Author : Lewis Cass
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781330687536
Total Pages : 26 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (875 download)
Book Synopsis Nebraska and Kansas, Vol. 2 by : Lewis Cass
Download or read book Nebraska and Kansas, Vol. 2 written by Lewis Cass and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-04 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Nebraska and Kansas, Vol. 2: Speech of Mr. Cass, of Michigan, on the Powers of the Government Over Slavery in the Territories The Senate resumed the consideration of the bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska. Mr. Cass said: Mr. President, but four brief years are passing away, brief in the life of a nation, since this Hall resounded with angry and agitating discussions upon the very topics that now disturb and divide us, and since every breeze that spread out to the heavens the flag that waves over us our fathers flag, and blessed be God, yet our own brought us from crowded city and from lonely cabin, from hill, valley, and prairie, from ocean and lake, the echoes of anxiety and alarm, passing over the country, and which announced that a great people had reached a crisis in their destiny, which, for weal or for woe, might mark their history during long ages to come. Well, all this passed away by the mercy of Providence rather than by the wisdom of man, and a beautiful tribute was furnished to the inestimable value of free institutions; for there is not another Government under heaven which could have entered into such a trial, and come out of it unscathed. Peace and prosperity and good feeling were restored, and we looked forward to long years of tranquillity. The events now upon us are another illustration of the vanity of human expectations. But yesterday the whole hemisphere was without a cloud, even in the distant horizon. To-day the signs of an approaching tempest are audible and visible, and the only question which can ever put to hazard our union and safety, presents itself for solution. With the honorable Senator from Massachusetts Mr. Everett 1 frankly avow that I was filled with doubt and alarm during the troubles and contests, which were terminated by the compromise measures of 1850, and he who was unmoved, had more apathy or less apprehension than I had.J But though the ominous cry of Woe, woe to Jerusalem Uis once more heard, I do not believe that thecountry is in any danger, not the least; but still I do not deny that these frequent, almost periodical renewals, and revivals of this threatening subject, must necessarily produce irritation and excitement, tending to array one section of the country against another, and thus to weaken those ties of confidence and affection so essential to the permanence and tranquillity of this mighty Confederacy. Events, connected with our territorial aggrandizement, seemed as their necessary consequence, to lead to the former agitation; but the present one has burst upon us without warning, and, as I think, from causes which might have been avoided. Mr. President, I have not withheld the expression of my regret elsewhere, nor shall I withhold it here, that this question of the repeal of the Missouri compromise, which opens all the disputed points connected with the subject of congressional action upon slavery in the territory of the United States, ha.s been brought before us. I do not think the practical advantages to result from the measure will outweigh the injury which the ill-feeling, fated to accompany the discussion of this subject through the country, is sure to produce. And I was confirmed in this impression by what was said by the Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Jones, by the Senator from Kentucky, Mr Dixon, and by the Senator from North Carolina, Mr. Badger, and also by the remarks which fell from the Senator from Virginia, Mr. Hunter, and in which I fully concur, that the South will never derive any benefit from this measure, so far as respects the extension of slavery; for legislate as we may, no human power can ever establish it in the regions defined by these bills. And such were the sentiments of two eminent patriots, to vhose exertions we are greatly indebted for the satisfactory termination of the difiiculties of 1850, end who have since passed from their labors we may humbly hope, to their rewards. It is excluded by a law, to borrov tbi word.
