The Congressional Globe, [Volume 16]: Twenty-Ninth Congress, First Session, Appendix Page: 61
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1845.]
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
61
29th Cong 1st Sess.
National Defences—Mr. Allen.
Senate.
The Liberty party at the North is comparatively
a small one. it is made as large as it is by the
course pursued at the South on this question, and
.especially by the course pursued in this House. A
false issue has been made. The petitions of nu-
merous citizens have been rejected and treated with
contempt, and this oppression has produced sym-
pathy and support, i am not responsible for the
course pursued by that party. While I respect
most of them, not only as men of good intentions,
but of intelligence and good sense, I abominate the
course they have pursued on the question of the
annexation of Texas. I think their coutse inex-
cusable. Very likely they may return the compli-
ment. Certain it is that it is not as the candidate
of that paity, or by their aid, that I am here.
At the same time that I say this, I beg leave
also distinctly to say, that the feeling in the free
States is all one way on this subject of domestic
slavery. The opinion that slavery is an evil and
a wrong of a most decided character, is almost
unanimous. They look forward to the future with
the most serious apprehension. They regard it,
sir, as an enormous evil—immedicabile vulnus—a
corrosive, malignant, bitter wound, not to be tam-
pered with by quacks, or slightly healed, but re-
quiring the most wise, and prudent, and thorough
treatment.
I have a few words to say in relation to the
course pursued in this House in relation to peti-
tions and resolutions on the subject of slavery.
A mild course, Mr. Speaker, is the best course.
The feelings of the North have been irritated by
the course heretofore taken in relation to petitions.
They feel deeply wounded and aggrieved at the
wrong which has been committed in relation to the
annexation of Texas. The petitions on this sub-
ject ought to have been respectfully treated and
"referred to an appropriate committee. Tt does no
good to pursue the course which has been pursued,
and is still continued. The odious twenty-first rule,
although nominally repealed, is practically adopt-
ed. The feeling at the North, even of the most
ardent on the subject of slavery, can be reasoned
with, can be conciliated, but it cannot be coerced;
and he is a bold man who shall think it pnulent or
safe to triile with, and insult, and exasperate, and
attempt to drive the people of the North. I say to
you, Mr. Sneaker, that the man who does any
such act as that, knows not what he is doing, nor
the people with whom he is dealing. They are in-
deed " slow unto anger," and party alliances may
for a while repress the growing feeling on this sub-
ject, but they will not always be as mild and sub-
missive under wrong and insult as they have been
heretofore.
The course pursued in relation to the various pe-
titions on the subject of annexation, and indicated
in relation to these resolutions by the objections
fiom various gentlemen in different, parts of this
House, has been entirely unprovoked. Thorn has
been no factious opposition from this side of the
Honse. It is in bad taste for the majority in this
House to pursue this course. That majority is so
large that they can afford to be magnanimous even;
they surely can, to be just. The course is entirely
unnecessary and without excuse, the very " super-
fluity of naughtiness."
I hope, sir, in relation to this subject, and all
matters connected with it, in this House, that, wiser
and kinder, and more prudent councils will prevail,
and that gentlemen will not seek to do oil ensue
acts in the most offensible possible way.
NATIONAL DEFENCES.
REMARKS OF MR. ALLEN,
of ohio,
In Senate, December 16, 1845,
On Mr. Cass's Resolutions, inquiring into the state
of the Public Defences.
Mr. ALLEN said: This discussion had under-
gone a change since yesterday, which made it ex-
cusable in, if not necessary for him to submit a few
general observations. Yesterday the question be-
fore the Senate seemed to be the propriety of pass-
ing the resolutions previously submitted by the
Senator from Michigan, [Mr. Cass.] To-day the
discussion was made to turn
[Here Mr. Archer rose and said: Will the Sen-
ator be corrected by me? He is in error. My
understanding is different in that respect. My
friend, [Mr. Mangum,] who addressed the Senate
yesterday, also thinks that he is entirely. I com-
menced my observations by stating that no one
with whom I acted would oppose the object of
these resolutions.]
Mr. Allen proceeded: Be that is it may, the
discussion to-day seems to turn chiefly on the taste
and propriety of the speech delivered by the Sen-
ator from Michigan, [Mr. Cass.] It is thought by
Senators on the other side to have been a speech
calculated to excite unnecessary alarm in the pub-
lic mind—a speech not called for by the exigencies
of the times—by the condition m which the mili-
tary affairs of the country are known to he, or by
the proprieties which usually characterize the or-
der and arrangement of business in the Senate. I
desire to say, in answer to these several sugges-
tions, that I cannot agree that such business as this
before us should be transacted in silence. I do not
agree that it would be possible, or that, if possible,
it would be proper, for Congress to proceed in
secrecy and in silence to adopt measures looking to
the contingency of war. Can such measures be
adopted without discussion? and will not discussion
give publicity to them ? Can measures which may
lead to an increase of the military force—and, if
so, must lead to an increase of taxes—be adopted by
a representative body, with a free nation for its con-
stituency—adopted in silence, without discussion—
adopted behind the backs of the people ? Would
it be possible—would it be proper, to adopt such
measures without the knowledge of the people?
