Shall the Territories be Africanized by James Harlan
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Title:Shall the territories be Africanized? Speech of Hon. James Harlan, of Iowa. Delivered in the Senate of the United States, January 4, 1860.

Author:Harlan, James, 1820-1899.

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Print Source:Shall the territories be Africanized? Speech of Hon.

James Harlan, of Iowa. Delivered in the Senate of the United States, January 4, 1860.

Harlan, James, 1820-1899.

8 p. 23 cm.

[Washington,

1860]

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F #V tf~ SHALL THE TERRITORIES BE AFRICANIZED? )4i~~& c ~~ ~ L’- 33

SPEECll OF ll()N. ~]\1EK ll~At~L~N, OF IOWA. 0 Delivered in the United States Senate, January 4, 1860. 0 The Senate having under cons~deration the motion of Mr. Chamber for this exposition of the constitutional Thucin, to print the annual message of the President of United States and the accompanying documents-the rights of slaveholders, is much broader in its ap r. HARLAN said: plication than has et been stated. Mr.

Pazsii,z~v: I was about to remark, when It is said tbat the citizens of each State have I gave way for these personal explanations, that a common right to go into and enjoy the cornthe members of the two great political parties of mon territory belonging to the Republic, because the country may now begin to understand eac it was purchased by the common blood and other. When the President says, in the message treasure of the nation; that it would be flagrant now under consideration, that injustice to the slaveholder to tax his purse and “The right has boon cotiblished of every etizun to take his blood in procuring it, and then to exclude Ins property of aoy int, includiiig sluves, into the common him from its occupancy, by denying him the Territories belongiiig eqwlly to ill the States of the Coiifed-riglit to enter it with his slaves. But this reaeracy, and to have it protected there under the Federal Coiistitution;” that “neither Coogress, nor a Territorial Legisla. soning is as applicable to the States as to the ture, nor any hum~n power, has any authority to aiinul or Territories. In the State I have the honor in rnpa~r this vestod r~ght`~
part to represent on this floor, in California, He speaks tbe opinion of every Democratic mem-Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, from her of the Senate with the exception of one or which slavery has been excluded, not only by two, and, I think, the avowed opinion of nearly act of Congress, but by the provisions of the every Democratic member of the other branch of State Constitutions, there is a large quantity of Congress, including a majority of the Democratic public laud. If then, tite introduction of slaves members from tlie State of Illinois. Now, sir, if into the Territories can be demanded by the we admit this proposition to be true, the corol-slaveholder because of its purchase from the lary must necessarily follow, that if this property common treasure, he may, for the same reason, introduced into the Territories under the provis-demand its admission into all the States containions of the Constitution of the United States is in public domain. This argument addresses found to be insecure, it will become the duty of itself rather to the Convention which fi~amed the Congress to procide the means for its legal pro-Constitution than to the Congress engaged in tection. The conclusion, admitting the premises, administering it, only so far as it may be used is irresistible. rhen a member of the Senate of to throw light on the intention of its authors, in the United States walks up to that tribunal, and explaining any ambiguous provision. It would with his hand uplifted swears in the’ presence of nOt be reasonable to suppose that the framers of God and his countrymen to support the Conitti-the Constitution intended to copier on Congress tntio of the United States, he cannot he con-power to enact laws that would inflict injustice strued to mean a mere acquiescence in its pro-on the people of any of the States. But they visions. He swears to support the Constitution were framing a paramount law for the States, as in his official capacity as a Senator, as a legisi a-well as the national domain outside of the States. tor from whose brain must emanate the laws Hence, if this paramount law recognises the right necessary for the protection of the rights guaran-of the slaveholder to slaves as property, and tied by It. Hence, if the alleged right to hold guaranties the protection of such property outslaves in the Territories he conceded to be a side of the States`authorizing its existence, by constitutional right, be who swears, in his of-implication merely, founded on the reason stated ficial capacity as a legislator, to support the Con-it must protect it wherever the facts exist on stitution, must enact the laws necessary for its which the reason is founded. protection.

The Republicans deny the premises, But, sir, the proposition to exclude slavery and are not therefore bound by the conclusion. from the Territories is complained of as a had~e The reason assigned on the other side of this of odiumit is said to reflect disParaginglY~i0n

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7 2 the people of the slave States. It has been de-Confederation in which slaves are held as propernominated, on the floor of the Senate, “a stig ty? lf arrested, and delivered to the authorities ma” on them and their institutions. Well, sir, of the United States, in stead of securing the prothis stigma-this moral disparagemen#is no tection of his own Government he is declared to more marked as an act of Congress excluding he a pirate, an enemy of the race, and will be hung slaves from the public domain than as an act of by the neck until he is dead. You claim that your each of a majority of the States of the Union, slave property shall beplaced on aplatform of perexcluding slaves from every place subject to ct equaiity, under the laws of the United States, their jurisdiction. A majority of the S’ates have with every other species of property-that there thus repudiated slavery by their Constitutions shall he no discrimination against it, no odious and their laws. Honorable Senators, a few days distinctions against your institutions. Will you since, denounced that provision of the Republi-not, then, be compelled to repeal the laws that can platform that denominates slavery and po-make it ~piracy” to trade in slaves abroad? To lyga~y the twin relics of a barbarous age, and this conclusion, as it seems to me, the Democrati~ intimated their inability to associate with its party is legitimately drifting. defenders on terms of a common brotherhood, in The Republicans deny the premises. They deconsequence of the implied reflection on the ny that slave property does or can exist outside moral character of those who own slaves. We of the States tolerating it. They deny that we were distinctly informed that the only certain are required in the free States to contemplate mode of securing a return of this kindly inter-the people residing in any State, black or white, course, was the ai~andonment of our platform, as property.

