Senator David R. Atchison* to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, March 4, 1855

PLATTE CITY, [Mo.], March 4, 1855.

DEAR HUNTER: The Elections in Kansas came off on the 30th ult, the pro slavery ticket prevailed every where as far as heard from, by overwhelming majorities; we stormed Lawrence or New Boston as it is called; The Abolitionists did "hang their guilty heads," now let the Southern men come on with their slaves 10,000 families can take possession, of and hold every acre of timber in the territory of Kansas, and this secures the prairie. Missouri will furnish 5000 of the 10,000; and the whole State will guarantee protection. We had at least 7,000 men in the territory on the day of the election and one third of them will remain there. We are playing for a mightly stake, if we win we carry slavery to the Pacific Ocean if we fail we lose Missouri Arkansas and Texas and all the territories, the game must be played boldly. I know that the Union as it Exists is in the other scale, but I am willing to take the holyland. You never saw a people better up to the mark than ours. It was hard to get up but now the only difficulty is to keep within bounds. When the returns are all in I will send them to you. You will no doubt see your humble servant held up by the Abolition press as a Bandit, a ruffian, an Aaron Burr, dont believe a word of it. I have saved hundreds of their necks, and kept their cabins from being burnt to the ground; there was not the least disturbance where I was present, and that was on the Nemaha, elsewhere in a few instances the hickory was used upon the most impudent of them.

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* A Senator in Congress from Missouri, 1843-1855.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 160-1

John L. Dawson* to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, June 2, 1855

BROWNSVILLE, [PA.], June 2, 1855.

DEAR SIR: I have just received your favour of the 26th ult. Tomorrow morning I leave for Detroit to meet Gov[erno]r Bright by arrangement, and from thence we go to "Superior." I will with pleasure attend to the suggestions contained in your letter, and will write to you from "Superior." I have heard nothing special from there since the adjournment of Congress.

The troubles in Kansas have attracted much attention here and I fear will give trouble in the end The Whigs, or rather the opposition to the democracy, fatten on these difficulties and are determined to make the most out of them. I am glad that you succeeded so well in Virginia, she is a better battle-field than Pennsylvania. With my best wishes for your success.

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* Democratic Representative in Congress from Pennsylvania, 1851-1855, 1863-1867.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 163-4

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, April 21, 1858

First at the Botanic Garden, second at Northumberland House, and third at the Prime Minister's. Got myself presented to Pélissier, who immediately asked how the Kansas question stood? With all their affected indifference, these European politicians have a keen eye for American differences! Conversed long with Lord Derby about the leading forms of legislation in the two countries; here, every important measure is matured by and introduced from the government; no standing committees, as we have.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 264

H. B., an Old Missionary to John Brown, November 28, 1859

New Haven, Connecticut, Nov. 28.

Dear Sir: Permit a friend of liberty and equitable law to address you a few brief thoughts, which I hope may be acceptable to you and your family. Prayer was yesterday offered for you in a colored congregation in this city, to whom a descendant of Africa, a son of Georgia, a minister of Liberia, and also the writer of this farewell letter, preached the true gospel.

You may be gratified to know that I remember with interest your interview, some two years since, with the cordial friends of Kansas in this city, while that injured territory of our common country was subject to the scorpion lash prepared for the honest advocates of the rights of man, and especially of that freedom which you struggled to establish. These, your New Haven friends, some of whom so ably and so kindly expostulated with our Chief Magistrate in reference to the wrongs of Kansas, remember you with Christian sympathy in your present sufferings.

Take it to your heart that a God of Justice and of Mercy rules, and the Deliverer of Israel from their bondage in Goshen, has mercy in store for a greater number of bondmen and bondwomen, truly as wrongfully oppressed. He has not granted you the full measure of your wishes, but he has allowed you the opportunity of conspicuously and emphatically showing your sympathy for the injured Slave population of our otherwise happy country, and of preaching the duty of giving "them that which is just and equal."

Forty years ago I went among the savages of Polynesia, and preached the gospel of Him whose office it was to proclaim liberty to captives. I plainly taught kings and queens, chiefs and warriors, that He that ruleth men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. I freely exhibited the opposition of God's law and our Saviour's gospel to oppression and every sin found to be prevailing there, and aided my associates in giving them the entire Bible in their own language, and in teaching their tribes to read it and use it freely in all the ranks of life.

Though I labored with them a score of years, and have corresponded with them a score of years more, I have not, lest I should damage my mission, ever told them that I belonged to a nation that deprives three or four millions of their fellow-subjects of Jehovah's Government, of their dearest rights which God has given them one of which is the free use of his own Holy Book.

But when the story of your execution shall reach and surprise them, I will no longer hesitate to speak to my friends there of your sympathy for four millions of the inhabitants of our Southern States, held in unchristian bonds in the only Protestant country on the globe that endorses Slavery.

I can, next week, well afford to endeavor to give them an echo of that protest against the whole system of American Slavery, which on and from the day of your execution, will be louder in the ear of High Heaven than its abettors have been accustomed to hear; rising from the millions of freemen in this noble cordon of Free States, and other millions of now slaveholding freemen, and some slaveholders themselves, in the Slave States.

Have you a kind message to send to the Christian converts at the Sandwich Islands, or to the heathen of Micronesia, a month's sail beyond, where my son and daughter are laboring to give them the Bible and the richest blessings of Christianity? I would gladly forward it to them if you have time to write it.

And now, dear sir, trust in your gracious Saviour; forgive those that have trespassed against you; leave your fatherless children, God will provide for them, and tell your widow to trust in Him, in His holy habitation. "The hairs of your head are all numbered," and not one "shall fall to the ground without your Heavenly Father." Should a lock of your hair fall into my lap before the execution shall help you to shake the pillars of the idol's temple, it would be valued. The Lord bless you, and make your life and death a blessing to the oppressed and their oppressors. Farewell!

Yours faithfully,

H. B.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 403-5

Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, February 25, 1863

February 25, 1863.

This afternoon our regiment was reviewed by Gen. Saxton in the presence of Gen. Hunter. The staff and body guards of these two Generals made about a hundred horsemen. I quite enjoyed the bugle notes as they gallopped into camp and thought how much more exciting a cavalry regiment must be than infantry. In the course of the battalion drill our boys were ordered to make a charge toward them and I verily believe that if the Col. had not been in front, the order "Halt," would have passed unheeded till the cavalry had scattered over the field.

All this evening I have been squeezing Kansas history out of Col. Montgomery, a history with which he himself is so completely identified that I have really been listening to a wonderful autobiography. Col. M. is a born pioneer. Ashtabula County, Ohio, is his native place. Forty-nine years ago, Joshua R. Giddings and Ben Wade were young men and Montgomery in his boyhood was accustomed to hear their early pleadings at the bar. So you see how birth and early surroundings fitted him for a fiercer frontier life. New England life seems puny beside the lusty life born on the frontier. Of the Colonel's eight children two of his sons are to hold commissions in his regiment. They are young but as “they don't know the meaning of fear,” and hate slavery he is sure they will get on. In medicine he has a weakness for pellets instead of pills. It is humiliating that our two strong colonels should exhibit such weak points. So long as we remain in good health I don't know but this foible of homoeopathy is as harmless as any of the popular vagaries. . . .

Yesterday Mingo Leighton died. Many weeks ago, I saw him step out of the ranks one day when upon the double-quick and discovered that he had slight disease of the heart. He was a noble fellow, black as midnight, who had suffered in the stocks and under the lash of a savage master, and did not accept any offer of discharge papers. Later he realized some of his hopes up the St. Mary's, so that he was very quiet under his fatal congestion of the lungs. He was ill but a few hours and was very calm when he told me on my first visit that his work was finished. He never gave me his history, though he regarded me as his friend, but one of his comrades confirmed my convictions of his worth. This same comrade, John Quincy, a good old man, who for eight years, paid his master twenty dollars per month for his time and eight dollars per month apiece for mules, and boarded himself and animals, this man told me that Mingo was deeply religious, but said little about it, and that he himself had been "trabblin by dis truth sometin' like twenty-five year." I have rarely met a man whose trust in God has seemed to me more immediate and constant.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 367-8

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, May 30, 1854

An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all that part of the territory of the United States included within the following limits, except such portions thereof as are hereinafter expressly exempted from the operations of this act, to wit: beginning at a point in the Missouri River where the fortieth parallel of north latitude crosses the same; then west on said parallel to the east boundary of the Territory of Utah, the summit of the Rocky Mountains; thence on said summit northwest to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of the territory of Minnesota; thence southward on said boundary to the Missouri River; thence down the main channel of said river to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby, created into a temporary government by the name of the Territory Nebraska; and when admitted as a State or States, the said Territory or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of the admission: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the government of the United States from dividing said Territory into two or more Territories, in such manner and at such tin as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching a portion of said Territory to any other State or Territory of the United States: Provided further, That nothing in this act contained shall construed to impair the rights of person or property now pertaining the Indians in said Territory' so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or include any territory which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without the consent of said tribe, to be included within the territorial line or jurisdiction of any State or Territory; but all such territory shall excepted out of the boundaries, and constitute no part of the Territory of Nebraska, until said tribe shall signify their assent to the President of the United States to be included within the said Territory of Nebraska. or to affect the authority of the government of the United States make any regulations respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights, by treaty, law, or otherwise, which it would have been competent to the government to make if this act had never passed.

