The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session Forty-First Congress; Together with an Appendix, Embracing the Laws Passed at that Session Page: 2,888
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2888
THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
April 22,
commissioners, or other diplomatic agents, to open
negotiations with the people of Winnipeg, with a
view to the annexation of that district ot country to
the United States as a Territory or as a State.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Chair will
state to the Senator from Michigan that this
resolution is mandatory. It ''directs" the
Executive. It would have to be a joint reso-
lution if it was to direct a specific act to be per-
formed of that character. The usual language
is to "request."
Mr. CHANDLER. Letthe Secretary change
the character of it and make it a joint resolu-
tion if necessary.
The VICE PRESIDENT. If the Senator
changes the language to "request" it will come
within the purview of Senate resolutions.
Mr. CHANDLER. Let it remain as it is
for the present. I suppose the change can be
made afterward.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Certainly.
Mr. CHANDLER. Mr. President, I offer this
resolution in the interest of peaee, of good
neighborhood, and of good-fellowship as be-
tween Great Britain and the United States of
America. It is rumored, I know not with
what truth, that the Dominion of Canada is
about to send an army to the Red River settle-
ment to put down the government that now
exists there. Whether that rumor be true or
not I cannot say ; but I wish to show before I
move the reference of this resolution that it
would be a very injudicious act on the part of
the Dominion to attempt that thing.
Now, Mr. President, why should we not
open negotiations with the people of the Win-
nipeg settlement? There is a government
which has been established for more than six
months, a " government of the people, by the
people, and for the people." Two attempts
have been made to overthrow that government
by the Dominion, and both of those attempts
have ignominiously failed. In one instance
the attempt was made to organize the savages
of that region, officered by a Dominion officer,
to put down this government 5 but, sir, that as
weil as the other attempt to put down this
people's government was overthrown, and the
government of Winnipeg hds remained unques-
tioned since last November, except in those
two instances.
Now, Mr. President, why should we not
open negotiations with these people? The
people of the United States have decreed that
the land of this continent of North America
belongs to the people inhabiting that land.
The Government of the United States has said
to the whole world, "Here i3 your home, if
yon see fit to come in and occupy this goodly
land;" and the Government of the United
States simply charges the citizen of the world
the actual expense of putting up the boundary
stakes and lines and limits, to wit, ten dollars
for each lot. We say to the whole world,
" Come in and occupy this land;" and they are
coming by thousands and hundreds of thou-
sands annually, and by millions in every decade.
But, sir, in contradistinction to this decree
that has gone forth to all the world, here is fe
Dominion which declares that this land belongs,
to whom? To the Crown, not the people. To
the Crown of Great Britain belongs this vast
territory, says this Dominion established on
Our borders. These two systems are so dia-
metrically antagoniatic&l that they cannot exist
side by side. One or the other must go down.
Either this continent of North America is for
the people whd occupy it or it is for the Crown.
When the southern rebellion broke out and
Fort Sumter was fired upon the British Gov-
ernment did not wait three days before it ac-
knowledged the belligerent rights of the rebels.
No, sir, they did Hot wait three hours; for they
issued the proclamation of neutrality before
they heard of the firing upon Sutnter. But
allow that they had heard of the firing upon
Sumter; here were seventy men in a fort in
Charleston harbor fired on; and there were
thirty-odd million pedple belonging to these
United States; and yet, sif, the moment the
first gun was fired at Fott Sumter the British
Government made haste to acknowledge the
belligerent rights of our rebels.
But my friend from Massachusetts "will say,
"How about the Alabama claims? You are
complicating the Alabama claims?" No, sir;
I am doing no such thing, for I giave notice
three or four years ago that I would never
again call up the Alabama claims, or consider
them under any conceivable state of fact. I
then put on record a mortgage against the
dominion of Great Britain lying north of us of
$2,200,000,000, and I simply propose now to
levy execution in part. That is all. The time
has not quite arrived to foreclose and take pos-
session of the whole, but the time has arrived
to open negotiations for a goodly portion.
Mr. President, the Hudson bay territory,
which is now under the government of Winni-
peg, contained in 1861 a population of seventy-
one thousand souls. It comprises the whole
territory lying north of us where the waters
empty into this Hudson bay. It extends from
the Coast of Labrador to British Columbia.
All of this vast interior of the continent is now
in the possession and under the government
of the people of Winnipeg. It is for that ter-
ritory [pointing it out on the map] that I pro-
pose now to negotiate—as large almost as a
continent. We paid $7,000,00"0 for this small
strip you see on the map, ice-bound Alaska,
three years ago ; and now the people of Win-
nipeg coirte and offer us this whole vast terri-
tory for the privilege of becoming citizens of
these United States.
Sir, I call upon the Committee on Foreign
Relations to give this subject, their earnest and
immediate and favorable consideration. Here
is a "Governmentofthe people, by the people,
and for the people," that has remained unques-
tioned for six months asking for annexation
to the United States. Shall we turn a cold
shoulder upon that people and upon that vast
territory that they propose to proffer us as a
free gift? I trow not, sir. I believe that the
time has arrived when these negotiations should
be opened, and opened in earnest. My frietid,
the chairman of the Committee on Foreign
Relations, was slow to adopt my views upon
the Alabama claims and our difficulties with
Great Britain. He opposed me year after year
for four long yeaTS; but his mind is progressive,
and at the end of four years, discovering his
error, he came up to my standard, and I how
entreat him to go a step further and come up
to my standard now.
