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![handle is hein.slavery/prezpln0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
PRESIDENT'S PLAN.
SPEECH
HON. E. G. SPAULDING, OF N. YORK,
IN FAVOR OF
Gen. Taylor's Plan for admitting California and .New JMfexico, and contrasting the
Chicago Convention with the proposed Nashville Convention.
Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, April 4, 1850.
The House being in Committee of the Whole (Mr. BOYD in the Chair) on the President's Cali-
fornia Message,
Mr. SPAULDING said-
Mr. CHAIRMAN: If the Committee were now ready to proceed to a vote on the
bill providing for the admission of California, I should feel much more inclined to
act than to talk; but as there is no probability of immediate action, I will venture
to make a few remarks, looking to practical results, without attempting a full dis-
cussion in detail of the institution of slavery. I shall confine myself mainly to the
admission of California, and the present situation of New Mexico, with some inci-
*dental remarks respecting the improvement of harbors and rivers, reserving what-
ever I may have to say on other topics, connected with the present slavery agitation,
until they come before us in a shape to require practical legislation.
I have looked over the various plans for disposing of the, vexed question which
now agitates the public mind, and have come to the conclusion that none of them is
more feasible than the one recommended by General Taylor in his California mes-
sage, submitted to this House January 21, 1850. His plan appears to me to be
constitutional, national in its character, and republican in its execution. It is a
broad platform on which the North, the South, the East, and the West, may all
stand, without any sacrifice of feeling, or compromise of principle. It is based
upon the great fundamental principle on which this Government rests, tat man is
capable of self government; that the people may mould and fashion their own local
laws and institutions to suit themselves. It is that right inherent in the people, and
which is so broadly asserted in the Declaration of Independence.
The domain, the title to the public lands, and the sovereignty over it for national
purposes, belong to the United States. The establishment of post offices and post
roads, the construction of piers and light-houses, the enactment of revenue laws,
the establishment of circuit and district courts, the surveying and sale of -the public
lands, and all other objects of national legislation, can be performed by Congress
now, the same as in any other portion of the country belonging to the United States,
and without waiting for the organization of either State or territorial governments.
Post offices and post roads have already been established in California, in pursuance
of an act of Congress passed in August, 1848. At the last session of Congress, the
revenue laws of the United States were extended over California. The same may
be done in regard to New Mexico and Deseret, leaving the people there to establish
their own State constitutions and governments, and apply at the proper time for ad-
mission as States.
[GIDEON & CO., PRINT.]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/prezpln0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)