H. OF R.] Admission of Arkansas-Supplementary Report. [JUNE, 1836. ing to an article in the constitution of a State | the intercourse of public or private life, I hold which withholds from its Legislature the power of giving freedom to the slave. In this very section of the bill now before the committee, Congress refuse their assent to propositions, made by the convention of the people of Arkansas which formed their constitution, and were transmitted with it. My proposed amendment, very short and simple, is in perfect accordance and keeping with the remainder of the section, as it stands in the bill now before the committee; and although I cannot flatter myself that it will be satisfactory to those of my constituents and fellow-citizens who have thought proper to commit their | memorials and remonstrances to me, it will at least secure to me the consciousness of having discharged my duty to them, to my country, and to that reverence for the rights of mankind, which rejects, without reserve, the principle that, by the law of nature or of God, man can be the property of man. Upon this topic I will not enlarge. Were I disposed so to do, twenty hours of continuous session have too much exhausted my own physical strength, and the faculties, as well as the indulgence of those who might incline to hear me, for me to trespass longer upon their patience. When the bill shall be reported to the House, I may, perhaps, again ask to be heard, upon renewing there, as I intend, the motion for this amendment. [Mr. ADAMS resumed his seat, and Mr. WISE addressed the committee. The debate was continued by Mr. BRIGGS, Mr. CUSHING, Mr. HOAR, and Mr. HARD of New York, and by Mr. WISE, in reply, particularly, to Mr. CUSHING. There was great disorder and confusion in the hall, occasioned chiefly by calls for order and vociferations of the word "question." Personal reflections passed between some of the members, and an affair of honor afterwards followed between two Southern gentlemen, which was, however, finally adjusted without bloodshed. The chairman of the committee, with great and indefatigable exertions, succeeded so far in restoring order that Mr. HOAR was heard with respectful attention. After he took his seat, as the question was about to be put, Mr. ADAMS addressed the committee to the following import:] Mr. Chairman: It was not my intention to have troubled the committee with another word upon the subject of my proposed amendment. But the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. WISE) has been pleased to propound to me a number of direct questions, two or three of which I heard, and to them I am willing to give direct and explicit answers. For, however widely I differ in opinion from him on this and most other occasions of common deliberation in this hall, I will do him the justice which he has done me, and say that there is nothing of indirection or ambiguous giving out in him. His course is straight forward, and you may always know where to find him. And, sir, in in higher esteem an adversary of such a character, than the political vane upon the steeple, whose friendship and whose opinions swing round the compass with every variation of the winds, and are steadfast only to the breath of the breeze. One of the gentleman's questions which I heard was, from whence this amendment came? I answer him directly that it came from me, and from me alone, without consultation with any other human being. There was no abolition gunpowder plot in it; but, in claiming it as all my own, I shall not record a specification of it in the Patent Office as for an ingenious invention or a profound discovery. It laid in my way and I took it up. A respectable portion of my constituents, and many others of my fellow-citizens, had charged me with the duty of presenting their memorials against the slavery article in the constitution of Arkansas. Multitudes of others had entrusted to me their petitions for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Great numbers of petitions, memorials, and remonstrances, of the same purport, had been presented by my colleagues, and by other members of the House. I had been earnestly solicited to support, as far as my very slender influence in this House might extend, and as far as my own convictions of truth and justice would admit, the prayer of those petitions, and the purpose of those remonstrances and memorials. I could not support the immediate abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. I could not resist the admission of Arkansas, notwithstanding the slavery article in her constitution, into the Union. But there was a point of concession to the slaveholding interests of the South, from the representatives of none but freemen in this House, where it appeared to me not only just, but indispensably necessary, to stop. Slavery, taking advantage of political influences, operated just at this time at the North upon the prospects of the presidential election; taking advantage (I must say no very generous advantage) of that kind, friendly, and compassionate feeling of Northern freeman for their brethren and fellow-citizens, the slaveholders of the South, which, during the last twelve months, had universally pervaded the Northern region of the country, and urged our people sometimes even to riotous excess against the peaceable, warm-hearted, but honest-hearted enthusiasts of human liberty: slavery, I say, in the confidence of her temporary reinforcement from sources foreign to her own character, had changed her tone, and was aiming blows of deadly intent at the freedom of her Northern associate itself. She had struck at the right of petition and the freedom of speech in this House; she had struck at the freedom of the press, and at the freedom of the post office, both in this and the other branch of the Legislature, and by the express recommendation of JUNE, 1836.] Admission of Arkansas-Supplementary Report. the Chief Magistrate of the Union; she had | Mr. WISE rose, and inquired whether in the opinion of the gentleman from Massachusetts, [H. OF R. (Mr. ADAMS,) if his amendment should prevail, the State of Arkansas would, by this bill, be admitted in the Union. Mr. ADAMS. Certainly, sir. There