Mr. DRAKE. Get a peg higher into Wita-
nipeg. [Laughter.]
Mr. CHANDLER. It will be observed that
this Hudson bay territory comprises nearly
the whole of the British possessions. Here is
the Dominion, comprising Upper and Lower
Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, &c.; but
it is a mere speck upon the map. Then, here
is British Columbia, which is not included in
the Hudson bay settlement. But this is not
all, for it is not only the people of Winnipeg
who are suing for admission or for annexation
to the United States, but British Columbia with
one loud voice sends up the desires of her peo-
ple to be admitted into this great nation, and
here is Nova Scotia on the extreme east almost
unanimous for annexation to the United States.
Now, Mr. President, what is the title of
Great Britain to this vast continent? I have
said that she owes us, and I have put the mort-
gage on record, $2,200,000,000, or one half the
whole expenses of the war. My friend from
Massachusetts concurs with me that she is
justly, honorably, and equitably bound to pay
us one half the expenses of our war for her
course during that war. She cannot pay it and
we never expect her to pay it in coin. We
simply say to Great Britain, " Give us a quit-
claim deed to this continent and we will for-
give you the debt, and nothing short of that."
Bat, sir, what does she give us ? Great Britain
has not now and never had title to one single
acre of land on this continent. She gives 113
a quit-claim deed of what she never owned.
Some of her explorers, many of them driven
out by the persecutions of the British Govern-
ment, discovered headlands 011 this continent
and raised the British flag; and upon that
baseless foundation rests her entire title to this
soil.
But my friend from Massachusetts will say,
"Has She not the right of conquest?" Yes,
sir; and how much right did she get by that
conquest? She got the exact right possessed
by the conquered and no more, not one iota
more than the conquered possessed ; and the
conquered possessed no more right than she.
But the Senator will say, "Did you not ac-
knowledge the right in the purchase of Lou-
isiana?" Yes, sir; wo purchased Louisiana
for a small sum. But suppose France to-
day held Louisiana and this northwest terri-
tory, do you think we would pay her for it?
We were then a weak nation, and it was cheaper
and better for us to recognize a right that did
not exist in fact than to go to war. But what
should we do to-day, sir? We should not pay
France four millions nor forty millions nor any
millions to evacuate the Louisiana purchase.
We should say to France, "Your presence
here is an intolerable nuisance, and therefore
you must leave." That is all we should say.
How is it with this Dominion? That Domin-
ion has become, an intolerable nuisance. It
costs us to-day to protect our northern frontier
from smuggling more than ten million dollars
a year ; but that is not all. It is estimated
that otir Treasury suffers to the extent of
$40,000,000 a year by smuggling, notwith-
standing this vast expenditure to protect that
frontier.
Mr. President, nations are like individuals.
Because my friend from Massachusetts owns a
lot opposite mine he has no right to establish
a soap-boiling establishment or other nuisance.
I could appeal to the law and have that nui-
sance abated. Just so it is with nations. It' a
nation is strong enough to abate a nuisance it
abates it. Are we strong enough to abate thi3
nuisance?
But again, sir, this Dominion is antagonistic
to our institutions. Establish a dominion
there, connect this whole territory into one
great Government, with a royal scion at its head,
with its standing army, with its royal institu-
tions, and the effect would be to compel us on
our border to keep standing armies, to keep a
force which we should not otherwise be required
to keep. It would be a standing menace to this
Government, a menace that we ought not to
tolerate and will not tolerate.
Now, Mr. President, notwithstanding Great
Britain has no title, notwithstanding she never
had a title to any portion of this continent, if
she will quietly leave it, quietly roll up her flag
and carry it away, then we will say to Great
Britain we are ready now to meet you in peace,
in harmony, and in amity; but if you under-
take to establish a dominion upon this continent,
with royal institutions, you must be prepared
to maintain that dominion by a force superior
to any force that the United States can bring
to bear against it.
Mr. President, it is said that the Dominion
proposes to send three or four or five or ten
thousand men up into the Winnipeg region to
overthrow that government. I hope that that
is not true. I hope that the Dominion will
undertake to do no such thing. But suppose
she does, there is a vast immigration going up
into the Winnipeg region; I cannot tell how
great ifc is; but buffalo are abundant and game
is abundant, and immigrants are going up there
in great numbers; and as they are obliged to
subsist by hunting they all go well armed; and
then there are between two and three hundred
thousand Fenians, who are, as I am informed,
about to emigrate en masse to people that vast
territory, and for the Dominion to send five or
ten thousand men up there is simply to sacri-
fice them. Sir, it would be equal folly for them
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session Forty-First Congress; Together with an Appendix, Embracing the Laws Passed at that Session, book, 1870; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30886/m1/60/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.