SENATE.]

consent.

Admission of Michigan.

grounds which, entirely independent of that preamble, were such as satisfied his mind. The only effect of the preamble was to try to bind the State of Michigan by her own consent; but, for himself, he believed that Congress having settled the boundary line, it was vain to attempt to compel the new State to receive it against her He believed that a majority of the people, if free from duresse, would never consent to that boundary; he hoped, however, that the State being once admitted, the dispute would end. If, however, she should unhappily renew the contest, it seemed a hopeless case. Yet it appeared to him unjust to bind a State, in the act of its admission, to consent to that to which, if left free, the State would never agree. Having thus explained the reasons of his vote, he should give it in favor of the bill. The question being thereupon taken, the bill was or. dered to be engrossed for a third reading: Yeas 27, nays 4-as follows:

YEAS--Messrs. Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Dana, Fulton, Grundy, Hendricks, Hubbard, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Knight, Linn, Nicholas, Niles, Page, Parker, Rives, Robinson, Ruggles, Sevier, Strange, Tallmadge, Tipton, Walker, Wall, White, Wright--27. NAYS--Messrs. Bayard, Calhoun, Davis, Prentiss--4. The Senate then adjourned.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 5.

ADMISSION OF MICHIGAN.

The engrossed bill to admit Michigan into the Union having been read a third time, and the question pending being upon its passage,

Mr. CALHOUN addressed the Senate in opposition to the bill.

I have (said Mr. C.) been connected with this Government more than half its existence, in various capacities, and during that long period I have looked on its action with attention, and have endeavored to make myself acquainted with the principles and character of our political institutions, and I can truly say that within that time no measure has received the sanction of Congress which has appeared to me more unconstitutional and dangerous than the present. It assails our political system in its weakest point, and where, at this time, it most requires defence.

The great and leading objections to the bill rest mainly on the ground that Michigan is a State. They have been felt by its friends to have so much weight, that its advocates have been compelled to deny the fact, as the only way of meeting the objections. Here, then, is the main point at issue between the friends and the opponents of the bill. It turns on a fact, and that fact presents the question-is Michigan a State?

[JAN. 5, 1857.

versy, I shall recall to memory the history of the last session, as connected with the admission of Michigan. The facts need but to be referred to, in order to revive their recollection.

There were two points proposed to be effected by the friends of the bill at the last session. The first was to settle the controversy, as to boundary, between Michigan and Ohio, and it was that object alone which imposed the condition that Michigan should assent to the boundary prescribed by the act, as the condition of her admission. But there was another object to be accomplished. Two respectable gentlemen, who had been elected by the State as Senators, were then waiting to take their seats on this floor; and the other object of the bill was to provide for their taking their seats as Senators on the admission of the State; and for this purpose it was necessary to make the positive and unconditional declaration that Michigan was a State, as a State only could choose Senators, by an express provision of the constitution; and hence the admission was made conditional, and the declaration that she was a State was made absolute, in order to effect both objects. To show that I am correct, I will ask the Secretary to read the third section of the bill.

[The section was read accordingly, as follows:

"SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That as a compliance with the fundamental condition of admission contained in the last preceding section of this act, the boundaries of the said State of Michigan, as in that section described, declared, and established, shall receive the assent of a convention of delegates elected by the people of said State, for the sole purpose of giving the assent herein required; and as soon as the assent herein required shall be given, the President of the United States shall announce the same by proclamation; and thereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of the said State into the Union, as one of the United States of America, on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, shall be considered as complete, and the Senators and Representative who have been elected by the said State, as its representatives in the Congress of the United States, shall be entitled to take their seats in the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, without further delay."]

Mr. CALHOUN then asked, Does not every Senator see the two objects-the one to settle the boundary, and the other to admit her Senators to a seat in this body; and that the section is so worded as to effect both, in the manner I have stated? If this needed confirmation, it would find it in the debate on the passage of the bill, when the ground was openly taken by the present majority, that Michigan had a right to form her constitution, under the ordinance of 1787, without our consent; and that she was, of right, and in fact, a State, beyond our control.

I will (said Mr. C.) explain my own views on this point, in order that the consistency of my course at the last and present session may be clearly seen.

