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DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 27, 1862.
The Senate having under consideration the resolution for the gradual abolition of slavery, Mr.
Henderson
offered the following amendment:
Provided,
That nothing herein contained shall be construed to imply a willingness on the part of Congress that any of the States now composing the Union shall be permitted to withdraw permanently their allegiance to the Government; but it is hereby declared to be the duty of the country to prosecute the war until the Constitution shall have been restored over every State professing to have seceded.
Mr. HENDERSON. Mr. President, I have offered that amendment to the resolution in good faith, and with no view whatever to make any record for myself, or to attempt to get others upon the record in order to affect them. I perhaps shall take a different course on this resolution from that taken by a majority, at least, of those representing the border slaveholding States. I feel disposed to cast my vote for the resolution. But an objection has been urged to the resolution, and Senators ought to remember that it has been urged with a great deal of power in the border slaveholding States, that the design of it is to effect the emancipation of the slaves in the border slaveholding States, and then to consent to a dissolution of the Union. I have no idea that any such thing is really contemplated. I know it is not contemplated by the President; I am satisfied that it is contemplated by but few, if any, of the members on this floor. I can see no objection to putting the declaration which I propose upon the record with the resolution, particularly inasmuch as it is said, in the
Mr. President, since I have been a member of this body, I have carefully abstained from all discussion of the slavery question. There are several reasons inducing me to pursue a course of silence upon the subject. In the first place, the diseases of the country have resulted from slavery agitation, and however effectual the administration of remedies in ordinary cases upon the theory that “like cures like,” I must be permitted to demur to the practice in the present case. Additional slavery agitation will do no good, but great harm. In the second place, I have thought that the great object of the country should be to put down this rebellion, and to do it successfully demands the united energy of all the friends of Union throughout the nation. In this good work Congress, at its present session at least, might find enough to tax its wisdom and engage its thoughts. In the third place, I represent, in part, a people who recognize slavery as a local institution among them, and I am at a loss to see how I shall be able to advance their interest in any manner by provoking a controversy on slavery ethics with the majority on this floor, who seem to have satisfied themselves that the institution is wrong. I am willing to abstain from all reflections upon their opinions, provided they will abstain from all interference
I might give other reasons for my course in reference to this subject; but those named combining, as they do, the interest of my immediate constituents, and a sense of patriotic duty on my own part, are deemed sufficient. I opposed the introduction of the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, not because I regarded it an unconstitutional exercise of power, or an act of such gross bad faith to Maryland or the people of Maryland; not because I was so much attached to the institution as to desire its continuance where ever it existed, or because I thought the free institutions of our country would be endangered by the abolition of slavery in the nation's capital. I did not believe any of these things, and yet I was conscientiously opposed to the discussion of this measure at the present session of Congress. My information on the subject led me to believe that the act would be acceptable to the owners of slaves—almost, if not quite, as desirable to them as to the slaves themselves. Slavery cannot be otherwise than nominal in this District, largely dependent on the will of the slave himself. The interest is a very inconsiderable one, the slave population in 1860 being only 3,181, while the whites numbered 60,788. To show the utter worthlessness of the institution, in a pecuniary point of view, it is only necessary to state the fact that the free colored population, at the same period, numbered 11,107; and that while the white and free colored classes have for many years been rapidly on the increase, the slave population has been and is now rapidly on the decline. The laws of labor would soon have disposed of it here, when all those intricate questions of good faith and constitutional law, the discussion of which to gaping crowds, both North and South, has made and unmade Senators and congressmen, and governors and sheriffs, and constables and town trustees, would silently have taken their place among the things of the past.
To me it was a matter of extreme doubt whether at this period of time, when the educated and enlightened white man can with difficulty find means of support for himself and family, true charity to the black man required that his former owner should be absolved from the obligation to support and
However, if after thirty years of agitation and excitement, on the negro question, after thousands of promises unperformed, our northern friends shall determine to throw a tub to the abolition whale, by giving freedom to three thousand slaves in the District of Columbia, the first act of the kind of which they have ever been guilty, I have no idea that Missouri will undertake to secede from the Union, especially
Even after the consummation of the act, I am not sure that the anti-slavery men can take much credit for what shall have been done in the way of emancipation, for if the Senator from Kansas (Mr.
Pomeroy
) be correct, a plea of “confession and avoidance” may be entered to the claim, admitting the passage of the act, but setting up the fact that the negro was already free. Whether this position be true or not, the future may demonstrate that the present nominal slavery of the three thousand is but little worse, if any, than that boasted heaven-born freedom which makes the negro a social and political outcast in every northern State of the Union.
