SPEECH F 685 . S26 Copy 1 HON. JOHN H. SAVAGE, OF TENNESSEE, ON THE KANSAS CONTESTED ELECTION, ■ELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JULY 31, 1356. **r. 60 WASHINGTON"?. t I -.i\ \T THE OONUltBSSIONAL GLOBK 01 1856, Ft * £' Kt~± KANSAS CONTESTED ELECTION. The House having under consideration the Resolutions reported by the Committee of Elections in the Contested- Election Case from the Territory of Kansas — Mr. SAVAGE said: Mr. Speaker: I cannot promise to compensate the attention which gentlemen may choose to give me by anything brilliant or entertaining, but 1 do hope, in a quiet way, to compare the state- ments made in the report of the majority of the committee sent out by order of this House, with well-established facts, so as to show, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that this whole Kansas difficulty was in its beginning a traitorous assault upon the law and authority of the United States and the rights of the people of Kansas, and now in its progress assails justice and truth; and that the report of the majority of the committee so seut is a compound of the grossest partiality, mis- representation, and perversion. And were the triers in this case an honest jury, sworn to find the truth, instead of a body of excited politicians, maddened by the hope of public plunder and po- litical power, no honest mind could doubt for a moment the verdict that would be rendered; the boasted facts of the majority report would be pro- nounced the most infamous"fiction ever presented to a legislative body. Yet it may be that we can elicit truth out of this dark mass of perversion and falsehood. In my opinion it does contain some truths. It may be possible to find some standard that will separate truth from fiction, and point to the verdict we ought to render. I think there is one honest document in these eleven hun- dred pages which will constitute a standard of truth, and by that I intend to try this case; for, so far as this Kansas report is concerned, I again repeat it is basely partisan, unworthy of credit, and contains no material fact, fairly stated, from beginning to end. The gentleman [Mr. Sherman] who last ad- dressed you spoke of " the facts reported," and it is proper, before entering upon the details, that 1 should select a single specimen that will startle truthful men, and prove that the strong language I have used to characterize this report does it no injustice. They report to this House, as a fact material and important, " that Governor Reeder received a greater number of votes of resident citi- zens than John W. Whitfield. Yet there is not a particle of proof in the whole one thousand one hundred and eighty-eight pages, except the dep- osition of Lo wry , who tells us of a single precinct that shows that Governor Reeder got any votes at all. It is true the committee, without any authen- tication, have reported two hundred and twenty- two pages purporting to be returns in certain elections held under the authority of one James H. Lane; but, whether they are genuine docu- ments — the result of an honest transaction, or base forgeries, the committee have not dared to show by proof. It is a rule of law, that where a man suppresses or destroys testimony in his posses- sion, it shall be adjudged against him; and it is a fair conclusion from surrounding circumstances, that these papers are fabricated to suit the occa- sion, and that a majority of the committee, know- ing this fact, have loaned themselves to give them currency In January, 1855, Governor Reeder ordered a census to be taken of the inhabitants of the Territory, which was completed about the 1st of March; and on the same day he ordered an elec- tion for members of the Legislature, to be held on the 30th of that month. He admits that in appointing judges at the polls he gave the free- State men two to one; which proves most clearly that a census taken under his authority would not be too favorable to southern interests. It is the only document in this vast volume upon which we can place any reliance for a statement of facts. It originated before the deep prejudice which afterwards followed had been stirred up. North- ern men dare not say that its statements are unjust to them. Governor Reeder, for reasons best known to himself, ordered the former residences of the settlers to be reported. I, like the gentle- man from Georgia, [Mr. Stephens,] have, for the purposes of this argument, carefully counted the former residences of each of the voters reported in this census, and find that our figures substan- tially agree; and now, after all the clamor we have heard here and elsewhere about "down-trodden and invaded Kansas," it does astonish honest, plain men, throughout the country, to see that by Reeder's own census a large majority of the settlers of that Territory are from the southern States. The account stands as follows: two thousand nine hundred and five voters are reported as the whole number — of which one thousand six hundred and seventy are from southern States, and one thousand and eighteen from northern States, with p remainder of two hundred and seventeen for- eigners and others whose former residence is not reported. With this state of things before them, the majority of the committee have been reckless enough to bring in a report, which, if