We treat all your inhabitants as and the dissolution of the Republican party. people. I deny that members of Congress are But, sir, there is a much more distinct reflection required, as legislators, to treat those whom you on slavery contained in the Constitutions and denominate slaves as property. I deny that the laws of eighteen of the sovereign States of the Constitution treats of them as roer~~. It grants Confederation, in some of whom any act by you a representation for il~em, as “persons;” it which a human being could be held as a slave requires their return when they escape to other is declared to be a felony, and is punishable by States, as “persons owing service under the laws imprisonment in the penite~itiary. Can harmony of a Stater,” it authorizes Congress to inhibit and brotherly feeling, in this Chamber, and their immigration, after the year 1808, as “perthroughout the country, return while these odi-sons,”

and not as property. Hence, as a Senaous Constitutions and laws exist? If the decla-tor, I will legislate for them, and about them, in ration, in a political platform, that slavery is a the light only in which the Constitutiou derelic of a barbarous age, occasions the modest scribes them. In the enactment of a law creademand from the other side of the Chamber that ting a Government for a new Territory, I will the party shall be dissolved, under the pains and regard all of its people, resident and prospectpenalties of the loss of the kindly feeling and ive, as “persons,”

and provide for the protection friendship of slaveholders, and those who repre-of all their rights of person. sent slave States, what shall he said of the States This leads me to the consideration of the who would punish slaveholding as a felony, if power of Congress to legislate for the Territories. attempted within their jurisdiction? Can this The possession of this power is now admitted brotherly feeling be expected until these States by the President, in the message under considabrogate their Constitutions and repeal these ation, and by every Democratic Senator on this odious laws-that is, cease to be free tates, and floor, as far as I am able to learn, with the axbecome slave States? caption of two. In the other branch of Congress, But, sir, this demand that slavebolding shall there appears to be equal unanimity. The honbe approved by the people of the free States as orabla Senator from Ohio, [Mr. Pun]-ona of morally right, and slave property placed on a the two exceptions-if I understood him correctplatform of perfect equality with every other ly on yesterday, denies the existence of this right species of property, is still broader in its applion constitutional grounds, as well as that of excation. The people of the free States may cross pediency. Before joining issue on the question the Atlantic to any people on earth with whom of expediency, it might be well to ascertain how we are on terms of peace and amity, and pur-far we differ from each other, that we may not chase property of every kind that may be legally spend our strength in fighting a shadow.

sold, according to thetr laws, and that may be How far,then do the R~publicans propose to legally held in these States, and return with it legislate for the people of a Territory? Only so with perfect impunity.

Citizens of Iowa have far fovth as may be necessary for the protection sent to Europe for horses and cattle and sheep of their natural rights from invasion from abroad and swine and domestic fowls, for the purpose of or subversion from within. The distinction beimproving the character of the stock nt home; tween a despotism and a constitutional Governand when thus abroad, they claim the protection mantis only this: in the former, the will of the of the stars and the stripes of this Republic, and governing power is supreme, and may arbitrarily if molested or insulted, would justly demand that disp~sa of the lives, liberty, property, conscience, the entire military and naval power of the na-and character, of the people; in the latter, the tion shoullt be called into requisition to avenge Government is restrained from the invasion of the insult or to redress the wrong. But how is the natural rights of man by what is usually it when a citizen of a slave State goes across the styled a Constitution.

This is equally true of a same Atlantic to a conatry where commerce in republic or ot a monarchy. It has never been sla~as is perfectly legitimate, and attempts to im-claimed in this country that a legislative body ~~or’t a cargo ot tuis kind of stock to States of this does possess, or ought to possess, unlimita~

