Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2)Curtis, George Ticknor
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Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2)
Curtis, George Ticknor
Buchanan, James, 1791-1868
We have been told that non-intervention on the part of Congress
with slavery in the Territories is the true policy. Very well. I
most cheerfully admit that Congress has no right to pass any law
to establish, impair or abolish slavery in the Territories. Let
this principle of non-intervention be extended to the Territorial
legislatures, and let it be declared that they in like manner have
no power to establish, impair or destroy slavery, and then the
controversy is in effect ended. This is all that is required at
present, and I verily believe all that will ever be required.
Hands off by Congress and hands off by the Territorial
legislature. [Loud applause.] With the Supreme Court of the United
States I hold that neither Congress nor the Territorial
legislature has any power to establish, impair or abolish slavery
in the Territories. But if, in the face of this positive
prohibition, the Territorial legislature should exercise the power
of intervening, then this would be a mere transfer of the Wilmot
proviso and the Buffalo platform from Congress, to be carried into
execution in the Territories to the destruction of all property in
slaves. [Renewed applause.]
An attempt of this kind, if made in Congress, would be resisted by
able men on the floor of both houses, and probably defeated. Not
so in a remote Territory. To every new Territory there will be a
rush of free-soilers from the Northern States. They would elect
the first Territorial legislature before the people of the South
could arrive with their property, and this legislature would
probably settle forever the question of slavery according to their
own will.
And shall we for the sake of squatter sovereignty, which, from its
nature, can only continue during the brief period of Territorial
existence, incur the risk of dividing the great Democratic party
of the country into two sectional parties, the one North and the
other South? Shall this great party which has governed the country
in peace and war, which has raised it from humble beginnings to be
one of the most prosperous and powerful nations in the world—shall
this party be broken up for such a cause? That is the question.
The numerous, powerful, pious and respectable Methodist Church has
been thus divided. The division was a severe shock to the Union. A
similar division of the great Democratic party, should it
continue, would rend asunder one of the most powerful links which
binds the Union together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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