SPEECH OF LOUIS M'LANE,

ON

A BILL TO ENABLE THE PEOPLE OF THE MISSOURI TERRITORY TO FORM A CONSTITUTION AND STATE GOVERNMENT, AND FOR THE ADMISSION OF SUCH STATE INTO THE UNION;

DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE of rePRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED

STATES, FEBRUARY 7, 1820.

The question before the committee was on agreeing to the following amendment :

"And shall ordain and establish that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said state, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any other state, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid. And provided also, that the said provision shall not be construed to alter the condition or civil rights of any person now held to service or labor in the said territory."

MR. CHAIRMAN.

If it were not for the peculiar situation in which I shall be placed, in regard to some respectable opinions prevailing in the state from which I have the honor to come, by the vote I shall feel it my duty to give upon the present occasion, I should not trespass upon the time of the committee. If the eloquence and ability, which have been already employed in this debate, have not produced any change of opinion, I have not the presumption to suppose that it will be in my power to vary the result; but, if it is not for me to disturb the opinions of others, I may afford a justification of my own, and furnish to those, who may hereafter feel any interest in the course I deem it my duty to pursue, an exposition of the motives by which I am governed.

I concur with the honorable mover of the amend ment, that it presents an act of no ordinary legislation; and I am very sure he cannot easily overrate its importance-an importance derived, not more from the intrinsic magnitude of the question, in all its relations, than the excitement and tumult to which it has given rise in every part of the republic. I do not believe that any subject has ever arisen in this country, since the formation of the government, which has produced a more general agitation, or in regard to which greater pains have been taken to inflame the public mind, and control the deliberations of the national councils. The dazzling reward of popular favor, invested with all its fascinations, has been held up on the one hand, and the appalling spectre of public denunciation, with all its frightfulness, on the other. The sincere and humane, actuated, I am sure, by the best and purest motives; the aspiring demagogue and ambitious politician; those who wish well to their country, and those who seek power on the troubled sea of popular commotion; have promiscuously united in these public agitations, until the press has teemed, and our tables groaned, with a mass of pamphlets and memorials beyond example.

The state which I have the honor, in part, to represent, has been the theatre of a full share of this agitation; and the honorable legislature of that respectable state has been pleased, recently, to take up the subject, and have unanimously resolved, that, in their opinion, Congress have the constitutional power, and ought to impose this restriction upon the new states.

Entertaining the respect I do for the intelligence of the people of my own state, and the character of their legislature, I cannot find my opinion in opposition to theirs without the most unfeigned regret. For, although I do not concede to the legislature of a state the right of instructing the representatives of the people in Congress, or of employing its official character to influence their conduct, or to affect their responsibility, yet, viewing their acts, in this respect, as the

opinions of the individual members merely, I cannot regard them with indifference, selected, as they undoubtedly should be, from their fellow-citizens, as distinguished for some portion both of virtue and intelligence.

I am free to admit, that, in subjects of general policy merely, the will of the people, when fully and fairly ascertained, is always entitled to great weight; and, upon an occasion like the present, if I were influenced by motives of expediency only, I should be much disposed to yield my impressions to that will. But, in constitutional questions, the representative is, or ought to be, governed by higher considerations; and he would be unworthy of his trust who could be regardless of them. He is sworn to support the constitution, and he takes his seat in this House, to legislate for the nation, under the provisions of that instrument. His own integrity, and the safety of our common institutions, depend upon his strict personal accountability : his own opinions, formed by the best lights of his own impartial judgment, must be his guide, and he cannot adopt those of others, when conflicting with his own, without a surrender of his conscience. In such cases, popular feeling and legislative recommendation can have no greater influence than to weaken one's confidence in his own impressions, and to dictate a reinvestigation of the subject, to see if conclusions may not have been drawn from false premises, or views overlooked, which, if they had been adverted to, would have led to a different result. I have allowed the recommendation of the legislature of Delaware to have such an effect in this instance. I have deliberately reviewed and reconsidered this important subject, divested, I am sure, of any improper feeling, and prompted by every allurement of popular favor, to reach a conclusion in conformity with their views; but, I am bound to say, after this re-investigation, pursued with great labor, and a full sense of my responsibility, that believe, in my conscience, that Congress does not possess the power to impose the contemplated re

striction. In this belief, then, Mr. Chairman, and resting upon the principles of the constitution, and my duty to a power higher than any legislature, I must regret the difference of opinion, and be contented with an upright discharge of my public trust. I will take leave to say, sir, in the language of an illustrious man, on another occasion, whom I could desire to imitate in many other respects, "I honor the people and respect the legislature; but there are many things in the favor of either, which are objects, in my account, not worth ambition. I wish popularity, but it is that popularity which follows, not that which is run after. It is that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to the pursuit of noble ends, by noble means. shall not, therefore, on this occasion, do what my conscience tells me is wrong, to court the applause of thousands; nor shall I avoid doing what I deem to be right, to avert the artillery of the press.'

I

I shall not, in this place, sir, imitate the example of other gentlemen, by making professions of my love of liberty, and abhorrence of slavery; not because I do not entertain them, but because I consider that the great principles of neither are involved in this amendment. It is a coloring, to be sure, of which the subject is susceptible, and which has been used in great profusion, but it serves much more to inflame feelings and prejudices unfriendly to a dispassionate deliberation, than to aid the free exercise of an unbiassed judgment.

This amendment does not propose, nor has it for its object, to inhibit the introduction of slaves from parts beyond the United States: in such a scheme there is no intelligent man in the union who would not cordially concur. Neither does it propose to promote the emancipation of the slaves now in the country; this is admitted to be impracticable; the wildness of enthusiasm itself acknowledges its incompetency for such an undertaking. The truth is, sir, that this species of unhappy beings are now among us; brought here, in part, by events beyond our control, and, in

part, under the authority of our own constitution; and it behoves us, by a wise and prudent administration of our powers, to meliorate their condition, and accommodate the evil, as far as it may be practicable, to the peace and happiness of our white population, and the stability of our institutions. It is not pretended even that the condition of the unhappy slave himself would be improved by the success of this amendment: on the contrary, it has been insinuated, as boldly as the sentiment would justify, that his confinement to a narrower compass might lead to his extirpation, by the gradual, but sure process of harder labor, and scarcity of subsistence. I am free to say, that the condition of the slave himself would be meliorated by his dispersion; nor do I attach the same importance, as some .gentlemen appear to do, to the danger of encouraging an illicit importation from abroad, by permitting a market west of the Mississippi. It is an argument founded on the futility of legal restraint, the worst possible species of argument by which a legislature could be influenced. It would prove the inutility of every act of legislation, or might be used to justify every species of usurpation. It would equally demonstrate the futility of the proposed amendment itself; for, if gentlemen cannot hope to exterminate the foreign slave trade, by all the precautions legitimately in their power, founded in a unanimity of legislation, strengthened by the powerful force of public sentiment, and the abominable nature of the traffic itself, what greater reliance can they place upon this restriction, foisted into the constitution of a free people, against their consent, on which account, alone, it would be an object of hatred and contempt, and the violation be winked at by a great portion of the people, if not by their public authorities?

Sir, this amendment does not even propose to prevent the introduction of slavery into Missouri for the first time; it has already taken root there; we found it there when we acquired the territory, and it has grown and extended under the sanction of our own