American Eloquence, Volume I. (of 4) by Various

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Mr. Speaker, there is a great rule of human conduct, which he who
honestly observes, cannot err widely from the path of his sought duty.
It is, to be very scrupulous concerning the principles you select as the
test of your rights and obligations; to be very faithful in noticing the
result of their application; and to be very fearless in tracing and
exposing their immediate effects and distant consequences. Under the
sanction of this rule of conduct, I am compelled to declare it as my
deliberate opinion, that, if this bill passes, the bonds of this union
are, virtually, dissolved; that the States which compose it are free
from their moral obligations, and that as it will be the right of all,
so it will be the duty of some, to prepare, definitely, for a
separation: amicably, if they can; _violently, if they must_.

(Mr. Quincy was here called to order by Mr. Poindexter, delegate from
the Mississippi territory, for the words in italics. After it was
decided, upon an appeal to the House, that Mr. Quincy was in order, he
proceeded.)

I rejoice, Mr. Speaker, at the result of this appeal. Not from any
personal consideration, but from the respect paid to the essential
rights of the people, in one of their representatives. When I spoke of
the separation of the States, as resulting from the violation of the
Constitution contemplated in this bill, I spoke of it as a necessity,
deeply to be deprecated; but as resulting from causes so certain and
obvious as to be absolutely inevitable, when the effect of the principle
is practically experienced. It is to preserve, to guard the Constitution
of my country, that I denounce this attempt. I would rouse the attention
of gentlemen from the apathy with which they seem beset. These
observations are not made in a corner; there is no low intrigue; no
secret machination. I am on the people's own ground; to them I appeal
concerning their own rights, their own liberties, their own intent, in
adopting this Constitution. The voice I have uttered, at which gentlemen
startle with such agitation, is no unfriendly voice. I intended it as a
voice of warning. By this people, and by the event, if this bill passes,
I am willing to be judged, whether it be not a voice of wisdom.

The bill which is now proposed to be passed has this assumed principle
for its basis; that the three branches of this national government,
without recurrence to conventions of the people in the States, or to the
Legislatures of the States, are authorized to admit new partners to a
share of the political power, in countries out of the original limits of
the United States. Now, this assumed principle, I maintain to be
altogether without any sanction in the Constitution. I declare it to be
a manifest and atrocious usurpation of power; of a nature, dissolving,
according to undeniable principles of moral law, the obligations of our
national compact; and leading to all the awful con-sequences which flow
from such a state of things. Concerning this assumed principle, which is
the basis of this bill, this is the general position, on which I rest my
argument; that if the authority, now proposed to be exercised, be
delegated to the three branches of the government by virtue of the
Constitution, it results either from its general nature, or from its
particular provisions. I shall consider distinctly both these sources,
in relation to this pretended power.

Touching the general nature of the instrument called the Constitution of
the United States there is no obscurity; it has no fabled descent, like
the palladium of ancient Troy, from the heavens. Its origin is not
confused by the mists of time, or hidden by the darkness of passed,
unexplored ages; it is the fabric of our day. Some now living, had a
share in its construction; all of us stood by, and saw the rising of the
edifice. There can be no doubt about its nature. It is a political
compact. By whom? And about what? The preamble to the instrument will
answer these questions.

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the
common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution, for the United States of America."

It is, we the people of the United States, for ourselves and our
posterity; not for the people of Louisiana; nor for the people of New
Orleans or of Canada. None of these enter into the scope of the
instrument; it embraces only "the United States of America." Who these
are, it may seem strange in this place to inquire. But truly, sir, our
imaginations have, of late, been so accustomed to wander after new
settlements to the very ends of the earth, that it will not be time ill
spent to inquire what this phrase means, and what it includes. These are
not terms adopted at hazard; they have reference to a state of things
existing anterior to the Constitution. When the people of the present
United States began to contemplate a severance from their parent State,
it was a long time before they fixed definitely the name by which they
would be designated. In 1774, they called themselves "the Colonies and
Provinces of North America." In 1775, "the Representatives of the United
Colonies of North America." In the Declaration of Independence, "the
Representatives of the United States of America." And finally, in the
articles of confederation, the style of the confederacy is declared to
be "the United States of America." It was with reference to the old
articles of confederation, and to preserve the identity and established
individuality of their character, that the preamble to this
Constitution, not content, simply, with declaring that it is "we the
people of the United States," who enter into this compact, adds that it
is for "the United States of America." Concerning the territory
contemplated by the people of the United States, in these general terms,
there can be no dispute; it is settled by the treaty of peace, and
included within the Atlantic Ocean, the St. Croix, the lakes, and more
precisely, so far as relates to the frontier, having relation to the
present argument, within "a line to be drawn through the middle of the
river Mississippi, until it intersect the northernmost part of the
thirty-first degree of north latitude, thence within a line drawn due
east on this degree of latitude to the river Apalachicola, thence along
the middle of this river to its junction with the Flint River, thence
straight to the head of the St. Mary's River, and thence down the St.
Mary's to the Atlantic Ocean."