not totally false, answers the same purpose — by a suppres- sion of all the facts, material and necessary to a correct understanding of the matters in dispute; and 1 am content to apply to their nefarious work that universal rulo of all codes of law and morals, that willful suppression is criminal false- hood. I will nowcompare the statements of this report with the census of Governor Reeder, in connec- tion with the election and representative districts, and show that the pro-slavery party, by the legal votes cast, must have elected a large majority of the first Kansas Legislature; and, if this be true, no matter how many Missourians may have voted, it cannot alter either the law or equity of General Whitfield's right to his seat. The following table will show the strength of parties in the election districts, as exhibited by the census: ELECTION DISTRICTS. Settlers from. Settlers from Ditfrict. the North. the South. 1st 280 88 •>d 67 139 3d 49 37 4th 23 23 ".th 129 295 0th 83 155 :tli 32 21 Sth 12 26 yth 27 10 10th 29 27 11th - 28 12th 50 49 13th 22 55 14th 42 286 15th 37 206 16th 125 192 17th 10 40 1018 1670 I admit a free-State majority in the first district; and the committee have proved, by the oath of Ladd and Others, that Bond, Willis, and Stearns were driven from the election ground of this pre- liinct; but these witnesses most positively state that it was not to preTent them from voting, but l>ecause one was accused of acting the bully; the other of abducting a negro woman; and another of taking notes for the New York Tribune; and, strange to tell, these eleven hundred and eighty- eight pages nowhere prove that any other man was prevented from voting. I appealed to the gentleman [Mr. Sherman] who made this report to name another man, and you saw that he was silent. Of the election in the sixth district this beauti- ful report makes the usual charges: five or six hundred Missourians present; Sheriff Jones and pistols; and concludes with the false statement, that " we are satisfied from the testimony that, had the actual settlers alone voted, the free-State men would have been elected by a handsome majority," and ynl the census of their own man reports in this district one hundred and thirty-two voters from the southern States — sixty-seven from northern States. You see the unblushing impudence — the brazen falsehood of this infamous document ! I take no pleasure in uttering these harsh words; but if gentlemen forget the high obligations they owe to truth and honor — if a man is false to himself and his reputation in the dirty work of party warfare, I will not be rec- reant to duty, but shall denounce his act as it deserves, if he were as tall as Lucifer. They have put forth these broad, unfounded statements to mislead the public mind, which are contradicted by Reeder's census at every step; and if ever that gentleman uttered any truth at any time, it cannot be supposed that he lied in this document in favor of the South. He, then, had no interest so to do; but when these gentlemen made their report, the power and necessity of a rebellious and traitorous party demanded a perversion of the truth. Of the third district, the committee say four to one free-State man. Governor Reeder says forty- nine to thirty-seven; both reports cannot be true. Of the fourth district, it is reported that " the free State men constituted a decided majority of the actual settlers. " Governor Reeder says free- State men twenty-three, southern men twenty- three, and one from New Mexico. Of the fifth district, the report says: " From the testimony, the whole district appears to have been largely free-State, and had none but actual settlers voted the free-State candidates would have been elected by a large majority;" but Reeder's census shows two hundred and ninety-five south- ern men, and one hundred and twenty-nine north- ern men. It is impossible to believe so gross a perversion was the result of misconception. Of the sixth district, the report admits that the pro-slavery candidates received a majority, and I imagine for once it told the truth. Of the seventh district, the report says two hun- dred to three hundred Missourians were present; some residents did not vote; twenty-five legal votes were cast; nearly all the settlers were free- State men. The census shows thirty-two north- ern men, twenty-one southern men; and it is thus seen that the report fraudulently pretends that the pro-slavery party, with a large body of Mis- sourians to help thcfi, only got three of these twenty-one votes, while the other party got twenty-three of thirty-two — some residents not voting. Such facts and such logic are only worthy the cause they attempt to rustain. Of the eighth district, the report says: "in it thirty-seven votes were cast, of whom a majority voted the free State ticket." The census shows twenty-five southern men, and twelve free-State men. With such facts contradicting these state- ments, will any man believe anything contained in this report, when it is seen that the census is true. and the report had inducements to be false ? The responsibility of this language is not mine: let those who brought this base pile of " frauds and perjuries" into this House answer to the country. Ii deserves more than I have said of it, although it has cost the people