SEC. 2. And Be it further enacted, That the executive power and authority in and over said Territory of Nebraska shall be vested in a Governor who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States. The Governor shall reside within said Territory, and shall be commander-in-chief of the militia thereof. He may grant pardons and respites for offences against the laws of said Territory, and reprieves for offences against the laws of the United States, until the decision of the President can be made known thereon; he shall commission all officers who shall be appointed to office under the laws of the aid Territory, and shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

SEC. 3. And Be it further enacted, That there shall be a Secretary of said Territory, who shall reside therein, and hold his office for five years, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States; he shall record and preserve all the laws and proceedings of the Legislative Assembly hereinafter constituted, and all the acts and proceedings of the Governor in his executive department; he shall transmit one copy of the laws and journals of the Legislative Assembly within thirty days after the end of each session, and one copy of the executive proceedings and official correspondence semi-annually, on the first days of January and July in each year to the President of the United States, and two copies of the laws to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to be deposited in the libraries of Congress, and in or case of the death, removal, resignation, or absence of the Governor from the Territory, the Secretary shall be, and he is hereby, authorized and required to execute and perform all the powers and duties of the Governor during such vacancy or absence, or until another Governor shall be duly appointed and qualified to fill such vacancy.

SEC 4. And be it further enacted, That the legislative power and authority of said Territory shall be vested in the Governor and a Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly shall consist of a Council and House of Representatives. The Council shall consist of thirteen members, having the qualifications of voters, as hereinafter prescribed, whose term of service shall continue two years. The House of Representatives shall, at its first session, consist of twenty-six members, possessing the same qualifications as prescribed for members of the Council, and whose term of service shall continue one year. The number of representatives may be increased by the Legislative Assembly, from time to time, in proportion to the increase of qualified voters: Provided, That the whole number shall never exceed thirty-nine. An apportionment shall be made, as nearly equal as practicable, among the several counties or districts, for the election of the council and representatives, giving to each section of the Territory representation in the ratio of its qualified voters as nearly as may be. And the members of the Council and of the House of Representatives shall reside in, and be inhabitants of, the district or county, or counties for which they may be elected, respectively. Previous to the first election, the Governor shall cause a census, or enumeration of the inhabitants and qualified voters of the several counties and districts of the Territory, to be taken by such persons and in such mode as the Governor shall designate and appoint; and the persons so appointed shall receive a reasonable compensation therefor. And the first election shall be held at such time and places, and be conducted in such manner, both as to the persons who shall superintend such election and the returns thereof, as the Governor shall appoint and direct; and he shall at the same time declare the number of members of the Council and House of Representatives to which each of the counties or districts shall be entitled under this act. The persons having the highest number of legal votes in each of said council districts for members of the Council, shall be declared by the Governor to be duly elected to the Council; and the persons having the highest number of legal votes for the House of Representatives, shall be declared by the Governor to be duly elected members of said house: Provided, That in case two or more persons voted for shall have an equal number of votes, and in case a vacancy shall otherwise occur in either branch of the Legislative Assembly, the Governor shall order a new election; and the persons thus elected to the Legislative Assembly shall meet at such place and on such day as the Governor shall appoint; but thereafter, the time, place, and manner of holding and conducting all elections by the people, and the apportioning the representation in the several counties or districts to the Council and House of Representatives, according to the number of qualified voters, shall be prescribed by law, as well as the day of the commencement of the regular sessions of the Legislative Assembly: Provided, That no session in any one year shall exceed the term of forty days, except the first session, which may continue sixty days.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That every free white male inhabitant above the age of twenty-one years who shall be an actual resident of said Territory, and shall possess the qualifications hereinafter prescribed, shall be entitled to vote at the first election, and shall be eligible to any office within the said Territory; but the qualifications of voters, and of holding office, at all subsequent elections, shall be such as shall be prescribed by the Legislative Assembly: Provided, That the right of suffrage and of holding office shall be exercised only by citizens of the United States and those who shall have declared on oath their intention to become such, and shall have taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act: And provided further, That no officer, soldier, seaman, or marine, or other person in the army or navy of the United States, or attached to troops in the service of the United States, shall be allowed to vote or hold office in said Territory, by reason of being on service therein.

SEC. 6. And Be it further enacted, That the legislative power of the Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act; but no law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil; no tax shall be imposed upon the property of the United States; nor shall the lands or other property of non-residents be taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents. Every bill which shall have passed the Council and House of Representatives of the said Territory shall, before it become a law, be presented to the Governor of the Territory; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it with his objections to the house in which it originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, to be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the Governor within three days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Assembly, by adjournment, prevents its return, in which case it shall not be a law.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That all township, district, and county officers, not herein otherwise provided for, shall be appointed or elected, as the case may be, in such manner as shall be provided by the Governor and Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska. The Governor shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council, appoint all officers not herein otherwise provided for; and in the first instance the Governor alone may appoint all said officers, who shall hold their offices until the end of the first session of the Legislative Assembly; and shall lay off the necessary districts for members of the Council and House of Representatives, and all other officers.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That no member of the Legislative Assembly shall hold, or be appointed to, any office which shall have been created, or the salary or emoluments of which shall have been increased, while he was a member, during the term for which he was elected, and for one year after the expiration of such term; but this restriction shall not be applicable to members of the first Legislative Assembly; and no person holding a commission or appointment under the United States, except Postmasters, shall be a member of the Legislative Assembly, or hold any office under the government of said Territory.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the judicial power of said Territory shall be vested in a Supreme Court, District Courts, Probate Courts, and in Justices of the Peace. The Supreme Court shall consist of a chief justice and two associate justices, any two of whom shall constitute a quorum, and who shall hold a term at the seat of government of said Territory annually, and they shall hold their offices during the period of four years, and until their successor shall be appointed and qualified. The said Territory shall be divided into three judicial districts, and a district court shall be held in each of said districts by one of the justices of the Supreme Court, at such times and places as may be prescribed by of law; and the said judges shall, after their appointments, respectively, reside in the districts which shall be assigned them. The jurisdiction of the several courts herein provided for, both appellate and original, and that of the probate courts and of justices of the peace, shall be as limited by law: Provided, That justices of the peace shall not have jurisdiction of any matter in controversy when the title or boundaries of land may be in dispute, or where the debt or sum claimed shall exceed one hundred dollars; and the said supreme and districts courts, respectively, shall possess chancery as well as common law jurisdiction. Each District Court, or the judge thereof, shall appoint its clerk, who shall also be the register in chancery, and shall keep his office at the place where the court may, be held. Writs of error, bills of exception, and appeals, shall be allowed in all cases from the final decisions of said district courts to the Supreme Court, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law; but in no case removed to the Supreme Court shall trial by jury be allowed in said court. The Supreme Court, or the justices thereof, shall appoint its own clerk, and every clerk shall hold his office at the pleasure of the court for which he shall have been appointed. Writs of error, and appeals from the final decisions of said Supreme Court, shall be allowed, and may be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, in the same manner and under the same regulations as from the circuit courts of the United States, where the value of the property, or the amount in controversy, to be ascertained by the oath or affirmation of either party, or other competent witness, shall exceed one thousand dollars; except only that in all cases involving title to slaves, the said writs of error, or appeals shall be allowed and decided by the said Supreme Court, without regard to the value of the matter, property, or title in controversy; and except also that a writ of error or appeal shall also be allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, from the decision of the said Supreme Court created by this act, or of any judge thereof, or of the district courts created by this act, or of any judge thereof, upon any writ of habeas corpus, involving the question of personal freedom: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to apply to or affect the provisions to the " act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters," approved February twelfth, seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and the " act to amend and supplementary to the aforesaid act," approved September eighteen, eighteen hundred and fifty; and each of the said district courts shall have and exercise the same jurisdiction in all cases arising under the Constitution and Laws of the United States as is vested in the Circuit and District Courts of the United States; and the said Supreme and District Courts of the said Territory, and the respective judges thereof, shall and may grant writs of habeas corpus in all cases in which the same are granted by the judges of the United States in the District of Columbia; and the first six days of every term of said courts, or so much thereof as shall be necessary, shall be appropriated to the trial of causes arising under the said constitution and laws, and writs of error and appeal in all such cases shall be made to the Supreme Court of said Territory, the same as in other cases. The said clerk shall receive in all such cases the same fees which the clerks of the district courts of Utah Territory now receive for similar services.

