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1 Robt. Toombs, Speech of Hon. Robt. Toombs, of Georgia, on Property in Territories: Delivered in the Senate of the United States, May 21, 1860 1 (1860)

handle is hein.slavery/shrtg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SPEECH OFI IION. ROBT. TOOMBS, OF GEORGIA, ON PROPERTY IN TERRITORIES. DELIVERED IN THlE SENYATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MAY 21, 1860. The Senate having under consideration the resolutions submitted by Mr. DAVIS On the lst of March, 1860, relative to the equality of the States, the rights of all the citizens to emigrate to the Territories with slave property, and denying the power of Congress or a Territorial Legislature to interfere with this right--Mr. TOOMBS said: Mr. PRESwEN-r: I did not concur in the policy of introducing the resolutions upon your tablq when they were originally presented by my friend from Mississippi, (Mr. DAVas,) and, until within the last ten or twelve days, I had no purpose to participate in the deba t upon them. I thought that they announced principles so just and so proper, of such i- versal acceptance, that they needed no support from anything I might be able to say in their favor. But, sir, within that time, these propositions, involving the fundamental principles of our Government, have not only been assailed and condemned, but all those who hold them and maintain them, as they were held and maintained by my personal and political friends at the late Charleston convention, have been charged with violating good faith, and with having objects unfriendly to the existence of the Government; and my own humble opinion has been invoked to swell the mighty torrent of authority by which it is sought to overwhelm them. I deem it, therefore, my duty to my country, myself, and to those who agree with me in opinion, in all parts of the Republic, to defend these principles. The first objection which meets me is the declaration from some well-meaning men, that they are abstractions. Sir, this is a great mistake. Far from it. There is a terrible practicality in them. There is a vital energy in them that is shaking your political, your social, and even your moral systems from the center to the circumferece. They are struggJing to be acknowledged, to be recognized; and in their recognition, in my judg- ment, alone is to be found the permanent peace, safety, and security of the State. But, sir, if they be abstractions, they are scarcely less worthy of our consideration. The great question is, are they truths ? To submit to wrong is often far less injurious to society in its consequences than to surrender a principle. It is one of the marked charac- teristics of the American character, one which attracted the attention and approbation of some of the ablest and best men of the last century, that they measure a public danger by a principle, and not by a grievance. Mr. Burke, in his speech on conciliation with Amicr- iea, very beautifully expresses this characteristic of the American colonies. He says: In other countries the people, more simple and of a less mercurial caste, judge of an III principle -n Government by an actual grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the griev- ance by the badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff tyranny in the Wintd breeze. One of the greatest of our own statesmeai, often called the Father of the Constitution, in a paper of great force and merit, which he drew up in 1184, protesting against the action of the Virginia Legislature, tending, in his judgment, to infringe the rights of con- science, strongly applauded tjiis same characteristic of our people, He said: It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold tis prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the qwestion in precedents. They saw the consequences in the prinlple, and they avoided the consequences by deny- ing the principle. We revere this lesson too much soon to forget It. Sir, the disregard of this sentiment has brought upon us many of our present dangers. We, too, must not wait until dangerous and unsound political principles -shall have strengthened themselves by exercise, or shall have entangled us in precedents. We have Printed by Lemuel Towers, at $1 per hundred copies.

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