large sums, and Congress much time, in its preparation. Of the ninth district there is no complaint; and of the tenth, it is said that ten Indians and eleven free State men, not entitled, voted, who neutralize each other. Of the eleventh and twelfth nothing is said that re- quires an answer. Of the thirteenth district, the committee say "a majority of free-State men" — only twelve legal votes cast; Governor Reeder says "there are fifty- five southern men and twenty-two free-State men;" which scatters to the winds another solemn allegation of this committee; and members on the other side of this House dare not trust these reck- less perversions unless, in their anxiety to place one of their own party in the presidential chair, they are ready to trample all justice, truth, and honor under foot. Of the fourteenth district the report admits that parties were pretty near equally divided — but strives to make the impression that the free-State men had a " small majority," suppressing the material fact recorded in Reeder 's census, that in this district there were two hundred and eighty- six southern men and only forty-two free-State men — showing a clear mistake of more than two hundred votes in a single district. This is a fair specimen of the truth of this report. Such " facts " as it contains are not surpassed by the stories of Gulliver, Munchausen , or the wildest fancies of fictitious history. I denounce them as unmiti- gated, partial, and fraudulent perversions, made for electioneering purposes, and unworthy the consideration of just men. Of the fifteenth district, the report says: " the free-State men thought themselves equal, and some claimed a majority; but the census shows two hundred and six ^southern men and thirty- seven northern men." Such truth and such honor are truly Black Republican ! Of the sixteenth district, the report says: " the testimony is divided as to the relative strengh of parties;" but the census showsone hundred and ninety-two southern men, one hundred and twen- ty-nine northern men, and more than sixty for- eigners, who, it is said, always vote the Demo- cratic ticket; and yet this committee, in search of truth, could not tell which had the majority. Of the seventeenth and eighteenth districts, nothing is said that demands a reply. In conclusion, the report states the whole number of legal votes cast at this election, four- teen hundred and ten, with a discrepancy of five hundred and twelve; of which number the free- State men cast seven hundred and ninety-one, which leaves six hundred and nineteen south- ern men. The absurdity and unfairness of this conclusion is fully manifested by the fact that there were sixteen hundred and seventy southern men to one thousand and eighteen northern men in the Territory; and yet they report that, with near five thousand Missourians to help us get our men out, and drive theirs from the polls, the northern men cast two hundred and seventy-two more votes than the other party. Such a state- ment is good for nothing, except to dishonor those who made it. Again: the rej>ort says " thirty-eight legal votes were cast in the eighth, and thirty in the second district;" thus claiming that every vote was polled in the first, and not a sixth part in the latter. This conclusion is worse than a guess — it is a reckless statement, proved untrue by surrounding facts; and I must so denounce it or retire from duty, which is not my feeling at the presant time. The election districts were laid off into repre- sentative districts, some being divided for that purpose. The following table is a reliable ap- proximation, based on Governor Reeder's cen- sus : 01 > ■s S . 2-5 S p • S 2 22 Election Districts. to If >- o 50 •* DQja . S OJ 0> CO" 17th and 14th compose 1st 34 63 . 1 1st 2d 280 88 3 . 2d and 13th " 3d 89 187 . 2 3d « 4th 49 37 1 7th and 8th « 5th 44 47 . 1 6th " 6th 83 155 . 2 5th « 7th 129 295 . 4 9th and 10th " 8th 56 36 1 . 11th and 12th " 9th 50 77 . 1 13th " 10th 22 55 . 1 14th, 15th, 16th « 11th 79 -19-2 . 2 14th « 12lh 42 286 - 2 15th " 13th 37 206 . 2 16th " 14th 125 192 - 3 Total 5 21 Not being able to ascertain the fractions, I have taken whole districts; and it is seen that, with- out the aid of the foreign vote, which our oppo- nents charge is always cast for the Democratic ticket, the southern men elect tw&nty-one mem- bers, and the free-State men only five; and these facts and figures are a full answer to the false charge of usurpation that comes up from the other side of the House. The storm that now rages over this country is political — raised by ambitious men in hopes of obtaining power and public plunder; all our troubles since Congress first assembled — the loud shrieks for freedom and Kansas — the unjust denunciations of the southern people, here and else- where, are the result of this cause. We are now in the midst of a presidential struggle, which car- ries with it the government of this great country forthe next four years, togetherwith the disburse- ment of two or three hundred millions of public money. It is a great contest, and may bring, as some fear it will, the clash of arms, the shout of battle, and civil war. The elements of social and national harmony are broken up; and the bitter waters of sectional hatred and party strife burst in upon us from every quarter