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

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But, not to be tedious in enumerating the numerous changes for the
better, allow me to allude to one other--though last, not least. The
new constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions
relating to our peculiar institution, African slavery as it exists
amongst us, the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization.
This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.
Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this as the "rock upon which
the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him
is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great
truth upon which that rock stood and stands may be doubted. The
prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen
at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were that the
enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that
it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an
evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the
men of that day was that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence,
the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not
incorporated in the Constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time.
The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the
institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly
urged against the constitutional guaranties thus secured, because of the
common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally
wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This
was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon
it fell when "the storm came and the wind blew."

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its
foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that
the negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery--subordination to
the superior race--is his natural and normal condition.

This, our new government, is the first in the history of the world based
upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has
been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in
the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us.
Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well that this truth was
not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past
generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the
North who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we
justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of
the mind, from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One
of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is
forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises. So with
the antislavery fanatics; their conclusions are right, if their premises
were. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he
is entitled to equal rights and privileges with the white man. If their
premises were correct, their conclusions would be logical and just; but,
their premise being wrong, their whole argument fails. I recollect once
hearing a gentleman from one of the Northern States, of great power and
ability, announce in the House of Representatives, with imposing effect,
that we of the South would be compelled ultimately to yield upon this
subject of slavery, that it was as impossible to war successfully
against a principle in politics as it was in physics or mechanics; that
the principle would ultimately prevail; that we, in maintaining slavery
as it exists with us, were warring against a principle, founded in
nature, the principle of the equality of men. The reply I made to him
was that upon his own grounds we should ultimately succeed, and that
he and his associates in this crusade against our institutions would
ultimately fail. The truth announced, that it was as impossible to war
successfully against a principle in politics as it was in physics and
mechanics, I admitted; but told him that it was he, and those acting
with him, who were warring against a principle. They were attempting to
make things equal which the Creator had made unequal.

In the conflict, thus far, success has been on our side, complete
throughout the length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is
upon this, as I have stated, our social fabric is firmly planted; and I
cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of a full recognition
of this principle throughout the civilized and enlightened world.

As I have stated, the truth of this principle may be slow in
development, as all truths are and ever have been, in the various
branches of science. It was so with the principles announced by Galileo.
It was so with Adam Smith and his principles of political economy. It
was so with Harvey and his theory of the circulation of the blood; it
is stated that not a single one of the medical profession, living at the
time of the announcement of the truths made by him, admitted them. Now
they are universally acknowledged. May we not, therefore, look with
confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon
which our system rests? It is the first government ever instituted upon
the principles in strict conformity to nature and the ordination
of Providence in furnishing the materials of human society. Many
governments have been founded upon the principle of the subordination
and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in
violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of
nature's laws. With us, all the white race, however high or low, rich
or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro;
subordination is his place. He, by nature or by the curse against
Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system.
The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation
with the proper material--the granite; then comes the brick or the
marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by
nature for it; and by experience we know that it is best not only for
the superior race, but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It
is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not
for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question
them. For His own purposes He has made one race to differ from another,
as He has made "one star to differ from another star in glory." The
great objects of humanity are best attained when there is conformity to
His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in
all things else. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles in strict
conformity with these views. This stone, which was rejected by the first
builders, "is become the chief of the corner," the real "corner-stone"
in our new edifice. * * *

Mr. Jefferson said in his inaugural, in 1801, after the heated contest
preceding his election, that there might be differences of opinion
without differences of principle, and that all, to some extent, had
been Federalists, and all Republicans. So it may now be said of us
that, whatever differences of opinion as to the best policy in having
a cooperation with our border sister slave States, if the worst came
to the worst, as we were all cooperationists, we are all now for
independence, whether they come or not. * * *

We are a young republic, just entering upon the arena of nations;
we will be the architects of our own fortunes. Our destiny,
under Providence, is in our own hands. With wisdom, prudence, and
statesmanship on the part of our public men, and intelligence, virtue,
and patriotism on the part of the people, success to the full measure
of our most sanguine hopes may be looked for. But, if unwise counsels
prevail, if we become divided, if schisms arise, if dissensions spring
up, if factions are engendered, if party spirit, nourished by unholy
personal ambition, shall rear its hydra head, I have no good to prophesy
for you. Without intelligence, virtue, integrity, and patriotism on
the part of the people, no republic or representative government can be
durable or stable.

JOHN C. BRECKENRIDGE, and EDWARD D. BAKER

JOHN C. BRECKENRIDGE, OF KENTUCKY, (BORN 1825, DIED 1875),

EDWARD D. BAKER, OF OREGON, (BORN 1811, DIED 1861)

ON SUPPRESSION OF INSURRECTION,

UNITED STATES SENATE, AUGUST I, 1861.

