Mr. Speaker, it has been the practice of every Democratic speaker who i-efers to the scenes of bloodshed, violence, and fraud in the Territory of Kansas, to lay them all upon the head of the emi- grant aid society, as a kind of scape-goat to carry off all the sins of the invaders of that Territory and of this imbecile Administration, in not pro- tecting the people of that Territory in their rights. What was this society organized for ? The great sin, in the opinion of the gentleman from Mis- souri, was that it intended to use its efforts to make Kansas a free State. Ah ! sir, I recollect well in my own State — I can almost hear now the echo from hill-top to vale — the eloquent ap- peals made to the people of my State and district by the orators of the Democratic party, that the repeal of the Missouri compromise would not only tend to make Kansas and .Yehraska free States, but that slavery could not exist now south of the line of 36° 30', and that the result would be, that not only these Territories would be made into free Slates, but that a cordon of free States would be established in the future to the Pacific ocean. That was the doctrine there; and I have no doubt that there arc northern Democrats here now, who owe their seats to that position assumed at home; yet, it is- a great sin, say that same party now, foF men to go to Kansas to make it a free State. I never had any intention to go to Kansas until I saw the condition of things there, and the efforts to force slavery upon its people by means of fraud and violence, and no assistance rendered by this Administration, calling itself Democratic. I then felt like going there to help make it a free State. Mr. MILLER, of Indiana. Will the gentle- man allow me a word .' Mr. CUMBACK. I cannot now. I will, when I get through, allow my colleague to ask me any question that may please him. He will please excuse me now. I ask the gentleman from Missouri how often, and how many at a time of the people from tlie northern States, are to go to Kansas to become citizens? Has it come to tliis, that Missouri must be consulted on this point? Has it come to this, that when a few men go together to settle in Kansas, to find a home for tliemselvcs and their children, that because they are northern men, and love freedom better than slavery, and will so vote, that that is to be considered as warring against the riglita of Missouri, and justify a descent upon the rights of these men ? If that doctrine is to be estiiblishcd as the correct one, if I were to go to Kansas holding the opinions which I do in regard to the extension of slavery — and I certainly would not leave them behind me — I would be warring against Missouri ! Sir, if this is the doctrine, and 1 were in tliat Territory a citizen, and my Hght to vote was questioned by outsiders, there would be war between me and the invader of my rights at once. I pray gentlemen to tell us what rights the Missourians have in Kansas until they be- come actual settlers in the Territory? We were told that the PEOPLE were to be left perfectly free to form their own institutions in their own way, and that it was an outrage upon their rights to prohibit slavery there by law; yet it seems that outsiders, in the face of this Administration, have been left perfectly free to override all the rights of the citizens there, and no protection is afforded them. But I wholly deny that men of the North have gone to Kansas for the purpose of simply controlling the institutions of that Territory, in- tending, as soon as it w^as made a free State, to return. Some of them may have returned; but in going there, they all had an intention of be- coming citizens of the Territory and actual resi- dents. They wished, it is true, to make the Ter- ritory a free State. By the legislation of our fathera, that Territory was guarantied to freedom forever, and we intend that it shall be " forever" free. Mr. PHELPS. I appeal to the gentleman, as he has asked mc a question, to let me make a reply. ' Mr. CUMRACK. I cannot yield now. Mr. PHELPS. Do not ask me questions, then, if you do not ijitend to give me an opportunity to reply. Mr. CUMBACK. You may have the whole session to reply when I am done. The doctrine of tlie Democratic, party, as I said a while ago, was once resistance to slavery agitation. James K. Polk, in speaking of this very same Missouri compromise, does not stigmatize it, as does my friend fVom Missouri, [Mr. Oliver,] and other Democrats, as an " odious measure." He said that it was a great act of conciliation; that its authors wore hailed as public benefactors. That was the Democracy speaking through James K. Polk, while President of the United States, and supported by this party. Us authors were hailed as great " benefactors;" and when we succeed in restoring that compromise, and guarantying free institutions in Kansas and Nebraska to our chil- dren and our children's children forever, then we shall be hailed as " public benefactors." Mr. RICHARDSON. Where in James K. Polk's writings does the gentleman find the ex- pression which ho uses? Mr. CUMBACK. I decline to be interrupted now. Mr. RICHARDSON. I think you cannot; you do not know. Mr. CUMBACK. We will sec who knows. Here it is in Polk's special message, on the 14th of August, 1848, on the Oregon question: " In December, 1819, application was niailo to Congress by the people of Missouri Territory lor admission into tlie Union oi a State. The discussion upon tlio sulijcct in Congress involved tlie question of slavery, and was prose- cuted with such violence as to produce excitements alarm- ing to every patriot in the Union. HUT THR GOOD GENIUS OF CONCILIATION, WHICH I-RESIOEUAT THE BIRTH OF OUR INSTITUTIONS, FINALLY PREVAILED, AND THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE WAS ADOPTED. The eighth section of the act of Con- gress of the 6tli of ."March, l&iU, • to authoriicc the people of the Territory of Missouri to form a constitution and StaM goveniment,' &c., provides: " ' That in all that territor>' ceded by France to the United ' St.