of the hori- zon; all decency, all propriety, all respects for truth, justice, and the constitutional rights of the South, are forgotten or disregarded by our ad- versaries, who, casting off the duties of states- men and the character of gentlemen, refuse even the poor security of personal responsibility for the falsehood and slander they utter. This whole system of party warfare is lawless and revolutionary; and, being founded on false assumptions, evinces a fixed design to rule or ruin. Kansas is made a pretext, but it is simply a part of the general agitat^m long since com- menced. As the foundation of their system, they assume the equality of the negro and Anglo- Saxon races; and their doctrines, if carried nut, could never elevate the negro, but would sink him lower, and carry the white man down to his level. While they speak these things, their acts prove the hypocrisy of their professions. Until these grave senators, divines, and politicians, take 6 to themselves wives, and give their daughters in marriage, and commingle on equal terms with the African, they have failed to do that which is most material to establish their own sincerity and the practical wisdom of their theories. Admitting that negro slavery is constitutional, and that they dare not touch it in the States where it exists, yet for political effect, in vio- lation of a plain principle of law, they abuse the South for the enjoyment of a constitutional right, and utter perpetual threats against an institution they dare not molest; thus trampling under foot the bond of their fathers, and pouring out words more bitter than gall or wormwood oh the heads of their brothers. One people cannot inflict greater wrongs than these upon another. Sir, the negro is not the equal of the white man; and the politician who asserts that he is, cannot. be otherwise than dishonest. In the northern States, from whence this destroying flood of slan- der and abuse assails our peace, he is an outcast and a stranger. Shorn of his civil and social rights, he drags ou1 a miserable existence — a living mon- umenl of the hypocrisy and bitter hostility of northern demagogues to the southern people. I am here to tell these wicked agitators that, when they assert that African slavery is an evil, or a crime, socially, morally, politically , or in the sight of God, they recklessly contradict the words of revelation and the history of mankind; neither in the commands, nor the providence of Omnipo- tence, have woes been pronounced against it. In vain may they look in the decalogue, the teach- ing of the prophets, or the gospel of our Savior, lor its condemnation; but it is sufficient for the purposes of this argument, to appeal to the annals of history, and ask where are the achievements of the negro? — where are his empires ? — where his — w lure his civilization? — where the fields of his glory or the monuments of his greatness ? They are not seen upon the face of the earth, nor are they found in the volumes that record the glories of fallen nations. He has lived upon the world in barbarism and blood, and the pathway of his existence might now be unknown, but for lights of surrounding nations that have shone upon the darkness of his abode. The brightest page in the history of the race is that which re- cords the servitude of the slaves of the United States. In morals, in intelligence) in happiness and religion, in steady and effective industry, there is no nation of free negroes half their equals, nor ever has been. It is folly now to expect, in the future, what the past has wholly failed to produce. Indeed, it may be asserted with perfect truth, that there is not to be found, upon the face of the globe, a body of laborers whose physical wants are so Svell supplied, and whose toils add so much to the general happi- ness and welfare of the world. What negro per failed to pay his, lawyer's or doctor's bill; or suffered for bread or bacon to eat, or for somebody to watch^over him when sick ? If you do hot own him, you eat the bread, the meat, the sugar, and the rice that he produces, and wear the cotton thai be cultivates; he pays as much taxes as you, and lessens your burdens- Away, then, with your vile fabrications about " the blighting curse of slavery!" God has not con- demned it, and the nations have practiced it in all ages. Civil government is lawful only because it conduces in the greatest degree to the general welfare. The same great principle of public policy demands that the Americo-negro should forever be a slave. The white man who fails or refuses to control the negro who lives on the same soil with him, violates the will of Heaven as much as he would by a war upon all government. God has given to one the talent to govern — the other is only fit to be a slave. It is charity, brotherly love, moral duty, political wisdom, national wealth and power, to hold him in servitude, which is the only position that he has yet shown himself capa- ble of filling. To turn him loose among us would ruin the white race, and be a selfish cruelty to the negro, as base as that of Dives to Lazarus. In mental and physical characteristics he is different and antagonistic to the white man; and all the tears of his pretended friends cannot make his skin white, or elevate him to the level of the supe- rior race. Their