MR. BRECKENRIDGE. I do not know how the Senate may vote upon this
question; and I have heard some remarks which have dropped from certain
Senators which have struck me with so much surprise, that I desire to
say a few words in reply to them now.

This drama, sir, is beginning to open before us, and we begin to
catch some idea of its magnitude. Appalled by the extent of it, and
embarrassed by what they see before them and around them, the Senators
who are themselves the most vehement in urging on this course of events,
are beginning to quarrel among themselves as to the precise way in which
to regulate it.

The Senator from Vermont objects to this bill because it puts a
limitation on what he considers already existing powers on the part of
the President. I wish to say a few words presently in regard to some
provisions of this bill, and then the Senate and the country may judge
of the extent of those powers of which this bill is a limitation.

I endeavored, Mr. President, to demonstrate a short time ago, that the
whole tendency of our proceedings was to trample the Constitution under
our feet, and to conduct this contest without the slightest regard to
its provisions. Everything that has occurred since, demonstrates that
the view I took of the conduct and tendency of public affairs was
correct. Already both Houses of Congress have passed a bill virtually to
confiscate all the property in the States that have withdrawn, declaring
in the bill to which I refer that all property of every description
employed in any way to promote or aid in the insurrection, as it is
denominated, shall be forfeited and confiscated. I need not say to
you, sir, that all property of every kind is employed in those States,
directly or indirectly, in aid of the contest they are waging, and
consequently that bill is a general confiscation of all property there.

As if afraid, however, that this general term might not apply to slave
property, it adds an additional section. Although they were covered by
the first section of the bill, to make sure of that, however, it adds
another section, declaring that all persons held to service or labor;
who shall be employed in any way to aid or promote the contest now
waging, shall be discharged from such service and become free: Nothing
can be more apparent than that that is a general act of emancipation;
because all the slaves in that country are employed in furnishing the
means of subsistence and life to those who are prosecuting the contest;
and it is an indirect, but perfectly certain mode of carrying out the
purposes contained in the bill introduced by the Senator from Kansas
(Mr. Pomeroy). It is doing under cover and by indirection, but
certainly, what he proposes shall be done by direct proclamation of the
President.

Again, sir: to show that all these proceedings are characterized by an
utter disregard of the Federal Constitution, what is happening around us
every day? In the State of New York, some young man has been imprisoned
by executive authority upon no distinct charge, and the military officer
having him in charge refused to obey the writ of _habeas corpus_ issued
by a judge. What is the color of excuse for that action in the State
of New York? As a Senator said, is New York in resistance to the
Government? Is there any danger to the stability of the Government
there? Then, sir, what reason will any Senator rise and give on this
floor for the refusal to give to the civil authorities the body of a man
taken by a military commander in the State of New York?

Again: the police commissioners of Baltimore were arrested by military
authority without any charges whatever. In vain they have asked for
a specification. In vain they have sent a respectful protest to the
Congress of the United States. In vain the House of Representatives, by
resolution, requested the President to furnish the representatives of
the people with the grounds of their arrest. He answers the House of
Representatives that, in his judgment, the public interest does not
permit him to say why they were arrested, on what charges, or what he
has done with them--and you call this liberty and law and proceedings
for the preservation of the Constitution! They have been spirited off
from one fortress to another, their locality unknown, and the President
of the United States refuses, upon the application of the most numerous
branch of the national Legislature, to furnish them with the grounds of
their arrest, or to inform them what he has done with them.

Sir, it was said the other day by the Senator from Illinois (Mr.
Browning) that I had assailed the conduct of the Executive with
vehemence, if not with malignity. I am not aware that I have done so.
I criticised, with the freedom that belongs to the representative of a
sovereign State and the people, the conduct of the Executive. I shall
continue to do so as long as I hold a seat upon this floor, when, in my
opinion, that conduct deserves criticism. Sir, I need not say that, in
the midst of such events as surround us, I could not cherish personal
animosity towards any human being. Towards that distinguished officer, I
never did cherish it. Upon the contrary, I think more highly of him,
as a man and an officer, than I do of many who are around him and who,
perhaps guide his counsels. I deem him to be personally an honest man,
and I believe that he is trampling upon the Constitution of his country
every day, with probably good motives, under the counsels of those who
influence him. But, sir, I have nothing now to say about the President.
The proceedings of Congress have eclipsed the actions of the Executive;
and if this bill shall become a law, the proceedings of the President
will sink into absolute nothingness in the presence of the outrages upon
personal and public liberty which have been perpetrated by the Congress
of the United States.

