power the right to inquire into the constitution and conduct of the sovereign states of this union; and if there are any, I am not among them, nor never shall be. To the people of this country, under God, now and hereafter, are its destinies committed; and we want no foreign power to interrogate us, treaty in hand, and to say, "why have you done this, or why have you left that undone?" Our own dignity and the principles of national independence unite to repel such a proposition.

But there is another important consideration, which ought not to be lost sight of, in the investigation of this subject. The question that presents itself is not a question of the increase, but of the diffusion of slavery. Whether its sphere be stationary or progressive, its amount will be the same. The rejection of this restriction will not add one to the class of servitude, nor will its adoption give freedom to a single being who is now placed therein. The same numbers will be spread over greater territory; and, so far as compression, with less abundance of the necessaries of life, is an evil, so far will that evil be mitigated by transporting slaves to a new country, and giving them a larger space to occupy.

I say this in the event of the extension of slavery over any new acquisition. But can it go there? This may well be doubted. All the descriptions which reach us of the condition of the Californias and of New-Mexico, to the acquisition of which our efforts seem at present directed, unite in representing those countries as agricultural regions, similar in their products to our middle states, and generally unfit for the production of the great staples which can alone render slave labor valuable. If we are not grossly deceived-and it is difficult to conceive how we can be the inhabitants of those regions, whether they depend upon their plows or their herds, cannot be slaveholders. Involuntary labor, requiring the investment of large capital, can only be profitable when employed in the production of a few favored articles confined by nature to special districts, and paying larger returns than the usual agricultural products spread over more considerable portions of the earth.

In the able letter of Mr. Buchanan upon this subject, not long since given to the public, he presents similar considerations with great force. "Neither," says the distinguished writer, "the soil, the climate, nor the productions of California south of 36° 30', nor indeed of any portion of it, north or south, is adapted to slave labor; and beside, every facility would be there afforded for the slave to escape from his master. Such property would be entirely insecure in any part of California. It is morally impossible, therefore, that a majority of the emigrants to that portion of the territory south of 36° 30', which will be chiefly composed of our citizens, will ever reestablish slavery within its limits.

"In regard to New Mexico, east of the Rio Grande, the question has already been settled by the admission of Texas into the Union.

"Should we acquire the territory beyond the Rio Grande and east of the Rocky Mountains, it is still more impossible that a majority of the people would consent to reestablish slavery. They are themselves a colored popula

tion, and among them the negro does not belong socially to a degraded race." With this last remark, Mr. Walker fully coincides in his letter written in 1844, upon the annexation of Texas, and which everywhere produced so favorable an impression upon the public mind, as to have conduced very materially to the accomplishment of that great measure. "Beyond the Del Norte," says Mr. Walker, "slavery will not pass; not only because it is forbidden by law, but because the colored race there preponderates in the ratio of ten to one over the whites; and holding, as they do, the government and most of the offices in their possession, they will not permit the enslavement of any portion of the colored race, which makes and executes the laws of the country.”

The question, it will be therefore seen on examination, does not regard the exclusion of slavery from a region where it now exists, but a prohibition against its introduction where it does not exist, and where, from the feelings of the inhabitants and the laws of nature, "it is morally impossible," as Mr. Buchanan says, that it can ever reëstablish itself.

It augurs well for the permanency of our confederation, that during more than half a century, which has elapsed since the establishment of this government, many serious questions, and some of the highest importance, have agitated the public mind, and more than once threatened the gravest consequences; but that they have all in succession passed away, leaving our institutions unscathed, and our country advancing in numbers, power and wealth, and in all the other elements of national prosperity, with a rapidity unknown in ancient or in modern days. In times of political excitement, when difficult and delicate questions present themselves for solution, there is one ark of safety for us; and that is, an honest appeal to the fundamental principles of our Union, and a stern determination to abide their dictates. This course of proceeding has carried us in safety through many a trouble, and I trust will carry us safely through many more, should many more be destined to assail us. The Wilmot proviso seeks to take from its legitimate tribunal a question of domestic policy, having no relation to the Union, as such, and to transfer it to another, created by the people for a special purpose, and foreign to the subject matter involved in this issue. By going back to our true principles, we go back to the road of peace and safety. Leave to the people, who will be affected by this question, to adjust it upon their own responsibility, and in their own manner, and we shall render another tribute to the original principles of our government, and furnish another guaranty for its permanence and prosperity. I am, dear sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, LEWIS CASS.

A. O. P. NICHOLSON, Esq., Nashville, Tenn.

CHAPTER XXX.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY.-COMPROMISES OF 1850.

Message of President Taylor.-Sam Houston's propositions.-Taylor's Special Message -Mr. Clay's propositions for arrangement of slavery controversy. His resolutions.Resolutions of Mr. Bell.-The debate on Clay's resolutions, by Rusk, Foote, of Mississippi, Mason, Jefferson Davis, King, Clay, and Butler.-Remarks of Benton, Calhoun, Webster, Seward, and Cass.-Resolutions referred.-Report of Committee.The omnibus bill.-California admitted.-New Mexico organized.-Texas boundary established.-Utah organized.-Slave-trade in the District of Columbia abolished.Fugitive Slave law passed.

THE

HE slave population of the United States amounted, in 1850, to 3,204,313; exhibiting an increase, for the last decade, of 716,858. Of the slaves in 1850, 2,957,657 were black, or of unmixed African descent, and 246,656 were mulatto. The free colored population in 1850 amounted to 434,495; of whom 275,400 were black, and 159,095 mulattoes. The total number of families, holding slaves, was, by the same census, 347,525.