course questions the ways of Omnipotence in regard to their colored brethren; but they may find consolation in the reflection, that there are many strange facts in God's provi- dence, the reason of which his creatures cannot know. I wonder every day why it is, that these pestiferous swarms of noisy politicians, clad in the sable habiliments of the negro — more fearful and disgusting than the plagues of Egypt — with slander, faction, strange doctrine, and unholy aspersions in their mouths, come up from every quarter of our northern borders, to destroy our good name, dishonor our homes, overturn the Constitution, and shed the blood of the first born of the land, by civil war. Can it be, that, in the very morning of our national existence, the wrath of an offended Heaven is to be visited upon us? or may we not believe that the prince of darkness, attacking our early weakness, as he did our first parents in the Garden of Eden, has lei loose this odious brood from the infernal world, to destroy a Government whose progress to greatness will banish discord and tyranny from the world? The number, skill, and capital of im migration , being chiefly confined to the northern Slates, has given them a preponderance in population, but furnishes no ground for coarse and vulgar philip- pics against the institution of slavery. In all the elements that constitute a wise, powerful, and prosperous community, the southern people are fully equal to their northern brethren. Perhaps my partiality might place the people and institu- tions of my native State far in the ascendant, but such comparisons are unbecoming; though I will say to northern gentlemen, I have seen your States — go and look at mine. You will find no " blighting curse of slavery" there; nor will you boast, unless falsehood suits you better than truth. The freest men that live are found in the south- ern States; no white man there can be made a slave. We are your equals, and must forever be, or this Union cannot stand. Of every inch of territory, acquired by our common blood and treasure, we claim a share. We are willing to submit its destiny to the great law of S< ulement and population. We ask no aid to help us on; but congressional power shall never again destroy our rights. You abuse us, and we submit; not I ii cause we are weak, but because you are our I countrymen. The South is fully equal to her own defense. Count our negroes as pari of our people, and no equal number of men can this day be found upon the globe possessing as much mil- itary power. Our social system you impliedly admit to be better than yours; for, when brought in conflict, yours is borne down, and you cry to Congress, " Save us — or we sink !" I will now read the testimony of the Hon. Dan- iel Mace, and show that this Kansas matter caps the climax of this dishonest system of political warfare : " Immediately after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, I, together with a number of others, who were mem- bers of Congress and Senators, believing that the tendency of that act would be to make Kansas a slave State, in order to prevent informed an association here in Washington, called, if I recollect aright, " The Kansas Aid Society." I do net remember all who became members of that society, but quite a number of members who were opposed to sla- very in Kansas, of the lower House, and also of the Senate, became members of it, and subscribed various sums of money. I think 1 subscribed either $50 or .f 100 ; I am not now prepared to say which. " ***** "My recollection is, that generally, those members of the House and Senate who were opposed to the Kansas-Ne- braska act became members of this society, and contributed to it." ********* " I do not recollect whether Mr. Speaker Banxs was a member of that society or not, or whether Senator Seward was or not. Mr. Goodrich kept the books. My impres- sion is, that a majority of those who voted against the bill were members of that organization. I do not remember the total amount of money raised by means of that organi- zation. We had a room he/e, and employed a secretary, and consequently had expenses to pay. 1 do not know the amount raised. I think there were persons, members of that association, who were not members of either House of Congress. Mr. Latham was appointed treasurer, but de- clined; and my impression is, that Mr. Blair became the treasurer; but I may be mistaken about that." Here is clearly shown a conspiracy of all the opposition members of the Senate and House of Representatives, with many others, to defeat an act passed by Congress in accordance with the forms of the Constitution. They levy money to resist the laws of the United States, and in reason and morals are as much responsible for consequences as if they had " levied war." Yet, now, they come shedding guilty tears over "bleeding Kansas," covered though they be with the crimes of treason, murder, and civil war. Many of you who hold seats on this floor in connection with such men as Sumner, Seward, Hale, and Wilson, have not only given " aid and comfort," but you are the real authors of this bloody drama of treason and revolution that now disturbs our peace and stains our history; on your heads rests the guilt of every drop of blood that has been shed, and every life that has been lost in that unfortunate struggle. Posterity •will write the dark sentence against you, of cow- ardly conspirators and law-breakers, who dared not " nobly face the horrid front of war;" but, standing far away from the bloody conflict, in hope of political aggrandizement, you coolly urged your deluded victims on to battle and to death. Your treason is no less distinctly marked; your agencies no less corrupt and infamous; your at- tempts against the peace and safety of the nation are no less impudent and dangerous, than Cat- iline's to the Roman republic; and yet you still live to disgrace the country you have tried to ruin. And now, here before the world, in the names of the Doyles and the Wilkinsons, once citizens of my own State, whose innocent blood now cries from the plains of Kansas for ven- geance. 