It is true that the Republican party have been in possession
of the government of the State of Iowa during the last five years and upward.
They have had the unlimited control of the government of that State in every
one of its departments. They have had a succession of Governors of that
political party. They have had all the judicial tribunals, with very few
exceptions; and all the judges of the Supreme Court have belonged to that
party. Their majorities in the House of Representatives and in the Senate of
the State have been predominating, almost two to one, during four successive
Legislative Assemblies. But it is not true that the General Assembly of that
State has ever passed any law in violation of the Constitution of the United
States, in regard to the fugitive-slave law, or in regard to any other act of
Congress. No law has been passed by that State, either since it has been under
the domination of the Republican party, or before it came under their control,
that in the remotest degree contravenes the rights of any of the sister States,
or interferes with the relation of master and slave, or master and servant.
I have not risen for the purpose of making this explanation,
because I am disposed to censure or approve the acts of this kind that have
been passed by other States. I have no judgment to pronounce upon that subject.
I have no criticism to make on that species of legislation. It is no part of my
business, as I understand it, to sit here and arraign the action of sovereign
States of this Union in regard to their local laws, whether they may be as
objectionable as are the laws of Louisiana and South Carolina to Senators, like
the Senator from Massachusetts, or whether they are as objectionable as are the
laws of Massachusetts and Connecticut to the Senator from Georgia, and others
who act and feel with him. That is not my business. But I am not disposed to
let the State of my adoption, where I have the happiness to reside, and which I
have the honor here in part to represent, have either the glory or the
discredit—whichever way they may be regarded by Senators — of passing any law
which she did not pass. Whenever she shall see fit to pass a law of this kind,
or of any other kind, I, as a citizen of that State, will express my opinion in
approbation or in disapprobation of it, as my judgment shall dictate.
Nor do I allude to this subject at this time for the purpose
of relieving myself, my State, or the people whom I represent, from the
epithets which were so abundantly poured out upon them by the Senator from
Georgia. If there are any people in my State who will be disturbed by them it
will not be the men with whom I act, but those who profess a sympathy and
affinity for the political party with which the Senator from Georgia
associates. So far as the Republicans are concerned, I can vouch for them that
they will never be won or intimidated by adjectives, no matter how boisterously,
or how numerously, or how harshly, they may be applied.
SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes,
p. 123-4
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