I thought it ill-timed and unwise to open up in Congress the slavery agitation, and I therefore opposed it. But if you northern gentlemen are determined to disregard my counsels on this subject, I hope you will act as promptly as possible, lest in the angry discussions arising from the momentous question involved—the freeing of a few hundred negroes that are already free—the great State of Delaware may be enabled to take a peep behind the curtain, and, discovering the terrible plot matured by the abolitionists for the overthrow of its sacred institutions and the destruction of its vast interests in slave property—which, at a fair valuation, amounts to at least $200,000—may be induced to secede and join the southern confederacy, where constitutional rights are religiously guarantied unto all men. And unless you dispose of this subject at an early day, it is impossible to tell what effect may be wrought on the mind of my very excellent friend from Kentucky who sits on the other side of the Chamber—and when I call him my friend, I mean what I say. He is evidently already excited on this subject, and no doubt will be more so as the discussion progresses. Excitement engendered upon this subject, too, is exceedingly dangerous. It never cools, but rushes on with intemperate haste to the destruction of its opponents, ending frequently in the overthrow of its own victims. The other Senator from Kentucky, (Mr.
Powell,
)
The usually quiet Senator from Iowa, [Mr.
Harlan
] becomes shocked at the intimation from a southern Senator that the laboring whites of the South may commence a war of extermination against the freed blacks, and without largely cultivating the virtue of consistency I must think, at once enters upon a labored argument to prove that northern hostility to the negro is and should be greater than at the South. If this be so, the condition of the negro is really deplorable. If he remains in the South, he must remain as a slave, or he is in danger of total extermination, and if he goes North, it is but to meet a fate more terrible still, if such can be, resulting from the superior prejudices of the Northern people. Whatever else these arguments may prove, the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr.
Doolittle
] will claim that they establish one fact beyond controversy, to wit, that the negroes, when freed, should be colonized and placed beyond the dangers indicated.
Mr. President, another measure received the sanction of this body, to which I was opposed, but I contented myself with a silent vote. Its provisions, I presume, are really harmless, except so far as they may fleece the Treasury, (and just here it is my duty to acquit its friends of any design so to do,) but I was satisfied, and am now, that it will be used by the enemies of the Union for the purpose of cementing southern sentiment into that compact and solid mass of hatred and malignity against the Government which cannot be subdued before the burdens of taxation, followed by some reverses to our arms, which must come ever and anon, as the fortune of war, will raise a clamor throughout the land against those who maintain the war as a means of restoring the Union.
I allude to the measure introduced by the Senator from Connecticut [Mr.
Foster,
] and providing “for the occupation
Under these circumstances it seemed to me that the slave might support himself—that our armies, marching North in pursuit of the fleeing whites, might suffer the slaves to fall behind them and proceed to the cultivation of the lands of their respective owners. But the bill provided for the dispensation of charities from the Government coffers, for the distribution of food, clothing, bedding, &c. It enters upon an immense system of Government farming, dividing these cotton lands into plantations of from one to the three thousand acres, appoints a superintendent of each farm at $1,200 per year, and enables him to employ the negroes, men, women, and children, each at fifty cents per day, and appropriates ten dollars for each acre of land for the purpose of procuring seeds, farming implements, &c. It appropriates money for building warehouses, while the cities of the South are being evacuated, leaving dwellings and warehouses to be used by the new planters. It gives a broad discretion to the Secretary
Sir, in my own State there are thousands of white men, women, and children thrown out of employment and made beggars in the world by this war. They have left their farms, their property has been taken, their slaves have gone to Kansas, and they, the merest objects of charity, were made the beneficiaries of forced levies upon the secessionists in other parts of the State. If the Government should desire to go into a farming business, no lands can be found on the continent more fertile than those of Missouri, now abandoned by their owners; and if charity be the object, no people are more deserving than those who have periled and lost everything in consequence of their devotion to the Union. I feared the effect of such legislation upon the loyal sufferers in the border States, and I am satisfied that it will not be without its effect upon a large class in the northern States, who do not believe that, in the exercise of the Government's charity, discriminations should be made in favor of the black man. But I consoled myself in the belief that before this measure could be passed through the House of Representatives, and the necessary machinery provided by the President and Secretary for the operations of this season, “seed time would have passed,” and the country be spared the humiliation of another blunder on the negro question. If, however, it becomes a law, I hope the Senator from Connecticut will use his influence in securing a lease of the lands by the Government for money, and not have them cultivated for a share of the proceeds. The lessee will reap no profits, and the Government's share will be but a fair proportion of nothing. Should he fail in this, and the worthy Secretary, infatuated with the exploded humbug that “cotton is king,” shall undertake its culture on Government account, I still hope that the board of curators or guardians
may be induced to employ the laborers “by the piece,” and not by the day; for although this plan may result
The commendable feature of the bill, Mr. President, is that which makes it the special duty of the board to beg and beseech the blacks, in language, however, “decent and humane,” to betake themselves to honest labor, and live in a manner usual with respectable people. It is to be hoped the board will not neglect this important duty.