1 denounce you as guilty murderers, such as I have described, and against whom the weeping widow and helpless orphan should im- plore the wrath of an insulted nation. What better evidence could you furnish the world of your revolutionary designs, than this attempt to transfer the government of Kansas to your guilty agents, who, under your traitorous advice, have made war upon the government which Congress established ? If you had enter- tained an honest purpose to settle this question fairly, without an appeal to the God of battles, why did you not bring in a bill securing the free- dom of the ballot-box by every possible restric- tion, and provide for the assembling of a con- vention to form a State constitution, for admission into the Union with or without slavery, as they should determine ? You know that, if this was done, whatever might be the result, the southern people would submit without a murmur; but it suited your purpose better to indorse the treason you had created, and excite sectional hatred and party strife to their wildest deeds, by artfully uttering your war cries, " Restoration of the Mis- souri compromise !" " No more slave States or slave Territories shall be allowed to the Union !." To prove the hypocrisy and insincerity of this loud lament over the repeal of the Missouri com- promise, it is only necessary to advert to a few facts. When did northern men become so much in love with that measure, and what was it that stirred the deep fountains of their affections? It was not thus in 1820, nor was it in 1848, when every northern man in the House, but four, voted down a proposition to extend this compromise to the Pacific. Nor was it in 1850, when southern Representatives unanimously, for near fifty times, proposed and humbly begged their northern breth- ren to extend this line, and thereby forever quiet the strife that threatened our national safety. Northern men were then swift to trample this now darling measure under their feet, against the votes and wishes of every southern man, regard- less of the dangers that then beset the Union; for it did seem that the heavy footsteps of the angry god of war might almost be heard trampling down your Capitol and Constitution. So fierce and unyielding was the opposition, that my hon- orable colleague, (Mr. G. W. Jones,) in a speech which he made, said he would accept the Missouri compromise; but to advocate it was to oppose a settlement. And my then colleague, (Hon. A. Ewing,) said, in substance: " The people of Ten- nessee are for the compromise bill; but it is time to understand the North. We do not wish the concessions of this bill, like Dead Sea fruit, to turn to ashes on our lips. Non-intervention admits States free or slave, as the people may determine. If, hereafter, we are to struggle for our rights, adjustment is useless." And thus it is seen that northern men, by repudiating and re- fusing to carry it out, repealed and annulled the very act they now clamor for, and in law and in conscience discharged southern men from all its obligations. The principle of non-intervention, commonly called the compromise of 1850, was established upon the ruins of the geographical line of 1820. That clause in the Utah, INew Mexico, and Kan- sas-Nebraska bills, which gives to the people of those Territories the power to form their own constitution, with or without slavery, effectually repeals all former restrictions. The repealing LIBRARY OF CONGRE! 8 section of the Kansas bill adds nothing to its strength; and if stricken out, southern interests under the bill would not in any degree be weak- ened. To have carried out the Missouri com- promise according to its intent and meaning, it should have been extended to the Pacific ocean; and although it violated the rights of freemen to form their own government, and was therefore unconstitutional and void from the beginning, yet the South, regarding it as an honorable agree- ment, entered into by contending parties to escape the dangers of a destroying litigation, kept it in good faith up to 1850, when the whole North, as they had done in 1848, almost unanimously trampled it under foot, in spite of southern effort. You did this to secure to yourselves California, Utah, and New Mexico; and then, in 1854, to rob us of Kansas, you clamored for its renewal, and entered into secret and fraudulent societies to defeat the law that guarantied our rights; and now, having failed in all these things, like desper- ate and beaten gamesters, whose trumps have been exhausted, you