1 43^ REMARKS r- OP HON. a: G. TALBOTT, of KENTUCKY, ON THE OKGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, A :^fi DELIVERED ON THE 9TH OP JANUARY, 1856. WASHtNGTOK: PmNTfiD At THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICfi. 1856* e:^34 .5 OUGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE. While the Clerk was cnlling the roll on the ninety-ninth ballot for Speaker, Mr. TALBOTT (when his name was called) said: If the House will indulge me for a few min- utes, I desire to make a personal explanation. I hold in my hand the New York Courier and Enquirer, in which I find the following para- graph, contained in a letter from a Washington correspondent of that paper, dated December 27, and signed " Inspector." The paragraph to which I desire to call the attention of the House reads as follows: "Mr. BococK, of Virginia, Mr. Taldott, of Kenfuclty, and other decided fiiends of Mr. Kichardsos, have been absent to-day, and it is thought thsy are willing to allow Mr. Banks to be elected, if he can be by the mere reduc- tion of Mr. Kiciiardson's minority vote." Sir, this paragraph attributes to me a willing- ness to see done ir, this House that which I have studiously and zealously endeavored to prevent since we commenced the first ballot for Speaker. It imputes to me motives unknown to my head or heart, all of which I spurn with the unknown author. It is true I was absent a few days from this Hall while the ballot for Speaker was being taken, about the time the article just read pur- ports to have been written; but, I was not ab- sent for pleasure or for profit, but in the faith- ful discharge of what I conceive to be a high, imperative, indispensable duty. I was in the sick chamber, and by the bed-side of a beloved wife, who has been confined to her room for the last three months, ministering to her wants and endeavoring to alleviate her pains. Most unex- pectedly to me, sir, on the 24th day of December last, I received a communication from an affec- ! tionate and devoted daughter, informing me that her mother desired my immediate presence, that she had been suddenly and violently attacked with a disease which, if not at once relieved, threat- ened a speedy dissolution. I did not, sir, hesitate for a moment to adopt the course which duty and affection dictated. I left this city for my home in Kentucky in less than one hour from the time I cast my sixty-ninth vote, I think, for the dis- tinguished gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. Rich- ardson.] I traveled some two thousand miles in the performance of what, under the circumstances, I conceived to be my imperative duty. Sir, if I had not adopted the course I did, if I had refused to obey such asummons, made under such peculiar circumstances, I would to-day, in my judgment, have justly merited the undivided scorn and contempt of every member upon this floor, and have proven myself unworthy the generous and magnanimous constituency which I have the honor to represent. If the paragraph to which I have alluded had been published in my own State, amongst my own people, those who know me and the motives and principles which prompt and control my action, I would not have troubled myself to notice it. They know me, and I would have left the matter with them without comment or explana- tion; but, sir, I am for the first time a member upon this floor — a stranger to almost all the mem- bers present; and although I have always believed that any and every article, emanating from a driv- eling scribbler who loafs about the halls of legis- lation with a view to impugn the motives and villify the course of gentlemen, is too far beneath contempt to be noticed ; yet, sir, being a stranger, I have lliought it due to the House, to my consti- tuents, and to myself, to present the fuels and make the explanation I have. I have nothing to say in regard to the honor- able gentlemen whose names are connected. with my own in the jiaragraph I have read. They are present, and can sjieak for llnmselves. I have no doubt, Ijowcver, they were actuated by the same honorable motives m hich I claim for myself. Mr. Clerk, I have uniformly cast my vote at every ballot which has been taken for Speaker in this House (except wlicn I was absent in Ken- cnlucky) for the honorable gentleman from the State of lUinois, [Mr. Richardsok;] and before I Uike my seat 1 desire to state, very briefly how- ever, why it is that I have heretofore, and I ex- pect hereafter to continue to vote for that gentle- Icman until, in my judgment, the interest of the country, or my own convictions of propriety and policy, shall require a different vote. I desire to state, too, sir, before I take my seat, why it is that it is utterly impossible for me, cither directly orindirectly , by my vote or otherwise, to aid in the election cither of the gentleman from Massachu- •etta, [Mr. B.