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and South, may stand side by side on all issues connected with Slavery, and advocate the same principles.
That is all we ask. All we demand at your hands is, that there shall be no equivocation and no doubt in the popular mind as to what our principles are.
Mr. Payne, on the other side, quoted at length from the
Cincinnati platform, from
Mr. Buchanan's letter of acceptance, and from speeches of
Howell Cobb,
John C. Breckinridge,
James L. Orr,
A. H. Stephens,
Judah P. Benjamin,
James A. Bayard,
James M. Mason,
Robert Toombs, etc., to show that “ Non-Intervention” with “Popular Sovereignty” was the original and established Democratic doctrine with regard to Slavery in the
Territories.
The debate was continued, amid great excitement and some disorder, until Monday, April 30th, when the question was first taken on
Gen. Butler's proposition; which was defeated — Yeas 105; Nays 198--as follows:
Yeas--Maine, 3; Massachusetts, 8; Connecticut, 2 1/2; New Jersey, 5; Pennsylvania, 16 1/2; Delaware, 3; Maryland, 5 1/2; Virginia, 12 1/2; North Carolina, 10; Georgia, 10; Missouri, 4 1/2; Tennessee, 11; Kentucky, 9; Minnesota, 1 1/2; Oregon, 3--105.
Nays--Maine, 5; New Hampshire, 5; Vermont, 5 ; Massachusetts, 5; Rhode Island, 4; Connecticut, 3 1/2; New York, 35; New Jersey, 2; Pennsylvania, 10 1/2 ; Maryland, 2 1/2; Virginia, 2 1/2; South Carolina, 8; Florida, 3; Alabama, 9; Louisiana, 6; Mississippi, 7; Texas, 4; Arkansas, 4; Missouri, 4 1/2; Tennessee, 1; Kentucky, 3; Ohio, 23; Indiana, 13; Illinois, 11 ; Michigan, ; Wisconsin, 5; Iowa, 4; Minnesota, 2 1/2; California, 4--198.
The question was next taken on the regular minority report, as presented in a modified form by
Mr. Samuels; which was adopted, by the following vote:
Yeas--Maine, 8; New Hampshire, 5; Vermont, 5; Massachusetts, 7; :Rhode Island, 4; Connecticut, 6; New York, 35; New Jersey, 5; Pennsylvania, 12 ; Maryland, 3 1/2; Virginia, 1; Missouri, 4; Tennessee, 1; Kentucky, 2 1/2; Ohio, 23; Indiana, 13; Illinois, 11; Michigan, 6; Wisconsin, 5; Iowa, 4; Minnesota, 4--165.
Nays--Massachusetts, 6; New Jersey, 2; Pennsylvania, 15; Delaware, 3; Maryland, 4 1/2; Virginia, 14; North Carolina, 10; South Carolina, 8; Georgia, 10; Florida, 3; Alabama, 9; Louisiana, 6; Mississippi, 7; Texas, 4; Arkansas, 4; Missouri. 5; Tennessee, 11; Kentucky, 9 1/2; California, 4; Oregon, 3--138.
Hereupon,
Mr. L. P. Walker, of
Alabama, presented the written protest of the delegates from that State, 28 in number, showing that they were expressly instructed by the State Convention which elected them not to acquiesce in or submit to any “
Squatter Sovereignty” platform, but to withdraw from the
Convention in case such a one should be adopted.
Among the resolves so adopted and made binding on their delegates by the
Alabama State Convention, were the following:
1. Resolved, by the Democracy of the State of Alabama in Convention assembled, That, holding all issues and principles upon which they have heretofore affiliated and acted with the National Democratic Party to be inferior in dignity and importance to the great question of Slavery, they content themselves with a general reaffirmance of the Cincinnati platform as to such issues, and also indorse said platform as to Slavery, together with the following resolutions:
2. Resolved further, That we reaffirm so much of the first resolution of the platform adopted in the Convention by the Democracy of this State, on the 8th of January, 1856, as relates to the subject of Slavery, to wit: “The unqualified right of the people of the Slaveholding States to the protection of their property in the States, in the Territories, and in the wilderness in which Territorial Governments are as yet unorganized.”
3. Resolved further, That, in order to meet and clear away all obstacles to a full enjoyment of this right in the Territories, we reaffirm tile principle of the 9th resolution of the Platform adopted in Convention by the Democracy of this State, on the 14th of February, 1848, to wit: “ That it is the duty of the General Government, by all proper legislation.
to secure an entry into those ”
