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\nMr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention.<\/span><\/p>\n
If we could first know where<\/em> we are, and whither<\/em> we are tending, we could then better judge what<\/em> to do, and how<\/em> to do it.<\/span>
\nWe are now far into the fifth<\/em> year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed<\/em> object, and confident<\/em> promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.<\/span>
\nUnder the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased<\/em>, but has constantly augmented. <\/em>In my<\/em> opinion, it will<\/em> not cease, until a crisis<\/em> shall have been reached, and passed.<\/span>
\n“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”<\/span>
\nI believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave<\/em> and half free<\/em>.<\/span>
\nI do not expect the Union to be dissolved<\/em>\u2014I do not expect the house to fall<\/em>\u2014but I do<\/em> expect it will cease to be divided.<\/span>
\nIt will become all<\/em> one thing or all<\/em> the other.<\/span>
\nEither the opponents<\/em> of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates<\/em> will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all<\/em> the States, old<\/em> as well as new<\/em>\u2014North<\/em> as well as South<\/em>.<\/span>
\nHave we no tendency<\/em> to the latter condition?
\nLet any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination\u2014piece of machinery<\/em> so to speak\u2014compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only what<\/em> work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well<\/em> adapted; but also, let him study the history<\/em> of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail,<\/em> if he can, to trace the evidence of design and concert of action, among its chief architects, from the beginning.
\nBut, so far, Congress<\/em> only, had acted; and an indorsement<\/em> by the people, real<\/em> or apparent, was indispensable, to save<\/em> the point already gained, and give chance for more.
\nThe new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than half the States by State Constitutions, and from most of the national territory by congressional prohibition.
\nFour days later, commenced the struggle, which ended in repealing that congressional prohibition.
\nThis opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained.
\nThis necessity had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of “squatter sovereignty,”<\/em> otherwise called “sacred right of self government,” <\/em>which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That if any one<\/em> man, choose to enslave another,<\/em> no third<\/em> man shall be allowed to object.
\nThat argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows: “It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or state, not to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.”<\/em>
\nThen opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of “Squatter Sovereignty,” and “Sacred right of self-government.”
\n“But,” said opposition members, “let us be more specific<\/em>\u2014let us amend<\/em> the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the territory may exclude slavery.” “Not we,” said the friends of the measure; and down they voted the amendment.
\nWhile the Nebraska Bill was passing through congress, a law case<\/em> involving the question of a negroe’s freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free state and then a territory covered by the congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave, for a long time in each, was passing through the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and law suit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The negroe’s name was “Dred Scott,” which name now designates the decision finally made in the case.
\nBefore<\/em> the then<\/em> next Presidential election, the law case came to,<\/em> and was argued in,<\/em> the Supreme Court of the United States; but the decision<\/em> of it was deferred until after<\/em> the election. Still, before<\/em> the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requests the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion<\/em> whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the latter answers: “That is a question for the Supreme Court.”
\nThe election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement,<\/em> such as it was, secured. That was the second<\/em> point gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory.
\nThe outgoing<\/em> President, in his last annual message, as impressively as possible, echoed back<\/em> upon the people the weight and authority<\/em> of the indorsement.
\nThe Supreme Court met again; did not<\/em> announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument.
\nThe Presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; but the incoming<\/em> President, in his inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever might be.<\/em>
\nThen, in a few days, came the decision.
\nThe reputed author of the Nebraska Bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at this capital indorsing the Dred Scott Decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it.
\nThe new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse<\/em> and strongly construe<\/em> that decision, and to express his astonishment<\/em> that any different view had ever been entertained.
\nAt length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska Bill, on the mere<\/em> question of fact,<\/em> whether the Lecompton constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; and in that squabble the latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares<\/em> not whether slavery be voted down<\/em> or voted up.<\/em> I do not understand his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other than as an apt definition<\/em> of the policy<\/em> he would impress upon the public mind\u2014the principle<\/em> for which he declares he has suffered much, and is ready to suffer to the end.
\nAnd well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That principle, is the only shred<\/em> left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision, “squatter sovereignty” squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding\u2014like the mould at the foundry served through one blast and fell back into loose sand\u2014helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint<\/em> struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point, the right of a people to make their own constitution, upon which he and the Republicans have never differed.
\nThe several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Douglas’ “care-not” policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present<\/em> state of advancement. This was the third point gained. The working<\/em> points of that machinery are:
\nFirst, that no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no descendant of such slave can ever be a citizen<\/em> of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States.
\nThis point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of this provision of the United States Constitution, which declares that\u2014
\n“The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.”
\nSecondly, that “subject to the Constitution of the United States,” neither Congress<\/em> nor a Territorial Legislature<\/em> can exclude slavery from any United States Territory.
\nThis point is made in order that individual men may fill up<\/em> the territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency<\/em> to the institution through all the future.
\nThirdly, that whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a free State, makes him free, as against the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave State the negro may be forced into by the master.