I have been thus particular to draw the minds of gentlemen, distinctly,
to the meaning of the terms used in the preamble; to the extent which
"the United States" then included; and to the fact, that neither New
Orleans, nor Louisiana, was within the comprehension of the terms of
this instrument. It is sufficient for the present branch of my argument
to say, that there is nothing, in the general nature of this compact,
from which the power, contemplated to be exercised in this bill,
results. On the contrary, as the introduction of a new associate in
political power implies, necessarily, a new division of power, and
consequent diminution of the relative proportion of the former
proprietors of it, there can, certainly, be nothing more obvious, than
that from the general nature of the instrument no power can result to
diminish and give away, to strangers, any proportion of the rights of
the original partners. If such a power exist, it must be found, then, in
the particular provisions in the Constitution. The question now arising
is, in which of these provisions is given the power to admit new States,
to be created in territories beyond the limits of the old United States.
If it exist anywhere, it is either in the third section of the fourth
article of the Constitution, or in the treaty-making power. If it result
from neither of these, it is not pretended to be found anywhere else.

That part of the third section of the fourth article, on which the
advocates of this bill rely, is the following: "New States may be
admitted by the Congress, into this Union; but no new State shall be
formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State, nor any
State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of
States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned,
as well as of the Congress."

I know, Mr. Speaker, that the first clause of this paragraph has been
read, with all the superciliousness of a grammarian's triumph--"New
States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union,"--accompanied
with this most consequential inquiry: "Is not this a new State to be
admitted? And is there not here an express authority?" I have no doubt
this is a full and satisfactory argument to every one who is content
with the mere colors and superficies of things. And if we were now at
the bar of some stall-fed justice, the inquiry would insure the victory
to the maker of it, to the manifest delight of the constables and
suitors of his court. But, sir, we are now before the tribunal of the
whole American people; reasoning concerning their liberties, their
rights, their Constitution. These are not to be made the victims of the
inevitable obscurity of general terms; nor the sport of verbal
criticism. The question is concerning the intent of the American people,
the proprietors of the old United States, when they agreed to this
article. Dictionaries and spelling-books are here of no authority.
Neither Johnson, nor Walker, nor Webster, nor Dilworth, has any voice in
this matter. Sir, the question concerns the proportion of power
reserved, by this Constitution, to every State in this Union. Have the
three branches of this government a right, at will, to weaken and
out-weigh the influence, respectively secured to each State in this
compact, by introducing, at pleasure, new partners, situate beyond the
old limits of the United States? The question has not relation merely to
New Orleans. The great objection is to the principle of the bill. If
this principle be admitted, the whole space of Louisiana, greater, it is
said, than the entire extent of the old United States, will be a mighty
theatre, in which this government assumes the right of exercising this
unparalleled power. And it will be; there is no concealment, it is
intended to be exercised. Nor will it stop until the very name and
nature of the old partners be overwhelmed by new-corners into the
confederacy. Sir, the question goes to the very root of the power and
influence of the present members of this Union. The real intent of this
article, is, therefore, an injury of most serious import; and is to be
settled only by a recurrence to the known history and known relations of
this people and their Constitution. These, I maintain, support this
position, that the terms "new States," in this article, do not intend
new political sovereignties, with territorial annexations, to be created
without the original limits of the United States. * * *

But there is an argument stronger even than all those which have been
produced, to be drawn from the nature of the power here proposed to be
exercised. Is it possible that such a power, if it had been intended to
be given by the people, should be left dependent upon the effect of
general expressions, and such, too, as were obviously applicable to
another subject, to a particular exigency contemplated at that time?
Sir, what is this power we propose now to usurp? Nothing less than a
power changing all the proportions of the weight and influence possessed
by the potent sovereignties composing this Union. A stranger is to be
introduced to an equal share without their consent. Upon a principle
pretended to be deduced from the Constitution, this government, after
this bill passes, may and will multiply foreign partners in power at its
own mere motion; at its irresponsible pleasure; in other words, as local
interests, party passions, or ambitious views may suggest. It is a power
that from its nature never could be delegated; never was delegated; and
as it breaks down all the proportions of power guaranteed by the
Constitution to the States, upon which their essential security depends,
utterly annihilates the moral force of this political conduct. Would
this people, so wisely vigilant concerning their rights, have
transferred to Congress a power to balance, at its will, the political
weight of any one State, much more of all the States, by authorizing it
to create new States, at its pleasure, in foreign countries, not
pretended to be within the scope of the Constitution, or the conception
of the people at the time of passing it? This is not so much a question
concerning the exercise of sovereignty, as it is who shall be
sovereign--whether the proprietors of the good old United States shall
manage their own affairs in their own way; or whether they, and their
Constitution, and their political rights, shall be trampled under foot
by foreigners, introduced through a breach of the Constitution. The
proportion of the political weight of each sovereign State constituting
this Union depends upon the number of the States which have voice under
the compact. This number the Constitution permits us to multiply at
pleasure within the limits of the original United States, observing only
the expressed limitations in the Constitution. But when, in order to
increase your power of augmenting this number, you pass the old limits,
you are guilty of a violation of the Constitution in a fundamental
point; and in one, also, which is totally inconsistent with the intent
of the contract and the safety of the States which established the
association. What is the practical difference to the old partners
whether they hold their liberties at the will of a master, or whether by
admitting exterior States on an equal footing with the original States,
arbiters are constituted, who, by availing themselves of the contrariety
of interests and views, which in such a confederacy necessarily will
arise, hold the balance among the parties which exist and govern us by
throwing themselves into the scale most comformable to their purpose? In
both cases there is an effective despotism. But the last is the more
galling, as we carry the chain in the name and gait of freemen.