CENSUS OF 1850.-SLAVE POPULATION.

Mississippi.....309,878

Alabama..
Arkansas..

...342,844
47,100

87,422
236

The first session of the thirty-first congress commenced on the third day of December, 1849. Much time was spent in unsuccessful efforts to organize, until the 23d, when Mr. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, was elected speaker, by a plurality vote.

On the 24th, President Zachary Taylor transmitted to both houses his first annual message. In reference to the new territories, he says:

"No civil government having been provided by congress for California, the people of that territory, impelled by the necessities of their political condition, recently met in convention, for the purpose of forming a constitution and state government; which, the latest advices give me reason to suppose, has been accomplished; and it is believed they will shortly apply for the admission of California into the Union, as a sovereign state. Should such be the case, and should their constitution be conformable to the requisitions of the constitution of the United States, I recommend their application to the favorable consideration of congress.

"The people of New Mexico will also, it is believed, at no very distant period, present themselves for admission into the Union. Preparatory to the ad⚫ mission of California and New Moxico, the people of each will have instituted for themselves a republican form of government, laying its foundation in such principles, and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

"By awaiting their action, all causes of uneasiness may be avoided, and confidence and kind feeling preserved. With a view of maintaining the harmony and tranquility so dear to all, we should abstain from the introduction of those exciting topics of a sectional character which have hitherto produced painful apprehensions in the public mind; and I repeat the solemn warning of the first and most illustrious of my predecessors, against furnishing any ground for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations."

On the 4th of January, 1850, General Sam Houston, of Texas, submitted the following proposition to the senate :

"WHEREAS, The congress of the United States, possessing only a delegated authority, have no power over the subject of negro slavery within the limits of the United States, either to prohibit or to interfere with it in the states, territories, or district, where, by municipal law, it now exists, or to establish it in any state or territory where it does not exist; but as an assurance and guarantee to promote harmony, quiet apprehension, and remove sectional prejudice, which by possibility might impair or weaken love and devotion to the Union in any part of the country, it is hereby

"RESOLVED, That, as the people in territories have the same inherent rights of selfgovernment as the people in the states, if, in the exercise of such inherent rights, the people in the newly-acquired territories, by the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California and New Mexico, south of the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes of north latitude, extending to the Pacific Ocean, shall establish negro slavery in the formation of their state governments, it shall be deemed no objection to their admission as a state or states into the Union, in accordance with the constitution of the United States."

In answer to a resolution of inquiry, General Taylor sent a message to the house stating that he had urged the formation of state governments in California and New Mexico, and adds:

"In advising an early application by the people of these territories for admission as states, I was actuated principally by an earnest desire to afford to the wisdom and patriotism of congress the opportunity of avoiding occasions of bitter and angry discussions among the people of the United States.

"Under the constitution, every state has the right to establish, and, from time to time, alter its municipal laws and domestic institutions, independently of every other state and of the general government, subject only to the prohi bitions and guarantees expressly set forth in the constitution of the United

The subjects thus left exclusively to the respective states, were not designed or expected to become topics of national agitation. Still as, under the constitution, congress has power to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territories of the United States, every new acquisition of territory has led to discussions on the question whether the system of involuntary

servitude, which prevails in many of the states, should or should not be prohibited in that territory. The periods of excitement from this cause, which have heretofore occurred, have been safely passed; but, during the interval, of whatever length, which may elapse before the admission of the territories ceded by Mexico, as states, it appears probable that similar excitement will prevail to an undue extent.

"Under these circumstances, I thought, and still think, that it was my duty to endeavor to put in the power of congress, by the admission of California and New Mexico as states, to remove all occasion for the unnecessary agitation of the public mind.

"It is understood that the people of the western part of California have formed the plan of a state constitution, and will soon submit the same to the judgment of congress, and apply for admission as a state. This course on their part, though in accordance with, was not adopted exclusively in consequence of, any expression of my wishes, inasmuch as measures tending to this end had been promoted by officers sent there by my predecessor, and were already in active progress of execution, before any communication from me reached California. If the proposed constitution shall, when submitted to congress, be found to be in compliance with the requisitions of the constitution of the United States, I earnestly recommend that it may receive the sanction of congress.

"Should congress, when California shall present herself for incorporation into the Union, annex a condition to her admission as a state affecting her domestic institutions contrary to the wishes of the people, and even compel her temporarily to comply with it, yet the state could change her constitution at any time after admission, when to her it should seem expedient. Any attempt to deny to the people of the state the right of self-government, in a matter which peculiarly affects themselves, will infallibly be regarded by them as an invasion of their rights; and, upon the principles laid down in our own Declaration of Independence, they will certainly be sustained by the great mass of the American people. To assert that they are a conquered people, and must, as a state, submit to the will of their conquerors, in this regard, will meet with no cordial response among American freemen. Great numbers of them are native citizens of the United States, and not inferior to the rest of our countrymen in intelligence and patriotism; and no language of menace to restrain them in the exercise of an undoubted right, substantially guarantied to them by the treaty of cession itself, shall ever be uttered by me, or encouraged and sustained by persons acting under my authority. It is to be expected that, in the residue of the territory ceded to us by Mexico, the people residing there will, at the time of their incorporation into the Union as a state, settle all questions of domestic policy to suit themselves."

On the 29th of January, Mr. Clay submitted to the senate of the United States the following propositions for an amicable arrangement of the whole slavery controversy: