States declined the President's proposition."
Is the opinion of the Intelligencer, vindicat-
ing in a grave and solemn form the truth of
history entitled to no weight? Has this
able journal become too conservative for the
radicalism of gentlemen of the opposition
side of this Convention ?
Besides, the bill itself contemplated ex-
tending the time in which emancipation
would go into effect until January, 1865.—
My proposition accords with the time fixed
in that bill. Sir, the statement is the
cunning subterfuge of a class of men who
have always hated slaveholders, who hate
them now, who never meant in good faith
to be their friends, and whose conduct has
proven them to be actuated by a venomous
spirit and a single desire to injure them, to
calumniate them, to oppress them, and to
insult them by language which they would
not dare to use except for the fact that the
bayonet shields them, and which when that
bayonet is removed, and all men stand once
more upon a common platform of equality,
they will not dare to repeat.
Mr. President, much harsh language has
been used in this Hall, and throughout the
State against the slaveholder. The mem-
ber from the 3d Congressional District has,
in one of his political harangues, speaking
of slave holders and negro equality, said,
" equality between the negro and them I
it would insult my house-servants to say
they were not their equals."
Who does not remember the language
used against the slaveowners of Maryland
by the speakers at the meeting field last
fall at Elkton, in Cecil county. Who does
not remember the horror and pity which
high-minded men felt, that even in the
midst of a political contest, speakers could
be found who could so far forget the com-
mon charities of their nature as to glory
over and rejoice at the sufferings of their
fellow men?
Mr. SANDS interposed. I ask if the gen-
tleman is quite in order.
Mr. CLARKE. I am arguing the im-
propriety of inserting the 23d article in
the Bill of Rights.
Mr. SANDS. I make the point that it is
travelling out of the way to state what oc-
curred at a political meeting at Elkton.
That is hardly within the record. I think
it is not at all germain to the question; I
raise the point of order because these things
shall not go upon the record of this Con-
stitutional Convention without my protest.
I object to introducing that branch of the |
gentleman's remarks, and placing it upon
the record
Mr. STIRLING. I am anxious to hear it.
The PRESIDENT. The difficulty in which
the Chair is placed, is, that if the gentle-
man objects to any particular remarks
made by the speaker, they must be reduced
to writing, and submitted to the House. Of
course it is impossible to reduce to writing
what the gentleman proposes to say; and it is
therefore impossible for the Chair to decide
whether it will be out of order or in order.
Mr. SANDS. My objection is to what has
already been said,
Mr. HEBB. That is already on the record.
Mr. SANDS. Well, I will withdraw my
point of order, as gentlemen wish to hear
it. I have discharged my duty by protest-
ing against it.
Mr. CLARKE. I shall make no personal
allusions, nor introduce anything which is
not. already published to the world.
Again, the slaveowners have been paint-
ed as "hopeless, wretched, miserable; pray-
ing to a God that once smiled on them, and
now frowns; they say, give us emancipa-
tion, with compensation by the Government."
Mr. President, I allude to these
facts for the purpose, not of replying in the
strain which my exemplary predecessors
on this floor would teach me, lout to give
them a historical existence, and to leave
them, preserving my own dignity, by
passing over them in silence.
I deny, sir, that the slaveowners of Ma-
ryland is either " hopeless, wretched or
miserable." I deny that he prays or begs
for compensation from any Government or
any man. He has the manliness to claim
and demands his rights. He will never
stoop to be a suppliant to any power save
the divine.
Sir, proceed with your work of striking
down suddenly and by one dire constitu-
tional clause the dearest rights of property,
and all you do is but to deprive the citi-
zen of the representative of money, or to
make him a little poorer. You wrong the
widow, the orphan, and the destitute, and
from opulence, possibly send them out upon
the " cold charity of the world." But, sir,
the men you leave still, unless you will not
be satiated until you have their lives. Their
political power as slaveholders may be gone,
but their political power as men exists still.
We step out to fight the political battles of
the country upon a common platform with
you. It will be ours to hurl and wield the
thunderbolts of political power, no longer |
