American Eloquence, Volume 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 230 pages of information about American Eloquence, Volume 3.

American Eloquence, Volume 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 230 pages of information about American Eloquence, Volume 3.

Now, if this was a compact, let us see how it was entered into.  The bill originated in the House of Representatives, and passed that body without a Southern vote in its favor.  It is proper to remark, however, that it did not at that time contain the eighth section, prohibiting slavery in the Territories; but in lieu of it, contained a provision prohibiting slavery in the proposed State of Missouri.  In the Senate, the clause prohibiting slavery in the State was stricken out, and the eighth section added to the end of the bill, by the terms of which slavery was to be forever prohibited in the territory not embraced in the State of Missouri north of 36 deg. 30’.  The vote on adding this section stood in the Senate, 34 in the affirmative, and 10 in the negative.  Of the Northern Senators, 20 voted for it, and 2 against it.  On the question of ordering the bill to a third reading as amended, which was the test vote on its passage, the vote stood 24 yeas and 20 nays.  Of the Northern Senators, 4 only voted in the affirmative, and 18 in the negative.  Thus it will be seen that if it was intended to be a compact, the North never agreed to it.  The Northern Senators voted to insert the prohibition of slavery in the Territories; and then, in the proportion of more than four to one, voted against the passage of the bill.  The North, therefore, never signed the compact, never consented to it, never agreed to be bound by it.  This fact becomes very important in vindicating the character of the North for repudiating this alleged compromise a few months afterward.  The act was approved and became a law on the 6th of March, 1820.  In the summer of that year, the people of Missouri formed a constitution and State government preparatory to admission into the Union in conformity with the act.  At the next session of Congress the Senate passed a joint resolution declaring Missouri to be one of the States of the Union, on an equal footing with the original States.  This resolution was sent to the House of Representatives, where it was rejected by Northern votes, and thus Missouri was voted out of the Union, instead of being received into the Union under the act of the 6th of March, 1820, now known as the Missouri compromise.  Now, sir, what becomes of our plighted faith, if the act of the 6th of March, 1820, was a solemn compact, as we are now told?  They have all rung the changes upon it, that it was a sacred and irrevocable compact, binding in honor, in conscience, and morals, which could not be violated or repudiated without perfidy and dishonor! * * * Sir, if this was a compact, what must be thought of those who violated it almost immediately after it was formed?  I say it is a calumny upon the North to say that it was a compact.  I should feel a flush of shame upon my cheek, as a Northern man, if I were to say that it was a compact, and that the section of the country to which I belong received the consideration, and then repudiated the obligation in eleven months after it was entered into.  I

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American Eloquence, Volume 3 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.