is not in my amendment the shadow of a restriction upon the State. It leaves the State, like all the rest, to regulate the subject of slavery within herself to her own laws; and how far that comes short of the concessions required from the slaveholding interest by the Missouri compromise, it is easy to judge by reference to the transactions of that time; for in the act of 6th of March, 1820, to authorize the people of the Missouri Territory to form a constitution and State Government, and for the admission of that State into the Union, slavery was and is forever prohibited in all the territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north latitude, not included within the limits of the State of Missouri. And this was the first Missouri compromise; not the abolition, but the prohibition by Congress forever, of slavery in that portion of the Louisiana Territory where it had not then penetrated. And, secondly, when the Constitution of the State of Missouri was formed, there was an article on the legislative power, the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of which, defining the powers and duties of the General Assembly of the State, was in these words: "It shall be their duty, as soon as may be, to pass such laws as may be necessary, first, to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to and settling in this State, under any pretext whatsoever." Nearly the whole of the second session of the 16th Congress was consumed in debates whether the State of Missouri should be admitted into the Union, without requiring of her that this clause should be expunged from her constitution, and the session terminated with her conditional admission, by a resolution of 2d March, 1821, in the following words: atives of the United States of America in Congress declare the assent of the said State to the said H. OF R.] Death of Ex-President Madison. [JUNE, 1836. part of Congress, the admission of the said State | article, it is provided that the United States into this Union shall be considered as complete." shall, on the application of the Legislature or This was the second Missouri compromise; of the Executive of any one of the States, proand, conformably to this resolution, the Legis-tect the same against domestic violence; an lature of the State of Missouri did, on the 26th expression, if not exclusively confined to servile of June, 1821, by a solemn public act, declare insurrection, undoubtedly selected with special and emphatic reference to it. the assent of the State to this fundamental condition. A copy of this solemn act was transmitted to the President of the United States, who, after consultation with all the members of his administration, and after taking from each one of them his opinion in writing, issued, on the 10th of August, 1821, his proclamation, declaring that the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union was complete. Now, sir, there is in the amendment proposed by me nothing comparable, as concession from the slaveholding to the free States, to this Missouri restriction. I propose no restriction at all. I simply ask that my constituents, as parties to this compact of admission with Arkansas, may not be constructively held to have given their assent to this perpetuation of slavery, placing it beyond the reach of the legis lative authority. And this reservation is entirely conformable to the spirit of the Constitution of the United States. That instrument, containing in four different places arrangements having reference to slavery, does not, in any one of them, recognize the existence of slavery or of slaves; neither of the words is to be found throughout the constitution. Its founders were unwilling that the frame of Government, ordained expressly by the people, to secure to themselves and to their posterity the blessings of liberty, should be polluted even by the name of slavery. Thus, when they provided that the slaveholders should enjoy that most extraordinary privilege of representation of the persons of their slaves in this hall, they adopted a circumlocution, and, after enumerating free persons, those bound to service for a term of years, and Indians not taxed, including every description of human beings, slaves alone excepted, then endowed their masters with the right of representation for three-fifths of "all other persons." Thus, in the ninth section of the first article, which denied to Congress the power, prior to the year 1808, of prohibiting the slave trade, that detestable traffic was described, not by its proper name, but under the gentle denomination of "the migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit." Again: the second section of the fourth article, which stipulates for the arrest and delivery up of fugitive slaves, does not name them as such. It says: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." And, in the fourth section of the fourth In no one of these four passages are slaves recognized as property. In the first three, where the reference to them is direct, they are expressly designated as persons-persons to be represented in Congress, not by themselves, but by the votes of their masters; persons whom the then existing States might think proper to admit; persons held to service or labor, to be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. Not only is there no recognition of slaves as property, not only are they constantly referred to as persons, but in every instance they are so described that the engagement contracted with relation to them might be applicable to classes of persons other than slaves; and this studious uniformity could only arise from the determination to exof language throughout the whole constitution clude from it any acknowledgment of slavery, as forming a component part of the supreme law of the land. It was in this spirit of mutual concession and States was formed and adopted, and it is in this conciliation that the Constitution of the United spirit that I offer the amendment now before the committee. I will trespass no longer upon their indulgence, but will submit a few observations more upon the subject, when the bill shall be reported to the House. THURSDAY, June 30. Death of Ex-President Madison. On