* * * * *

Mr. President, gentlemen talk about the Union as if it was an end
instead of a means. They talk about it as if it was the Union of these
States which alone had brought into life the principles of public and
of personal liberty. Sir, they existed before, and they may survive it.
Take care that in pursuing one idea you you do not destroy not only
the Constitution of your country, but sever what remains of the Federal
Union. These eternal and sacred principles of public men and of personal
liberty, which lived before the Union and will live forever and ever
somewhere, must be respected; they cannot with impunity be overthrown;
and if you force the people to the issue between any form of government
and these priceless principles, that form of government will perish;
they will tear it asunder as the irrepressible forces of nature rend
whatever opposes them.

Mr. President, I shall not long detain the Senate. I shall not enter
now upon an elaborate discussion of all the principles involved in this
bill, and all the consequences which, in my opinion, flow from it. A
word in regard to what fell from the Senator from Vermont, the substance
of which has been uttered by a great many Senators on this floor. What I
tried to show some time ago has been substantially admitted. One Senator
says that the Constitution is put aside in a struggle like this. Another
Senator says that the condition of affairs is altogether abnormal, and
that you cannot deal with them on constitutional principles, any more
than you can deal, by any of the regular operations of the laws of
nature, with an earthquake. The Senator from Vermont says that all these
proceedings are to be conducted according to the laws of war; and he
adds that the laws of war require many things to be done which are
absolutely forbidden in the Constitution; which Congress is prohibited
from doing, and all other departments of the Government are forbidden
from doing by the Constitution; but that they are proper under the laws
of war, which must alone be the measure of our action now. I desire the
country, then, to know this fact; that it is openly avowed upon this
floor that constitutional limitations are no longer to be regarded;
but that you are acting just as if there were two nations upon this
continent, one arrayed against the other; some eighteen or twenty
million on one side, and some ten or twelve million on the other, as to
whom the Constitution is nought, and the laws of war alone apply.

Sir, let the people, already beginning to pause and reflect upon the
origin and nature and the probable consequences of this unhappy strife,
get this idea fairly lodged in their minds--and it is a true one--and
I will venture to say that the brave words which we now hear every
day about crushing, subjugating, treason, and traitors, will not be
so uttered the next time the Representatives of the people and States
assemble beneath the dome of this Capitol.

* * * * *

Mr. President, we are on the wrong tack; we have been from the
beginning. The people begin to see it. Here we have been hurling gallant
fellows on to death, and the blood of Americans has been shed--for what?
They have shown their prowess, respectively--that which belongs to
the race--and shown it like men. But for what have the United States
soldiers, according to the exposition we have heard here to-day, been
shedding their blood, and displaying their dauntless courage? It has
been to carry out principles that three fourths of them abhor; for the
principles contained in this bill, and continually avowed on the floor
of the Senate, are not shared, I venture to say, by one fourth of the
army.

I have said, sir, that we are on the wrong tack. Nothing but ruin, utter
ruin, to the North, to the South, to the East, to the West, will follow
the prosecution of this contest. You may look forward to countless
treasures all spent for the purpose of desolating and ravaging this
continent; at the end leaving us just where we are now; or if the forces
of the United States are successful in ravaging the whole South, what on
earth will be done with it after that is accomplished? Are not gentlemen
now perfectly satisfied that they have mistaken a people for a faction?
Are they not perfectly satisfied that, to accomplish their object, it
is necessary to subjugate, to conquer--aye, to exterminate--nearly ten
millions of people? Do you not know it? Does not everybody know it? Does
not the world know it? Let us pause, and let the Congress of the United
States respond to the rising feeling all over this land in favor of
peace. War is separation; in the language of an eminent gentleman now
no more, it is disunion, eternal and final disunion. We have separation
now; it is only made worse by war, and an utter extinction of all
those sentiments of common interest and feeling which might lead to
a political reunion founded upon consent and upon a conviction of its
advantages. Let the war go on, however, and soon, in addition to the
moans of widows and orphans all over this land, you will hear the cry of
distress from those who want food and the comforts of life. The people
will be unable to pay the grinding taxes which a fanatical spirit
will attempt to impose upon them. Nay, more, sir; you will see further
separation. I hope it is not "the sunset of life gives me mystical
lore," but in my mind's eye I plainly see "coming events cast their
shadows before." The Pacific slope now, doubtless, is devoted to the
union of States. Let this war go on till they find the burdens of
taxation greater than the burdens of a separate condition, and they will
assert it. Let the war go on until they see the beautiful features
of the old Confederacy beaten out of shape and comeliness by the
brutalizing hand of war, and they will turn aside in disgust from the
sickening spectacle, and become a separate nation. Fight twelve months
longer, and the already opening differences that you see between New
England and the great Northwest will develop themselves. You have two
confederacies now. Fight twelve months, and you will have three; twelve
months longer, and you will have four.