Another proposition was made in the Senate, which I find has been used for the purpose of exciting the public mind, and reanimating the dying spirit of rebellion. I allude to the resolutions of the Senator from Massachusetts upon the relations of the seceding States to the Union. If Senators knew the power with which these things are used to the prejudice of the loyal element of the country, they would exercise a little more caution in the introduction and discussion of these measures. But already some Senator, honestly believing that every drop of blood shed in the war has been drawn by slavery; that every weeping mother or wife throughout the North may lay her woes at the doors of this accursed institution, and that every dollar expended in the prosecution of the war is so much demanded by the cause of liberty in its contest with slavery, is ready to exclaim, “my patience is exhausted; I am tired of these admonitions from slaveholding States.” So far Senators will remember that I have offered no counsel. I feel my own weakness in the terrible storm surrounding us. If my views are rejected, I shall readily defer to the superior wisdom of those around me. I may differ with you as to the best mode of preserving the Union and perpetuating it with all its hopes and all its blessings; but that difference, with whatever of excitement and angry debate it may engender, shall never,
never,
impel me to lift a hand against my country. If you commit errors, or outrage public sentiment, I want no other right of revolution than the right of the ballot-box. With the Constitution unimpaired, we may yet appeal to the popular heart for the approval of right and the redress of wrong.
I fear I can discover a growing want of charity toward the position occupied by the border State men. If you ask of me the denunciation of slaveholders—thousands of whom
The Senator from Massachusetts should remember that the most effective weapon with which loyal men fought the battles of the Union was the fixed and unalterable attachment of good men to the Constitution of the country. We urged that the act of secession was void; that no State could withdraw without an amendment of the Constitution; that such an ordinance, like any other act of a State contravening the provisions of the Federal Constitution, was absolutely null and of no effect whatever; that by such act no right was acquired by the State, no right was
abdicated
or
forfeited
by it; that a State is but a municipal corporation, without will, without malice, without the
animus
necessary to guilt or the commission of crime, and cannot, therefore, in the eye of the law, be
felo de se.
We urged upon the people what we regarded as the true construction of the Constitution; that the Federal laws operated upon the individual citizen, and not upon State governments; that no act of secession could transfer the allegiance of the citizen, or remove the obligation from the Federal Government to protect him. We assured him, if he stood alone in the seceding State, the Government must protect him in person and in property; that no State law could
forfeit
his (the citizen's) rights, and that any attempt to sustain such void act by force would subject the offender to the punishment due to the crime of treason. Shall we now go
With these measures pending before us, the President submits for our consideration a proposition entirely new. It is a resolution in the following language:
Resolved,
That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.
The interpretations given to this measure are, of course, as various as the views of the different individuals who venture upon its construction.
My friend from Delaware, (Mr.
Saulsbury,
) alive to the interests of his State, and fully determined that no abolition inroads shall be made upon it, concurs, in many particulars, with the view of it taken by Wendell Phillips. He assumes it to be the design of the President to renew slavery agitation in the border States, by holding out a false promise of money consideration for property rendered precarious by the condition of the country; that the Constitution prohibits the payment of such consideration, and that none such is designed by the friends of the measure.
The Senator from California, (Mr.
McDougall,
) on the other hand, gives the President credit for honesty and purity of purpose, but refuses his support on the ground,
first,
that it is unconstitutional, and,
second,
that he will not commit his State to the policy of paying money for the emancipation of the slaves of other people. The Senator from Maine, (Mr.
Morrill,
) is astonished that any opposition should be made to a measure so just and conservative.
It is impossible for me to know the secret designs of the President, or any other friend of the measure. I can only
“In the annual message last December, I thought fit to say, ‘the Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed.” I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue, and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend, and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great efficiency towards ending the struggle, must and will come. The proposition now made, though an offer only, I hope it may be esteemed no offence to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States and private persons concerned than are the institution and property in it in the present aspect of affairs.”
Mr. President, I do not construe this language to be a threat, or intended to be offensive to the representatives from the border States. It asserts a fact which, however unpleasant to us, has long since been demonstrated as truth upon the soil of Missouri. Every man is now ready to admit that he did not, and could not “foresee all the incidents” which thus far have attended this war, and past experience forbids that we should be astonished at any result in the future.
Why was this war forced upon us, and who are its authors?
