oration, no consideration based on political
place or power could tempt me to join you—
I cannot betray you, for you have my promise
not to do so. But I give you notice now,
that I will use all the power with which God
has clothed me to its fullest extent to defeat
your infamous scheme." The country knows
how gallantly Mr. Clay fought that Texas an-
nexation scheme, but it does not know his
secret reasons for doing so.
And Mr. Clay's declaration is, that the day
after the vote on the annexation was taken in
the Senate of the United States, when it was
carried by but one vote—twenty-six to twenty-
five—the leading men who were fully ini-
tiated into the objects sought to be accom-
plished, said among themselves, the one to
the other: " we must abandon our scheme of
years, or we must get out of this Union."
For mark you, gentlemen, and here is the
beautiful feature of their scheme, they did not
intend to stop with the acquisition of Texas.
There lay Tamaulipas, Chihuahua and other
Mexican States all around the Gulf of Mexico
—there they lay, as they said, just like pears
fully ripe, ready to drop in their laps when
they were ready to gather them. And their
scheme was to go on in the samp way with
those States until they had made the Gulf of
Mexico in their own language, an inland sea,
surrounded by slave-holding States.
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. Is that
from the secret history of Texas !
Mr. SANDS. It is from the secret history
of Mr. Clay, which I have in my room and
can show to gentlemen if they desire to see it.
Mr. MILLER. Did not Mr. Clay say that if
Texas could be annexed without opposition
he would be willing to see it done?
Mr. SANDS. Gentlemen cm inform them-
selves upon tint subject in their own way.
Mr. Clay declared that from the time that
vote was taken, and they saw what their
strength really was; when they determined
that one of two things had to be done by
them, either to abandon the enterprise which
they had so fondly and devotedly nursed for
thirty years, or get out the Union—the dec-
laration among these sou hern politicians
was to each other, we must go home and
educate our people up to disunion. And if
gentlemen will just re id this speech of Sir.
Clay in 1850 they will there find some inti-
mation of these facts,
Then it was that the disruption of this
Union was determined upon. Then it was
that it was predetermined by these gentlemen
that the Missouri Compromise should be re-
pealled And why? Because they knew that
so long as that line stood there would be
peace in the land, and they knew that so long
as there was pence in the land they could not
get out of the Union They were unwilling
to give up their darling scheme, the one they
had cherished so long. They moist have
some bone of contention to enable them to |
get out of the Union, and they knew that
lay only in the slavery question. That is
the true secret of their repealing the Missouri
Compromise. They knew that so long as
there was peace in the land they could not
dissolve the Union, and could mot carry out
their scheme. There stood the Constitution
which they professed so much to love; there
it stood in their way. It was like Mordecai
sitting at the King's gate, right in their path,
and they could not go up to the gorgeous
feast which their imaginations had spread
for them, as long as the hated Jew was in
the way. You remember Haman's fate.
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. He was
hanged pretty high, was he not?
Mr.SANDS. He was, and I believe as firm-
ly as I believe in my Bible, that that illustri-
ous example will yet be imitated. [Applause.]
Mr. Clay found those men out; be knew
them well, knew them like a primer. He
knew that while they were continually cry-
ingout—The Constitution I The Constitu-
tion ! Give us the Constitution ! The Con-
stitution was the very thing they did not
want. You have all heard of the Irishman
who was about to be tried for some offence,
and was in great trepidation. The Judge
noticing his uneasiness, said lo him, for the
purpose of reassuring him—"don't be
alarmed, you will have justice done you."
"Faith," replied Pat, "that is just what I
don't want," and just so with these men;
the Constitution was just what they did not
want.
Now there is another course of constitutional
reading I would recommend to the at-
tention of my friends here. I do not have
my speech in my pocket; I have been drawn
into this debate unexpectedly. I am in that
respect on a fooling with my friend from
Kent (Mr. Chambers.) But I would ask my
friends to read the preamble to the articles of
Confederation, and then read the preamble
to the Constitution. Just listen to what the
articles of Confederation say—
"Articles of Confederation and perpetual
Union between the States of New Hampshire,
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey," &c.
When it was found, as Washington said,
that no alliance between the puns, however
strict, was adequate as a substitute for a
government of the whole, then this Constitution
was adopted, and the preamble at
the head of the Constitution states—
" We, the people of the United States, in
order to form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide
for the common defence, promole the general
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United
States of America."
Now upon that point I would just like to |