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3 legislative power over the lives, and liberty, and adopted at the beginning &f the Government, and property, and consciences, and character, of the continued throughout its whole history until people. In this country, the people reserve these within a few years, as was amply demonstrated private rights; they never surrender them to civil in a masterly manner, on yesterday, by the honsociety. They have maintained, from the hegin-orable Senator from Wisconsin, [Mr. DooLsTTLE.J fling, that every just Government among men The wisdom of the policy has also been demonexists solely for their protection. Hence, they strated hy the peace and quiet, and the security have uniformly adopted in each State a Consti-of life and property, that has been uniformly ohtution-a fundamental law; a law that is higher served in all of these Territories, by the rapid than the statute laws; a law that is intended to increase of population, the development of their control the action of the Legislature, the Judici-natural resources, and speedy admission into the ary, and the Executive~ a law that all these Union. So conclusive to my mind is the argucombined Qannot set aside; a law that defines ment drawn from the history of the action of the the scope of legitimate legislative power; that National Government 010 this subject, embracing permits the Lcgislature to enact all laws which, all its departments, extending over a period of in their judgment, are necessary for the protec-nearly seventy years, and the history of the Tertion of the natural rights of men, and no more. ritories themselves on the question of the consti The Republicans propose the same in relation tutionality and also of the eminent propriety of to the Territories; that in the Territories there this policy, that I was surprised to hear a genshall be a fundamental law, a declaration of tleman of the legal acumen of the honorable rights, such as was enacted by the Congress of Senator from Ohio [Mr. Puon] attempt to rethe United States in the year 1787, in providing fute it by the flimsy allegation that the oidifor the government of the territory of tie United nance of 1787 was a contract entered into by the States northwest of the Ohio river. To this act old States previous to the adoption of tlie Conof the old Congress it might be well for members stitu tion, which, under its provisions, the new of the Senate to refer. An examination will`Government was bound to execute; and, consedemonstrate that it is in fact “a Constitution” quently, that the excl,‘sion of slavery from Terfor the people of that Territory. It contains ritories northwest of the Ohio river, by subseevery essential provision n’)w contained in the quent acts of Congress, cannot be regarded as a Constitution of the State of Ohio. It contains legislative interpretation of the constitutional every fundamental characteristic of the Consti-power of Congress to apply the same restriction tutions of each and all the individual States. It to other Territories. indicates who shall make the laws. It indicates Was this ordinance, in fact, a contract between who shall adjudicate and apply them, and by`the old States of the Confederation? The ordiwhom those laws shall be enforced. It contains, nance commences with this language: also, a hill of rights for the restriction of legisla- “Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assemtive power, which may not be violated by courts, bled.” Governors, or l~egislatures. The Republicans Not by the State of Virginia and the State of propose to establish this kind of government for North Carolina and the State of New York, &c., the new Territories; to establish for each a con-each of whom would have been competent, at etilutional republic, recognising the doctrine of that time, to enter into a compact with the other the fathers, that the people of the Territories, as but by the Congress: well as of the States, possess certain inalienable “It is hereby ordained and declared, by the authority rights, that they need not surrender to the local aforesaid Government, that the local Government cannot That is, by the authority of Congressrightfully take from them; that among these may “That the ibllewtag articles shall be considered as articles be reckoned the right to life, the right to liberty, of compact “__ the right to freedom of conscience, the right to Between whom?; protection of character and property. “Between the original States and the people and the States The constitutional right of Congress to pass in the said Territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless an organic act for the establishment of a Terri-by common consent.” torial Government, no one will deny; no one It was not a compact entered into between the will pretend that this organic act does not be-individual Sti&t’s of the Confederation, but a come the fundamental law of the Territory, its mere act of the old Congress. Congress atConstitution, which cannot be trampled under tempted, in its legislative capacity, to enter into foot by its Legislature, Courts, or Executive. a compact between the people of the whole But if Congress has the unquestioned power to country on the one side, and on the other a establish a constitutional Government for a Ter-people yet unborn-the people of five States ritory, to create a temporary Constitution, defi-thence afterwards to be organized. It was a fling the powers of its respective departments, compact made by a party existing with a party how much power should be conferred on its local709;26]that did not exist. And this legislative declaLegislature? The Republicans respond, “grant ration is supposed to be irrepealable and binding the Territorial Legislature all the power neces-on the individual States, that never, in their Insary to provide for the protection of the natural dividual capacity, became a party to it! I adr’ghts of men, and no power to legally violate mit that it was in the nature of a compac~it them.”

Provide, in the enactment of the fonda-was in the nature of an agreement.

It ought te mental law, that any Territorial law violating have been binding In honor on all the parties the well-settled and clearly-defined natural rights that acquiesced in It, just as the MissourI com of men, shall be void. This is no new doctrine; promi.~e was in the nature of a contract. I~ was it is but a continuation of the Territorial policy an agreement made by the Congress of;h~ Uni

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4 ted States, and acquiesced in, for a long term the Articles of Confederation required the vote of years, by the people of each and all i~~e States, of nine States; the ordinance never received the and it ought, as an honorable understanding, to vote of nine States. It was not an act of legishave been maintained. But it was not legally lation; and, although invalid as an act of legisbinding or irrepealable. lation, yet, the public land~ being ceded to the Mr. PUGH. Will the Senator permit me to States, a majority of the States, acting for all, interrupt him? nade this division of the trust property. It Mr. HARLAN. I will yield merely for a state-might be void as a law, but valid as in the nament, but not for any extended remarks. ture of a contracjust as valid as a treaty. Mr.

PUGH. I do not wish to make any ex-Mr. TRUMBULL. Under the Articles of Contended statement. I was not referring to that federation, a majority was sufficient to pas~ the portion of the ordinance, although I see no dif-ordinance of 1~~~ they did not require nine ficulty in a contract of that character. What I States. meant to say was this: Under the old Confede-Mr. PUGH. It did require nine for the ordiration, the States were equally represented, and nance; not for every act, but for such an act as voted by States. The Articles of Confederation that. did not authorize the ordinance of 1 ~87; but, as Mr. TRUMBULL. It did not for the ordinanceMr.

Madison declared in the Federalisi, the States the Senator can show no authority for that ceded the land to the Congress as their trustee, statement. and in that old Congress they were all equally Mr. HARLAN. As I regard this disagreement represented as a congress of ambassadors, and as to fact immaterial to my argument, I shall they made this as their agreement. I do not not delay now to investigate it; * but I will care what particular language it commences merely restate that this does not purport to be a with. It was’ the act of a body of amba~sadors contract entered into by individual States of this representing the States, voting equally, not like Confederacy with each other, but a compact enthis Congress. tered into by the Congress of the United States Mr. HARLAN.

