Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Nineteenth Congress Page: 117
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i'i-7
OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS.
118
March 2, 1826.]
Negro Slavery fn South Antrim.
[SENATE.
fault tQ.be found with it, hut as to its general effect, which
isa want of effect altogether. Sir, although I give to the
subjects submitted to the Senate the most patient consi-
deration; though 1 turn them, arid re-turn them, over and
over,again, in my mind, yet when I come to utter the re-
sults of that rumination, I sun compelled to do so as an ir-
regular—rather as a partizan officer than according to the
regular art military; as an improvisatore—that I believe is
the name which the Italians give to those who speak, not
without much previous thinking indeed, but without the
book, or even without notes. Sir, in respect to these re-
gular arguments, it has often struck me that thev resem-
ble, in more regards than one, the modern invention of a
chain bridge—nhich, provided the abutments and fixtures
are perfectly strong, and provided there is no defective link
in the whole chain—are amongst the finest and most useful
specimens of human ingenuity: but, sir, when we reverse
the proposition—when the abutments are not sufficient—
and there is. one single link which is defective—one is as
good—as bad rather, as a thousand—that one is fatal to
the whole structure, and souse down into the water comes
the unwary passenger, who trusts himself to the treacher-
ous edifice. There are artists, indeed—and some of them
not far off either—who have the skill to elaborate those
technical regular arguments of induction with such ex-
quisite finish as to defy the eye, or even the touch of any
man alive; but, while they puzzle and confound the un-
derstanding, they can never convince it, because they
lead, us to such monstrous and frightful conclusions, that
no fair exercise of that reasoning faculty which has been
given us by our Maker for our guide, can bring a plain
man to. Here is a case, in which, if it be not safe to
reason to conclusions, which perhaps is too much my ha-
bit; it is quite safe to reason from conclusions. Whenever
any chain of reasoning, however learned and ingenious it
may be, leads to conclusions so monstrous as to offend
the common sense of mankind, I say that, although you
may not be able to detect in which link of the argument
the defect is, yet you know, from the results to which it
carries you, that it is radically defective—that there is a
something somewhere about it, although neither your eye
nor your touch can detect it, that renders it radically de-
fective and unworthy of trust; and if I were called on for
an illustration, I could give it, and would give it, in the
opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of Cohens
against the State of Virginia.
_ Sir, 1 know there are gentlemen, not only from the
Northern, but from the Southern States, who think that
this unhappy question—for such it is—of negro slavery—
which the Constitution has vainly attempted to blink, by
not using the term—should never be brought into public
notice, more especially into tliat of Congress, and most es-
pecially, here. Sir, with every due respect for the gen-
tlemen who think so, 1 differ from them, toto cjido. Sir, it
is a thing which cannot be hid—it is not a dry rot that you
can cover with the carpet, until the house tumbles about
your ears—-you mightas well try to hide a volcano, in full
operation—it cannot be hid—it is a cancer in your face,
and must be treated secundum artem; it must not be tam-
pered with by quicks, who never saw the disease or the
patient, and prescribe across the Atlantic; it must be, if
you will, let alone; but on this very principle of letting it
alone, it is that I have brought in my resolution. I am
wiUing to play what is called child's play—let me alone
and I will y et you alone; let my resolution alone, and I will
say nothing insupportofit:forthere isa wantof sense in say-
ing any thingin support of a resolution that nobod v opposes.
Sir, will the Senate pardon my repeating the words of a
-great man, which cannot be too often repeated? A
small danger menacing an inestimable object, is of more
importance, in the eyes of a wiseman, than tiie greatest
danger which can possibly threaten an object of minor
consequence. The question before us is, is this an object
pf inestimable consequence' I <io not put the question
to you, sir. I know what your answer will be. I know
what will be the answer of every husband, father, son, and
.brother, throughout the Southern States; I know that on
this depends the honor of ever)- matron and maiden—of eve-
ry matron, (wife, or widow,) between the Ohio and the
Gulf of Mexico: I know that upon it depends the life's
blood of the little ones, which are lying in their cradles,
in happy ignorance of what is passing around them; and
not the white ones only: for shall not we too kill—shall
we not re-act the scenes which were acted in Guatemala,
and elsewhere, except, I hope, with far different success;
for if, with a superiority, in point of numbers, as well as of
intelligence and courage, we should suffer ourselves to be,
as there, vanquished—we should deserve to have negroes
for our task-masters, and for the husbands of pur wives.
This, then, is the inestimable objcct which the gentleman
from Carolina views in the same light that I do, and that you
do too, sir, and to which every Southern bosom responds: a
chord, which, when touched, even by the most delicate
hand, vibrates to the heart of every man in our country.
I wish I could maintain, with truth, that it came within
the other predicament—that it was a small danger—but it
is a great- danger—it is a danger that has increased, is in-
creasing, and must be diminished, or it must come to its re-
gular catastrophe.
Sir. President, within the last thirty years, or therea-
bouts—for I have been contemporary with the facts—a to-
tal change has token place in public opinion, in Great
Britain—which always acts as possessing a common lan-
guage and almost a literature and laws in common, she
must and she ought to act with great force on us—and in
certain other parts of other countries, which I shall not
now designate, in reference to this question. There was
a time, sir, when the advocates for the abolition of the
Slave Trade found, in almost every bosom possessing com-
mon humanity, and common sense, a friend. There were
some few, to be sure, old veteran Swiss of State, who, up-
holding all administrations, and all abuses and corruptions,
had gone more than knee deep in corruption—followers
perhaps of Dundas, fellows of ojd George Rose, pledged
five fathom deep in corruption—who still upheld that abo-
mination. There were some few, indeed, of a very differ-
ent description. From my early childhood, all my feel-
ings and instincts were in opposition to slavery in every
shape; to the subjugation of one man's will to that of ano-
ther; and from the time that I read Clarkson's celebrated
pamphlet, I was, lam afraid, as mad—as Clarkson liim-
self. I read myself into this madness, as I have read my-
self into some agricultural improvements; but, as with
these last I worked myself out of them, so also I worked
myself out of it. At the time, sir, that the abolition of the
Slave Trade was made piracy, and we had as good a right
to make it treason, if the Constitution had not already de-
fined treason—for it is as much treason as it is piracy—-did I
say as good a right?—I say you havethe right—it hasbeen
settled by practice here at least already—you can define
treason by law—for what is the Constitution, opposed to
.the established practice under it' what is the old version
to this, which is only one of the new readings, hnge emcn-
datior, of the old edition of the Constitution > You have, in
a time of profound peace, suspended the privilege of the
writ habeas corpus—the personal-security-act—so far as' a
bill passed by the Senate could do it. I do not often agree
with William Cobbett, but I wish it had this name of per-
sonal-security-act, that the People might understand its
real meaning and importance better than they seemed to
do, when they gave their confidence to them that proposed
and supported that suspension, in the teeth of an express
constitutional prohibition. Then, the Society was got up,
of which I was a most unw orthy member; but, so far from
keeping the faith, 1 have become a backslider; and whe-
ther I have left the Society, or the Society has left me, I
cannot tell, and do not care. I had not much faith in it
from the beginning; but I thought it a very desirable
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Nineteenth Congress, book, 1826; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30753/m1/63/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.