I have thus shown, and whether fairly, I am willing to be judged by the
sound discretion of the American people, that the power proposed to be
usurped in this bill, results neither from the general nature nor the
particular provisions of the Federal Constitution; and that it is a
palpable violation of it in a fundamental point; whence flow all the
consequences I have indicated.

"But," says the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rhea), "these people have
been seven years citizens of the United States." I deny it, sir. As
citizens of New Orleans, or of Louisiana, they never have been, and by
the mode proposed they never will be, citizens of the United States.
They may girt upon us for a moment, but no real cement can grow from
such an association. What the real situation of the inhabitants of those
foreign countries is, I shall have occasion to show presently. "But,"
says the same gentleman: "if I have a farm, have not I a right to
purchase another farm, in my neighborhood, and settle my sons upon it,
and in time admit them to a share in the management of my household?"
Doubtless, sir. But are these cases parallel? Are the three branches of
this government owners of this farm, called the United States? I desire
to thank heaven they are not. I hold my life, liberty, and property, and
the people of the State from which I have the honor to be a
representative hold theirs, by a better tenure than any this National
Government can give. Sir, I know your virtue. And I thank the Great
Giver of every good gift, that neither the gentleman from Tennessee, nor
his comrades, nor any, nor all the members of this House, nor of the
other branch of the Legislature, nor the good gentleman who lives in the
palace yonder, nor all combined, can touch these my essential rights,
and those of my friends and constituents, except in a limited and
prescribed form. No, sir. We hold these by the laws, customs, and
principles of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Behind her ample
shield, we find refuge, and feel safety. I beg gentlemen not to act upon
the principle, that the commonwealth of Massachusetts is their farm.

"But," the gentleman adds, "what shall we do, if we do not admit the
people of Louisiana into our Union? Our children are settling that
country." Sir, it is no concern of mine what he does. Because his
children have run wild and uncovered into the woods, is that a reason
for him to break into my house, or the houses of my friends, to filch
our children's clothes, in order to cover his children's nakedness. This
Constitution never was, and never can be, strained to lap over all the
wilderness of the West, without essentially affecting both the rights
and convenience of its real proprietors. It was never constructed to
form a covering for the inhabitants of the Missouri and Red River
country. And whenever it is attempted to be stretched over them, it will
rend asunder. I have done with this part of my argument. It rests upon
this fundamental principle, that the proportion of political power,
subject only to internal modifications, permitted by the Constitution,
is an unalienable, essential, intangible right. When it is touched, the
fabric is annihilated; for, on the preservation of these proportions,
depend our rights and liberties.

If we recur to the known relations existing among the States at the time
of the adoption of this Constitution, the same conclusions will result.
The various interests, habits, manners, prejudices, education,
situation, and views, which excited jealousies and anxieties in the
breasts of some of our most distinguished citizens, touching the result
of the proposed Constitution, were potent obstacles to its adoption. The
immortal leader of our Revolution, in his letter to the President of the
old Congress, written as president of the convention which formed this
compact, thus speaks on this subject: "It is at all times difficult to
draw, with precision, the line between those rights which must be
surrendered, and those which may be reserved; and on the present
occasion this difficulty was increased by a difference among the several
States, as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular
interests."