However opposed I may be to the radical measures which I have indicated, and which, no doubt, are largely attributable to the feelings engendered by this unjustifiable war, yet candor compels the Union men of the border States to do justice to the President, and even to his friends in Congress. This terrible revolution was brought about by Mr. Yancey, and his confederates, by inflaming the southern mine against the dangers of abolition, which they knew to be false. They drove the South to madness, to self-destruction; and in the letter of Messrs. Yancey, Rost, and Mann, to Lord John Russell, they have erected a monument of infamy to these conspirators. They say, what every sensible man must now admit, that:
“It was from no fear that the slaves would be liberated that secession took place. The very party in power has proposed to guaranty slavery forever in the States, if the South would but remain in the Union. Mr. Lincoln's message proposes no freedom to the slave, but announces subjection of his owner to the will of the Union—in other words, to the will of the North. Even after the battle of Bull Run both branches of the Congress at Washington passed resolutions that the war is only waged in order to enforce that (pro-slavery) Constitution, and to uphold the laws; (many of them pro-slavery;) and out of one hundred and seventy-two votes in the lower House, they received all but two, and in the Senate all but one vote. As the army commenced its march, the commanding general issued an order that no slaves should be received into or allowed to follow the camp.”
Now, sir, what has been the result of this unnecessary strife upon my State! In 1860 our slave population was one hundred and fourteen thousand nine hundred and sixty-five, and although we stood as a peninsula in the great ocean of free soil around us, I hazard the assertion to-day that no property was more secure in the State than slave property. It was so regarded by everybody. Our white population at the same period was upwards of one million. How is it now? I doubt whether there are fifty thousand slaves in the State. The secessionists charged that the brigade commanded by the Senator from Kansas, sitting near me, seized their slaves and took them out of the State, and in order to retaliate they, as I learn, have taken hundreds, perhaps thousands, into Arkansas from Union men in the State, to be delivered over to their injured friends. In addition to this, many of the largest slaveholders of the State, fearing the result of the war, in the earlier stages of the rebellion hurried off their slaves to the South. Others again, waiting until they were surrounded by hostile armies, abandoned negroes and everything else for the protection of themselves, their wives, and children.
The true value of real and personal property in Missouri in 1860 was $501,214,398. Aside from the depreciation of value, which no man can now estimate, and beyond the loss of slaves to which I have referred, I think it safe to say that ten per cent. of this vast amount of property has been destroyed and forever lost to the owners in consequence of this war—an amount equal to the aggregate value of all the slaves in the State at the commencement of hostilities.
If I were to add to this the loss occasioned to the people of the State by the utter prostration of its agricultural, commercial,
Looking, then, to my own State, and I speak for it alone, I am not disposed to take issue with the President in regard to the future results of the war. I regard his expression as a prophecy, and not as a threat—a prophecy that I fell will be realized if this war continues. That it shall continue until the Union be restored, I have already expressed my wish in the amendment offered. Whether you adopt it or not, the great West will never be content until every mile of the Mississippi river, from St. Anthony's Falls to the Gulf of Mexico, shall be under the jurisdiction of our Government. Let the question be settled now. But the President negatives, positively negatives, the construction given in the following language:
“Such a proposition on the part of the General Government sets up no claim or right by Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring as it does the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them.”
In this view of the matter, sir, I am perfectly willing that the proposition may go before the people of my State, without at present expressing an opinion as to what course they should pursue. It is a new pledge of faith by the representatives of the people that this vexed question shall be left with the people of each State. It comes not in the spirit of arrogance, demanding conformity with the views of others, but with humility acknowledging if slavery be an evil it is a sin for which we are all responsible, and for the removal of which we are willing to come with practical benevolence. It means more than all this. It intimates to the States that the nation would prefer gradual to immediate emancipation, and that the measures now pending in Congress, looking to such results, should be superseded by one of conciliation and good will.
If this spirit had been more largely cultivated in days gone by, we would not this day be forced to witness a ruined South and a deeply oppressed North. Why, sir, ninety-six days of this war would pay for every slave, at full value, in the States of Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. Nine months of the expenditures of this strife
Mr. President, I desire that the amendment I have offered may be adopted. I want my views expressed as I vote for this resolution. If a majority of the Senate, however, shall differ with me upon that subject, I have made up my mind to cast my vote for the resolution, and to leave it with the people of my State. I am indifferent as to the result upon myself. I feel that it is altogether a change from what we have witnessed for the last number of years on the floor of this and the other House. Instead of that wrangling controversy, instead of those rushing waves of tumult, of ill feeling, and anger that have been engendered in the discussion of this question, it marches up and takes hold of the slavery question as a practical one, worthy of the calm, cool, and deliberate judgment of those in whom the nation has trusted its prosperity and its future greatness. Then, sir, I shall cast my vote for it. I regard it as no insult to the people of my State; I regard it as no threat; but I regard it as a measure that is conciliatory, and looks to the future peace and harmony of the country, and to the early restoration of the Union.
L. Towers
& Co., Printers.