If (said Mr. C.) there ever was a party committed on a fact, if there ever was one estopped from denying it, that party is the present majority in the Senate, and that fact, that Michigan is a State. It is the very party who urged through this body, at the last session, a bill for the admission of the State of Michigan, which accepted her constitution, and declared in the most explicit and My opinion was, and still is, that the movement of the strongest terms that she was a State. I will not take up people of Michigan, in forming for themselves a State the time of the Senate by reading this solemn declaration. constitution, without waiting for the assent of Congress, It has frequently been read during this debate, and is was revolutionary, as it threw off the authority of the familiar to all who hear me, and has not been questioned United States over the Territory; and that we were left or denied. But it has been said there is a condition an- at liberty to treat the proceedings as revolutionary, and nexed to the declaration, with which she must comply, to remand her to her territorial condition, or to waive before she can become a State. There is, indeed, a con- the irregularity, and to recognise what was done as dition, but it has been shown by my colleague and oth-rightfully done, as our authority alone was concerned. ers, from the plain wording of the act, that the condition is not attached to the acceptance of the constitution, nor the declaration that she is a State, but simply to her admission into the Union. I will not repeat the argument, but, in order to place the subject beyond contro-,

My impression was, that the former was the proper course; but I also thought that the act remanding her back should contain our assent in the usual manner for her to form a constitution, and thus to leave her free to become a State. This, however, was overruled. The

JAN. 5, 1837.]

Admission of Michigan.

opposite opinion prevailed, that she had a perfect right to do what she had done, and that she was, as I have stated, a State, both in fact and right, and that we had no control over her; and our act accordingly recognised her as a State, from the time she had adopted her constitution, and admitted her into the Union on the condition of her assenting to the prescribed boundaries. Having thus solemnly recognised her as a State, we cannot now undo what was then done. There were, in fact, many irregularities in the proceedings, all of which were urged in vain against its passage; but the presidential election was then pending, and the vote of Michigan was considered of sufficient weight to overrule all objections, and correct all irregularities. They were all accordingly overruled, and we cannot now go back.

Such was the course and such the acts of the majority at the last sesion. A few short months have since passed. Other objects are now to be effected, and all is forgotten as completely as if they had never existed. The very Senators who then forced the act through, on the ground that Michigan was a State, have wheeled completely round, to serve the present purpose, and taken directly the opposite ground! We live in strange and inconsistent times. Opinions are taken up and laid down, as suits the occasion, without hesitation, or the slightest regard to principles or consistency. It indicates an unsound state of the public mind, pregnant with future disasters.

I turn to the position now assumed by the majority, to suit the present occasion; and, if I mistake not, it will be found as false in fact, and as erroneous in principle, as it is inconsistent with that maintained at the last session. They now take the ground that Michigan is not a State, and cannot, in fact, be a State, till she is admitted into the Union; and this on the broad principle that a Territory cannot become a State till admitted. Such is the position distinctly taken by several of the friends of this bill, and implied in the arguments of nearly all who have spoken in its favor. In fact, its advocates had no choice. As untenable as it is, they were forced on this desperate position. They had no other which they could occupy.

I have shown that it is directly in the face of the law of the last session, and that it denies the recorded acts of those who now maintain the position. I now go further, and assert that it is in direct opposition to plain and unquestionable matter of fact. There is no fact more certain than that Michigan is a State. She is in the full exercise of sovereign authority, with a Legislature and a Chief Magistrate. She passes laws; she executes them; she regulates titles; and even takes away life-all on her own authority. Ours has entirely ceased over her; and yet there are those who can deny, with all these facts before them, that she is a State. They might as well deny the existence of this hall! We have long since assumed unlimited control over the constitution, to twist, and turn, and deny it, as it suited our purpose. And it would seem that we are presumptuously attempting to assume like supremacy over facts themselves, as if their existence or non-existence depended on our volition. I speak freely. The occasion de mands that the truth should be boldly uttered.

But those who may not regard their own recorded acts, nor the plain facts of the case, may possibly feel the awkward condition in which coming events may shortly place them. The admission of Michigan is not the only point involved in the passage of this bill. A question will follow, which may be presented to the Senate in a very few days, as to the right of Mr. Norvell and Mr. Lyon, the two respectable gentlemen who have been elected Senators by Michigan, to take their seats in this hall. The decision of this question will require a more sudden facing about than has been yet witnessed. It required seven or eight months for the majority to wheel

[SENATE.

about from the position maintained at the last session, to that taken at this, but there may not be allowed them now as many days to wheel back to the old position. These gentlemen cannot be refused their seats after the admission of the State, by those gentlemen who passed the act of the last session. It provides for the case. I now put it to the friends of this bill, and I ask them to weigh the question deliberately-to bring it home to their bosom and conscience before they answer-can a Territory elect Senators to Congress? The constitution is express. States only can choose Senators. Were not these gentlemen chosen long before the admission of Michigan, before the Ann Arbor meeting, and while Michigan was, according to the doctrines of the friends of this bill, a Territory? Will they, in the face of the constitution, which they are sworn to support, admit as Senators on this floor those who, by their own statement, were elected by a Territory? These questions may soon be presented for decision. The majority, who are forcing this bill through, are already committed by the act of the last session, and I leave them to reconcile, as they can, the ground they now take with the vote they must give when the question of their right to take their seats is presented for decision.

