and power, and happiness, and all that blesses
a nation and a people, "By their fruits ye
shall know them." Aye, in one year after
that repeal, there was war between conflicting
politicians. for the people never were conflict-
ing, and we now see the consequences; and
now, as one who opposed them then, who op-
pose them now, and who will oppose them as
long as I live, I say to them—" Shake not thy
gory locks at me, for thou canst not say I did
it." It was their own work, the work of
these wife constitutional Gamaliels.
Mr. Clay had his idea and opinion about
these men who are turning the Constitution
into a hobby-horse, and go tilting on it
whenever it suits their partisan purposes; and
I will give his opinion in his own language.
and I beg gentlemen to mark that out of re-
spect for the gray hairs which cover the heads
of some who will take part in this debate, I
would use no such language myself, for am
too young a man to make such language per-
tinent or proper for me. But I give it as the
language of Mr. Clay, a man of their own
sort, a Southern man by birth, a Southerner
of the very strictest and straitest sect, and
one of the best of politicians, such another
the world has never produced. What did he
say to those gentlemen who, in 1850, as he
charged upon them on the floor of Congress,
were trying for their own purposes to defeat
the compromise measure's? He told them
that they did not want peace, that it did not
suit their purposes. He charged upon them
that they were then conferring together in
Washington city upon the most effective
means to keep peace out of the land. If gen-
tlemen will read that speech they will find in
it something of Mr. Clay's ideas upon the
subject of national unity, and States' rights.
And more than all that, they will find some-
thing of his ideas of these gentlemen who are
all the time screaming out—" O ! the Consti-
tution; O ! the Constitution." Mr. Clay
says:
''Mr. President, it is one of the peculiar
circumstances attending my present position,
as I remarked on a former occasion, that I
am generally called upon to vindicate the
measures proposed in this bill against those
whom we have regarded as the friends, as
well as those who are considered as open,
avowed opponents of the measure,"
Mr. MILLER. Will the gentleman state who
those opponents were?
Mr. SANDS. I will come to that directly.
Gentlemen will find out who they were by the
time I get through reading.
"I anticipated, the other day, somewhat the
argument which I beg leave barely to advert
to now, I think amongst our southern friends
two or three great errors are occasionally
committed. They interpret the Constitution
according to their judgment; they ingraft
their exposition upon it; and, without listen-
ing to or giving due weight to the opposite |
interpretation, to the conflicting exposition
which is as honestly believed by the opposite
interpretors as they believe on their side,
they proclaim their own exposition of the
Constitution, and cry out, 'All we want is
the Constitution.' "
What a master hand drew the portraits of
those Southern gentlemen who even then were
bent upon the destruction of this Union, ac-
cording to Mr. Clay, and other gentlemen
just as well known in the land us he. They
were quibbling at this, and at that, and at
everything that the people held venerable and
vital and essential. Yet all the while, as Mr.
Clay said, they were crying out, "give us the
Constitution, give us the Constitution," that
is, give them their interpretation of it.
" In the comparison and expression of op-
posite opinions, infallibility is not the lot of
mortal man, it belongs only to Him who
rules the destinies of the world; and fur any
section or any set of gentlemen to rise up and
say the ' Constitution means so and so, and
he who says otherwise violates the Constitu-
tion,' is, in itself, intolerant, and without that
mutual forbearance and respect which are due
to conflicting, opinions, honestly entertained
by all who are equally aiming to arrive at the
truth."
I say the hand of a master drew the por-
trait of those miserable politicians, and there
it stands to be read of all men for all time.
And what were the results of these pacifi-
cating measures of 1850, which were regarded
then all over the South as new Southern
triumphs, as they were. Three years later,
and this country presented this spectacle:
Your Congress was debating this proposition
—how shall we deplete the Treasury, now
filled to overflowing? Well, great heavens I
have not those men aided in depleting it since
then, not only through the aid of the late
Secretary of the Treasury, under Buchanan,
but in divers other ways. In 1853, under the
working of the peace measures of Henry
Clay, the nation presented a spectacle which
was the admiration of the world; we were a
people free as the air we breathed; powerful
as a giant; sitting under our vines and our
fig-trees, with none to molest us or make us
afraid; a match for the world in arms; and
what are we to-day? Almost a by-word
and a reproach among the nations, because,
being deputed to minister at the altar of
liberty, we have, as far as some of us could
do, quenched its light in blood and tears.
Now, what is the cause of all this? What
but the repeal of the Missouri Compromise?
And here I want to say a few words in regard
to some remarks of my friend from Prince
George's, (Mr. Clarke,) yesterday. When he
spoke of commissioners con the part of the
United States to treat with the public enemy,
and named Franklin Pierce as one of them, I
could not believe in his sincerity. Franklin
the faithless! |