SEC. 10. And Be it further enacted, That the provisions of an act entitled "An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters," approved February twelve, seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and the provisions of the act entitled “An act to amend, and supplementary to, the aforesaid act,” approved September eighteen, eighteen hundred and fifty, be, and the same are hereby, declared to extend to and be in full force within the limits of said Territory of Nebraska.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That there shall be appointed an Attorney for said Territory, who shall continue in office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President, and who shall receive the same fees and salary I as the Attorney of the United States for the present Territory of Utah. There shall also be a Marshal for the Territory appointed, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President, and who shall execute all processes issuing from the said courts when exercising their jurisdiction as Circuit and District Courts of the United States; he shall perform the duties, be subject to the same regulation and penalties, and be entitled to the same fees, as the Marshal of the District Court of the United States for the present Territory of Utah, and shall, in addition, be paid two hundred dollars annually as a compensation for extra services.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the Governor, Secretary, Chief Justice, and Associate Justices, Attorney and Marshal, shall be nominated, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appointed by the President of the United States. The Governor and a Secretary to be appointed as aforesaid, shall, before they act as such, respectively take an oath or affirmation before the District Judge or some Justice of the Peace in the limits of said Territory, duly authorized to administer oaths and affirmations by the laws now in force therein, or before the Chief Justice, or some Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to support the Constitution of the United States, and faithfully to discharge the duties of their respective offices, which said oaths, when so taken, shall be certified by the person by whom the same shall have been taken; and such certificates shall be received and recorded by the said Secretary among the Executive proceedings; and the Chief Justice and Associate Justices, and all other civil officers in said Territory, before they act as such, shall take a like oath or affirmation before the said Governor or Secretary, or some Judge or Justice of the Peace of the Territory, who may be duly commissioned and qualified, which said oath or affirmation shall be certified and transmitted by the person taking the same to the Secretary, to be by him recorded as aforesaid; and, afterwards, the like oath or affirmation shall be taken, certified, and recorded, in such manner and form as may be prescribed by law. The Governor shall receive an annual salary of two thousand five hundred dollars. The Chief Justice and Associate Justices shall each receive an annual salary of two thousand dollars. The Secretary shall receive an annual salary of two thousand dollars. The said salaries shall be paid quarter-yearly, from the dates of the respective appointments, at the Treasury of the United States; but no such payment shall be made until said officers shall have entered upon the duties of their respective appointments. The members of the Legislative Assembly shall be entitled to receive three dollars each per day during their attendance at the sessions thereof, and three dollars each for every twenty miles' travel in going to and returning from the said sessions, estimated according to the nearest usually travelled route; and an additional allowance of three dollars shall be paid to the presiding officer of each house for each day he shall so preside. And a chief clerk, one assistant clerk, a sergeant-at-arms, and doorkeeper, may be chosen for each house; and the chief clerk shall receive four dollars per day, and the said other officers three dollars per day, during the session of the Legislative Assembly; but no other officers shall be paid by the United States: Provided, That there shall be but one session of the legislature annually, unless, on an extraordinary occasion, the Governor shall think proper to call the legislature together. There shall be appropriated, annually, the usual sum, to be expended by the Governor, to defray the contingent expenses of the Territory, including the salary of a clerk of the Executive Department; and there shall also be appropriated, annually, a sufficient sum, to be expended by the Secretary of the Territory, and upon an estimate to be made by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, to defray the expenses of the Legislative Assembly, the printing of the laws, and other incidental expenses; and the Governor and Secretary of the Territory shall, in the disbursement of all moneys intrusted to them, be governed solely by the instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and shall, semi-annually, account to the said Secretary for the manner in which the aforesaid moneys shall have been expended; and no expenditure shall be made by said Legislative Assembly for objects not specially authorized by the acts of Congress, making the appropriations, nor beyond the sums thus appropriated for such objects.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska shall hold its first session at such time and place in said Territory as the Governor thereof shall appoint and direct; and at said first session, or as soon thereafter as they shall deem expedient, the Governor and Legislative Assembly shall proceed to locate and establish the seat of government for said Territory at such place as they may deem eligible; which place, however, shall thereafter be subject to be changed by the said Governor and Legislative Assembly.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That a delegate to the House of Representatives of the United States, to serve for the term of two years, who shall be a citizen of the United States, may be elected by the voters qualified to elect members of the Legislative Assembly, who shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges as are exercised and enjoyed by the delegates from the several other Territories of the United States to the said House of Representatives, but the delegate first elected shall hold his seat only during the term of the Congress to which he shall be elected. The first election shall be held at such time and places, and be conducted in such manner, as the Governor shall appoint and direct; and at all subsequent elections the times, places, and manner of holding the elections, shall be prescribed by law. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be declared by the Governor to be duly elected; and a certificate thereof shall be given accordingly. That the Constitution, and all Laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory of Nebraska as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union approved March sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty, which, being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slaves in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of eighteen hundred and fifty, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form an regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of sixth March, eighteen hundred and twenty, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery.

SEC. 15. And Be it further enacted, That there shall hereafter be appropriated, as has been customary for the Territorial governments, sufficient amount, to be expended under the direction of the said Governor of the Territory of Nebraska, not exceeding the sums heretofore appropriated for similar objects, for the erection of suitable public buildings at the seat of government, and for the purchase of a library, to be kept at the seat of government for the use of the Governor, Legislative Assembly, Judges of the Supreme Court, Secretary, Marshal, and Attorney of said Territory, and such other persons, and under such regulations as shall be prescribed by law.

SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That when the lands in the said Territory shall be surveyed under the direction of the government of the United States, preparatory to bringing the same into market, section; numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township in said Territory shall be, and the same are hereby, reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools in said Territory, and in the States and Territories hereafter to be erected out of the same.

SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That, until otherwise provided by law, the Governor of said Territory may define the Judicial Districts of said Territory, and assign the judges who may be appointed for said Territory to the several districts; and also appoint the times and places for holding courts in the several counties or subdivisions in each of said Judicial Districts by proclamation, to be issued by him; but the Legislative Assembly, at their first or any subsequent session, may organize, alter, or modify such Judicial Districts, and assign the judges, and alter the times and places of holding the courts, as to them shall seem proper and convenient.

SEC. 18. And be it further enacted, That all officers to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for the Territory of Nebraska, who, by virtue of the provisions of any law now existing, or which may be enacted during the present Congress, are required to give security for moneys that may be intrusted with them for disbursement, shall give such security, at such time and place, and in such manner, as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe.

SEC. 19. And be it further enacted, That all that part of the Territory of the United States included within the following limits, except such portions thereof as are hereinafter expressly exempted from the operations of this act, to wit, beginning at a point on the western boundary of the State of Missouri, where the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence west on said parallel to the eastern boundary of New Mexico; thence north on said boundary to latitude thirty-eight; thence following said boundary westward to the east boundary of the Territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains; thence northward on said summit to the fortieth parallel of latitude, thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of the State of Missouri; thence south with the western boundary of said State to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby, created into a temporary government by the name of the Territory of Kansas; and when admitted as a State or States, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the government of the United States from dividing said Territory into two or more Territories, in such manner and at such times as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion of said Territory to any other State or Territory of the United States: Provided further, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to impair the rights of person or property now pertaining to the Indians in said Territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or to include any territory which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without the consent of said tribe, to be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory; but all such territory shall be excepted out of the boundaries, and constitute no part of the Territory of Kansas, until said tribe shall signify their assent to the President of the United States to be included within the said Territory of Kansas, or to affect the authority of the government of the United States to make any regulation respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights, by treaty, law, or otherwise, which it would have been competent to the government to make if this act had never passed.

SEC. 20. And be it further enacted, That the executive power and authority in and over said Territory of Kansas shall be vested in a Governor, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States. The Governor shall reside within said Territory, and shall be commander-in-chief of the militia thereof. He may grant pardons and respites for offences against the laws of said Territory, and reprieves for offences against the laws of the United States, until the decision of the President can be made known thereon; he shall commission all officers who shall be appointed to office under the laws of the said Territory, and shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

SEC. 21. And be it further enacted, That there shall be a Secretary of said Territory, who shall reside therein, and hold his office for five years, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States; he shall record and preserve all the laws and proceedings of the Legislative Assembly hereinafter constituted, and all the acts and proceedings of the Governor in his Executive Department; he shall transmit one copy of the laws and journals of the Legislative Assembly within thirty days after the end of each session, and one copy of the executive proceedings and official correspondence semi-annually, on the first days of January and July in each year, to the President of the United States, and two copies of the laws to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to be deposited in the libraries of Congress; and, in case of the death, removal, resignation, or absence of the Governor from the Territory, the Secretary shall be, and he is hereby, authorized and required to execute and perform all the powers and duties of the Governor during such vacancy or absence, or until another Governor shall be duly appointed and qualified to fill such vacancy.

SEC. 22. And be it further enacted, That the legislative power and authority of said Territory shall be vested in the Governor and a Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly shall consist of a Council and House of Representatives. The Council shall consist of thirteen members, having the qualifications of voters, as hereinafter prescribed, whose term of service shall continue two years. The House of Representatives shall, at its first session, consist of twenty-six members possessing the same qualifications as prescribed for members of the Council, and whose term of service shall continue one year. The number of representatives may be increased by the Legislative Assembly, from time to time, in proportion to the increase of qualified voters: Provided, That the whole number shall never exceed thirty-nine. An apportionment shall be made, as nearly equal as practicable, among the several counties or districts, for the election of the Council and Representatives, giving to each section of the Territory representation in the ratio of its qualified voters as nearly as may be. And the members of the Council and of the House of Representatives shall reside in, and be inhabitants of, the district or county, or counties, for which they may be elected, respectively. Previous to the first election, the Governor shall cause a census, or enumeration of the inhabitants and qualified voters of the several counties and districts of the Territory, to be taken by such persons and in such mode as the Governor shall designate and appoint; and the persons so appointed shall receive a reasonable compensation therefor. And the first election shall be held at such time and places, and be conducted in such manner, both as to the persons who shall superintend such election and the returns thereof, as the Governor shall appoint and direct; and he shall at the same time declare the number of members of the Council and House of Representatives to which each of the counties or districts shall be entitled under this act. The persons having the highest number of legal votes in each of said Council Districts for members of the Council, shall be declared by the Governor to be duly elected to the Council; and the persons having the highest number of legal votes for the House of Representatives, shall be declared by the Governor to be duly elected members of said house: Provided, That in case two or more persons voted for shall have an equal number of votes, and in case a vacancy shall otherwise occur in either branch of the Legislative Assembly, the Governor shall order a new election; and the persons thus elected to the Legislative Assembly shall meet at such place and on such day as the Governor shall appoint; but thereafter, the time, place, and manner of holding and conducting all elections by the people, and the apportioning the representation in the several counties or districts to the Council and House of Representatives, according to the number of qualified voters, shall be prescribed by law, as well as the day of the commencement of the regular sessions of the Legislative Assembly: Provided, That no session in any one year shall exceed the term of forty days, except the first session, which may continue sixty days.

SEC. 23. And be it further enacted, That every free white male inhabitant above the age of twenty-one years, who shall be an actual resident of said Territory, and shall possess the qualifications hereinafter prescribed, shall be entitled to vote at the first election, and shall be eligible to any office within the said Territory; but the qualifications of voters, and of holding office, at all subsequent elections, shall be such as shall be prescribed by the Legislative Assembly: Provided, That the right of suffrage and of holding office shall be exercised only by citizens of the United States, and those who shall have declared, on oath, their intention to become such, and shall have taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act: And, provided further, That no officer, soldier, seaman, or marine, or other person in the army or navy of the United States, or attached to troops in the service of the United States, shall be allowed to vote or hold office in said Territory by reason of being on service therein.