\mks,] who belongs to the Free-Soil Republican jmrty, or the gentleman from Penn- syh-ania, [Mr. Fuller,] who belongs to the American, or the Know Nothing party. Sir, I was elected to a scat in this House as an Independent Whig, pledged to no party as such, but to all parties and to the country upon the following platform of principles: First, That I would suind by the Constitution of the United Slates and the American Union as they now are, in spirit and in letter, against all innovation or infraction, come from what quarter it may. Second, That no religious test should ever be required of a citizen for any office or place of trust under ihe United States, whether he be native-born or naturalized, Protestant or Roman Catholic. Third, That, except for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, every office in the Government, State or Notional, should be equally accessible to every citizen, whiiher native-born or naturalized ; that neither the place of birth, religious faith, sectional locality, nor worldly pursuit — nothing butciiizenship, character, qualification, fidility to our common country and jxilitical creed, should ever be requin d as a prerequisite for any office or place of trust uiidc r our republican Governmiiit. Fourth, That, except as fugitives, the power to legislate upon the subject of slavery as property is not conferred upon Congnss by the Consti- ttilion; nor iu such a power ncccssury to the exercise of any otherpowergiven. In order, there- fore, to do justice to every citizen in every State in the Union, free and slave States, and to secure peace and harmony between the different sections of the Confederacy, and to the people of Kansas and Nebraska the proud privilege, when they come to organize themselves into States, and form their organic laws,of regulating for themselves their own domestic institutions, 1 will resist every effort to re- peal the bill passed by the Thirty-Third Congress, known as the Kan.sas-Ncbraska act, and any and every effort to restore the Missouri restriction line. Fifth, For strictly inforcing that clause in the Constitution of the United Stales which provides, that no person held to service in one State und(!r the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due; and resistance to any modification or a rep(;al of the existing fugitive slave law, by which properly in slaves might be rendered less secure, or fugitives more difficult to recover. Sixth, Opposition to all secret, oath-bound political organizations, whenever, wherever, or for whatsoever, formed in our Republic, &s im- politic, improper, and anti-American. Seventh, In the administration of the Govern- ment and execution of the laws, we should know no North, no South, no East, no West; that all the rights of every citizen in every section of this great Confederacy should be as equally protected by law as they are secured by the Constitution. This, sir, is the position I assumed in the late canvass for a seat upon this floor; this is the j)lalform upon which I was elected and to wliich I stand pledged to all parties in my district and to the country. I will not now, sir, attempt to elaborate or to justify them; I will state, however, that by the indulgence of the House I may take occasion to discuss them at length at some future period. I will only add that, understanding the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Rakks] as being the grcof leader of ihc Free-Soil Know .Vo//ii»ig- sectional Republican party, advo- catingdoctrines which, in niyjudginent,are inim- ical to civil and religious liberty, and sustaining and endeavoring to carry out a set of anti-slavery and Free-Soil principles, which, if triumphant, would not only prove highly detrimental to the best interest of the State which I have the honor in part to represent, but which, if pressed to the extreme to which 1 understand that gentleman is willing to go, would reiuliM' doubtful, at least, thii permanency and jjcrjietuity of this glorious Con- federacy. Entertaining this view, Mr. Clerk, of that gentleman's position, there is at once a gulf deep, wide, impassable,betweenhimand myself. I could not therefore, sir, vote, or aid in any man- ner, directly or indirectly, to elevate him to the speakership of this House, without proving rec- reant to all the high trusts which have been con- fided to me by my constituents. How is it, sir, with the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Fuller?] While he is practically a little less anti-slavery, yet in theory, I presume, from his own definition of his position, he is pretty much the same, and in Americanism or Know Nothingism he is greatly ahead of the honorable gentleman from Massachu- setts, [Mr. Banks;] holding doctrines and advo- cating a system of policy, under the head of Know Nothingism, which I think not only violative of the Constitution of my country, but if carried out, subversive of civil and religious liberty. Sir, Know Nothingism, as I understand it, is a mon- strous political heresy. It means no foreign- born citizen, it matters not how great or how good, no Roman Catholic, however patriotic he may be, shall have any office in the gift of the American people, from the fourth sergeant in a militia com- pany up to the presidency of the United States. This is what I understand to be the doctrines held and propagated by that party. This, I know, was the doctrine jDreached and propagated by them in the district which I have the honor to represent, during the canvass the past summer. Yet, sir, they talk about civil and religious liberty. They say they do not proscribe Catholics. What is civil and religious liberty without civil and reli- gious equality ? What is civil and political liberty without civil and political equality? Freedom is but a name, and liberty a curse, whether civil, political, or religious, when fettered with political disability. Surely, sir, it is a monstrous political heresy to be taught in the land of Washington and Jefferson, that an entire class of our citizens, no matter how great or how good, are to be ostra- cised and proscribed because they were accident- ally born in the wrong place, and another class ostracised because they happen to belong to the wrong church. Sir, the glory of our Govern- ment is its religious