Would it be right to adopt measures justified only
by the possibility, perhaps the probability, of war,
and yet, by our silence, try to convince the nation
that we apprehend no danger of war? If it were
possible to pass such measures without discussion,
would not our very silence, contrasted with the
grave and extraordinary character of the measures
themselves, alarm the country more deeply by far
than an open and honest discussion, plainly setting
forth the facts and reasons upon which those meas-
ures arc predicated ? Would not the people ima-
gine, and with leason too, from the very fact of
your effort at concealment, that you yourselves
thought the danger so near as to forbid discussion,
uud requiic despatch, m order to meet it * Should
these resolutions pass, bills may follow to increase
; the army and navy. Should these bills pass, an
| increase of taxes may follow; and shall the repre-
! sentatives of a free people send the tax-gatherer to
| a freeman, and yet refuse to give a reason for the
tax? The Senators on the other side regret the
tone of the speech of the Senator from Michigan,
[Mr. Cass,] and regret it mainly becausc the Sen-
ator fiom Michigan expressed it as his opinion
that in certain contingencies, war would be inevit-
able. This, they think, is calculated to excite
alarm; and the alarm, they think, may derange
■ the business, perticularly the commercial business
jl of the country. But 1 have said that our silence,
!i contrasted with our measures, would excite an
j i alarm still deeper, and therefoie more deeply dc-
! range men's business. And now, I ask, what
'j would be the consequence if it were possible to
j' adopt such meastucs m silcncc and secrecy ? If it
|| were possible to increase the military force, to in-
j; crease taxes, to make every preparation, to do all
this with a veil between us and the people-—if it
were possible thus to keep the nation m utter igno-
lance of all our doings, of all our dangers, up to
! the very moment war may be declared—if this
were possible—if this were done—if the people
■ were Urns lulled into a false security up to the very
| day of battle, and then ! or the first time the tern-
■ hie reality of war should break upon them, what
i then would be the condition of men 3 What the
'■ condition of then business 5 What then would be
! the condition of the merchant, with the world's
flinnseier and the enemy's fleet between him and
his cai^o.
,i Could, this Government then justify itself to the
citizen for having thus concealed the public dan-
ger from him, and by that very concealment, false-
!■ ly proclaimed a security which did not exist, but
which, being proclaimed by the very guardians of
the public safety, induced him to commit his for-
, [tune to the waves, and to the mercy of a hostile
,! fleet ?
But, sir, it is now admitted that these resolu-
tions ought to pass; that they are preparations for
war, and, as such, ought to pass as the best means
of avoiding war. This, on all hands, is admitted.
We ought then, as all admit, to prepare for war,
as the surest conservation of peace. Well, then,
what kind of preparation is the best ? Wliat kind
of preparation will impress Great Britain in the
most solemn manner with this important truth,
that if she desire peace, she must respect the rights
of the American people ? That if she wishes to
avoid war, she must withdraw her baseless and
arrogant pretensions to the rightful soil of the
United States ? My answer is, that union of will,
of heart, of energy, among the people, in support
of the interests and honor of the country, is the
sort of preparation best calculated to excite a dis-
position for peace in the breast of England. It is
a kind of preparation without which all others are
unavailing in our country, but with which this
nation has nothing to fear from united Europe in
arms. The Government of this country is not in
the city of Washington. It is to be found diffused
through the breasts of twenty millions of people,
who are themselves diffused over a surface eight
thousand miles in circumference. The strength of
this Government is to be found in the union of
these hearts. It is this union which must consti-
tute a preparation for war. How is this union to
be effected? Is it to be effected by the silence of
Congress ? by withholding from the people the real
state ot facts ? by concealing the true state of our
relations with Great Britain ? by suppressing dis-
cussion ? by refusing to give reasons to the people
for what we are doing? No, sir. If we would
awaken the desire for pcacc in-the bosom of Eng-
land—if we would render America invincible in
battle—we must prepare the heart of the nation for
the defence of its rights and its honor, by honestly
telling the people the real state of facts, and by
giving them the reason for the measures we adopt.
Let them but know the whole truth of the matter;
let them but see the reason for your measures;
let them but understand that there is, in the threat-
ening aspect of public affairs, a clear and urgent
necessity fur the measures you propose, in order
to maintain, against ambitions England, the in-
terests and glory of the United States. Let the
American people but understand these things by
an honest disclosure of facts and reasons, and, so
fiir from exciting in them any unnecessary alarm,
you will but call up, in their undivided soul, that
great spirit which made the nation victor in its'
childhood, and will make it, in the future, what-
ever it desires to be.
I say, then, that the speech of the Senator from
Michigan, so far from being open to the reproach
of exciting unnecessary alarm, was called for and
justified by every consideration of prudence and
of policy. I say, sir, that under a form of Gov-
ernment like ours, to adopt without discussion,
without publicity, a system of extraordinary mea-
sures, all looking to the contingency of war, would
be absolutely impossible. If this were possible,
such a course would be the extreme of fatuity as a
matter of policy, and of injustice as regards the
lights and interests of the people.
Having thus replied to the observations of the
Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. Webster,]
upon the point of exciting alarm in the public
mind, I will proceed to consider those made by the
Senator from Georgia, [Mr. Beriiien.] That Sen-
ator thinks that a war between two such nations
as the United States and Great Britain, for such an
object as the territory in question, would be an out-
rage upon humanity, so great as to call down upon
the heads of its authors the accumulated execra-
tions of all succeeding as;es. And as the Senator
cannot desire to see any body of men bending
under the weight of so many curses, he is, of
course, of opinion that we should surrender the
whole territory to Great Britain, rather than fight
for it. Sir, I am not of this! opinion, nor are the
American people. So far from it, they would com-
pel their Government to fight for, rather than sur-
render the territory. If the Government itself en-
tertained the opinions of the Senator
[Here Mr. Berrien rose and said: The Sena-
tor does not design to misrepresent me. I said,
that for two nation's so intimately connected as we
are, to go to war for so inconsiderable an object,
without first exhausting every other means of
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, [Volume 16]: Twenty-Ninth Congress, First Session, Appendix, book, 1846; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30770/m1/69/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.