-vfes, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of ' 36° 30' north latitude, not include1!S WI'.RE HAILED AS PUBLIC BENEF.\CTORS!" Mr. Spealcer, we propose to tranquibV.c the public mind — to put a quietus on the outrages in Kansas by restoring the prohibition of slavery in that Territory; and, sir, I have no fears but thai posterity will pronounce upon our act the sama benediction as is here pronounced upon its original 6 enactors by Mr. Polk. Gentlemen may talk about a dissolution of the Union, if that is attempted, as long and as loud as they choose. I read from this same message of Mr. Polk, on that point, £uid let gentlemen who professed to be Democrats then and now, to ask themselves who are the disunionists. It will be remembered that when Texas was admitted into the Union, the compro- mise was applied to all the territory of Texas north of that line. Mr. Polk, in speaking of the compromise and the admission of Texas, says: " Ought we now to disturb the Texas and Missouri com- promises? Ought we at tliis late day, in attempting to au- nul what lias been so long established and acquiesced in, to excite sectional jealousies and divisions, to alienate the people of different portions of the Union from each other, AND TO ENDANGER THE EXISTENCE OF THE UNION ITSELF?" Let gentlemen answer, who are the enemies of the Union. We are told by the gentleman from Missouri that the Missouri compromise was an odious measure, forced upon the South against tlieir will by votes from the North. I ask the gentleman to look a little more cautiously to the history of the legislation of 1820, before he makes such wild assertions. I ask liim to look at the votes of northern and southern men at its enact- ment. I hold in my hand a letter from a distin- guished gentleman from the South, which was written at the time the Missouri compromise was passed. " Congress Hall, March2, 1820, Three o'clocl: at night. "Dear Sir: I hasten to inform you thatthismonicntwe have carried the question to admit Missouri and all Louisi- ana to the southward free, from the restriction of slavery, and give the South an addition of six and perhaps eight mem- bers to the Senate of the United States. IT IS CONSID- ERED HERE, BY THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES, AS A GREAT TRIUMPH." The enactment of the Missouri compromise, at the time when it gave Missouri, a slave State, into the Union, and when it gave that territory south, also free from restriction, was a great tri- umph. But, sir, when the other side of the con- tract is about to be carried out, it suddenly becomes a very "odious measure." But Mr. Pinckney goes on in this same letter, and says: " The votes were close — ninety to eighty-si.t, (the vote was so first declared) — produced by the seceding of a few Rbscntaiid moderate men from the North. To the north of 36" 30', there is to be, by the present law, restriction, which you will see by the votes, I voted against. Bid it is at/n-esent of 110 moment. It is a vast tract, uninhahitcd, onUj Iiy wild beasts and satagcs, in irhich not afoot of tlie Indian claim to ike soil is extinguished, in which, according to the ideas preva- lent, no land office will be open for a great length of lime. "With respect, your obedient servant, "CHARLES PINCKNEY." But, by-and-by, in the course of events, that ter- ritory has become open for settlement, and Stales are to be made out of it, and then the institution of slavery, like the fabled dog of old, which never sleeps, puts its eye upon it, and now it becomes a great sin for a freeman to go into Kansas for the purpose of making it a free State. The gen- tleman from Missouri tells us that the ruling prin- ciple which prompted men to go to Kansas, was freedom for the African. Well, sir, I confess, in my own heart, I have some sympathy with the African, bound and enslaved as he is, and sold in the market, often from his own wife and ! children, but I have more for the white man. Slavery is a curse to the white man as well as to the slave. But with slavery in Missouri I have noth- ing to do. I do not wish to interfere with it there. You are responsible for it there. But, in Kansas, I have something to do, and I will tlicrefore inter- fere. The men who went there desired to make In- dianas and Ohios of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Their object was to guaranty to their children and their children's children the blessings of freelabor and free institutions. They wanted to* transmit to their children the same rights which our patriotic fathers transmitted to us in the north- west, by the ordinance of 1787. Ay, this doc- trine is sectional now. Why? South Carolina, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia will not now stand upon the same platform that they did then. That was in the better days of the Repub- lic. That was when Jefferson, and such men, legislated for the country. If it has become sec- tional, who made it so ? It has not been made so by our leaving the doctrines of our fathers. You have seceded from it and claim to be wiser than they. But the gentleman from Missouri closes his argument by asking this question: "Who will vote for this investigation.'" Let me rather ask him, who will vote against it ? Rather let me ask where is the man who will stand up in this Hall and say he will not vote for a full and free inves- tigation of all the facts connected with this Kansas matter .' For my own part, I say I will vote for it. I want all the fatts of this case developed, that the country may sec who is wrong and who is right. Truth never shrinks from investigation. Mr. Speaker, I did not intend, at this time, to say as much as I have said. I rose merely to correct some statements made by my friend from Missouri, [Mr. Oliver,] who has just spoken in reference to the original enactment of the Missouri compromise, and to