SEC. 24. And be it further enacted, That the legislative power of the Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act; but no law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil; no tax shall be imposed upon the property of the United States; nor shall the lands or other property of non-residents be taxed higher than the lands or other properly of residents. Every bill which shall have passed the Council and House of Representatives of the said Territory shall, before it become a law, be presented to the Governor of the Territory; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it with his objections to the house in which it originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which, it shall likewise be reconsidered, and, if approved by two thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, to be entered on the journal of each house, respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the Governor within three days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Assembly, by adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law.

SEC. 25. And be it further enacted, That all township, district, and; county officers, not herein otherwise provided for, shall be appointed or elected as the case may be, in such manner as shall be provided by the Governor and Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Kansas. The Governor shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council, appoint all officers not herein otherwise provided for; and, in the first instance, the Governor alone may appoint all said officers, who shall hold their offices until the end of the first session of the Legislative Assembly; and shall lay off the necessary districts for members of the Council and House of Representatives, and all other officers.

SEC. 26. And be it further enacted, That no member of the Legislative Assembly shall hold, or be appointed to, any office which shall have been created, or the salary or emoluments of which shall have been increased, while he was a member, during the term for which he was elected, and for one year after the expiration of such term; but this restriction shall not be applicable to members of the first Legislative Assembly; and no person holding a commission or appointment under the United States, except postmasters, shall be a member of the Legislative Assembly, or shall hold any office under the government of said Territory.

SEC. 27. And be it further enacted, That the judicial power of said Territory shall be vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts, and in justices of the peace. The Supreme Court shall Consist of chief justice and two associate justices, any two of whom shall constitute a quorum, and who shall hold a term at the seat of government of said Territory annually; and they shall hold their offices during the period of four years, and until their successors shall be appointed and qualified. The said Territory shall be divided into three judicial districts, and a district court shall be held in each of said districts by one of the justices of the Supreme Court, at such times and places as may be prescribed by law; and the said judges shall, after their appointments, respectively, reside in the districts which shall be assigned them. The jurisdiction of the several courts herein provided for, both appellate and original, and that of the probate courts and of justices of the peace, shall be as limited by law: Provided, That justices of the peace shall not have jurisdiction of any matter in controversy when the title or boundaries of land may be in dispute, or where the debt or sum claimed shall exceed one hundred dollars; and the said supreme and district courts, respectively, shall possess chancery as well as common law jurisdiction. Said District Court, or the judge thereof, shall appoint its clerk, who shall also be the register in chancery, and shall keep his office at the place where the court may be held. Writs of error, bills of exception, and appeals shall be allowed in all cases from the final decisions of said district courts to the Supreme Court, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law; but in no case removed to the Supreme Court shall trial by jury be allowed in said court. The Supreme Court, or the justices thereof, shall appoint its own clerk, and every clerk shall hold his office at the pleasure of the court for which he shall have been appointed. Writs of error, and appeals from the final decisions of said supreme court, shall be allowed, and may be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, in the same manner and under the same regulations as from the Circuit Courts of the United States, where the value of the property, or the amount in controversy, to be ascertained by the oath or affirmation of either party, or other competent witness, shall exceed one thousand dollars; except only that in all cases involving title to slaves, the said writ of error or appeals shall be allowed and decided by said supreme court, without regard to the value of the matter, property, or title in controversy; and except also that a writ of error or appeal shall also be allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, from the decision of the said supreme court created by this act, or of any judge thereof, or of the district courts created by this act, or of any judge thereof, upon any writ of habeas corpus, involving the question of personal freedom: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to apply to or affect the provisions of the "act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters," approved February twelfth, - seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and the act to amend and supplementary to the aforesaid act," approved September eighteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty; and each of the said district courts shall have and exercise the same jurisdiction in all cases arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States as is vested in the Circuit and District Courts of the United States; and the said supreme and district courts of the said Territory, and the respective judges thereof, shall and may grant writs of habeas corpus in all cases in which the same are granted by the judges of the United States in the District of Columbia; and the first six days of every term of said courts, or so much thereof as may be necessary, shall be appropriated to the trial of causes arising under the said Constitution and laws, and writs of error and appeal in all such cases shall-be made to the Supreme Court of said Territory, the same as in other cases. The said clerk shall receive the same fees in all such cases, which the clerks of the district courts of Utah Territory now receive for similar services.

SEC. 28. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of the act entitled "An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from, the service of their masters," approved February twelfth, seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and the provisions of the act entitled "An act to amend, and supplementary to, the aforesaid act," approved September eighteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty, be, and the same are hereby, declared to extend to and be in full force within the limits of the said Territory of Kansas.

SEC. 29. And be it further enacted, That there shall be appointed an attorney for said Territory, who shall continue in office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President, and who shall receive the same fees and salary as the Attorney of the United States for the present Territory of Utah. There shall also be a marshal for the Territory appointed, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President, and who shall execute all processes issuing from the said courts where exercising their jurisdiction as Circuit and District Courts of the United States; he shall perform the duties, be subject to the same regulations and penalties, and be entitled to the same fees, as the Marshal of the District Court of the United States for the present Territory of Utah, and shall, in addition, be paid two hundred dollars annually as a compensation for extra services.

SEC. 30. And be it further enacted, That the Governor, Secretary, Chief Justice, and Associate Justices, Attorney, and Marshal, shall be nominated, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appointed by the President of the United States. The Governor and Secretary to be appointed as aforesaid shall, before they act as such, respectively take an oath or affirmation before the district judge or some justice of the peace in the limits of said Territory, duly authorized to administer oaths and affirmations by the laws now in force therein, or before the Chief Justice or some Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to support the Constitution of the United States, and faithfully to discharge the duties of their respective offices, which said oaths, when so taken, shall be certified by the person by whom the same shall have been taken; and such certificates shall be received and recorded by the said secretary among the executive proceedings; and the Chief Justice and Associate Justices, and all other civil officers in said Territory, before they act as such, shall take a like oath or affirmation before the said Governor or Secretary, or some Judge or Justice of the Peace of the Territory who may be duly commissioned and qualified, which said oath or affirmation shall be certified and transmitted by the person taking the same to the Secretary, to be by him recorded as aforesaid; and, afterwards, the like oath or affirmation shall be taken, certified, and recorded, in such manner and form as may be prescribed by law. The Governor shall receive an annual salary of two thousand five hundred dollars. The Chief Justice and Associate Justices shall receive As an annual salary of two thousand dollars. The Secretary shall receive an annual salary of two thousand dollars. The said salaries shall be paid quarter-yearly, from the dates of the respective appointments, at the Treasury of the United States; but no such payment shall be made until said officers shall have entered upon the duties of their respective appointments. The members of the Legislative Assembly shall be entitled to receive three dollars each per day during their attendance at the sessions thereof, and three dollars each for every twenty miles' travel in going to and returning from the said sessions, estimated according to the nearest usually travelled route; and an additional allowance of three dollars shall be paid to the presiding officer of each house for each day he shall so preside. And a chief clerk, one assistant clerk, a sergeant at-arms, and door-keeper, may be chosen for each house; and the chief clerk shall receive four dollars per day, and the said other officers three dollars per day, during the session of the Legislative Assembly; but no to other officers shall be paid by the United States: Provided, That there shall be but one session of the Legislature annually, unless, on an extraordinary occasion, the Governor shall think proper to call the Legislature together. There shall be appropriated, annually, the usual sum, to be expended by the Governor, to defray the contingent expenses of the Territory, including the salary of a clerk of the Executive Department and there shall also be appropriated, annually, a sufficient sum, to be expended by the Secretary of the Territory, and upon an estimate to be made by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, to defray the expenses of the Legislative Assembly, the printing of the laws, and other incidental expenses; and the Governor and Secretary of the Territory shall, in the disbursement of all moneys intrusted to them, be governed solely by the instructions of the secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and shall, semi-annually, account to the said secretary for lit the manner in which the aforesaid moneys shall have been expended; and no expenditure shall be made by said Legislative Assembly for objects not specially authorized by the acts of Congress making the appropriations, nor beyond the sums thus appropriated for such objects.

SEC. 31. And be it further enacted, That the seat of government of said Territory is hereby located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth; and that such portions of the public buildings as may not be actually used and needed for military purposes, may be occupied and used, under the direction of the Governor and Legislative Assembly, for such public purposes as may be required under the provisions of this act.

SEC. 32. And be it further enacted, That a delegate to the House of Representatives of the United States, to serve for the term of two years, who shall be a citizen of the United States, may be elected by the voters qualified to elect members of the Legislative Assembly, who shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges as are exercised and enjoyed by the delegates from the several other Territories of the United States to the said House of Representatives, but the delegate first elected shall hold his seat only during the term of the Congress to which he shall be elected. The first election shall be held at such time and places, and be conducted in such manner, as the Governor shall appoint and direct; and at all subsequent elections, the times, places, and manner of holding the elections shall be prescribed by law. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be declared by the Governor to be duly elected, and a certificate thereof shall be given accordingly. That the Constitution, and all laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory of Kansas as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty, which, being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of eighteen hundred and fifty, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of sixth of March, eighteen hundred and twenty, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery.

SEC. 33. And be it further enacted; That there shall hereafter be appropriated, as has been customary for the territorial governments, a sufficient amount, to be expended under the direction of the said Governor of the Territory of Kansas, not exceeding the sums heretofore appropriated for similar objects, for the erection of suitable public buildings at the seat of government, and for the purchase of a library, to be kept at the seat of government for the use of the Governor, Legislative Assembly, Judges of the Supreme Court, Secretary, Marshal, and Attorney of said Territory, and such other persons, and under such regulations, as shall be prescribed by law.

SEC. 34. And be it further enacted, That when the lands in the said Territory shall be surveyed under the direction of the government of the United States, preparatory to bringing the same into market, sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township in said Territory shall be, and the same are hereby, reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools in said Territory, and in the States and Territories hereafter to be erected out of the same.