toleration; the glory of our Constitution, its equality of rights. I will not enlarge. This, to me, is a doctrine monstrous and heretical. Sooner would I suffer my right arm to wither, or my tongue to cleave to the roof of my mouth, than I would indorse that doctrine, or aid in the triumph of a party which holds political opinions so adverse to my judgment, so revolting to my feelings, and which would, cither directly or indirectly, proscribe a man for his religious faith. I could not do it without proving a traitor to the men and the principles that placed me in my present posi- tion. I cannot, sir — I %ill not do it. I voted for the distinguished gentleman from Illinois sixty- nine times, I think, before I left for Kentucky, as I have before said, and I know I have voted for him on every ballot since my return. I now vote for him, and I expect to continue to vote for him, until, as I said before, the interest of my country, or my own views of propriety, or my sense of duty, shall require me to vote for another. Mr. Clerk, what was the aspect of political parties when we first met at this Capitol? The Republican party had met in the North and organized themselves into a sectional Free-Soil Abolition party, determined, many of them, upon a repeal of the fugitive slave law, and all of them upon the repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska bill; the restoration of the Missouri restrictive line; the restriction of slavery in the Territories; the non- admission of any more slave States into this Union. This party, Mr. Clerk, promised no good to the country, but, by its system of political warfare, threatened a disruption of the Union. What else, sir? The great American party, which had boasted so long and so loud about the na- tionality of its principles, and the glorious results which would accrue to the country from the tri- umph of its principles — they, sir, a few days before we met here, held a meeting at Cincinnati, nine States being represented, and they, too, adopted a platform, threatening the institutions of the South, though it might cost this glorious Union to carry out their principles. What next ? A few days before we m.ct here, the great Amer- ican party South, seeing that, by the action of their brethren at Cincinnati, the lasthope of Amer- icanism was gone in the South unless they in some way or other should meet and caulk their already leaky and fast sinking ship — they, too, had a meeting at the city of Louisville, in my own State; and what did they do? They repudi- ated the action of their party at Cincinnati by reindorsing the twelfth section of the Philadelphia platform, thus dividing and denationalizing and completely sectionalizing the great American party, swearing that there was, at least, a Spar- tan band of Americans at Louisville, Kentucky, who, though they had bowed the knee to Sam, would never do the like to Sambo. And I believe in my heart they are in good earnest. In my judgment, if there is ever any more bending of the knees between them, Sambo will 'have to be the first to bow. But what, Mr. Clerk, was the peculiar |i()liticiil aspect of the country after tins action of tlie Amer- ican party at Louisville and Cincinnuli? The old Wliig party was dead. The fi^real American parly, which had proniisill so mui-.h to the coun- try, stood thus irreconcilably divided and inef- ficient for good. The i>eojilt' at once saw that there wu.s no party left but the old Democratic party, with her banner unfurled lo the breeze as a national pary. All eyes were at once turned to that party as the oidy hope of saving the Consti- tution and the Union against the aggressive policy of the Republican party of the North. The great problem yet lo be solved, however, was, whether the old Dcinoc.-atic ])arty, although she had never yet failed to save Uie country under any and all circumslancrs, might not, too, split upon this great denationaJizing element — the slavery ques- tion — when she came lo meet in a national caucus orconvention lo makca platform. This, .sir, was j the true condition of parties in this country when tliis Congress first met, and that the great ques- ion to be settled. Sir, we did meet in caucus in this Hall on the night of the 1st day of December last for the purpose of solving and settling that vexed question. I confess it was not, though my faith was strong, without sonie trepidation that I entered this Hall on that memorable evening. I had some .slight fears as to what might be the result; but, sir, to tl»c honor and glory of the Democratic members of this House be it said, from every section of the Confederacy, at the very first (;lVi)rt at an organization and the adoption of a ])latforni, we not only adopted by a unanimous vole our conservative platform and planted our- selves upon the Constitution and the Union, but we nominated for Sj)cakcr, upon that platform, by a similar vote, our present distinguished stand- ard-bearer, the gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. Richardson,] from a free Stale; presenting to this House and lo the country a man having a head and a heart capacious enough to defend and maintain the Constitution of the coujitry and this gloricus Confederacy of States as they arc. Thus organized, Mr. Clerk, the old Democratic parly stands lo-day firmer, more united, and more im- pregnable than she ever did. She stands to-day, as I trust she ever will, as a pillar of cloud by day and a j>illar of fire by night, pointing to the Constitution and the Union as the only ark of our political safety. I vole, sir, for William A. RiCHAHDSOK.