attempt on this floor, by force of superior numbers, to seize the stakes. With these facts before the world, northern Representatives stand up here, and talk about " broken faith," violated compacts," "audacious encroachments of the slave power." And now, s r, I dare these lordly hypocrites, one and all, vho claim to be statesmen and lovers of truth, to rise here and show me a single instance, before 1854, where northern men ever sustained or voted for the Missouri compromise, or any other com- promise upon the question of slavery. At the subsequent Congress, Messrs. Jackson and Hill- yer each introduced resolutions- affirming the compromise of 1850 as a final settlement of the slavery agitation. Ten Whigs, and thirty-six Democrats, was the largest vote ever given by the North for either of these resolutions; and I again challenge northern men to show where, at any other time, they have given so many votes in favor of this or any other compromise. These facts ought to disgrace forever, in the sight of honest men, those reckless leaders who have disturbed the peace and quiet of the coun- try by a false clamor. Yet, sir, I regret to say that it does not; but injuries to our people are repaid by honors at home. The South is already regarded by these leaders as a conquered and dishonored province, that they may slander and trample down to the iowest degradation in perfect safety. No statement is too false or monstrous to be proclaimed to their misguided followers. In the New York Herald, of the 20th of June, a man named Wilson, from the State of Massa- chusetts, at a meeting in Philadelphia, to ratify the nomination of Fremont, is reported to have said: " In the South there were fifteen slave States, which were growing poorer under the blighting curse of slavery; there freedom of speech Was unknown; there was no free press; there labor was not respected; there the laborer was degraded." I brand this whole statement as a false, reckless, and infamous slander, well known to him who uttered it. The South is not only rich and growing richer most rapidly, but her agricultural products are one of the greatest eli perity and power, a: " 016 089 325 A factoring and commercial greatness ui ivina»>v,i IU setts. And it may well be doubted whether there is a spot on the habitable globe where freedom of speech and independence of action are so fully enjoyed as by the citizens of the southern States. There you find no fanaticism, no popular cur- rents; no combination of demagogues to force individual cooperation; and it is astonishing that there should be found upon this continent a being in the shape of man so lost to all sense of shame as to utter a slander so false and groundless. The next charge, that " there is no free press in the South," considering that the papers from all parts of the Union are read there, is so pal- pably malicious and false that it is impossible to conceive a motive for its utterance, except that it be a rule of Black Republicanism that its greatest slanderer is entitled to its highest honor. The free white men are all equal in the South — the honest laborer is universally respected and kindly treated. Nothing would be more likely to arouse a southern community than an attempt to degrade a free man. In the South the poor man is re- spected for his color, while in the North wealth is the rule of distinction and poverty is scorned and excluded from the social circle to a far greater extent than with the southern people. When, from such a state of things, you find a man uttering a falsehood calculated to arouse the hostile feelings of two great sections of our coun- try, it is fair to conclude that there is no crime or deed of darkness beneath the sun that he would not commit for the smallest consideration, pro- vided it involved no personal danger. Such a man will destroy your, character — steal your prop- erty — s,wear away your liberty or life — murder his friend or his enemy by poison or lying in wait, whenever it is necessary to accomplish his purposes. Webster, who murdered Parkman,was an angel of light, compared to the deep villany of such a heart. Webster murdered, and took the risks of his deed. This man would steal life and character under the forms of law; and yet, it may be that he occupies one of life's high places. Angels have fallen from God's right hand. Men, worse than devils, sometimes ascend to high sta- tions. This is a fair specimen of the unholy warfare carried on against the southern people by the unscrupulous ambition of Seward, Hale, Sum- ner, and Wilson. I grant that they have tal- ents to make speeches, and can pile falsehood upon falsehood, until, like the tower of Babel, they threaten heaven; yet, they only build the monu- ment of their own infamy. They say they are no better than negroes, and future generations will pronounce them far worse; for, since the fall of Adam, so great a treason has not been attempted against the human race. Satan came disguised as a serpent, professing wisdom; they come in the garb of a negro, professing freedom. Satan artfully contrived to have the law of God broken; they seek to trample the Constitution and the southern people under foot, and, like that same fallen angel, to build the throne of their power upon the ruins of their victims. LIBRARY OF CONGREJ 016 089 325 4