SEC. 35. And be it further enacted, That, until otherwise provided by law, the Governor of said Territory may define the Judicial Districts of said Territory, and assign the judges who may be appointed for said Territory to the several districts; and also appoint the times and places forholding courts in the several counties or subdivisions in each of said judicial districts by proclamation, to be issued by him; but the Legislative Assembly, at their first or any subsequent session, may organize, alter, or modify such judicial districts, and assign the judges, and alter the times and places of holding the courts as to them shall seem proper and convenient.

SEC. 36. And be it further enacted, That all officers to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for the Territory of Kansas, who, by virtue of the provisions of any law now existing, or which may be enacted during the present Congress, are required to give security for moneys that may be intrusted with them for disbursement, shall give such security, at such time and place, and in such manner as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe.

SEC. 37. And be it further enacted, That all treaties, laws, and other, engagements made by the government of the United States with the Indian tribes inhabiting the territories embraced within this act, shall be faithfully and rigidly observed, notwithstanding any thing contained in this act; and that the existing agencies and superintendencies of said Indians be continued with the same powers and duties which are now prescribed by law, except that the President of the United States may, at his discretion, change the location of the office of superintendent.

Approved, May 30, 1854.

SOURCE: National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D. C., Accessed April 22, 2022

William T. Sherman to Thomas Ewing Jr., July 22, 1860

LOUISIANA STATE SEMINARY, Alexandria, July 22, 1860.

DEAR TOM: . . . The fact that Congress did not admit Kansas must be a disappointment to you all, but the certainty of her giving a Republican vote was too much for a Democratic Congress, with the almost certainty of the election going into the House. Down here no one thinks of Lincoln. The struggle will be between Douglas and Breckenridge; the latter will win. . .

If Lincoln should win I don't know but that something would turn up to my liking, but it won't do for me to say Lincoln down here. The devil himself would be a more welcome guest than a Black Republican, yet I have no fears myself of the election of anybody; if our form of government will not endure any man as president it is not a fit machine and should break up; but of course I know that no man would now disturb property in slaves; as to the limitation of its sphere, that is comparatively a small matter. . .

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 244-5

Will Kansas be a Slave State, Published September 28, 1855

The Hon. Theodore G. Hunt, of La., who was one of the few Southern Representatives in Congress that voted against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, addressed a public meeting of his constituents on the 15th instant in a speech in which, whilst defending his course upon that subject, he conclusively stated the reason that would prevent Kansas from being a slave State:

In addition to the view I presented of good faith, I also urged in my speech on the Nebraska bill that, apart from abstractions, there was no practical advantage to be attained for the South by opening the Territory in question to the admission of slavery. And I still retain that opinion. I believe that Kansas and Nebraska are both destined by nature to be free States. No prudent slaveholder will leave the genial soil and climate of the South, and take his slaves with him, merely to establish the condition of slavery in the less productive and colder region of Kansas or Nebraska. The author of the Nebraska bill himself, and leading Southern gentlemen, who advocated the bill, also entertained the opinion I expressed.

Mr. Douglas said: “I do not believe there is a man in Congress who thinks it could be permanently a slaveholding country. I have no idea that it could.”

Mr. Badger, or North Carolina, said: “I have no more idea of seeing a slave population in either of them I have of seeing it in Massachusetts, not a whit.”

Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, said: “As far as I am concerned, I must say that I do not expect that this bill is to give us of the South anything, but merely to accommodate something like the sentiment of the South.”

Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, said: “Does any man believe that you will have a slaveholding State in Kansas and Nebraska? I confess that for a moment I permitted such an illusion to  rest on my mind.”

Mr. Jones, of Tennessee, said: As I told the honorable chairman of this committee on Territories, and as I have expressed myself everywhere when I have given my opinion on the subject, I was content to let this matter stand as it was, because, in my judgment, there was nothing practical in it.”

There is nothing in the present state of things that shakes my conviction in the destination of Kansas to be a free State. The lawless violence of certain Missourians to control the election and mould the sovereignty of Kansas must fall of its object. The condition of Kansas as to slavery will be determined ultimately by the influence of the law of nature and the principles of human interest, almost as certain in their operation as that law itself. Population, which was flowing rapidly into the Territory, has been checked and greatly obstructed for some time past; but thousands who have settled there opposed to the institution of slavery; and a vast number who, it is believed, will settle there as soon as law and order are established, will join the opposition. Besides, I understand that the number of emigrants going to Missouri bona fide to live there does not exceed the number of emigrants from that state returning to their ancient establishments. Now, if this information be correct, Kansas will in due time, when prepared for admission into the Union, present herself to Congress for admission with a constitution prohibitory of slavery. To her admission under the case supposed there could be no serious objection on the part of the South; for the doctrine is justly avowed by her that when a State is about to be admitted into the Union, that States has a right to decide for itself whether it will or will not have slavery within its limits.

But if I am mistaken in the opinion that Kansas will present herself at the right time to Congress with a constitution prohibitory of slavery, and, on the contrary, by any possibility she should be admitted as a slaveholding Sates, still, I repeat, I am convinced, from the nature of her soil, from the number of foreigners and citizens from the free States who have settled, and who will hereafter settle within her limits, and from the well known aversion of those persons to the institution of slavery, that her career as a slaving State would be a very short one, and that her destiny is fixed by the law of Nature, and the circumstances averted to, as a non-slaveholding State.

Practically, then, the South had nothing to gain by a repeal of the Missouri compromise. Her own fertile lands, suitable for the profitable culture of her great staples, and situated in a climate congenial to the health of her laborers, afforded her, in their immense area, a space far beyond her powers for cultivation for any series of ages yet to come. I condemned the lust for lands which the South did not want, and which honor called upon her not to invade or to acquire by injustice.

SOURCE: “Will Kansas be a Slave State?” Daily American Organ, Washington, D.C., Friday, September 28, 1855, p. 2

Speech of Congressman John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, March 23, 1854

Delivered in the House of Representatives, March 23, 1854—the House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union on the Nebraska bill.

I propose, now, Mr. Chairman, to address a few observations to the committee upon the merits of the bill. The subject has been thoroughly discussed here and in the Senate, and I do not flatter myself that I shall be able to add new facts or develop new trains of thought. The elements of a correct judgment are already before the country, and the utmost that one now engaging in the discussion can hope, is to present some of them in lights and combinations worthy the attention of the House.

I shall not consume the time of the committee in discussing what I cannot but regard as the subordinate and accidental aspects of the subject; as, for example, the relations of individuals to the bill of the last Congress, the alleged change of position by newspaper presses, and other points which do not touch the heart of the subject, and cannot go into history in the permanent connexion with our action upon it; assuming, also—what I think has been abundantly demonstrated—that the interests of the country demanded the organization of these territories, and that the rights of the few Indians within their borders are protected by the bill, the only remaining question relates to the clauses respecting slavery.

Among the many misrepresentations sent to the country by some of the enemies of this bill, perhaps none is more flagrant than the charge that it proposes to legislate slavery into Nebraska and Kansas. Sir, if the bill contained such a feature, it could not receive my vote. The right to establish involves the co-relative right to prohibit, and, denying both, I would vote for neither. I go further and express the opinion that a clause legislating slavery into those Territories could not command one Southern vote in this House. It is due to both sections of the country, and the people, to expose this groundless charge. What then, is the present condition of Nebraska and Kansas? Why, sir, there is no government, no slavery, and very little population there, (for your federal laws, exclude your citizens,) but a law remains on the statute-book forever prohibiting slavery in those Territories. It is proposed simply to take off this prohibition, but not to make an enactment in affirmance of slavery there. Now, in the absence of any law establishing slavery in that region previous to the prohibitory act, it is too clear for dispute that the repeal of the prohibitory act, has not the affirmatory effect of fixing slavery in that country. The effect of the repeal, therefore, is neither to establish nor to exclude, but to leave the future condition of the Territories dependent wholly on the action of the inhabitants, subject only to such limitations as the federal constitution may impose. But, to guard fully against hones misconstruction, and even against malicious perversion, the language of the bill is perfectly explicit on this point.

I propose, for the present, to argue the question only upon the compromises of 1820 and 1850. To those who may be called political abolitionists it is useless to address any arguments. They opposed both those settlements; they adhere to neither in good faith, but will appeal to them or reject them as may best promote their incendiary purposes.—But I do not consider this to be the position of the northern people. I believe that, generally, they, and their representatives here, desire to look at this subject calmly, and to do fairly and honestly whatever good faith demands. The American characteristic is well understood by the abolitionists in and out of Congress, and accordingly they clamorously proclaim that “plighted faith” is about to be violated by the breach of a compact which the North, they say, has faithfully kept on her part for more than thirty years. By their orators and presses, and from their pulpits, (for the Church is resolved to engage in the struggle,) the South is held up as a monster of perfidy, and the selectest vials of their wrath are poured on the heads of those northern statemen who always sustained their Missouri Compromise, while it had any remains of vitality, against the assaults of its new defenders.

What, then is the true nature and extent of the compromise of 1850? What of the former? What their relations? Are they consistent with each other? Which of them ought, in good faith, to be applied to the Territories contemplated by this bill? These are the questions to be decided, in good faith, by those who recognize compromises as somewhat more important and durable than ordinary acts of legislation. While for those who opposed them both, and who spurn all settlements touching slavery, the less that is said, either of compromises or of “plighted faith,” the better.

At the risk of treading on ground already occupied by others, let me say something of the origin and history of the Missouri Compromise, and of the relations of sections to it.

I have heard gentlemen here glorify Mr. Clay as the author of the act of 1820, prohibiting slavery north of 36 deg. 30 min., and invoke his memory to resist its violation. They must invoke some other “spirit” than Mr. Clay’s, for he was not its author. My colleague [Mr. EWING] showed this not long ago, but the statement has been persistently repeated since. While again correcting this error, it may be well to notice the treatment this compromise received very soon after its birth.