A total disregard of all principle and consistency has so entangled this subject, that there is but one mode left of extricating ourselves without trampling the constitution in the dust; and that is, to return back to where we stood when the question was first presented; to acquiesce in the right of Michigan to form a constitution, and erect herself into a State, under the ordinance of 1787; and to repeal so much of the act of the last session as prescribed the condition on which she was to be admitted. This was the object of the amendment that I offered last evening, in order to relieve the Senate from its present dilemma. The amendment involved the merits of the whole case. It was too late in the day for discussion, and I asked for indulgence till to-day, that I might have an opportunity of presenting my views. Under the iron rule of the present majority, the indulgence was refused, and the bill ordered to its third reading; and I have been thus compelled to address the Senate when it is too late to amend the bill, and after a majority have committed themselves both as to its principles and details. New as such proceedings are in this body, I complain not. I, as one of the minority, ask no favors. All I ask is, that the constitution be not violated. Hold it sacred, and I shall be the last to complain.

I now return to the assumption that a Territory cannot become a State till admitted into the Union, which is now relied on with so much confidence to prove that Michigan is not a State. I reverse the position. I assert the opposite, that a Territory cannot be admitted till she becomes a State; and in this I stand on the authority of the constitution itself, which expressly limits the power of Congress to admitting new States into the Union. But if the constitution had been silent, be would indeed be ignorant of the character of our politi. cal system who did not see that States, sovereign and independent communities, and not Territories, can only be admitted. Ours is a Union of States, a federal republic. States, and not Territories, form its component parts, bound together by a solemn league, in the form of a constitutional compact. In coming into the Union, the State pledges its faith to this sacred compact; an act which none but a sovereign and independent community is competent to perform; and, of course, a Territory must first be raised to that condition before she can take her stand among the confederated States of our Union. How can a Territory pledge its faith to the constitution? It has no will of its own. You give it all its powers, and you can at pleasure overrule all her actions. If she enters as a Territory,the act is yours, not hers. Her

SENATE.]

Admission of Michigan.

consent is nothing without your authority and sanction. Can you, can Congress, become a party to the constitutional compact? How absurd.

[JAN. 5, 1837.

within her limits. This is the old, the established form, instituted by our ancestors of the Revolution, who so well understood the great principles of liberty and self-government. How simple; how sublime! What a contrast to the doctrines of the present day, and the precedent which, I fear, we are about to establish! And shall we fear, so long as these sound principles are observed, that a State will reject this high privilege--will refuse to enter this Union? No; she will rush into your embrace, so long as your institutions are worth preserving. When the advantages of the Union shall have become a matter of calculation and doubt, when new States shall pause to determine whether the Union is a curse or blessing, the question which now agitates us will cease to have any importance.

But I am told, if this be so, if a Territory must become a State before it can be admitted, it would follow that she might refuse to enter the Unior. after she had acquired the right of acting for herself. Certainly she may. A State cannot be forced into the Union. She must come in by her own free assent, given in her highest Sovereign capacity, through a convention of the people of the State. Such is the constitutional provision; and those who make the objection must overlook both the constitution and the elementary principles of our Government, of which the right of self-government is the first; the right of every people to form their own Government, and to determine their political condition. This is the Having now, I trust, established, beyond all controver doctrine on which our fathers acted in our glorious Rev-sy, that Michigan is a State, I come to the great point at olution, which has done more for the cause of liberty issue-to the decision of which all that has been said is throughout the world than any event within the record but preparatory-had the self-created assembly which of history, and on which the Government has acted from met at Ann Arbor the authority to speak in the name of the first, as regards all that portion of our extensive ter- the people of Michigan, to assent to the conditions conritory that lies beyond the limits of the original States. tained in the act of the last session, to supersede a porRead the ordinance of 1787, and the various acts for the tion of the constitution of the State, and to overrule the admission of new States, and you will find the principle dissent of the convention of the people, regularly called invariably recognised and acted on, to the present un- by the constituted authorities of the State, to the condi-, happy instance, without any departure from it, except tion of admission? I shall not repeat what I said when I in the case of Missouri. The admission of Michigan is first addressed the Senate on this bill. We al', by this destined, I fear, to mark a great change in the history time, know the character of that assemblage; that it met of the admission of new States, a total departure from without the sanction of the authorities of the State, and the old usage, and the noble principle of self-government that it did not pretend to represent one third of the peo on which that usage was founded. Every thing, thus ple. We all know that the State had regularly convened far, has been irregular and monstrous connected with a convention of the people, expressly to take into consid her admission. I trust it is not ominous. Surrounded eration the condition on which it was proposed to admit by lakes within her natural limits, (which ought not to her into the Union, and that the convention, after full have been departed from,) possessed of fertile soil and deliberation, had declined to give its assent by a congenial climate, with every prospect of wealth, power, siderable majority. With a knowledge of all these facts, and influence, who but must regret that she should be I put the question-had the assembly a right to act for ushered into the Union in a manner so irregular and the State? Was it a convention of the people of Michiunworthy of her future destiny. gan, in the true, legal, and constitutional sense of that term? Is there one, within the limits of my voice, that can lay his hand on his breast, and honestly say it was? Is there one that does not feel that it was neither more nor less than a mere caucus-nothing but a party cau cus-of which we have the strongest evidence in the perfect unanimity of those who assembled? Not a vote was given against admission. Can there be stronger proof that it was a meeting got up by party machinery, for party purpose?