I will not enlarge upon it, sir. I am quite aware that all I say is
received with a sneer of incredulity by the gentlemen who represent the
far Northeast; but let the future determine who was right and who was
wrong. We are making our record here; I, my humble one, amid the
sneers and aversion of nearly all who surround me, giving my votes,
and uttering my utterances according to my convictions, with but few
approving voices, and surrounded by scowls. The time will soon come,
Senators, when history will put her final seal upon these proceedings,
and if my name shall be recorded there, going along with yours as an
actor in these scenes, I am willing to abide, fearlessly, her final
judgment.

MR. BAKER.

Mr. President, it has not been my fortune to participate in at any
length, indeed, not to hear very much of, the discussion which has been
going on--more, I think, in the hands of the Senator from Kentucky than
anybody else--upon all the propositions connected with this war; and, as
I really feel as sincerely as he can an earnest desire to preserve the
Constitution of the United States for everybody, South as well as North,
I have listened for some little time past to what he has said with
an earnest desire to apprehend the point of his objection to this
particular bill. And now--waiving what I think is the elegant but loose
declamation in which he chooses to indulge--I would propose, with
my habitual respect for him, (for nobody is more courteous and more
gentlemanly,) to ask him if he will be kind enough to tell me what
single particular provision there is in this bill which is in violation
of the Constitution of the United States, which I have sworn to
support--one distinct, single proposition in the bill.

MR. BRECKENRIDGE. I will state, in general terms, that every one of them
is, in my opinion, flagrantly so, unless it may be the last. I will send
the Senator the bill, and he may comment on the sections.

MR. BAKER. Pick out that one which is in your judgment most clearly so.

MR. BRECKENRIDGE. They are all, in my opinion, so equally atrocious that
I dislike to discriminate. I will send the Senator the bill, and I tell
him that every section, except the last, in my opinion, violates the
Constitution of the United States; and of that last section, I express
no opinion.

MR. BAKER. I had hoped that that respectful suggestion to the Senator
would enable him to point out to me one, in his judgment, most clearly
so, for they are not all alike--they are not equally atrocious.

MR. BRECKENRIDGE. Very nearly. There are ten of them. The Senator can
select which he pleases.

MR. BAKER. Let me try then, if I must generalize as the Senator does,
to see if I can get the scope and meaning of this bill. It is a bill
providing that the President of the United States may declare, by
proclamation, in a certain given state of fact, certain territory within
the United States to be in a condition of insurrection and war; which
proclamation shall be extensively published within the district to
which it relates. That is the first proposition. I ask him if that is
unconstitutional? That is a plain question. Is it unconstitutional to
give power to the President to declare a portion of the territory of the
United States in a state of insurrection or rebellion? He will not dare
to say it is.

MR. BRECKENRIDGE. Mr. President, the Senator from Oregon is a very
adroit debater, and he discovers, of course, the great advantage he
would have if I were to allow him, occupying the floor, to ask me a
series of questions, and then have his own criticisms made on them.
When he has closed his speech, if I deem it necessary, I will make some
reply. At present, however, I will answer that question. The State of
Illinois, I believe, is a military district; the State of Kentucky is a
military district. In my judgment, the President has no authority,
and, in my judgment, Congress has no right to confer upon the President
authority, to declare a State in a condition of insurrection or
rebellion.

MR. BAKER. In the first place, the bill does not say a word about
States. That is the first answer.

MR. BRECKENRIDGE. Does not the Senator know, in fact, that those States
compose military districts? It might as well have said "States" as to
describe what is a State.

MR. BAKER. I do; and that is the reason why I suggest to the honorable
Senator that this criticism about States does not mean anything at all.
That is the very point. The objection certainly ought not to be that he
can declare a part of a State in insurrection and not the whole of
it. In point of fact, the Constitution of the United States, and the
Congress of the United States acting upon it, are not treating of
States, but of the territory comprising the United States; and I submit
once more to his better judgment that it cannot be unconstitutional to
allow the President to declare a county or a part of a county, or a town
or a part of a town, or part of a State, or the whole of a State, or
two States, or five States, in a condition of insurrection, if in his
judgment that be the fact. That is not wrong.

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