The people of Missouri having applied for leave to form a State constitution, Congress, by the act of March 6, 1820, provided in the first section:

“That the inhabitants of that portion of the Missouri Territory included within the boundaries hereinafter designated be, and they are hereby, authorized to form for themselves a constitution and State Government, and to assume such name as they shall deem proper; and the said state, when formed, shall be admitted to the Union upon an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatsoever.”

 And in the eight section:

“That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 36 deg. 30 min. north latitude, not included within the limits of the state contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby, forever prohibited.”

This the compromise prohibiting slavery north of the 36 deg. 30 min.—the compromise to which gentlemen say our plighted faith is now due. There were two parties and two stipulations. Missouri was to form a constitution, and was to be admitted “upon an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatsoever.” This was the agreement on the one hand for the benefit of Missouri, and, if you choose, of the South. On the other hand, slavery was to be prohibited north of 36 deg. 30 min., and this was for the benefit of the North.—The terms and conditions on each side were clearly expressed; but with it Mr. Clay had nothing to do. He was a member of the House and the clause prohibiting slavery originated in the Senate, on the motion of Mr. Thomas, of Illinois. Mr. Clay has said publicly that he had no recollection even of voting for it.

Well, sir, in pursuance of this “Missouri Compromise,” the people of that Territory proceeded to form a constitution with which they presented themselves for admission as a State at the next session of Congress. Was the compact executed? The Senate promptly passed a bill for their admission “on an equal footing with the original States;” but in the House it was rejected by a strict sectional vote—the South for it, the North against it. The “compromise” being thus repudiated and rejected by the North, by refusing to Missouri and the South the equivalent (being her admission “on an equal footing with the original States”) for the slavery prohibition, the bargain was broken, and the act of 1820 lost the sacredness of a compromise. The pretest for this repudiation was, that Missouri had put a clause in her constitution prohibiting the immigration of the free negroes to the State. This she had a right to do, unless it was a violation of the federal constitution; and if a violation, it was simply void, and the clause of the latter which declares that:

“The Constitution, and laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution and laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.”

And the proper tribunal to settle the fact was the federal judiciary; so that in either aspect there was no ground for breaking the bargain. But the Compromise of 1820 was thus broken, and for a long time there seemed to be no prospect that this State, coming with a republican constitution in her hand, could find admission. The whole question was at sea again, and so remained until Mr. Clay appeared in the House, on the 21st day of February, 1821, having been detained at home by sickness in his family. He soon offered a resolution for the purpose of  raising a joint committee of the two houses to inquire whether Missouri should be remanded to the territorial condition, or admitted into the Union; and if the latter, upon what terms?

The committee asked for was raised, and on the 26th of February Mr. Clay reported from it the following condition of admission, which was adopted by Congress.

“That Missouri shall be admitted into this union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition that the 4th clause of the 25th section of the 3d article of the constitution submitted on the part of said State to Congress shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States in this Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the constitution of the United states; provided, That the legislature of the said State, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said State to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the United States, on or before the first Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said act; upon receipt whereof, the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact; whereupon, and without any further proceedings on the part of Congress, the admission of the said State into the Union shall be considered as complete.”

This was a new condition by which Missouri was to enter the Union; not by the Compromise of 1820, “on an equal footing with the original States,” as an equivalent for the prohibition of slavery north of 36 deg. 30 min., but upon the “fundamental condition” that her legislature should pass an act declaring that the constitution of the State was not above the constitution of the United States! She accepted the condition; and thus, by an act of her legislature, in pursuance of the timely “fundamental condition” of a congressional resolution, happily saved the federal constitution!!

It is due to the memory of the illustrious author of this “fundamental condition” to say that no one could be more sensible than himself of the intense humbuggery of the whole proceeding; and in his celebrated speech of 1850, on his compromise resolutions, he jocularly reviewed and exposed it to the Senate.

This summary of the facts will not be denied here or elsewhere; but they show that the Compromise now invoked was made in 1820; that Missouri complied with her part of it; that it was repudiated by northern votes in 1821; and that the State was finally admitted into the Union, not upon the equivalent provided in the act of 1820, but by the express imposition on her of a new compromise and condition.

So much for the result, on the first occasion that offered, to test “plighted faith.”

Under these circumstances the act of 1820 might well have been regarded as a rejected compact, and the question of slavery might have been fought over again upon the organization of each new Territory. But the hope of having something to be regarded as final on this vexed subject, thought a mere geographical line, and that of doubtful constitutionality, prevailed in the country, and that act, under the name of the “Missouri Compromise,” was accepted as a settlement of the slavery controversy. The basis of the settlement was a division (though very unequal) of all the territory then possessed by the United States. Does any man doubt that if we had possessed more territory the same principle of division would have been applied to it? It was a division of common territory between slaveholding and non slave holding States, or rather it was the exclusive appropriation of all north of 36 deg. 30 min. to free institutions and an implied allowance only of southern institutions below that line. Whatever may be said of this arrangement in its relations to the constitution, or as a measure of statesmanship, it was a clear and simple adjustment. It was capable of easy application in all future time; and as such, the South accepted it in good faith, and struggled to maintain it, until it was finally and forever repudiated by our northern brethren.

Sir, the gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. STEPHENS,] and others, have traced this compromise through our legislative history—they have shown how often it was repudiated, and repudiated by the North, and I do not propose to go over the same ground; but if falls within the line of my thoughts to fix your attention on a period when the Missouri Compromise was ratified; and that occasion is the more important because it carried the Compromise beyond the territory acquired from France, and thus leaves no excuse for denying that it was intended to be a rule of general application. I refer to the joint resolution of 1845 for the annexation of Texas, which contains the following provision:

“New States of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to the said state of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which sall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the federal constitution. And such States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of 36 deg. 30 min. north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union, with or without slavery, as the people of each State asking admission may desire. And in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri Compromise line, slavery or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited.”

Here the Missouri Compromise was distinctly applied to territory clearly outside of the specific boundaries of the act of 1820, and it is no answer to say that Texas was a part of the Louisiana purchase—first, because this was a matter of dispute and conflicting claims with Spain; and next, because in 1819 we exchanged to Spain our claims to Texas for Florida, by which Texas became foreign territory, and relieved from the constitution and laws of the United States, so  that, upon her return, she came as free from the operation of the Missouri Compromise as Utah, New Mexico, or the British Islands. It follows, that in extending that compromise to the portion of Texas lying north of 36 deg. 30 min., the Congress on that occasion recognized it as a rule upon the question of slavery, as a basis of settlement, to be applied to as well to new territory as to that acquired from France. It will be remembered that the whole of Texas was slaveholding territory, and the effect of the resolution was to make a large part of it free. But this was assented to by the South; and now I ask the fair-minded representatives of the people if the Missouri Compromise meant that it should be recognized and extended when the South was to be excluded, and repudiated, when it might work to her advantage?

This practical construction of the Missouri line obliged the North, by every obligation of honor and good faith, to carry it through all territory afterwards acquired, if any virtue at all was to be conceded to that compromise.

But, while the line was extended as long as it worked out free-soil territory, it was ignored and trampled under foot the moment their fair application of it might have resulted to benefit of both Sections. Witness the result in 1848, you gentlemen who talk of “plighted faith.” We had acquired from Mexico a large territory, lying on both sides of the line of 36 deg. 30 min. Three years before, the line had been extended through Texas, by which a large slaveholding territory had been made free-soil; and yet when, in 1848, on motion of the distinguished senator from Illinois [Mr. DOUGLAS,] a resolution passed in the Senate to “extend the Missouri-Compromise line” through the recently-acquired territory, it was rejected in this House by the united northern against the united southern vote.

Sir, how can an honest man get over these facts? How, in the face of them, can an honest man charge the friends of this bill with disregard of “plighted faith” and “solemn compacts?” I need not recur in detail to the occasions, so often referred to in this debate, when the Missouri line was offered by the South during the great struggle which ended in the Compromise of 1850, and was rejected by the North. It is enough to say that the record of those transactions will preserve for history the fact that the Missouri Compromise line of 36 deg. 30 min. was steadily repudiated by northern votes as a basis for the settlement of the slavery controversy. Why was this sir?

The reason is obvious. The anti-slavery feeling at this time ruled the councils of the North, and accordingly she left the ground of compromise, and planted herself on the ground of power. She rejected the principle of division. Glorying in her conscious strength, she came to obliterate geographical lines, and to appropriate to herself the whole of the territory acquired from Mexico. Her rallying cry was no longer “the Missouri Compromise line,” but the “Wilmot proviso.” Old things had passed away; old bargains were rejected, and the question took a new form.

The issue made up was, (and it went back of all divisions and patched-up settlements, and to the very bottom of the subject,) shall slavery be prohibited in all the Territories of the Untied States by act of Congress, or shall it be left to the people who inhabit them, subject only to the federal constitution; and on this was fought the great battle of 1850. The slaveholding States said: We have exhausted every scheme of adjustment; we have offered the old line; it is contemptuously refused; you claim all; very well, then, we united with you in burying the past; we accept the broad issue of intervention or non-intervention; we demand that all the citizens of the United States be allowed to enter the common territory with the constitution alone in their hands. If that instrument protects the title of the master to his slave in this common territory, you cannot complain; and if it does not protect his title, we ask no help from Congress; and the relations of the constitution to the subject we are willing to have decided by the courts of the United States. We do not ask Congress to interfere for us, and we will resist all legislative interference against us.

The whole country saw that here was a great struggle of opposing principles; and the excitement was in proportion to the magnitude of the question. If the result had depended on a purely sectional vote, the “Wilmot proviso” would have triumphed; but a large portion of the North, under the lead of the distinguished senator from Michigan [Mr. Cass] and others, repudiated the “proviso.”—Governments were formed for New Mexico and Utah without that odious restriction, leaving them free to form their own institutions, and enter the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution should prescribe.