The debates of that period will show that the effect of the slave votes
upon the political influence of this part of the country, and the
anticipated variation of the weight of power to the West, were subjects
of great and just jealousy to some of the best patriots in the Northern
and Eastern States. Suppose, then, that it had been distinctly foreseen
that, in addition to the effect of this weight, the whole population of
a world beyond the Mississippi was to be brought into this and the other
branch of the Legislature, to form our laws, control our rights, and
decide our destiny. Sir, can it be pretended that the patriots of that
day would for one moment have listened to it? They were not madmen. They
had not taken degrees at the hospital of idiocy. They knew the nature of
man, and the effect of his combinations in political societies. They
knew that when the weight of particular sections of a confederacy was
greatly unequal, the resulting power would be abused; that it was not in
the nature of man to exercise it with moderation. The very extravagance
of the intended use is a conclusive evidence against the possibility of
the grant of such a power as is here proposed. Why, sir, I have already
heard of six States, and some say there will be, at no great distance of
time, more. I have also heard that the mouth of the Ohio will be far to
the east of the centre of the contemplated empire. If the bill is
passed, the principle is recognized. All the rest are mere questions of
expediency. It is impossible such a power could be granted. It was not
for these men that our fathers fought. It was not for them this
Constitution was adopted. You have no authority to throw the rights and
liberties and property of this people into "hotch-pot" with the wild men
on the Missouri, nor with the mixed, though more respectable, race of
Anglo-Hispano-Gallo-Americans, who bask on the sands in the mouth of the
Mississippi. I make no objection to these from their want of moral
qualities or political light. The inhabitants of New Orleans are, I
suppose, like those of all other countries, some good, some bad, some
indifferent.* * *

I will add only a few words, in relation to the moral and political
consequences of usurping this power. I have said that it would be a
virtual dissolution of the Union; and gentlemen express great
sensibility at the expression. But the true source of terror is not the
declaration I have made, but the deed you propose. Is there a moral
principle of public law better settled, or more conformable to the
plainest suggestions of reason, than that the violation of a contract by
one of the parties may be considered as exempting the other from its
obligations? Suppose, in private life, thirteen form a partnership, and
ten of them undertake to admit a new partner without the concurrence of
the other three, would it not be at their option to abandon the
partnership, after so palpable an infringement of their rights? How much
more, in the political partnership, where the admission of new
associates, without previous authority, is so pregnant with obvious
dangers and evils! Again, it is settled as a principle of morality,
among writers on public law, that no person can be obliged, beyond his
intent at the time of contract. Now who believes, who dare assert, that
it was the intention of the people, when they adopted this Constitution,
to assign, eventually, to New Orleans and Louisiana, a portion of their
political power; and to invest all the people those extensive regions
might hereafter contain, with an authority over themselves and their
descendants? When you throw the weight of Louisiana into the scale, you
destroy the political equipoise contemplated at the time of forming the
contract. Can any man venture to affirm that the people did intend such
a comprehension as you now, by construction, give it? Or can it be
concealed that, beyond its fair and acknowledged intent, such a compact
has no moral force? If gentlemen are so alarmed at the bare mention of
the consequences, let them abandon a measure which, sooner or later,
will produce them. How long before the seeds of discontent will ripen,
no man can foretell. But it is the part of wisdom not to multiply or
scatter them. Do you suppose the people of the Northern and Atlantic
States will, or ought to, look on with patience and see Representatives
and Senators, from the Red River and Missouri, pouring themselves upon
this and the other floor, managing the concerns of a sea-board fifteen
hundred miles, at least, from their residence; and having a
preponderancy in councils, into which, constitutionally, they could
never have been admitted? I have no hesitation upon this point. They
neither will see it, nor ought to see it, with content. It is the part
of a wise man to foresee danger and to hide himself. This great
usurpation, which creeps into this House, under the plausible appearance
of giving content to that important point, New Orleans, starts up a
gigantic power to control the nation. Upon the actual condition of
things, there is, there can be, no need of concealment. It is apparent
to the blindest vision. By the course of nature, and conformable to the
acknowledged principles of the Constitution, the sceptre of power, in
this country, is passing toward the Northwest. Sir, there is to this no
objection. The right belongs to that quarter of the country. Enjoy it;
it is yours. Use the powers granted as you please. But take care, in
your haste after effectual dominion, not to overload the scale by
heaping it with these new acquisitions. Grasp not too eagerly at your
purpose. In your speed after uncontrolled sway, trample not down this
Constitution. * * *

New States are intended to be formed beyond the Mississippi. There is no
limit to men's imaginations, on this subject, short of California and
Columbia River. When I said that the bill would justify a revolution and
would produce it, I spoke of its principle and its practical
consequences. To this principle and those consequences I would call the
attention of this House and nation. If it be about to introduce a
condition of things absolutely insupportable, it becomes wise and honest
men to anticipate the evil, and to warn and prepare the people against
the event. I have no hesitation on the subject. The extension of this
principle to the States contemplated beyond the Mississippi, cannot,
will not, and ought not to be borne. And the sooner the people
contemplate the unavoidable result the better; the more hope that the
evils may be palliated or removed.

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