ask that gentleman what right — if the proceedings in Kansas were even irregular — had Missouri to interfere ? Who made Missouri the protector of Kansas, and the power to be consulted as how often and how many men shall emigrate to Kansas to secure frccinsti- tutions to that Territory ? If those persons went to Kansas, and voted irregularly and witliout rights, which I wliolly deny, it was the duty of the gov- ernment of Kansas to punish any irregularities committed by these men. That was not the duty of Missouri, any more than it was the duty of In- diana. The legislation of the Territory of Kansas is not in any way connected with the legislation of Missouri. But if that Legislature which made the law under which General Whitfield was elected, was elected by residents of the State of Missouri, was the sjjawn of fraud and violence, let us remove the veil and show the country the origin from which emanated this law. Let the country know how it was that a body of men was chosen who have enacted a code more bloody than the laws of Draco — more at war with the rights of men — than ever emanated from the throne of the most absolute despotism; more disgraceful to our re- publican Government than anything that has occurred since its formation. Who will vote to refuse inquiry into these things ? We will see. The following arc specimens of the legislation of the Territory of Kansas: Kunsai Slave Code. AN ACT to puiiL^h olTenses against slave property. Be it enacted liythe Gavemor atid Lcpslative JlsscmUij of the Territory of Kansas, That every person, bond or free, who shall be convicted of actually raising a rebellion or in- turrcction of slaves, Iri-e neyroes, orniulatloes, in this Ter- ritory, shall suHer death. • »**«♦* Sec. II. XC any person print, write, introduce into, or publish or circulate, or cause to be bronu;lit into, printed, written, published, or circulated, or shall knowiucly aid or assist in brin^'ing into, printins, pnblisliins, or circulatinjr within this Territory, any book, paper, pamphlet, maj.M7.ine, handbill, or circular, containini; any statements, aru'umeiils, opinion, sentjnient.doetrinc, advice, or innuendo, calculated to produce a disorderly, dangerous, or rebellious disall'ection among the slaves in tliis Territory, or to induce such slaves to escape from the service of their masters, or to resist their authority, shall be guilty of a felony, and be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less than five years. Sec. 12. If any free person, by speaking or writing, assert or maintain that persons have not the riulit to hold slaves in this Territory, or shall introduce into this Terri- tory, print, publish, write, circulate, or cause to be intro- duced into tlii.f Territory, written, printed, published, or circulated in this Territory any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet, or circular containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this Territory, such person shall be dcemc' away, or sending out of this Territory, any slave belonging to another with intent to pro- cure or effect the freedom of such slave, or with intent to deprive the owner thereof of tlie services of such slave, ho shall be adjudged guilty of grand larceny, and on conviction thereof shall suffer death. Sec. 3. If any person shall entice, decoy, or carry away out of any State or other Territory of the United States, any slave belonging to another, with intent to procure or .effect the freedom of such slave, or to deprive the owner theri!of of the services of such slave, and shall bring such slave into this Territory, he shall be adjudged guilty of grand larceny, in the same manner as if such slave had been en- ticed, decoyed, or carried away out of this Territory ; in such case the larceny may be chargi-d to have been com- mitted in any county of this Territory into or through which such slave shall have been brought by such person, and on conviction thereof, tlie person oflending shall suffer death. win act regitlating oaths and prcscriliing the forms of oatht of ojjice. Sec. 1. All officers elected or appointed undar any exist- ing or subsequently enacted laws of this Territory shall take and subscribe the following oath of ofliee : " I, , do solemnly swear, upon the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God, that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and that I will support and sustain the provisions of an act entitled '.\n act to organi/.e the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and the provisions of the law of tho United .States commonly known as the 'fugitive slave lair,' and faithfully and impartially, and to the best of my ability, demean myself in the discharge of my duties in the oliice of . So help mc God." — Pamphlet Laws, p. 516. One of the provisions of an act to rei^ihte elections. Provided further, That if any person olfering to voto shall be ehallengcil and required to take an oath or aflirm- ation, to be administered by one of the juilges of the elec- tion, that he will sustain the provisions of the aboverrcited acts of Congress, (i. c., the fugitive slave laws of 1793 and Irt'rf), and of the act entitled " An act to organize the Ter- ritories of Nebraska and Kansas," approved May 30, 1A34,) and shall refuse to take such oath or nllirnialion, TMH vin'E OF SUCH peiwon shall ue uejecteu — Pamphlet Laws, p. 332. ^c-tion 3 of on act concerning att3mc;is at law, Troviiles that " every person obtaining a license sh.tll take an oath or aflirmation to support the Constitution of the United J^tatcs, and to support and sustainOn^ provisions of an act entitled '.\n act to orjanizi; the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas,' and the provisions of an act com- monly known as 'the fugitive slave hu;^ and faithfully to di'uiean himself in his practice, totliebcstof hisknowlcdgs and nhiUly.'''— Pamphlet Laws, p. 132. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 016 085 204 5