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1 John P. Hale, Speech of Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, on the Territorial Question, Delivered in the Senate of the United States, Tuesday, March 19, 1850 1 (1850)

handle is hein.slavery/smhnh0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SPEECH OF MR, HALE, OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, ON THE TERRITORIAL QUESTION. DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF TIE UNITED STATES, TUESDAY, IMARCH 19, 1850. The Senate having under consideration the com- promise resolutions submitted some time since by Mr. CLAY- Mr. HALE. Mr. President, it seems to have been admitted by almost every one who has addressed the Senate on the subject which has for some time past engaged the attention of this body, that the Senate and the country at large are divided into two classes- I will not say two great classes, but one large and one very small one; that the great body of the Senate and of the country are patriotic ; that they earnest- ly and anxiously desire that the distracting questions which divide and harass the country may be settled upon some just and patriotic grounds; while on the other hand, there are a few, designated as extremists or ultraists, who do not desire to see any such end effected; who desire, in other words, to promote agi- tation ; who are anxious for nothing but trouble and disturbance; whose sole purpose is to increase the irritation that already exists in the community-to keep the public mind sore, the public pulse throbbing irregularly with feverish heat. Nothing, it is said, is so strange as the physical and moral organization of these few gentlemen ; agitation is the aliment upon which they feed, and by which they live: take away that, and their life, their occupation, all which fur- nishes them with a motive for living, is gone. Now, I have not a word to say personally against this; I am glad, sir, that these ultraists, if they do nothing more, at least accomplish this much good- that they afford this wholesome safety-valve to these extra exhibitions of patriotism on the part of those who are in the habit of addressing the Senate. Hard- ly any one seems to suppose that he has discharged the duty which he owes to the country, or done what he ought to do to satisfy his constituents, unless he mingles with the suggestions which he makes whole- sale denunciations against those vltraisis-those a21- tators ; and even the calm and judicial mind of the Senator from North Carolina, who hasjust concluded his remairks, is so infected with the prevailing mania, that even he, educated as he has been upon the bench, where he learned to sanction a line of safe precedents, could not sit down satisfied that he had discharged his duty, until he had relieved his con- science of a due proportion of vituperation against these miserable fanatics and agitators. I think, then, it must be granted that the agitators do some good -at least by affording a safe and whole- some channel through which this extra exhibition of patriotic indignation may find vent. I do hope that, if it be not conceded that they do any other good, at least credit will be accorded to them for this much. I have not a word to say in reference to the good taste or the truth and candor which prompts such a course. I make no appeal to gentlemen, who feel a consciousness in their own breasts that they are governed by high, pure, and elevated motives, to consider how far it is consistent with a proper self-* respect to be continually employed in depreciating and attacking the motives of others. When 1 obtained the floor, sir, some time since, after the address that was delivered by the distin- guished Senator from South Carolina, who is net- now in his seat, I suggested that, according to my reading of history, the account which he ha I under- taken to give of these agitations sounded to my mind more like the romance than the truth of history, and that I designed, upon some occasion, when it suited the convenience of the Senate, to set history right in some particulars alluded to by him. And thatis one of the objects I propose to myself to-day. I shall, sir, be compelled to call the attention of the Senate to the speech of the Senator from South Carolina somewhat in detail; and, in devoting some few mo- ments to a preparation upon this subject, I endeav- ored to make something of an analysis of it. Before I had proceeded very far in my examination, I found it assumed the form of a regular catechism-questions and answers being given. In the first place it com- menced with a concession of the fact that the Union was in great danger; then it asks- 1. How can the Union be preserved? Answer.-To give a satisfactory answer to this mighty question, it is indispensable to have an accurate and tho- rough knowledge of the nature aid character of the cause by which the Union is endangered. &2. What has endangered the Union? Answer.-To this question there can be but cne answer; that the immediate cause is the almost universal discontent which pervades all the States composing the Southern sec- tion of the Union. 3. What is the cause of this discontent'? Answer-It will be found in the belief of the people of the Southern States, as prevalent as the discontent itself, that they cannot remain, as things now are, consistently with honor and safety, in the Union. 4. What has caused this belief? Answer.-One of the causes is, undoubtedly, to be traced to the long-continued agitation ot the slave question on the part of the North, and the many aggressions which they lave made on the rights of the South during the time. I will not enumerate them at present, as it will be done here. after in its proper place. There is another lying back of it, with which this is intimately connected, that may be pe. garded as the great and primary cause. That is to be found in the fact that the equilibrium between the two sections in the Governmnt, as it stood when the Constitution was- ratified and tle Government put in action, has been de- stroyed. Now, sir, the first act of this Government, in the series of these events which has broken up this equilibrium and caused this universal discontent, the honorable Senator says, is the Ordinance of 1787. 1' shall not, undertake to go particularly into the history of that Ordinance, because it is familiar to the Senate and the country, and has been frequently referred to by gentlemen who have already addressed the Senate on this subject. This, mark you, is the first in the series of Northern aggressions by which the equilib- rium which once existed has been destroyed. Reproduced with permission from the University of Illinois at Chicago

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