Nothing in this discussion has surprised me more than the assertion, in respectable quarters, that the provisions touching slavery in the New Mexico and Utah bills were not intended to establish any principle for the future action of Congress upon that subject. I cannot but regard this as a narrow and unstatesman like view. Such was not the sense in which that great compromise was accepted by the American people. They well knew that it did not abolish slavery; they knew, too, that past territories yet remained within the Union to be settled, and that still vaster regions were to be acquired in the progress of our inevitable expansion. As to all these, the question of slavery, they knew, would present itself at each successive step in the extension of American institutions and laws. If the settlement of 1850 was but an ordinary act of legislation, and contained no principle of agreement of broader application than the strips of territory embraced in those laws, for what had the Union been shaken to its centre? To what end had our most eminent statesmen devoted their highest efforts? What has been gained—a lasting peace? No, sir; but, by this view, only a deceitful truce; a suspension of hostilities; the suppression of a symptom, not the eradication of the disease. It make this compromise not a final adjustment, on principle, of the distracting subject of slavery, but a delusion, an expedient, a catch, a humbug. It brings it down to the level of a mere temporary legislative contrivance; it leaves its great authors shorn of the renown the world supposed it to confer and reduces them to the condition of mere political jobbers. But, by the other construction, it was, indeed, a “final settlement”—a settlement which makes its authors immortal, which removes from the federal theatre the only question that can disturb our domestic tranquility, and leaves Congress in the future nothing to do in connexion with it, except to apply the established principle as the occasions arise. No, sir; whatever some gentlemen by say now, the people were not guilty of the folly imputed to them by the opponents of this bill. Their patriotic acclamations went up to Heaven over an act of healing statesmanship, not over a political job. They accepted those measures, not as a truce to faction, but as a bond of lasting concord.

Mr. Chairman, in great collisions of opinion, especially among an enlightened people, and upon questions of a continuing character, the particular issue usually involves the general principle—and this happens with a certainty proportioned to the magnitude of the questions at stake. History is full of illustrations to the point. When our heroic ancestors threw the British tea into Boston harbor and the whole country rose to sustain the act, it went far deeper than a question of a tax on tea, and involved the great principle that we would submit to no taxation without representation. When John Hampden resisted the illegal imposition of ship money by Charles I, and carried the point up to all the judges of England, though the immediate issue was whether he should pay the paltry sum of twenty shillings, the great question involved was the claim of the King to levy taxes without the consent of Parliament. So, the circumstance connected with the legislation giving governments to Utah and New Mexico must control and explain the effect and principle of those laws. After events so recent, need I say that, in 1850, the manner in which the new Territories should be organized led to a thorough discussion as to the policy to be adopted respecting slavery? Is it not notorious that the Missouri Compromise line was considered and deliberately rejected? Did not the non-slaveholding States (generally) insist that the true policy was the prohibition of slavery in the territories of the Union by act of congress, and, by consequence, insist upon applying this principle to Utah and New Mexico? Did not the slaveholding States, on the contrary, planting themselves on the ground of Federal non-intervention, resist this policy, and, by consequence, its adoption and application to those Territories? And after a long and fearful struggle, did not the latter doctrine prevail, and was it not carried into law (or compact, if you choose) in the New Mexico and Utah acts? Did not the public, the press, conventions, and States, hail the result as a “final settlement, in principle and substance,” of the subject of slavery? And are we to be told now that the Compromise of 1850 was an adjustment to broader than those two territories? Are we to have a new struggle, a new bargain, a new basis of settlement on the organization of each new territory? Who, then, are the agitators?—who are faithful to the Compromise of 1850?

If my conclusions are correct as to the relations of the Compromise of 1820 to that of 1850, and as to the true nature and extent of the latter, it follows that the former has no claim resting on good faith; but that “plighted faith” to the Compromise of 1850 demands the removal of the Missouri prohibition. I do not contend that the eighth section of the act of 1820 was, in terms, repealed by the adjustment of 1850; it yet remains on the statute-book, and if constitutional, is still operative. But if non-intervention by Congress be the principle that underlies the Compromise of 1850, then the prohibition of 1820, being inconsistent with that principle, should be removed, and perfect non-intervention thus be established by law.

Among the many misrepresentations sent to the country by some of the enemies of this bill, perhaps none is more flagrant than the charge that it proposes to legislate slavery into Nebraska and Kansas. Sir, if the bill contained such a feature, it could not receive my vote. The right to establish involves the co-relative right to prohibit, and denying both, I would vote for neither. So go further, and express the opinion that a clause legislating slavery into those Territories could not command one Southern vote in this House. It is due to both sections of the country, and to the people, to expose this groundless charge. What then, is the present condition of Nebraska and Kansas? Why, sir, there is no government, no slavery, and very little population there, (for your federal laws, exclude your citizens,) but a law remains on the statute-book forever prohibiting slavery in those Territories. It is proposed simply to take of this prohibition, but not to make an enactment in the affirmance of slavery there. Now, in the absence of any law establishing slavery in that region previous to the prohibitory act, it is too clear for dispute that the repeal of the prohibitory act, has not the affirmative effect of fixing slavery in that country. The effect of the repeal, therefore, is neither to establish nor to exclude, but to leave the future condition of the Territories depended wholly on the action of the inhabitants, subject only to such limitations as the federal constitution may impose. But, to guard fully against honest misconstruction, and even against malicious perversion, the language of the bill is perfectly explicit on this point.

“That the constitution, and all laws of the United States, which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory of Nebraska as elsewhere within the United States; except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March, 1820, which being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories as recognized by the legislation of 1820, (commonly called the compromise measures,) is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which my have existed prior to the act of March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting or abolishing slavery.”

This should be satisfactory to all candid men; but if any one shall persist in attempting to mislead the people, the best answer will be to impale him before them on the very words of the bill.

It will be observed that the right of the people to regulate in their own way all their domestic institutions is left wholly untouched, except whatever is done must be in accordance with the constitution—the supreme law for us all; and the right of property, under the constitution, as well as legislative action, is properly left to the decision of the federal judiciary. This voids a contested issue which it is hardly in the competency of Congress to decide, and refers it to the proper tribunal.

It is contended on one hand, upon the idea of the equality of the States under the constitution and common property in the Territories, that the citizens of the slaveholding States may remove to them with their slaves, (and that the local legislature cannot exclude slavery, while in the territorial condition; but it is to concede that the people may establish or prohibit it when they come to exercise the power of a sovereign State;) on the other hand, it is said that slavery, being in derogation of common right, can exist only by force of positive law; and it is denied that the constitution furnishes this law for the Territories; and it is further claimed that the local legislature my establish or exclude it any time after government is organized. As both parties appeal to the constitution, and base their respective arguments on opposite constructions of that instrument, the bill wisely refuses to make a question for judicial construction the subject of legislative conflict, and properly refers it to the tribunal created by the constitution itself, for the very purpose of deciding “all cases in law and equity” arising under it.

Then, sir, neither the purpose nor effect of the bill is to legislate slavery into Nebraska and Kansas; but its effect is to sweep away this vestige of Congressional dictation on this subject, to allow the free citizens of this Union to enter the common territory with the constitution and the bill alone in their hands, and to remit the decision of their rights under both to the courts of the country. Who can go before his constituents refusing to stand on the platform of the constitution? Who can make a case to them of refusing to abide the decision of the courts of the Union?

I have argued the subject hitherto chiefly upon the question of “plighted faith;” and have consumed more of my limited time that properly belongs to that aspect of the case, because diligent efforts have been made to excite the northern mind against the friends of this bill representing them as the violators of the public honor. Anxious as I am for its passage, I readily admit that no benefit it could confer upon the country would atone for a deliberate violation of the public faith; but I am for its passage, not only because I believe that it embodies the true principle, but because, also, I sincerely believe that it carries out the true spirit and intent of our last great compromise, which is my judgment, covered the whole subject of slavery.

The clock admonishes me that I must hurry on and omit some views I would like to present, if time allowed. But, Mr. Chairman, apart from the historical argument, this contested feature in the bill is right in itself, for it rests on the foundation principle of American government. Without entering the wilderness of discussion in regard to the relations of the federal government to the territories as political communities, I offer one or two thoughts as to the proper limitations upon the power of Congress, according to the true theory of our government. Political power in the Territories is nowhere expressly granted in the constitution. The existence, therefore, and the extent of its exercise, must be derived by implication; and implied powers are to be exercised with more caution and strictness that express grants. Let it be conceded that political power over the Territories exists in Congress, and it is no matter whether it be implied from the power to acquire territory, or from any other source in the constitution; and the question arises whether it is an uncontrolled and despotic power, or whether it is limited by the nature of the federal government.

The States are supreme as to all subjects not granted to the common government. They establish their own institutions, at their own pleasure; they regulate within themselves all the relations of society; and they are now complete, self-sustaining, political communities; and they created the federal government, not to fix for them and their posterity the relations of society and the various elements that make up a complete social and political community, but to execute for the common good certain specified grants of power. The territories belong to the States in their united character; they are to enter the Union on an equal footing with the original States; and, in the meantime, they are to be settled and occupied by citizens of the existing States. What is the pretest for the act of 1820 “forever” prohibiting American citizens, on American soil, from establishing their own local, social and political condition? You have no express power to do so in constitution, and surely you can find none in the analogies of our political system. Can you dictate a particular from of society and government for them one moment after they become States? If not, why mock reason, and blot the statue book with this prohibition?

