seen how calmly, how fairly, how nobly, a great people can act in preserving their constitution, whom 'love of country moveth, example teacheth, company comforteth, emulation quickeneth, and glory exalteth.""

We now come to the history of the action in the Senate, by which the whole matter in controversy was referred to a committee of thirteen. In the opinion of many, the period had arrived when, in order to secure harmony and peace to the Union, it had become necessary to commit the subjects of the territories and all matters connected with slavery to the deliberation of a select body, in whose impartiality, ability, and patriotism the nation would have confidence. As early as the 25th of February, Mr. Foote had offered a resolution in the Senate to the following effect:

"To refer to a select committee of six members from the north, and six members from the south, and one member to be by them chosen, with instructions to exert themselves for the purpose of maturing a scheme of compromise for the adjustment of all the pending questions growing out of the institution of slavery, and to report by bill or otherwise."

This proposition he sustained by the following considerations: "Sir, every day that we have sat here-deliberating as we call it agitating the question of slavery in this hall, we have placed the Union in still greater peril. It is possible, in my opinion, to dissolve this Union by agitation within the halls of Congress. I am unwilling, therefore, that this debate should progress under existing circumstances. If we can have a practical plan of adjustment presented, or even if we can have a prospective plan presented, that simple fact, in my judgment, will tend to calm the excitement that prevails here and elsewhere throughout the Union; and when some scheme, judicious in its character, shall be presented to us and adopted here, and carried into the House of Representatives, I cannot doubt it will there be ratified, and that it will tend to put an end for ever to the controversy which now so seriously endangers this Union. I believe the remedy to which I have referred is the only remedy; for, sir, if we continue to discuss these abstract resolutions all the week, we will find at the end of the week that we have done nothing except to increase still more the excitement which prevails in this body, and to engender in a still greater degree the spirit of hostility which is now existing in both houses of Congress. In my opinion, we would find it wholly impossible at the end of the week to obtain any adjustment of the prevailing difficulties. Believing this to be the case, and being a sincere lover of the Union-having no especial confidence in my own judgment, but

very great confidence in the judgment of those with whom I have consulted, and for whom I entertain a very high respect, I feel bound to persevere in the motion that I have made."

The plan of adjustment, thus offered, grew, as we will see, into importance, and gradually absorbed the entire attention of Congress.

A short time after, Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, brought forward in the Senate a series of compromise resolutions, which he prefaced with a speech of some length, and from which we make the following brief extract:

"Mr. President, the main pillar upon which the Union rests for its preservation has its foundation in the mutual confidence, the ties of reciprocal interest, and fraternal regard between its different members and sections. These have been the essential elements of that noble sentiment of loyalty to the Union which has hitherto preserved it unscathed and unhurt amid all the storms that have assailed it. Let this sentiment of loyalty be once materially impaired; let this cord, strong as it may be, yet of the finest and most delicate texture, and now strained to the highest point of tension, by any untoward act of violence or rash policy be snapped-its grappling on the hearts of the people in any of their great sectional divisions unloosed and broken-from that moment, sir, the question of the preservation or of the destruction of the Union will cease to inspire a rational interest. If it is preserved, its existence will be nominal, its blessings and advantages a mockery."

"I have heard other remedies, other reliances, I will not say what, alluded to in private conversation, for the preservation of the Union-alluded to, I think, upon no great consideration. But, sir, this Union can never be preserved by enforced observance of its obligations. Your army and navy are not competent to it under circumstances of peril like the present. No, sir, this Union cannot be preserved by all the sacred associations of traditionary references derived from its early history; nor by a regard to obligations contracted in the most solemn and imposing forms, and attested by the most venerated names; nor by glory won under a common banner; nor by a world-wide fame; nor by all these united, if, by any act or scheme of policy deliberately planned, any great principle of common and equal justice, as between the different sections of the Union, should be wantonly and flagrantly violated."

The resolutions of Mr. Bell attracted much attention, and were regarded as offering a liberal basis of compromise.

They commenced with reciting that "considerations of the high

est interest to the whole country demand that the existing and increasing dissensions between the north and the south on the subject of slavery should be speedily arrested, and that the questions in controversy be adjusted upon some basis which shall tend to give present quiet, repress sectional animosities, remove, as far as possible, the causes of future discord, and secure the uninterrupted enjoyment of those benefits and advantages which the Union was intended to confer in equal measure upon all its members;" that "it is manifest, under present circumstances, that no adjustment can be effected of the points of difference unhappily existing between the northern and southern sections of the Union, connected with the subject of slavery, which shall secure to either section all that is contended for; and that mutual concession upon questions of mere policy, not involving the violation of any constitutional right or principle, must be the basis of every project affording any assurance of a favourable acceptance;" and that the joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States, approved March 1, 1845, contained a condition and guaranty that "new states of convenient size, not exceeding four in number in addition to said state of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of said state, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the federal constitution, and such states as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of 36 deg. 30 min. north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as the people of each state asking admission may desire; and in such state or states as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri compromise line slavery or involuntary servitude, except for crime, shall be prohibited"-and then declared

1. That the obligation to comply with the condition and guaranty above recited in good faith, be distinctly recognised, and that, in part compliance with the same, as soon as the people of Texas shall, by an act of their legislature, signify their assent by restricting the limits thereof within the territory lying east of the Trinity, and south of the Red river, and when the people of the residue of the territory claimed by Texas, lying south of the 34th degree of north latitude, and west of the Trinity, shall, with the assent of Texas, adopt a constitution republican in form, they be admitted into the Union upon an equal footing, in all respects, with the original states.

2. That if Texas will agree to cede, the United States will accept a cession of all the unappropriated domain in all the territory claimed by Texas, lying west of the Colorado, and ex

tending north of the 42d parallel of north latitude, and to pay therefor a sum not exceeding millions of dollars, to be applied, in the first place, to the extinguishment of any portion of the exisiting public debt of Texas, for the discharge of which the United States are under any obligation, implied or otherwise, and the remainder as Texas shall require.

3. That when the population of that portion of the territory claimed by Texas, lying south of the 34th parallel of north latitude, and west of the Colorado, shall be equal to the ratio of representation in Congress under the last preceding apportionment, according to the provisions of the constitution, and the people of such territory shall, with the assent of the new state contemplated in the preceding resolution, have adopted a state constitution, republican in form, they be admitted into the Union as a state, upon an equal footing with the original states.

4. That all the territory now claimed by Texas, lying north of the 34th parallel of north latitude, and which may be ceded by the United States to Texas, be incorporated with the territory of New Mexico, except such part thereof as lies east of the Rio Grande and south of the 34th parallel of north latitude; and that the territory so composed form a state, to be admitted into the Union when the inhabitants thereof shall adopt a constitution republican in form, with the consent of Congress; but in the meantime, and until Congress shall give such consent, provision be made for the government of the inhabitants of said territory, suitable to their condition, but without any restriction as to slavery.

5. That all the territory ceded to the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, lying west of said territory of New Mexico, and east of the contemplated new state of California, for the present continue one territory, and for which some form of government suitable to the condition of the inhabitants be provided, without any restriction as to slavery.

6. That the constitution recently formed by the people of the western portion of California, and presented to Congress by the president, on the 13th day of February, 1850, be accepted, and that they be admitted into the Union as a state, upon an equal footing, in all respects, with the original states.

7. That in future the formation of state constitutions by the inhabitants of the territories of the United States be regulated by law, and that no such constitution be hereafter formed or adopted by the inhabitants of any territory belonging to the United States, without the consent and authority of Congress.

8. That the inhabitants of any territory of the United States, when they shall be authorized by Congress to form a state constitution, shall have the sole and exclusive power to regulate and

adjust all questions of internal state policy, of whatever nature they may be, controlled only by the restrictions expressly imposed by the constitution of the United States.

9. That the committee on territories be instructed to report a bill in conformity with the spirit and principles of the foregoing resolutions."

On the 12th March, Mr. Foote, in pursuance of his plan of reference, moved that these resolutions of Mr. Bell be referred to a select committee of thirteen, to consist of six members from the south and six from the north, and one to be by them chosen, and that said committee be instructed to exert themselves to mature some scheme of compromise for the adjustment of all pending questions growing out of the institution of slavery, and to report by bill or otherwise.

In course of the discussion which ensued upon this proposition, Gen. Lewis Cass, senator from Michigan, and the late candidate of the democratic party for the presidency, advocated, with much earnestness and with his accustomed ability, the motion for a reference of the whole matter to a select committee.

"We have been three months here," said Mr. Cass," and what have we done? Nothing. We have not passed a single law of the least national importance. We have occupied the whole time in the discussion of this question, and no practical result has been attained; and present appearances do not indicate that such a result is near. But, though we have done nothing, we have. ascertained that some things cannot be done. We have ascertained—I think I may say with certainty-that no Wilmot proviso can be passed through this Congress. That measure is dead. It is the latest, and I hope it is the last attempt that will be made to interfere with the right of self-government within the limits of this republic. I think we may also say that no Missouri compromise line can pass, and that no one expects or desires that it should pass.

Mr. President, what was the compromise line? Allow me to read the law which established it:

'Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the state contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby for ever prohibited.'

Now, sir, what is this provision? It is intervention north of the line of 36 deg. 30 min., and non-intervention south of that line. Sir, there is not one southern senator on this floor, nor one