Well, Mr. President, this makes with the future States of the Northwest and the’ the case stronger. If the representatives of the people thereof; commuaities that did not legally States in that Congress had no power under the exist at the time; that merely had a prospecti~e Confederation to enter into an agreement of this being, and consequently had no power morally kind, it would be void from the beginning. or in law to make a contract. Then, if the Sen. Mr. PUGH. It was void as an act of legislation. ator is right, when he says that this act was Mr. HARLAN.

Then if void from the begin-perfectly void as a law, and as it does not purning as an act of legislation, how could it have port to be an agreement between the old States been regarded as binding on a subsequent Gov-with each other, it strengthens the position I ernment? have taken.

Mr. PUGH. It was binding as a compact. The power of Congress to provide for the peo Mr. HARLAN. Merely as an honorable ar-pie of the Territories constitutional Governments, rangement, not as a legal agreement, and this protecting them in the enjoyment of all their nat. vitiates the whole speech of the honorable Sen-ural rights, having been sustained by the uniator from Ohio, in my estimation. form action of Presidents, Congress, and the Ju Mr. PUGH. Will the Senator answer me what diciary, with but one opposing opinion rendered other obligation a treaty has than asi honorable by a divided court under the influence of great obligation? You cannot enforce it by any actioti. political excitement then prevailing at the Capi. Mr. HARLAN. A treaty is usually entered tol, it may now be regarded as conclusively setinto between two parties, each of whom is capa tied. We are thus free to contemplate without ble of making a contract and each of whom prejudice the legitimate effects that would flow is authorized to make a contract. In this case, from the adoption of the policy of the Republi. according to the admission of the honorahie can or of the Democratic party, and to decide Senator, the parties assuming to make the con-into whose hands we shall intrust the reins of tract had no authosity. They were the agents government. The decision of this question will of the people of the States, that had exhausted determine by what race of men the unoccupied all their power before they reach~ this act. In territories shall be peopled. the case of a treaty, each natipn is competent to The policy of the Republican party invites~ the make a bargain for itself and inay enforce it. Anglo-Saxon, the Celt, the Gaul, and others of In this case, then, it is insisted, on the part of Caucasian blood, by its proposed pre-emption honorable Senators, that a compact perfectly and homestead laws, to enter and occupy them; void, ab initin must afterwards be regarded as binding on asubsequent Government; and that, * “TIle United States in Congress assembled shall never the legislation of Congress excin-engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal m consequently, time of peace, nor enter 2;1869]into any treaties or alliances, nor ding Slavery from the Territories of the North-coin money, nor regulate the vaiue thereof, nor ascertain the west was perfectly legitimate and constitutional, sums and necessary for the $enle~iflt(~iiliii,,dnwor5hi~Z~~w0f although the acts of the same Congress and of money on the credit ni’ the United States, nor appropriate the same Government excluding slavery from inoney, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be the Territories west of the Mississippi would be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be sInconstitutional. raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same; nor shall a Mr. PUGH. The Senator, if he will permst question on iny et~er point, except for adjourning from day ine, evidently misunderstands me again. I pre-to day, be determined, unless by tiie votes of a majorit~ Of sume ttLat is not his object. I say it was invalid the United States in Congress assembled.”-See 9t~ article ef “Aflici~ ef Cenfrderation eael)~erjrtuul Union etween tile as aaot of legislation. To give no other reason, Steeni,” liici~y’a CoNsn~u~io~, p.488.

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5 and by the exclusion of slavery it will practical-I on the castes of mankind usually denominated ly exclude the negro and kindred races. I by the Democracy the inferior races. In 1850 there were 3,638,808 colored people in On the other hand, the direct and immediate the United States; the number is now probably effect of continuing the policy of the Democratic about 4,800,000; of th& first number, 3,204,313 party, as defined by the President in his meswere slaves, amounting now probably to 4,250,000. sage, and sustained by every Democratic member These have no power to emigrate, and would be of the Senate and House, and the Democratic practically excluded by the enactment, as a part members of the Supreme Court, would be to fill of the organic law of each Territory, that “neither the virgin Territories with negroes, wherever neslavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist gro labor can be made profitable.

And although therein, except as a punishment of crime, where-it is manifest that negroes cannot, or will not, of the party shall have been duly convicted ac-emigrate from their old homes to new countries, cording to law.” Of the free colored persons, in large numbers, the Democratic party, by its very few have the inclination or pecuniary abili-policy, proposes to secure their rapid occupancy ty to emigrate. of all that part of the continent where the cli That this simple provision, so eminently just, mate is supposed to be congenial to the negro and in strict accordance with the spirit of the temperament, and where negro labor can be Constitution and our free institutions, as under-made profitable, by an appeal to the cupidity of stood by the fathers of the Republic and their slaveholders, who, it is expected, will be promptdescendants for nearly three-quarters of a cen-ed by interest to compel their slaves to migrate tury, would prove a practical barrier to the emi-from worn-out lands to a fruitful and virgin soil. gration of negroes to the new Territories, has Hence, their repeal of the Missouri compromise, been demonstrated by experience. To the nine which excluded slavery from the Territories new States in the Southw~st, from which slavery north of 360