\nThis point is made, not to be pressed immediately;<\/em> but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently indorsed<\/em> by the people at an election, then<\/em> to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott’s master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand<\/em> slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free State.
\nAuxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate<\/em> and mould<\/em> public opinion, at least Northern<\/em> public opinion, to not care<\/em> whether slavery is voted down<\/em> or voted up<\/em>.
\nThis shows exactly where we now are<\/em>; and partially<\/em>, also, whither we are tending.
\nIt will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run the mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several things will now<\/em> appear less dark<\/em> and mysterious<\/em> than they did when<\/em> they were transpiring. The people were to be left “perfectly free” “subject only to the Constitution.” What the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders could not then<\/em> see. Plainly enough now<\/em>, it was an exactly fitted niche<\/em>, for the Dred Scott decision to afterward come in, and declare the perfect freedom<\/em> of the people, to be just no freedom at all.
\nWhy was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now<\/em>, the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.
\nWhy was the court decision held up? Why even a Senator’s individual opinion withheld, till after<\/em> the presidential election? Plainly enough now<\/em>, the speaking out then<\/em> would have damaged the “perfectly free”<\/em> argument upon which the election was to be carried.
\nWhy the outgoing<\/em> President’s felicitation on the indorsement? Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming President’s advance<\/em> exhortation in favor of the decision?
\nThese things look<\/em> like the cautious patting<\/em> and petting<\/em> of a spirited horse, preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall.
\nAnd why the hasty after indorsements of the decision by the President and others?
\nWe can not absolutely know<\/em> that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen\u2014Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance\u2014and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few\u2014not omitting even scaffolding\u2014or, if a single piece be lacking, we can see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such piece in\u2014in such<\/em> a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan<\/em> or draft<\/em> drawn up before the first lick was struck.
\nIt should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska Bill, the people of a State<\/em>, as well as Territory,<\/em> were to be left “perfectly free” “subject only to the Constitution.<\/em>”
\nWhy mention a State<\/em>? They were legislating for territories,<\/em> and not for<\/em> or about<\/em> States. Certainly the people of a State are<\/em> and ought<\/em> to be subject to the Constitution of the United States; but why is mention of this lugged<\/em> into this merely territorial<\/em> law? Why are the people of a territory<\/em> and the people of a state<\/em> therein lumped<\/em> together, and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely<\/em> the same?
\nWhile the opinion of the Court<\/em>, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring Judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither permits Congress nor a Territorial legislature to exclude slavery from any United States territory, they all omit<\/em> to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a state<\/em>, or the people of a State, to exclude it.
\nPossibly<\/em>, this is a mere omission<\/em>; but who can be quite<\/em> sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a state<\/em> to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Macy sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a territory, into the Nebraska bill\u2014I ask, who can be quite sure<\/em> that it would not have been voted down, in the one case, as it had been in the other.
\nThe nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State over slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, and almost<\/em> the language too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion his exact language is, “except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction.”
\nIn what cases<\/em> the power of the states<\/em> is so restrained by the U.S. Constitution, is left an open<\/em> question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on the power of the territories<\/em> was left open in the Nebraska act. Put that<\/em> and that<\/em> together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a state<\/em> to exclude slavery from its limits.
\nAnd this may especially be expected if the doctrine of “care not whether slavery be voted down<\/em> or voted up<\/em>, shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision an be maintained when made.
\nSuch a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States.
\nWelcome, or unwelcome, such decision is<\/em> probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown.
\nWe shall lie down<\/em> pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri<\/em> are on the verge of making their State free<\/em>; and we shall awake<\/em> to the reality<\/em>, instead, that the Supreme<\/em> Court has made Illinois<\/em> a slave<\/em> State.
\nTo meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation.
\nThis is what<\/em> we have to do.
\nBut how<\/em> can we best do it?
\nThere are those who denounce us openly<\/em> to their own<\/em> friends, and yet whisper us softly<\/em>, that Senator Douglas<\/em> is the aptest<\/em> instrument there is, with which to effect that object. They<\/em> wish us to infer<\/em> all, from the facts, that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly voted with us, on a single point, upon which, he and we, have never differed.
\nThey remind us that he<\/em> is a great man, and that the largest of us<\/em> are very small ones. Let this be granted. But “a living<\/em> dog is better than a dead lion<\/em>.” Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged<\/em> and toothless<\/em> one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don’t care<\/em> anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing<\/em> the “public heart” to care<\/em> nothing about it.
\nA leading Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas’ superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave trade.
\nDoes Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he really<\/em> think so? But if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right<\/em> of white men to take negro slaves into the new territories. Can he possibly show that it is less<\/em> a sacred right to buy<\/em> them where they can be bought cheapest? And, unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa<\/em> than in Virginia<\/em>.
\nHe has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property<\/em>; and as such, how can he<\/em> oppose the foreign slave trade\u2014how can he refuse that trade in that “property” shall be “perfectly free”\u2014unless he does it as a protection<\/em> to the home production? And as the home producers<\/em> will probably not ask<\/em> the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition.