Speech On The Wilmot Proviso

Author : Joseph Segar
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331338888
Total Pages : 28 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (388 download)

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Download or read book Speech of Mr. Joseph Segar, (of Elizabeth City and Warwick,) written by Joseph Segar and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-13 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Joseph Segar, (of Elizabeth City and Warwick, ): On the Wilmot Proviso; Delivered in the House of Delegates, January 19, 1849 The resolutions of the joint committee being under consideration, Mr. Segar said: I had not designed, Mr. Speaker, to take part in this discussion; but my constituents expect me to sustain the resolutions on your table, and to vindicate their rights and interests in the premises, not by my vote only but by argument. I bow to the mandate of those who have the right to command me, and I rise, in their name, to enter a solemn protest against the power of congress to prohibit slavery in the territories, or in other words, to enact the Wilmot Proviso. But it is due to myself to declare, as I now most explicitly do, that so far as my vote is concerned, I have no need of any intimation from my constituents. Despite the criticisms of my friend from Harrison, "with all their sins and imperfections upon their head," the resolutions command my heartiest approval. I shall make an honest endeavour, Mr. Speaker, to approach this grave subject with feelings utterly divested of party. I am a decided party man, I confess. I am a Whig - have been from the earliest days of the party - have reared no other flag - fought under no other banner. My modes of thinking have assumed, of course, a strong party cast. But on this subject I cannot, dare not, think or act as a party man. It rises infinitely above all mere party considerations. It is a great question, if I may so speak, of magna charta; of first principles; of guaranteed right. It may be, if our northern brethren will so have it, a question of union or of disunion - that mightiest, gravest, most fearful issue ever involved in human affairs, or presented to the contemplation of civilized man. God forbid that I should approach a subject like this with one emotion of party impulse! I should dishonour myself, and violate every obligation of representative trust and moral propriety. If the preliminary objection taken by the distinguished gentleman from Fauquier, that we have no right to take cognizance of the subject matter of the resolutions, be well founded; and if, to use his strong language, the action of this legislature will involve an "outrageous and insulting assumption of power," there is an end of the question, and it is our duty to lay the resolutions on the table, and there let them sleep, until we shall be roused up by some startling deed of actual aggression. But we need not be "frightened from our propriety" by the grave animadversion of the gentleman from Fauquier. There is no such want of authority as he alleges. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.