30’ north latitude; hence, their rewas not excluded by Congress in enacting their fusal to pass Gaow’s pre-emption bill, and the organic laws, and which have been admitted in-homestead bill; and hence the enunciation of to the Union since the adoption of the Constitu-this new Democratic dogma, “that Congress has tion, the emigration of negroes has been very no power to pass laws excluding slavery from the large. I find, by an examination of the census Territories.” report for 1850, that in the State of Alabama, at It is insisted, however, that this whole ques that time, forty-five per cent. of the whole popu-tion must be decided by climate. That, in a lation was of the African race; in Arkansas, twen-southern climate, the white man cannot endure ty-three per cent.; in Florida, forty-six per cent.; l~bor; that egro labor must be employed, or in Kentucky, twenty-three per cent.; in Louis-the country must be abandoned, and the civilana, fifty-one per cent.; in Mississippi, fifty-one ized world lose its great staples, rice, tobacco, per cent.; in Missouri, thirteen per cent.; in indigo, sugar, and cotton. If true, this is a grave Tennessee, twenty-five per cent.; in Texas, twen-consideration; if free negroes wilt not work in a ty-eight per cent. warm climate, and white men cannot work in a The emigration of negroes to the new States warm climate, and these staples cannot be disof the Northwest, from which slavery had been pensed with by civilized society, this is an end excluded, was very small. In 1850, the negro of the controversy.

population, compared with the whole population, On this point, I invite attention to the instrucamounted, in California, to one per cent.; in Illi-tion of history. How did the historian find men nois, six tenths of one per cent.; in Indiana, one origin~ly located in regard to color? I will read and one tenth per cent.; in Iowa, one tenth of from a few authorities deemed standard works. one per cent.; in Michigan, six tenths of one M. De Verey says: per cent.; in Ohio, one and two tenths per cent.; “Do we not, in fact, behold the tn~vny Hungarian dwellin Wisconsin, two tenths of one per cent.; in ing for ages under the same parallel and in the same coon try with the whitest nations of Europe; and the red PeruMinnesota, six tenths of one per cent.; and in vian, the brown Malay, the nearly white Abyssinian, in the Oregon, one and a half per cent. very zones which the blackest people in tile universe in Nor has the exclusion of sla~ery from these habit? Tiso natives of Van Dieinen’s Land are black, while Territories stimulatt~d an excessive emigration of Europeaiss of the corresponding northern latitude are white, and the Malabars, in the most burning climate, arc no brownfree negroes. In 1850, there were, in the nine er than the Sibertans.”-Page 1115, Ellwts on’s Human Paysnew slave States previeu~ly named, forty-one iol”ey. thousand six huudred and forty-five free colored Dr. orton says: persons, and in the nine new free States named, “The tribes which wander along the burning plains of the containing double the white population of the equinoctial region ot America have iio darker skins than the former, but forty-six thousand seven hundred mountaineers of the temperate zone. While the Goyacas, under the line, are characterized by a fair conspiexion, the and thirty-six; in all the slave States, contain-Charruas, who are almost black, inhabit the fiftieth degree ing a white population of about six millions, of south latitude; and the yet blacker alifornians are twen. there were two hu~dred and thirty-eight thou-ty-five degrees north of the equator.

“-Page 1116, ibid. sand one hundred and eighty-six free negroes~ In Dr.

Pritchard’s Researches, volume I, it is and in all of the free States, with more than thir-said: teen million white people, there were but one “W-th respect to the Polynesian tribes, the fairest nations are, in most instances, those situated nearest the equator. hundred and ninety-six thousand two hundred * We shall find,” with respect to the Australian and sixty-two free negroes. It is manifest, there-tribes, “that the complexion does not become regularly fore, that the adoption of the policy of the Re-lighter as we recede from the inter-tropical clime; for tile people of Van Diemen’s Land, who are the most distant from publican party would people our vast publlc do-the equator, are black.” (Page 489.)-~ee Besiock’s Paysiel main with the white race, without inflicting an`oii’,page 799. act of injustice, or casting the least opprobrium Humboldt says:

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6 “We found the people of the Rio Negro swarthier than Here is Professor Agassis’s classification of those of the lower Oronoco and yet the banks of the first of the fau these rivers enjoy a much cooler climate than the more na of Eii~ope, America, and Africa: northern regioiis. In the foresla of Guiana are several trihes “Eurqpeen Reelm.Cuvier’s portrait of a European, Rear, of a whitish complexion yet these tribes have never min-Stag, Antelope; Goat, Sheep, A uche (los Urus.) gled with Earopeans, and are sorrounded with other tribes “American P~olsi.-Tn;li.in Chief, Bear; Stag1 Aiitelope, of a dark-hrown li;;e. The Indians of the torrid zone; who GOSt; Sheep; Bison, (Bos American;is.) Inhabit the m;;et elevated plains of the Cordilleras of the An- “African Realm.-Mnnimbiq;in Negro, Chimpanzee, Eledes, and thoee who are under the forty-flith ilegree of south phant; Rhiiioceros, Hippopotam;~s, War-Hog, Giraffe.” latitude, have as coppery a complexion as those who, under The a burning climate, caltivate bananas in the narrowest and argument drawn from this classification deep valleys of Ilie equinoclial regions.’`-Pelilical Essay on is, that white people will flourish in any climate in~eiii Spain.

Seepage 1115, Ellisteon’s He~an Physio~y. habited by bears, stags, antelopes, goats, sheep, Nottand (iliddonsay: &c.; that the Indian tribes will flourish where “It is true fliat most of the black races are found in Afri-the same general fauna is produced, and that the Ca but on the other hand, many eqasily black are met negro will he healthy and vigorous in any counwith in the lemperate cliniates of India Aostraiia andOce-tr that roduces the ehimansee elehant rhianica, though differing in every attribute except color.”- y p p, pes efAfankinri, Ne(t and Ghddon, page 63. noceros, hippopotamus, war-hog, and giraffe. From these few citations, it becomes manifest Not one of the last named, if we except species that color is not controlled by climate, and that of the monkey race, is found in America. If men of every hue may he found in every latitude. this argument, founded on the fauna of a counOn this point; authorities are not discordant. try, proves anything, it is that the European is But, sir, while this is admitted to be true in re-naturally capable of inhabiting any part of the lation to the mere color, it is claimed that cli-continent, as the general fauna`of Europe and mate determines the location of race, and that America are substantially the same throughout, each race, probably, had a distinct origin, and and that the negro is not fitted for the American was adapted to the peculiarities of the climate realm, north or south as the fauna of Africa and in which it was originally found; and, of course, America are totally distinct.

that the history of the origin of the human fam-But if the white race, as laborers, are not exily contained in the Bible is all a fiction. I have cluded by an unrevealed law of God, written in no doubt that the views on this subject, which the productions of nature, it is snaintained by are now entertained by so many in the South Democratic statesmen, especially in the North, can be traced back to a learned paper written at’ that they are excludt-d by Southern malaria and a recent period by Professor Agassis, and incor-fevers. An examination of a large number of porated in the work last cited, which seems to authonties on this subject, although not harmohave been written and published very opportune-nious, convinces me that negroes are less liable ly to sustain that change in publio opinion an-to febrile affections, and especially to attacks of nounced by the honorable Senators from Virginia yellow fever, th an white people. the other day as having transpired, within a few any learned writers lake a directly opposite years past, in Virginia and the South. This vtew, and account for the apparent, immunity of learned naturalist insists that the various races negroes on the principle of acclimation; -but the and nations of men were originally found, by the authorities certainly predominate on that side historian, located in strict conformity to the of the question, and as far as my argument is “flora and fauna” of every country, or that each concerned, I shall regard it as settled, that the race and nation was, in fact, a part of the fauna negro is less liable to ibti yellow and other fevers of the country where it existed. A general fau-than the white race. But authorities are equally na, he says, exists, extending over all Eu rope, harmonious in asserting that the negro is more embracing the whole people, and a local fauna liable to other disease, a,mong which I mention peculiar to each nation. But, in North and South the “elephant leg” and the “yaws;” and by an America, he says, we find a general fauna em-examination of the census report of 1850 it will bracing the whole country south of the northern be seen that, on an average, the negroes of the terminus of forests bordering on the plains of ice’ slave States do not live longer than the white and snow in~abited by the Esquimaux, and that population; hence, if they are less liable to certhis whole region was found, by the early navi-tain causes of death, they must be more liable to gators, in possession of but one type of the hu-others.

And it is also true that learned 5]authoriman family. Nott and Gliddon adopt this theory ties are almost unanimous in asserting that fefor the purpose of overturning the opinion ~~ males are less liable-to the same diseases than long entertained by the Christian world that Eve males. La Roche on Yellow Fever, at page 54, was “the mother of all living.” They say: says: “The whole continent of America, with its mountain “It is a fact well known to medical observers,that amon individuals of the female sex, the sang;iiiie temperament, an ranges and table lands, its valleys and low plains, its woods robust and plethoric constitution-which, as we have seen and prairies, exhibiting every variety ol climate which could are the most prone to yellow fever-are less frequently eninfluence the nature of man, is inhabited by one great fam. countered than among males.”

Ily, that presents a prevailing type.’`-Nntt and Gliddon, As authority, he cites Dr. Rush and Dr. Caldpage 69. But this theory, so readily adopted by South-well; ern political casuists for another purpose, over- ~~”

Valentin, (p.90,) and Archer, (v.61,) whosawthedisease Norfolk; Bryadale, (1,35,) who describes it asit occurred turns the dogma that the negro alone can labor in Baltimore, in 1194; Cartwright, (ix, 16,) MernIl, (ix, 246,) and flourish in the Southern States and within Perlee, (i,10,) Hogg, (i,4l3,) who encountered it at Natchex; the American tropics. The Indians have lived (p. 252,) Alexander (p for unknown centuries within the tropics, and tia?e the results of their observations made throughout the temperate zones of both conti-in NewYork, Savannah, Boston, New Orleans, and Charleston. rents. One race has occupied the whole country “In Europe, the fever has, in general, manifested the same predilection for the male sex as regards the extent of its driven out by Europeans. prevalence, and more frequently in respect to the severity

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7 and fatality of the attack, On this subject, the writings of If white men are capable cf laboring and Bertho, (p. 354,) Arejuta, (pp. 182, 438,) Sir J. Fellowes, and and the pp. 120, 121,) Caisergues, (p. 190,) Short, (quoted by Fel. living multiplying replenishing lowes, (p. 303,) Gonzales, (p. 316,) Pariset, (p. 12,) Louis, earth in a Southern climate, why should those (p. 261,) Gillttrest, (li, 279,) Patton,, (p. 9,) Pariset, (report, who are not willing to work in the field and p. 454,) Rally, (p. 301,) Rochoux, (p. 121,) and the Report of the Academy of Barcelona, (pp. 23, 49,) are sufficiently shop, on terms of equa ity with negro slaves, be explicit toinshfy the above conclusion.” compelled to seek hom 5 in the extreme North, From this array of authorities, it will be seen where the winters, extending over six or seven how impossible it is to draw safe conclusions in months of the twelve, must exhaust the entire relation to the capacity of d~ff’erent roce~ of men proceeds of the husband man 5
summer’s toil to endure a climate, or to encounter diseases of from year to year in shielding himself and family an epidemic character,~with impullity.. from their inclemency? Why should that more It is claimed, however, that the color of the genial country, styled “the sunny South,”

the ~: negro peculiarly adapts him to support a warm country of the melon and the orange, where per climate. This statement contradicts science, our petual verdure reigns, and the earth is lavish of daily observation, and the instincts of the Afri-her productions, be given as a home for slaves?

can, who does not seek the open sunshine in a You tell us that negroes are an inferior race; warm country. In Pritchard’s Natural History that they are far below the white race in capa of Man, page 552, in describing some of the black city; that they can never become fit for citizens ~ races of Africa, the author says: of the States or Union; that they cannot be in.

“The name of Shangalta belongs to the indigenous hordes trusted with a participation in public affairs, or who inhabit the Kwolla, or the deep, woody valleys which to engage in the public defence; that they can surround Oil almost every side the highlands of Abyssinia. never become members of society; that the high They are negroes of a jet black color and strongly character. ized features. *`During the fa,r hall of the year,’ est position of which they are capable is that of says Mr. Bruce~’

when the Shangatla live under the shade menials. Then, why stimulate their multiplica of trees, they bend the hranches downwards, and cover tion and coerced emigration to the most desira them with the skins ol heasts. Every tree is then a house, under wh~ch dwell a multituile of black inhabitants till the ble part of the continent, to the exclusion of tro1iicat rains begi~.’” millions of our own blood? Why practically In our own country, when left free to follow exclude the superior by the inferior race? Why his own instincts, the negro forsakes the n-not adopt the Republican policy, persistently shine in the open field, and seeks in-door e- urged on the attention of Congress, of withhold ployment. ing the public lands from all except actual set It is not true that the color of the negro pecu-tiers, and of giving a home to the head of every liarly adapts him to endure the heat of a tropical family, for settlement and occupancy, and thus sun; the capacity of enduring great extremes of place the masses of the people above want? heat and cold is a common attrtbute of humani-Why not people the continent with the most ty; if any one race possess this power in a higher vigorous, the most energetic, the most enter K degree than another, it is the Caucasian, usually prising, the most intellectual and powerful called the white race. This supposed superior-people to be found on the earth, since this result ity is accounted for on the ground of its multi-can be secured without inflicting the slightest farious origin. It is aid by Nott and Cliddon injustice or injury on any human creature that to be not of one origin, but “an amalgamation breathes, by administering exact and equal of an infinite number of primitive stock, of dif-justice to all mankind? For there is no truth ferent instincts, temperaments, and mental and in the allegation, that to restrict slavery to the hysical character. Egyptians, Jews, Arabs, States of the Union now toleratisig it, would re Teutons, Celts, Sciavonians, Pelasgians, Ro-tard their development, and result in the de mans, Iberians, &c., &c., are all mingled in struction or injury of either the black or white blood.” The negro is not his superior in a-race in pPeventing multiplication and expansion. pacity to endure; science, instinct, history, and The area of the slave States was estimated in experience, all combine in refutation of this 1850 at over eight hundred and fifty thousand Democratic dogma. square miles, and contained a population of but We have also the overwhelming evidence of about eleven persons on an average for each the existence of five or six million white people, square mile of surface; south of 360 30’ the now residing in the slave States, who own no average popuiation was less than ten. At the slaves; who sre sul~pofled by their own labor. same period, the population of England was es Hu,idred of thousands of white men in the ex-timsted at three hundred and twenty;30;17]of Great treme South, often denominated “poor whites,”

Britain and Ireland, two hundred and twenty~ are compelled by necessity to work or starve. five; of Switzerland, one hundred and sixty; of We have the direct testimony of the honorable Belgium, three hundred and eighty-eight to the Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. CHEsNUT,J square mile. In China, a~cording to the best who on yesterday held himself up to the view of information I have been able to procure, it is the Senate, and demanded that we should now evident that the present population of many of “behold a laborer from the South,” declaring its provinces amounts to at least twelve millions that the “laborers” of`he white race in South 1or each fifty thousand square miles. Their Carolina were the honored and the highly es-country is old, and has been worn for centuries; teemed; and that those who labored not were it is not believed to be equal in fertility to the discarded by society. This testimony is direct; average of the Southern ~tates. It is evident, it is from a high source, and ought to be concin-therefore, that the slave States, as now bounded sive on the question of the ability of white men are capable of supporting two hundred million to labor in the Southern States. But every one people. Hence, it is not reasonable to conclude who has ever been in a Southern State has had, that either the white man or the negro will, in in addition, the evidence of his own senses. any reasonable period, he oppressed in the slave

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~tates for want of rooni. But lest this niight free State5~ entertaining th~se views, id n4~ ot’ur an~ to relieve the slave $tates froni the aecessanly “hate slaveholders?” For one, terrilile neeessity, as is alleged, of executing the answer franly: That depends on onr conc~~
harbar6us and cruel laws which some of them tion of the motiv~ that prompt a niax to hol& have ena~ted for the re-enslavement of negroes ~laves.

If one man holds another, however juXanow ft’ee, the Republicans will urge the ad~ption rior, in bondage f~ selfish and sordid purpoa~ of the proposition introd”ced b~ my friend, the of gain, I loathe his character in niy innto$ honorable Senator from Visconsin, [Mr. 1)oo-heart. If, on the other hand, he is held fnr ta ivv~,J to procure for the negro a home and an purpose, entertained in good faith, of bettering abiding place, outside of the United States, with-his condition and elevating his character, th~ in the ropics, where it is claimed that he may owner will not be hated by anybody, in any flourish and prosper. Let him there, as in the place. ut, in our estimate of these niotives,~ colony of Liheria, demonstrate to the world his you must not suppose us either’ idiotic or ign~’ capacity for seIf~government. Let him there rant of your laws and usages, and the actnal Isuild up for liimself a country, and embellish a condition of slave society. Neither vehement home, tree from the prejudice and injustice of a threats of a dissolution of the Union, nor any race that has dominated over him for centuries, other mode of coercion, will be likely to cha~e a~l extend over him the temporary protection our opinions of ther the morality or expediez’iy of the stars and stripes of the Union. of slaveholding. `Tlie laws of the human mina The fancied temporary interests of the few, cannot be changed; perception, memory, COnN who inig~t desire to import slaves into the Ter-science, and judgment, will continue. Conscienca, ntories, should not be suffered to divert the Na-may e stupefied for a time, but it, will ata tional Legislature from that line of policy derally and assert its right to control tlte conduct’ manded by justice and the`permanent interests of men. The people of the whole North, alinONt of the nation, of the white race, and ef the who~le without a solitary exception, behave that slavety human family. is in itself wrong, and may be maintalued tens But if the nation should return to the Territo-porarily only, in consequence of the necesNit~ rial policy abandoned in 1850 and 1854, and ap-that may surround the parties which sustaIn Re ublic which this relation to an inferior race. Whenever’ ply it to all the Territories of the p in its results w~ld throw them open to the free these necessities cease~ they maintain that it`wilt~ enjoyment of every citize~ of the United States, be the duty of each to dissolve the relatioa~ residing East, West, North, and S~th, and ex-Nobody in the`North, however, maintains that dude,none except those whom`you say are not this can ever be effected, only by the action “of citizens, and cannot become citizens-an enslaved the people of the States where th~ relation ex~, nation of aliens-more than four millions strong, ists. The Rtpublicans m’aintain that Congress’ whom you of the South retain, in chains, in your has n? power Whatever over this subject wit4nt~’ midst, 3 co declare your purpose to “dissolve the their limits. Union.” You declare that’ the Union cannot be You admonish us, however, that if a gentleman; maintained unless men are permitted to coerce who entertains the doctrines originally main~ the emigration of negro slaves to the Territories I tained hy Washing,ton, Jefferson, and the. othe~{~, Well, sir, this threat produces o terror; as tar illustrious men who lived during the eatlier pe as my knowledge extends, nobody in the North-riod of the Republic, froin which, as was admtt&; west is frightened by it, although it orig5nates in ted on~yesterday by the honorable Senator from”” a high quarter. We understand that it is your Virginia, [Mr. AboN,1 the J)emocracy h,’ interest to stay in the Union, and that you have swerved, should be elected President of the Uai#’‘ not the power to dissolye it; that a dissolution’ ted States, in accordance with the ConatittiO~ of the Union would bring on you, in tenfold and the laws, you will destroy the overanien, strength, every evil of which you complain.` When analyzed, could a proposition’ be mo~’n#; With this impotent threat “to dissolve the suiting to freemen? We must surrender
ouW,,’, Union if a Republican should be elected Presi-own reasoning faculties, and our conscie~efl dent of the United S,~tates, yQu not only demand, and judgments, an’d follow your behests I W~’ n’ed! the disbanding of the R~epnblican party, and, by mast change, because you have ba a log ic,al sequence, the repeal?~ aU laws in the ni,ust repudiate, because you have discarded,‘thq”’ free States disparaging the institution of slavery, opinions of the fathers 1 When we a) proach th~~ and prohibiting its existence within their juris-polls, we must represent your opinions, ana no~~ diction, but you attempt to coerce our conscIences our own, by’

our votes I That is, we must ceas and jadginent, and require us to approve slavery to be freemen, and become your political slavas’ as morally right-a’ hurn’ane and Christian insti-If your political opponents18]will destroy thei” tution.`in this you will never succeed. The platlorm and dissolve their organiz~tion; if th~” people of ths free’ States will never approve free States will destroy their Constitutions n4s savehoIding, when not required by imperious repeal their laws on the subject of slavery; if <”, circumstances, as either just, hnmane, or Chris-nisjority of the freemen of the country will stal tian. The Senator from Virginia, [Mr. M~oN,~ tify their own judgments, and trample under f~o? in his expression of regret that the people of the their consciences; give up freedom of speech`an4{”’ of fre~~~~ free States, which he wa,s ple~sed’ to denoWinate oftbe press, and cease to exercise the rights “se’rvlle tates;’ could not have slaves, will find men at the polls, you will graciously perm t th very fe~ syinpathizei’s.~ In this I speak the opin’-

Union to be continued I’ Well, sir, this mode~ Q”i”, ions of all parties in Iowa, and I,thihk I may say preserving the Union would`cost us too muc in the whole North.“ We have the hearts and heads and hands an’; On this point~ the Senator from Alabama [Mr. will to preserve it in a cheaper manner let “;” C~~v3 de~~~,,,,ded to knoW if,, the people of the crisis come when it may.

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