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1 M. P. Gentry, Speech of Mr. M. P. Gentry, of Tennessee, on the Admission of California, Delivered in the House of Representatives, Monday, June 10, 1850 1 (1850)

handle is hein.slavery/mpgent0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SPEECH OF MR. M. P. GENTRY, OF TENNESSEE, ON THE AIDISSION OF CALIFORNIA. DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESE:NTATIVES, MONDAY, JUNE 10, k50. The House being in Committee of the Whole, and having under consideration the Prefsiient's ui - sage in relation to California, Mr. GENTRY addressed the comumittee as fol- lows: Mr. CHAIRMAN: Congress has been in session six 1mkoths, occupied almost exclusively with the ques- tion now before this committee. Other questions of public interest, various and important in their nature, strongly claim the attention of the legisla- tive branch of the Government, but are' excluded from consideration. By a war with Mexico we have aciuired vast territories. By th, treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo we have bound ourselves to protect the people of those territories; to secure to theim all the rights of citizens of the United States; and in due time adnit them, as States, into the Union. Repeated efforts have been niade to redeem our plighted faith in this regard, but in every in- stance causes, which I will develop in the couric of my rem arks, have prevented legislation. 17e he- gin to realize the truth thatthep3olicyof aggressiN e war-conques and colonization-is not suited to the genius of our government.* With our conquests there comes upon us the question, shall Congress prohibit or admit slavery in the Territories we have acquired? It is a question fraught with discord and danger. It has, in a great degree, alienated the northern and southern States, and made disunion a familiar word in our political vocabulary. It has paraiyzed the Government, and threatens its de- struction. The wisest statesmwn and most san- guine patriots tremble for the safety of the Repub- lic. What policy has brought us into these dan- gers? Who is respusible for the existing state of tin n ? Whoforewarned the country of this cri- sis? Who-what political party is it that, being soleimnly forewarned, nevertheless blindly and recklessly persevered in steering the ship of state i11o its present perilous condition? These are ques- tions which I propose to disk uss with candor. I intend to speak what I think. In debating so gravv a subject, I would not, if left to choose f(r myself, introduce questions con- nected with party politics. But the course which gentlemen on the other side of the House have thought proper to pursue leaves me no choice in this respect. They I ave debated the subject for GIDEON & Co., k'rinters. six months, and nearly all who have spoken on that side of the House have labored to fix the responsi- bility for the ex ting state of things on the Presi- dent of the United States. Differing widely as to the particular acts which are all-ged to have pro- duced the present state of affairs, they agree in as- cribing them to him. While one gentleman urges that the existing difficulties are attributable to the position which he occupied when a candidate for the Presidency, another ascribes them to the advice which he has given to the people of California sinice his election; and others contend that all would have been well with us if he had announced in his an- nual message his purposeto veto any bill that might pass the two Houses of Congress inhibiting- slavery in the Territoris we have acquired from Mexico. The brief hour to which I am limited by a rule of the House will not permit me to repel, specifically, these discordant imputations; but I will endeavor to vindicate the President by exhibiting the true causes of the present state of affairs, and by fixing the responsibility where justice and truth require. I recognise the right of a representative of the peo- ple in the Congress of the United States freely to canvass the otlicial conduct of the President, and every other Executive functionary, and hold them to a rigid responsioility for their official acts. It is a right limited only by such restrictions as truth, justice, and honor impose. If these virtues have not lost their influence upon the public mind, the ver- dict of the country will be, that the President is in no degree responsible for producing those evils which now excite the public anxiety. To explain thoroughly and fully the causes which have produced the sectional excitements and animosities which now disturb the harmony of the Union and obstruct the legislation of Congress, it is necessary to go back to a period when the rep- resentatives of the slaveholding States, mistaking the true policy of the South, violently and vehe- mently opposed the reception and reference of pe- titions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, emanating from northern abolition so- cieties, and finally succeeding in procuring the adoption, by this House, of a rule prohibiting the reception and reference of those petitions. Previ- ous to the period to which I refer, efforts to agi- tate the public mind on the subject of slavery were

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