Mr. Douglas. The question was now, whether the senate would recede; and on this question Mr. Webster delivered his speech of the 12th of August, on the exclusion of slavery from the territories, the most elaborate of all his speeches upon this subject. Of course, he urged the senate to recede; and he did so partly because he thought the amendment unparliamentary, having nothing to do with the bill to which it was attached. But his strongest objections to the amendment were based on its political and moral principle. He was opposed to giving any more ground to slavery. He maintained, that the slavery permitted by the constitution in some of the southern states is a peculiar slavery, the worst that ever existed in any age or country; that the north, trusting to the supposed intention of the south, professed at the time of framing and adopting the constitution, of effecting the gradual abolition of slavery in the southern states, as opportunity might offer, had consented to the implied recognition of slavery in that instrument only in view of such profession; that this new zeal of sustaining and extending slavery was not dreamed of either by the northern or southern members of the convention which framed the constitution; that, contrary to all expectation, and to the spirit of the compromise then entered into, immense regions of territory had been added to the Union, on our southern border, under the lead of southern politicians, out of which five slave states had been created, while not one free state had been then permitted to come into the confederacy in the way of compensation; and that for these, as well as for other reasons, not another foot of territory ought to be given up to this devouring ambition of the south: "I have said," remarked the senator in the conclusion of his speech, "that I shall consent to no extension of the area of slavery upon this continent, nor to any increase of slave representation in the other house of congress. I have now stated my reasons for my conduct and my vote. We of the north have already gone, in this respect, far beyond all that

OPPOSES EXTENSION OF SLAVERY.

399

any southern man could have expected, or did expect, at the time of the adoption of the constitution. I repeat the statement of the fact of the creation of five new slaveholding states out of newly-acquired territory. We have done that which, if those who framed the constitution had foreseen, they never would have agreed to slave represenation. We have yielded thus far; and we have now in the house of representatives twenty persons voting upon this very question, and upon all other questions, who are there only in virtue of the representation of slaves.

"Let me conclude, therefore, by remarking, that, while I am willing to present this as showing my own judgment and position, in regard to this case, and I beg it to be understood that I am speaking for no other than myself—and while I am willing to offer it to the world as my own justification, I rest on these propositions: First, that when the constitution was adopted, nobody looked for any new acquisition of territory to be formed into slave holding states. Secondly, that the principles of the constitution prohibited, and were intended to prohibit, and should be construed to prohibit, all interference of the general government with slavery as it existed and as it still exists in the states. And then, looking to the operation of these new acquisitions, which have in this great degree had the effect of strengthening that interest in the south by the addition of these five states, I feel that there is nothing unjust, nothing of which any honest man can complain, if he is intelligent; and I feel that there is nothing with which the civilized world, if they take notice of so humble a person as myself, will reproach me, when I say, as I said the other day, that I have made up my mind, for one, that under no circumstances will I consent to the further extension of the area of slavery in the United States, or to the further increase of slave representation in the house of representatives."

So violent was the contest on this occasion, between the ad

vocates of freedom and the propagandists of slavery, that the debate marked on the journals as occurring on the 12th of August, which was on Saturday, actually extended to ten o'clock on Sunday morning. Mr. Webster had spoken frequently on the subject, but never, perhaps, with so positive a determination. His exertions had their success. The senate receded from the amendment of Mr. Douglas; no part of the new territory was given up to slavery; but another bill, immediately upon the final action of the senate on this last ques tion, came to it from the lower house, providing for the organization of territorial governments for New Mexico and California, with the anti-slavery or Wilmot proviso appended to it. This was rejected by the senate; and, in consequence, these two territories were left without a proper government till the sec ond session of this congress, when it was moved by Mr. Walker, of Wisconsin, to extend the revenue laws, and all other laws of the United States applicable to their case, to California and New Mexico. This motion was attached to the general appro priation bill; and when it came to the lower house, it was there amended by the addition again of the anti-slavery proviso, which was again rejected in the senate. The controversy proceeded, with such intemperate zeal, that the senate came near to a dissolution; and it is stated by Mr. Everett, on authority to him satisfactory, that nothing but the cool temper and commanding influence of Mr. Webster saved that body from this catastrophe and the country from dishonor. He was the only man, it seems, who, after warning congress of the haz ard to which, by their war and their acquisitions, they were exposing the republic, could save the republic from the ruin when it was about to fall upon us.

It was entirely natural, as actually happened, that the people of the United States, alarmed at this condition of things in con gress, and knowing its origin and paternity, should begin to waver in their attachment to a party which had reduced the

NOMINATION OF GENERAL TAYLOR.

401

country to such a scene of discord. They began to be alarmed for the safety of our institutions and for the perpetuity of the government. They began to wish for a change in the adininistration; and, as Providence had ordered it, it so occurred, that just as this crisis was coming on, the man who had been sent to Mexico to carry forward the designs of Mr. Polk's cabinet, General Zachary Taylor, had been every where followed by such splendid fortunes, as a military chieftain, as to secure his nomination for the presidency by acclamation. The nomination was made, in the first instance, not by a regular convention of the people, according to established custom, but by the soldiers under his command after the victory of Palo Alto, and on the blood-stained battle-field of Buena Vista. It was confirmed, of course, in the convention afterwards held in Philadelphia, to the exclusion of several illustrious statesmen, who were regarded by every citizen, in his sober moments, as more worthy of the honor. Men of cool judgment, and of sufficient knowledge of the past to give them the probabilities of the future, demurred at this nomination; and among this class of citizens, in spite of the delicacy of the case, was Mr. Webster. In a speech made at Marshfield, to his friends and neigh bors, he was free to give his opinion plainly of the new candi date. He regarded him as an honest, upright, good citizen. He acknowledged him to be in principle a sound whig. His only title to reputation, however, Mr. Webster set down as a mere military title; and he did not think well of going to the army, and especially to the army of Mexico, for a candidate for the first office of the country. Washington and Harrison, he admitted, had been soldiers; but they had also been equally acquainted with civil matters. This Mexican army was an army of invasion. It was such an army as military Rome, after her military despotism was established, used to send cut to surrounding countries; and the successful commander had been nominated, just as the successful Roman generals used to

be nominated, away on the battle-field, and sent back take possession of the capital of their country. The military mind, and the habits of a military mind, were such as to given able general no popularity with Mr. Webster for the first position in the management of civil business. "The military mind," says the candid Tacitus, though speaking of his relative and hero, Agricola, "trained up in the school of war, is generally supposed to want the power of nice discrimination. The jurisdiction of the camp is little solicitous about forms and subtle reasoning; military law is blunt and summary; and, where the sword resolves all difficulties, the refined discussions of the forum are never practiced." That is, just so far as the military manner is introduced into the administration of a government, so far personal authority takes the place of counsel and deliberation, and just so far the practice, and gradually the liberty, of speech is laid aside. Such was the opinion of the first minds of the country at the time of this nomination. Such had been the experience of the country under the presidency of General Jackson, who, like a true military man, "took the responsibility," as his phrase was, of all the measures of his administra tion. In other words, the measures were all his own, proceeding solely and authoritatively from his own volition. For this very reason, in part, plainly stated and every where repeated, the whig party had twice opposed the election of General Jackson; and Mr. Webster, having honestly entertained his objections to a military chieftain at those times, and having often publicly expressed them, could not now turn round upon himself, with the levity and facility of a third-rate politician, and receive as his first choice a man whose only distinction had been gained on the field of battle. To preserve his consistency, on this point, he expressed his dissent to the nomination; but to maintain the same virtue, as the member of a party pledged to support regular nominations, he finally vielded to the