the slave question speech of wm. h. bissell of illinois 1850 |
Previous | 1 of 8 | Next |
|
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
|
This page
All
|
Loading content ...
1-/° THE SLAVE QUESTION. SPEECH OF HON. WM. H. BISSELL, OF ILLINOIS, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 21, 1850* In Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, on the Resolution referring the President's Message to the appropriate Standing Committees. t Mr. BISSELL said: Mr. Chairman: Our discussions in this Committee have already produced a profound and painful sensation throughout the Union. The public mind has become agitated and anxious, and oppressed with apprehensions of impending calamity. This state of things, sir, ought not to continue; or, at any rate, that uncertainty which makes the future more terrible than would perhaps the realization of our worst fears, ought to be removed. If this Government of ours is really so near its end as gentlemen here declare it to be; or if its longer continuance depends upon contingencies so uncertain, it were well that we knew it now, that we might make timely preparation. If, on the other hand, the apprehensions I have spoken of are groundless, the people ought, in mercy, to be undeceived. They ought to be undeceived at once, sir, in order that they may have that repose and conscious security to which they are entitled under a government created and sustained by their own hands. Reluctant as I am to add to the public anxiety, I yet do not feel at liberty to withhold the expression of my own opinion upon the absorbing topic of this discussion, and of the day. And I do not hesitate to declare, as my settled conviction, that, unless representatives who have assumed to speak for the slaveholding States have greatly mistaken the purposes and intentions of the people of those States, war and bloodshed, consequent upon an attempt to overthrow this Government, are inevitable. This declaration 1 desire should go forth to the country; and with it the reasons upon which my opinion is based. These reasons are found in the extracts which I shall quote, first, from the speech of the honorable gentleman from Mississippi, [Mr. Brown.] Here are tire extracts: " Whilst you have been heaping outrage upon outrage, add- ing insult to insult, our people have been calmly calculaiing the value ofthe Union. The question has been considered in all its bearings, and our minds are made up." " We owe it to you, to ourselves, to our common country, to the friends of freedom throughout the world, to warn you that we intend to submit no longer." " Long years of outrage upon our feelings and disregard of our rights have awakened in every southern heart a feeling of stern resistance. Think what you will, say what you will, perpetrate again and again if you will, these acts of lawless tyranny ; the day and the hour is at hand when every southern son will rise in rebellion, when every tongue will say, give us justice or give us death." " Go home and tell your people the issue is made up ; they must now choose between non-interference with southern rights on the one side, and a dissolution ofthe Union on the other." * If you fancy that our devotion to the Union will keep u§ in the Union, you are mistaken. Our love for the Union ceases with the justice of the Union. We cannot love oppression, nor hug tyranny to our bosoms." " I tell you candidly, we have calculated the value ofthe Union. Your injustice has driven us to it. Your oppression justifies me to-day in discussing the value of the Union, and I do so freely and fearlessly. Your press, your people, and your pulpit, may denounce this as treason; be it so. You may sing hosannas to the Union—it is well. British lords called it treason in our fathers when they resisted Britisli tyranny. British orators were eloquent in their eu- logiums on the British Crown. Our fathers felt the oppression, they saw the hand that aimed the blow, and resolved to resist. The result is before the world. We will resist, and trust to God and our own stout hearts for the consequences." " The South afraid of dissolving the Union!—why should we fear ? What is there to alarm us or awaken our apprehensions? Are we not able to maintain ourselves? Shall eight millions of freemen, with more than one hundred millions of annual exports, fear to take their position among the nations of the earth ? With our cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco, products of a southern soil, yielding us annually more than a hundred millions of dollars, need we fear the frowns ofthe world ? ' " Have we any reason to fear a dissolution ofthe Union ? Look at the question dispassionately, and answer to yourselves the important inquiry, Can anything be expected from the fears of the southern people ? Do not deceive yourselves —look at things as they really are. For myself, I can say with a clear conscience, we do not fear it; we are not appalled at the prospect before us; we deprecate disunion, but we do not fear it; we know our position too well for that." " Have we anything to fear from you in the event of dissolution ? A little gasconade, and sometimes a threat or two." " As to there being any conflict of arms growing out of a dissolution, 1 have not thought it at all probable. You complain of your association with slaves in the Union. We propose to take them out of the Union—to dissolve the unpleasant association. Will you seek a battle-field to renew, amid blood and carnage, this loathsome association ? I take it for granted that you will not. But if you should, we point you to the record of the past, and warn you, by its bloodstained pages, that we shall be ready to meet you." These extracts from the speech of the gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Brown] are sufficient for our present purpose. The gentleman from North Carolina, [Mr. Clingman,] tells us " what is the view presented in prospect to many of the highest intellects of the South;'' and it is substantially this: that as a separate Confederacy the slaveholding States " might expend as much as the United States ever did in time of peace up to the beginning of Gen. Jackson's administration, and still have on hand twenty-five millions of dollars to devote to the making railroads, opening harbors and rivers, and for other domestic purposes." The same gentleman has thus disposed, in advance, of some little matters pertaining to the interior regulations ofthe " southern confederacy" to be : " The nothern tier of counties in Kentucky," says he, " would perhaps be obliged to remove their slaves to the South. But
Object Description
Description
Title | the slave question speech of wm. h. bissell of illinois 1850 |
Transcript | 1-/° THE SLAVE QUESTION. SPEECH OF HON. WM. H. BISSELL, OF ILLINOIS, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 21, 1850* In Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, on the Resolution referring the President's Message to the appropriate Standing Committees. t Mr. BISSELL said: Mr. Chairman: Our discussions in this Committee have already produced a profound and painful sensation throughout the Union. The public mind has become agitated and anxious, and oppressed with apprehensions of impending calamity. This state of things, sir, ought not to continue; or, at any rate, that uncertainty which makes the future more terrible than would perhaps the realization of our worst fears, ought to be removed. If this Government of ours is really so near its end as gentlemen here declare it to be; or if its longer continuance depends upon contingencies so uncertain, it were well that we knew it now, that we might make timely preparation. If, on the other hand, the apprehensions I have spoken of are groundless, the people ought, in mercy, to be undeceived. They ought to be undeceived at once, sir, in order that they may have that repose and conscious security to which they are entitled under a government created and sustained by their own hands. Reluctant as I am to add to the public anxiety, I yet do not feel at liberty to withhold the expression of my own opinion upon the absorbing topic of this discussion, and of the day. And I do not hesitate to declare, as my settled conviction, that, unless representatives who have assumed to speak for the slaveholding States have greatly mistaken the purposes and intentions of the people of those States, war and bloodshed, consequent upon an attempt to overthrow this Government, are inevitable. This declaration 1 desire should go forth to the country; and with it the reasons upon which my opinion is based. These reasons are found in the extracts which I shall quote, first, from the speech of the honorable gentleman from Mississippi, [Mr. Brown.] Here are tire extracts: " Whilst you have been heaping outrage upon outrage, add- ing insult to insult, our people have been calmly calculaiing the value ofthe Union. The question has been considered in all its bearings, and our minds are made up." " We owe it to you, to ourselves, to our common country, to the friends of freedom throughout the world, to warn you that we intend to submit no longer." " Long years of outrage upon our feelings and disregard of our rights have awakened in every southern heart a feeling of stern resistance. Think what you will, say what you will, perpetrate again and again if you will, these acts of lawless tyranny ; the day and the hour is at hand when every southern son will rise in rebellion, when every tongue will say, give us justice or give us death." " Go home and tell your people the issue is made up ; they must now choose between non-interference with southern rights on the one side, and a dissolution ofthe Union on the other." * If you fancy that our devotion to the Union will keep u§ in the Union, you are mistaken. Our love for the Union ceases with the justice of the Union. We cannot love oppression, nor hug tyranny to our bosoms." " I tell you candidly, we have calculated the value ofthe Union. Your injustice has driven us to it. Your oppression justifies me to-day in discussing the value of the Union, and I do so freely and fearlessly. Your press, your people, and your pulpit, may denounce this as treason; be it so. You may sing hosannas to the Union—it is well. British lords called it treason in our fathers when they resisted Britisli tyranny. British orators were eloquent in their eu- logiums on the British Crown. Our fathers felt the oppression, they saw the hand that aimed the blow, and resolved to resist. The result is before the world. We will resist, and trust to God and our own stout hearts for the consequences." " The South afraid of dissolving the Union!—why should we fear ? What is there to alarm us or awaken our apprehensions? Are we not able to maintain ourselves? Shall eight millions of freemen, with more than one hundred millions of annual exports, fear to take their position among the nations of the earth ? With our cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco, products of a southern soil, yielding us annually more than a hundred millions of dollars, need we fear the frowns ofthe world ? ' " Have we any reason to fear a dissolution ofthe Union ? Look at the question dispassionately, and answer to yourselves the important inquiry, Can anything be expected from the fears of the southern people ? Do not deceive yourselves —look at things as they really are. For myself, I can say with a clear conscience, we do not fear it; we are not appalled at the prospect before us; we deprecate disunion, but we do not fear it; we know our position too well for that." " Have we anything to fear from you in the event of dissolution ? A little gasconade, and sometimes a threat or two." " As to there being any conflict of arms growing out of a dissolution, 1 have not thought it at all probable. You complain of your association with slaves in the Union. We propose to take them out of the Union—to dissolve the unpleasant association. Will you seek a battle-field to renew, amid blood and carnage, this loathsome association ? I take it for granted that you will not. But if you should, we point you to the record of the past, and warn you, by its bloodstained pages, that we shall be ready to meet you." These extracts from the speech of the gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Brown] are sufficient for our present purpose. The gentleman from North Carolina, [Mr. Clingman,] tells us " what is the view presented in prospect to many of the highest intellects of the South;'' and it is substantially this: that as a separate Confederacy the slaveholding States " might expend as much as the United States ever did in time of peace up to the beginning of Gen. Jackson's administration, and still have on hand twenty-five millions of dollars to devote to the making railroads, opening harbors and rivers, and for other domestic purposes." The same gentleman has thus disposed, in advance, of some little matters pertaining to the interior regulations ofthe " southern confederacy" to be : " The nothern tier of counties in Kentucky," says he, " would perhaps be obliged to remove their slaves to the South. But |