But I will waive these objections, constitutional and all. I will suppose, with the advocates of the bill, that a Territory cannot become a State till admitted into the Union. Assuming all this, I ask them to explain to me how the mere act of admission can transmute a Territory into a State? By whose authority would she be made a State? By ours? How can we make a State? We can form a Territory; we can admit States into the Union; but, I repeat the question, how can we make a State? I bad supposed this Government was the creature of the States-formed by their authority, and dependent on their will for their existence. Can the creature form the creator? If not by our authority, then by whose? Not by her own: that would be absurd. The very act of admission makes her a member of the confederacy, with no other or greater power than is possessed by all the others; all of whom, united, cannot create a State. By what process, then, by what authority, can a Territory become a State, if not one before admitted? Who can explain? How full of difficulties, compared to the longestablished, simple, and noble process which has prevailed to the present instant. According to old usage, the General Government first withdraws its authority over a certain portion of its territory, as soon as it has a sufficient population to constitute a State. They are thus left to themselves freely to form a constitution, and to exercise the noble right of self-government. They then present their constitution to Congress, and ask the privilege (for one it is of the highest character) to become a member of this glorious confederacy of States. The constitution is examined, and, if republican, as required by the federal constitution, she is admitted, with no other condition except such as may be necessary to secure the authority of Congress over the public domain

But I go further. It was not only a party caucus, for party purpose, but a criminal meeting-a meeting to subvert the authority of the State, and to assume its sovereignty. I know not whether Michigan has yet passed laws to guard her sovereignty. It may be that she has not had time to enact laws for this purpose, which no community is long without; but I do aver, if there be such an act, or if the common law be in force in the State, the actors in that meeting might be indicted, tried, and punished, for the very act on which it is now proposed to admit the State into the Union. If such a meeting as this were to undertake to speak in the name of South Carolina, we would speedily teach its authors what they owed to the authority and dignity

of the State.

The act was not only in contempt of the authority of the State of Michigan, but a direct insult on this Government. Here is a self-created meeting, convened for a criminal object, which has dared to present to this Government an act of theirs, and to expect that we are to receive this irregular and criminal act as a fulfilment of the condition which we had prescribed for the admission of the State! Yet, I fear, forgetting our own dignity and the rights of Michigan, that we are about to recognise the validity of the act, and quietly to submit to the insult.

JAN. 5, 1837.]

Admission of Michigan.

[SENATE.

The year 1836 (said Mr. C.) is destined to mark the most remarkable change in our political institutions, since the adoption of the constitution. The events of the year have made a deeper innovation on the principles of the constitution, and evinced a stronger tendency to revolution, than any which have occurred from its adoption to the present day. Sir, (said Mr. C., addressing the Vice President,) duty compels me to speak of facts intimately connected with yourself. In deference to your feelings as presiding officer of the body, I shall speak of them with all possible reserve, much more reserve than I should otherwise have done if you did not Occupy that seat. Among the first of these events, which I shall notice, is the caucus of Baltimore; that too, like the Ann Arbor caucus, has been dignified with the|plete political disfranchisement. It deprives the unfor name of the convention of the people. This caucus was got up under the countenance and express authority of the President himself; and its edict, appointing you his successor, has been sustained, not only by the whole patronage and power of the Government, but by his active personal influence and exertion. Through its instrumentality he has succeeded in controlling the voice of the people, and for the first time the President has appointed his successor; and thus the first great step of converting our Government into a monarchy has been achieved. These are solemn and ominous facts. No one who has examined the result of the last election can doubt their truth. It is now certain that you are not the free and unbiased choice of the people of these United States. If left to your own popularity, without the active and direct influence of the President, and the power and patronage of the Government, acting through a mock convention of the people, instead of the highest, you would in all probability have been the lowest of the candidates.