the Speaker's resuming the chair, at 4 o'clock, he announced the following Message from the President of the United States: WASHINGTON, June 30, 1836. To the Senate and House of Representatives : It becomes my painful duty to announce to you the melancholy intelligence of the death of James Madison, ex-President of the United States. He departed this life at half-past six o'clock on the morning of the 28th instant, full of years and of honor. I hasten this communication, in order that Congress may adopt such measures as may be proper to testify their sense of the respect which is due to the memory of one whose life has contributed so essentially to the happiness and glory of his country, and to the good of mankind. ANDREW JACKSON. The Message having been read, Mr. PATTON, of Virginia, said that the particular relation in which he stood, as his immediate representative and personal friend, towards the great public benefactor whose decease, "full of years and full of honors," had just been announced by the Message of the President of the United States, had induced the Virginia delegation to devolve upon him the mournful duty of proposing for the adoption of the House the resolution he was about to offer, for the purpose of determining upon the course to be pursued for giving expression to the national sensibility to the great bereavement we had suffered. I do not, however, Mr. Speaker, feel it to be a suitable occasion in which to employ or indulge in any studied phrase of panegyric upon the public or private virtues of the venerable man whose loss we deplore. [H. OF R. The resolution having been read, Mr. ADAMS rose, and addressed the Speaker. By the general sense of the House, said he, it is with perfect propriety that the delegation from the Commonwealth of Virginia have taken the lead in the melancholy duty of proposing the measures suitable to be adopted as testimonials of the veneration due from the Legislature of the Union to the memory of the departed patriot and sage, the native of their soil, and the citizen of their community. It is not without some hesitation, and some diffidence, that I have risen to offer in my own It is true, sir, that, early imbued with the behalf, and in that of my colleagues upon this sincerest veneration for the character of Mr. floor, and of our common constituents, to join Madison, with the profoundest admiration of our voice, at once of mourning and of exultahis talents, and the warmest gratitude for his tion, at the event announced to both Houses of eminent and varied public services, there is no Congress by the Message from the President of language that I could employ which would ex- the United States of mourning at the bereaveaggerate the deep emotion with which I have ment which has befallen our common country been impressed by the melancholy intelligence by the decease of one of her most illustrious of his death. And I am sure that it would be sons; of exultation at the spectacle afforded to equally impossible for me to speak of him in the observation of the civilized world, and for any terms that would depict an individual pre- the emulation of after times, by the close of a eminent in all the virtues of social and private life of usefulness and of glory, after forty years life, or one that combined the merits of a pa- of service in trusts of the highest dignity and triot, statesman, and sage, that would not find splendor that a confiding country could bestow, a ready and full response in the minds and succeeded by twenty years of retirement and hearts of all who hear me. But it is not a private life, not inferior, in the estimation feeble effort of this kind, such as I could make, of the virtuous and the wise, to the honors nor even by the highest effort of human elo- of the highest station that ambition can ever quence, the lofty inspiration of poetry, the attain. storied urn or animated bust," that can rear an appropriate monument to the memory of Mr. Madison, or erect a suitable monument to his fame. Of the public life of James Madison what could I say that is not deeply impressed upon the memory and upon the heart of every one within the sound of my voice? Of his private life, what but must meet an echoing shout of applause from every voice within this hall? Is it not in a pre-eminent degree by emanations from his mind that we are assembled here as the Representatives of the people and States of this Union? Is it not transcendently by his exertions that we all address each other here by the endearing appellation of countrymen and fellow-citizens? Of that band of benefactors of the human race, the founders of the Constitution of the United States, James Madison is the last who is gone to his reward. Their His appropriate and enduring eulogium is to be found inscribed in those pages of his country's history which are identified with her honor and glory. It is engraved upon every pillar of that splendid fabric of constitutional liberty under which we live. It is identified with the existence of that glorious union of confederated States which he contributed so essentially to form, and the maintenance and preservation of which, with all its numerous blessings, were the constant objects of his care during his long, laborious, and useful public life, and of his most earnest and anxious solici-glorious work has survived them all. They tude in the shades of retirement. And, Mr. Speaker, another and not less decisive and more affecting evidence of his merit and title to public gratitude will be found in the deep grief with which his loss will be deplored by every man in the nation as a great national calamity. I offer the resolution which I now send to the Chair: Resolved, That a committee be appointed on the part of this House, to join such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider and report by what token of respect and affection it may be proper for the Congress of the United States to express the deep sensibility of the nation to the event of the decease of Mr. Madison, just announced by the President of the United States to this House. have transmitted the precious bond of union to us, now entirely a succeeding generation to them. May it never cease to be a