The power of Congress over the Territories is either absolute, or it has constitutional limitations. Let me illustrate further my idea of the limitations on the power of Congress over the Territories and districts growing out of the character and objects of the federal system. Congress, by an express provision of the constitution, may exercise “exclusive legislation” in the District of Columbia.—This is a far stronger and broader grant of power than any to be implied from that instrument in relation to the Territories, and yet it does not confer absolute power in this District; for it must be observed that there is wide distinction between “exclusive” and absolute power of legislation. Will any man contend that Congress may establish a free port of entry in this District, while a general tariff law applies to other ports? And yet the language of the constitution is:

“No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.”

So Congress has “exclusive legislation” over “all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful building,” but it will not be said that congress may admit foreign goods duty free at one of these points on the sea-board, while impost laws are in force at other ports. Nor will an advocate be found for the power to discriminate against the people of this District, by taxing articles exported from it, though the limitation of the constitution is: “No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State.

Why is this, and what is the limit? At the beginning it was thought best that the seat of government should not be within the limit of any State, and accordingly a separate territory was carved out for it, where the Federal Government might exercise its few and limited powers, and over this territory “exclusive legislation” was granted to Congress, but the reasons and objects of the grant both of the Territory and power, and the nature and purposes of the common Government, must control this exclusive legislation. Accordingly, Congress may not establish a despotism here, nor rob American citizens in regard to their local and domestic affairs, nor deprive them of their property, nor violate uniformity of taxation, nor discriminate for or against their ports. Out of this view, too, grows the argument against the power to abolish slavery in the district without the consent of the people. And though upon this point opposite opinions have been expressed, yet the argument has so far prevailed that no serious attempt has been made to interfere with their rights in this respect.

The argument in regard to the Territories is far stronger. I have already said that the Constitution nowhere expressly grants political power over the Territories. Let us bear in mind, then, that it can only be an implied power—to be exercised by a limited government—over a region the common property of the States which created this limited government; and the inference is irresistible that it must be exercised in the spirit of the political system out of which this limited government springs. It would follow if the power were expressly granted, but follows with greater force since it is only derivative. What, then, is the spirit of the system? I answer, the equality of the States—local sovereignty in all matters of interior and domestic concern, embracing the great mass of powers that belong to government; as if, for example, fixing the relations of parent and child, guardian and ward, master and servant-regulating the general rights of property, the course of inheritance, and the innumerable conditions that grow out of the social and political state. Hence it never has been pretended that Congress may invade them to control their free action on these and other kindred subjects. It is apart from the objects for which the States made the Federal Government, and prescribed the orbit in which it should move. Carry the idea to the Territories. What are they? to whom do they belong? who are to inhabit them? and what are to be their political relations to the rest of the Confederacy? They are regions of country acquired by the common efforts and treasure of all the States; they belong, therefore, to the States for common use and enjoyment; the citizens of the States are to inhabit them; and when the population shall be sufficient, they are to become equal members of the Union.

I might run out of illustrations on this point to an indefinite extent. Could Congress admit foreign goods duty free into the Union through the ports of a Territory, in violation of the general revenue laws, or lay a tax on articles exported from a Territory? The power will not be claimed—certainly its exercise will never be attempted; and yet I have shown that the limitation of the constitution in these and other respects apply in terms only to the States; and the only arguments against the power are, first, that it has not been expressly granted; and, next, that it cannot be fairly deduced from the spirit of the analogies of our political system.—Sir, if the constitutional limitations for which I contend do exist, then congress cannot discriminate against any of the States by depriving them of equal enjoyment of the common territory; but if these limitations do not exist, then the power of legislation is absolute and Congress may as readily set up a monarchy as a republic. Gentlemen my revolt at the conclusion, bit it flows with inevitable certainty from this doctrine of intervention and uncontrolled political powers over the Territories. The germ of congressional despotism is to be found in this Missouri prohibition; for if the question of slavery may be determined for the Territories by Congress, every other social and political question may in like manner be settled for them by the same authority, and this would reduce them to the most abject colonial vassalage. You cannot escape this conclusion by saying that slavery is anti-republican, and congress must exclude it under the obligation to provide a republican form of government, for slavery has already existed in many of the States, and yet the constitution declares that Congress shall secure to each State a republican form of government; hence it is a settled principle of our system that the institution is not inconsistent with republicanism.

Sir, I care not for refined distinctions or the subtleties of verbal criticism. I repeat the above and plain proposition, that if Congress may intervene on this subject, it may intervene on any other; and having thus surrendered the principle, and broken away from constitutional limitations, you are drawn into the very lap of arbitrary power. By this doctrine you may erect a despotism under the American system. The whole theory is a libel on our institutions. It carries us back to the abhorrent principles of British colonial authority, against which we made the issue of independence. I have never acquiesced in this odious claim, nor will I believe that it can abide the test of public scrutiny. The bill on our table repudiates it, and only wants fearless advocates to make it thoroughly odious. The political Abolitionists think they can ride the storm of anti-slavery fanaticism; but I tell them, they have encountered here an element more powerful still. They must obliterate the memory of the principles on which our Government was founded; they must undo the very texture of American mind; they must substitute in the popular heart the dogmas of despotism for the doctrine of American liberty, before they can triumph over the principles of this bill. The South insists on it as embodying the doctrine of State equality, on which her very existence depends; but it should commend itself equally to all sections, because the underlying principle is not Northern or Southern, but American. It is true, that the subject of slavery happens to be the one at issue; but it is there as the representative of every other social and political right. The freedom of these new countries to establish their own institutions ought, therefore, to be as dear to the man from Maine as to the man from Florida.

But again: cannot the North, with her overwhelming numbers, compete with us on these new theaters in the race of settlement and civilization—and must she not only violate the constitution by shutting out half the States, common property-holders with her—but in the name of liberty outrage liberty by erecting a despotism over the Territories Sir, we never will submit to it—we will resist it to the last; and in this struggle of principle against passion, of reason and right against fanaticism, are we defenceless? No, sir; no sir.—It is true, New England, with a few noble exceptions, has arrayed herself against the principle of the bill; yet even there the cause is not lost. Her choicest sons are unmoved by the clamors that surround them, and New Hampshire, the little Switzerland of the North, is unbroken by the frantic rush of the agitators. She has the elements around which to rally her hereditary principles.

But New England is not the Union. Observe what different tokens come from East and West. Did you hear of the infuriated mob that basely hung the author of this bill in effigy, on Boston Common? But did you note soon after the cheering tones of approval the west wind brought from his prairie State? Remember, Gentlemen, in the midst of your exultation, that the political power of this country is now climbing the summits of the Allegany mountains, and before this decade closes will have pursued its unreturning course far into the valley of the Mississippi—that vast region richer than the delta of the Nile, and whose millions and ever-increasing millions are destined to a political unity as lasting as civilization and commerce, bound forever together by the double tie of interest and affection. What, then, if Boston Chooses to betray the principles that made her own origin illustrious—what if New England Chooses to turn her back on the doctrines that marked her early history, and, after winning political liberty for herself, proposes to deny it to others—still we are not defenceless. True spirits in every eastern state will stand by the flag of republican equality until it waves the people back beneath its folds. Pennsylvania, that fine old Commonwealth, too often neglected in the piping times of peace, but always appealed to, and never in vain, in ever crises of the constitution, will stand upon the bill. But even if no support could be found in the scenes of our early civilization, we would gather up this inestimable principle, and turn to the West—the young, and growing, and vigorous West—whose hardy sons, having just laid for themselves the foundations of society, will never aid in robbing their fellow-citizens of the same sacred privilege. Sir, in two years from this time you will not be able, in my opinion, to find a man in the West who will dare to go before the people in opposition to the principle of this bill.

My time is so nearly exhausted that I shall be obliged to omit observations I had intended to offer as to the importance of action on this subject. By keeping it an open question, nobody is to be benefitted except the abolitionists and their sympathizers. Those who take the responsibility of throwing it before the county as an apple of discord may themselves perish in the storm they aid to arouse. The final triumph of the truth would not be doubtful, but the immediate effect would be to furnish food for abolition excitement.

Mr. Davis, of Rhode Island.  If you do pass the bill it will.

Mr. Breckinridge.  That gentleman is an enemy of the bill. He is sincere, no doubt; but deceives himself. As he is a political abolitionist, I remark, with great respect, that he would desire the passage of the bill if he thought it would promote the anti-slavery movement. [Laughter.]

No, sir; if we reject the bill, we open up the waters of bitterness, to be sealed again in time, but not until these agitators shall have rioted awhile in the confusion of the country; we blow high the flames to furnish habitations for these political salamanders, who can exist only in the fires of domestic strife. But, if it passes, the question will be removed forever from the halls of Congress, and deposited with the people, who can settle it in a manner answerable to their own views of interest and happiness. The occupation of federal agitators will be gone, and a barrier will be erected against which the rampant spirit of modern fanaticism may rave in vain, and before which it will receive its signal overthrow.

In the excitement of debates upon this subject heretofore, threats have been made on both sides. I have none to make, sir. I come from a state which is not in the habit of making threats. I believe that once, and only once, she utters a political threat. That was in 1798, when the old federal party struck at the vitals of the constitution. On that occasion, her warning voice and firm attitude contributed to save our political system. If my time allowed I believe I could prove that this Missouri prohibition was a bantling of the same federal party scotched but  not killed in former conflicts.

I believe that the sentiments I have expressed are those of the people I represent. I believe they are the sentiments of the Commonwealth of Kentucky—a State which has never taken an extreme political position; a State which, lying in the centre of the Union, has always extended one hand to the North and the other to the South, to draw them together in bonds of amity, and ever pulsation of those great heart sends the warm life-blood of affection to the remotest extremities of the confederacy.

SOURCES: “Speech of Hon. J. C. Breckenridge of Kentucky,” Nashville Union and American, Nashville, Tennessee, Wednesday, April 5, 1854, p. 2, which was continued the following day in “Speech of Hon. J. C. Breckenridge of Kentucky,” Nashville Union and American, Nashville, Tennessee, Thursday, April 6, 1854, p. 2