During the same year, the State in which this ill-omen. ed caucus convened has been agitated by revolutionary movements of the most alarming character. Assuming the dangerous doctrines that they were not bound to obey the injunctions of the constitution, because it did not place the powers of the State in the hands of an unchecked numerical majority, the electors belonging to the party of the Baltimore caucus who had been chosen to appoint the State Senators refused to perform the functions for which they had been elected, with the deliberate intention to subvert the Government of the State, and reduce her to the territorial condition, till a new Government could be formed. And now we have before us a measure not less revolutionary, but of an opposite character. In the case of Maryland, those who undertook, without the authority of law or constitution, to speak and act in the name of the people of the State, proposed to place her out of the Union by reducing her from a State to a Territory; but in this, those who in like manner undertook to act for Michigan have assumed the authority to bring her into the Union without her consent, on the very condition which she had rejected by a convention of the people convened under the authority of the State. If we shall sanction the authority of the Michigan caucus, to force a State into the Union without its assent, why might we not here sanction a similar caucus in Maryland, if one had been called, to place the State out of the Union?

est in public affairs, and to notice the working of this odious party machine; and after reflection, with the experience then acquired, has long satisfied me that, in the course of time, the edicts of the caucus would eventually supersede the authority of law and constitution. We have at last arrived at the commencement of this great change, which is destined to go on till it has consummated itself in the entire overthrow of all legal and constitutional authority, unless speedily and effectually resisted. The reason is obvious: for obedience and disobedience to the edicts of the caucus, where the system is firmly established, are more certainly and effectually rewarded and punished, than to the laws and constitution. Disobedience to the former is sure to be followed by comtunate individual who falls under its vengeance of all public honors and emoluments, and consigns him, if dependent on the Government, to poverty and obscurity; while he who bows down before its mandates, it matters not how monstrous, secures to himself the honors of the State--becomes rich, and distinguished, and powerful.Offices, jobs, and contracts, flow on him and his connexBut to obey the law and respect the constitution, for the most part, brings little except the approbation of conscience-a reward indeed high and noble, and prized by the virtuous above all others, but unfortunately little valued by the mass of mankind. It is easy to see what must be the end, unless, indeed, an effective remedy be applied. Are we so blind as not to see in this why it is that the advocates of this bill--the friends of the systemare so tenacious on the point that Michigan should be admitted on the authority of the Ann Arbor caucus, and no other? Do we not see why the amendment proposed by myself to admit her by rescinding the condition imposed at the last session should be so strenuously opposed? Why, even the preamble would not be surrendered, though many of our friends were willing to vote for the bill on that slight concession, in their anxiety to admit the State.

ions.

And here let me say that I listened with attention to the speech of the Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. CRITTENDEN.] I know the clearness of his understanding, and the soundness of his heart, and I am persuaded, in declaring that his objection to the bill was confined to the preamble, that he has not investigated the subject with the attention it deserves. I feel the objections to the preamble are not without some weight; but the true and insuperable objections lie far deeper in the facts of the case, which would still exist were the preamble ex. punged. It is these which render it impossible to pass this bill without trampling under foot the rights of the States, and subverting the first principles of our Government. It would require but a few steps more to effect a complete revolution, and the Senator from North Car. olina has taken the first. I will explain. If you wish to mark the first indications of a revolution, the commencement of those profound changes in the character of a people which are working beneath, before a ripple appears on the surface, look to the change of language; you will first notice it in the altered meaning of impor tant words, and which, as it indicates a change in the feelings and principles of the people, become in turn a powerful instrument in accelerating the change, till an These occurrences, which have distinguished the past entire revolution is effected. The remarks of the Senayear, mark the commencement of no ordinary change in tor will illustrate what I have said. He told us that the our political system. They announce the ascendency of terms "convention of the people" were of very uncer the caucus system over the regularly constituted authoritain meaning, and difficult to be defined; but that their ties of the country. I have long anticipated this event. true meaning was, any meeting of the people in their In early life my attention was attracted to the working individual and primary character, for political purpose. of the caucus system. It was my fortune to spend five I know it is difficult to define complex terms, that is, to or six years of my youth in the Northern portion of the enumerate all the ideas that belong to them, and exclude Union, where, unfortunately, the system has so long preall that do not; but there is always, in the most complex, vailed. Though young, I was old enough to take inter-some prominent idea which marks the meaning of the