voice of admonition to us of our duty to transmit the inheritance unimpaired to our children of the rising age. Of the personal relations with this great man, which gave rise to the long career of public service in which twenty years of my own life have been engaged, it becomes me not to speak. The fulness of the heart must be silent, even to the suppression of the overflowings of gratitude and affection. A message was received from the Senate, announcing the adoption of the following resolu tion by that body: H. OF R.] 66 "IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, West Point Academy. [JUNE, 1836. you require the people's money for the support of the institution, while you refuse them the light necessary to enable them to judge of the propriety of your annual requisitions. Whether the amount proposed to be appro June 30, 1836. "Resolved, That a committee be appointed on the part of the Senate, to join such committee as may be appointed on the part of the House, to consider and report by what token of respect and affec-priated by the bill upon your table is too great tion it may be proper for the Congress of the United States to express the deep sensibility of the nation to the event of the decease of Mr. Madison, just announced by the President of the United States. Ordered, That Mr. RIVES, Mr. CLAY, Mr. CALHOUN, Mr. GRUNDY, Mr. BUCHANAN, Mr. LEIGH, and Mr. TALLMADGE, be the committee. "Attest: WALTER LOWRIE, Sec'y." The House concurred in the resolution, and, according to a previous order of the House, the committee was ordered to consist of one from each State in the Union; and the following gentlemen were appointed: Mr. PATTON, of Virginia; Mr. MASON, of Maine; Mr. CUSHMAN, of New Hampshire; Mr. ADAMS, of Massachusetts; Mr. TOUCEY, of Connecticut; Mr. PEARCE, of Rhode Island; Mr. ALLEN, of Vermont; Mr. WARD, of New York; Mr. PARKER, of New Jersey; Mr. ANTHONY, of Pennsylvania; Mr. MILLIGAN, of Delaware; Mr. WASHINGTON, of Maryland'; Mr. DEBERRY, of North Carolina; Mr. GRIFFIN, of South Carolina; Mr. COFFEE, of Georgia; Mr. JOHNSON, of Kentucky; Mr. DUNLAP, of Tennessee; Mr. MOLENE, of Ohio; Mr. RIPLEY, of Louisiana; Mr. CARR, of Indiana; Mr. CLAIBORNE, of Mississippi; Mr. REYNOLDS, of Illinois; Mr. LYON, of Alabama; Mr. HARRISON, of Missouri. Cherokee Treaty. The House then went into Committee of the Whole (Mr. LINCOLN in the chair) on the "bill making further appropriations for carrying into effect certain Indian treaties, and for other purposes." The question pending was the motion of Mr. ADAMS to strike out the following clause: "For the amount stipulated to be paid for the lands ceded in the first article of the treaty with the Cherokees of the 29th of December, 1835, deducting the cost of the land to be provided for them west of the Mississippi, under the second article of the treaty, $4,500,000." West Point Academy. On motion of Mr. CAMBRELENG, the committee then took up the "bill_making appropriations for the Military Academy of the United States, for the year 1836." Mr. PIERCE, of New Hampshire, rose and addressed the Chair as follows: Mr. Chairman: An attempt was made during the last Congress to bring the subject of the reorganization of the Military Academy before the country, through a report of a committee. The same thing has been done during the present session, again and again, but all efforts have proved alike unsuccessful! Still, you do not cease to call for appropriations; or too small, or precisely sufficient to cover the current expenses of the institution, is a matter into which I will not at present inquire; but I shall feel bound to oppose the bill in every stage of its progress. I cannot vote a single dollar until the resolution of inquiry, presented by my friend from Kentucky, (Mr. HAWES,) at an early day in the session, shall be first taken up and disposed of. I am aware, sir, that it will be said, because I have heard the same declaration on a former occasion, that this is not the proper time to discuss the merits of the institution; that the bill is to make provision for expenses already incurred in part; and whatever opinions may be entertained upon the necessity of a reorganization, the appropriation must be made. I say to gentlemen who are opposed to the principles of the institution, and to those who believe that abuses exist, which ought to be exposed and corrected, that now is their only time, and this the only opportunity during the present session, to attain their object, and I trust they will steadily resist the bill until its friends shall find it necessary to take up the resolution of inquiry and give it its proper reference. Sir, why has this investigation been resisted? Is it not an institution which has already cost this country more than three millions of dollars, for which you propose, in this very bill, an appropriation of more than one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, and which at the same time, in the estimation of a large portion of the citizens in this Union, has failed, eminently failed, to fulfil the objects for which it was established, of sufficient interest and importance to claim the consideration of a committee of this House, and of the House itself? I should have expected the resolution of the gentleman from Kentucky, (Mr. HAWES,) merely proposing an inquiry, to pass without opposition, had I not witnessed the strong sensation, nay, excitement, that was produced here, at the last session, by the presentation of his yet unpublished report. Sir, if you would have an exhibition of highly excited feeling, it requires little observation to learn that you may produce it at any moment by attacking such laws as confer exclusive and gratuitous privileges. The adoption of the resolution of inquiry, at the last session of Congress, and the appointment of a select committee under it, were made occasion of newspaper paragraphs, which, in tone of lamentation, and direful prediction, rivalled the most highly wrought specimens of the panic era. One of those articles I preserved, and have before me. It commences thus: "The architects of ruin.—This name has been appropriately given to those who are leading on the base, the ignorant, and the un |