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January (search for this): chapter 6
profound interest on both sides, and watched with deep anxiety by the country. Toombs, Stephens, Clingman, Jefferson Davis, and Foote read elaborate speeches at the beginning of the session, and, supported by the bolder spirits of the South, declared themselves ready for disunion in the event of legislation by Congress prohibiting slavery in the territories, or even of the admission of California with her free State constitution. In Mississippi, Governor Quitman's inaugural message, in January. 1850, was an harangue for disunion. They seemed to be sincere in this aggressive and threatening attitude, though it was observed at the time that their governing impulse was ambition and empire, and slavery the pretext which was used to fire the Southern heart. But it did not yet appear that the masses of the Southern people were with them in their revolutionary purpose. Meanwhile preparations were made for a convention to meet at Nashville in June. These demonstrations had an effect o
February (search for this): chapter 6
wly acquired territory. The people thus left to themselves, holding a convention at President Taylor's instance in September, 1849, formed a constitution, which was approved by a popular vote in November, and submitted to Congress the following February. One of its articles, which was voted unanimously, notwithstanding some of the delegates were emigrants from slave States, prohibited slavery. A new free State was ready for admission, making it impossible to keep the balance between the contenafts, who had recently escaped, and on arriving in Boston had found wise and brave protectors in Theodore Parker, Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, Ellis Gray Loring, and Mrs. George S. Hillard. They were skilfully secreted and sent to England. The next February (1851), when the case of Shadrach was pending before G. T. Curtis, a commissioner, a body of colored men forced the door of the court room, and the negro, being taken from the officers, escaped to Canada. President Fillmore at once issued a pro
March (search for this): chapter 6
ce of Sims. He did not enter the case at the beginning on account of the pending election for senator, in which he was the candidate. Adams's Biography of Dana, vol. i. pp 183, 188, 189, 190. In association with Mr. Sewall he applied, without success, to Judge Sprague, of the United States District Court, for the writ of habeas corpus. Judge Woodbury, however, granted it, and sat for the hearing in the Circuit Court room, afterwards occupied for many years by the Municipal Court. In March, R. H. Dana, Jr., and Sumner drew a bill to secure the rights of persons claimed as fugitive slaves, particularly with the view of applying the statute of 1843 to proceedings under the new Fugitive Slave Act; and it was presented to a committee of the Legislature. Adams's Biography of Dana, vol. i. p. 184. The judge was unfriendly and brusque,—breaking out, when Sewall in a quiet way habitual with him made the point that slavery did not exist in Massachusetts, with the exclamation, accompa
March 7th (search for this): chapter 6
prevent slavery becoming the main political issue, and his lukewarm censures of the Mexican War, as well as his Creole letter of an earlier period, had already weakened Sumner's confidence in him. Longfellow was hardly surprised at the speech of March 7. He wrote in his journal, March 9, 1850: Yet what has there been in Webster's life to lead us to think that he would take any high moral ground on this slavery question? He was not, like Clay, the natural supporter of compromise. he wrote Ju leading cause of his change of course. Von Hoist, vol. IV. p. 140. He was called to the Cabinet of President Fillmore in July, and continued till his death, in 1852, to use his personal influence and official power in the direction of his Seventh of March speech. That speech carried the Compromise measures, but it made also a political revolution in Massachusetts. If Webster had spoken as he had hitherto always spoken, if he had spoken as Seward and Chase spoke later in the same month, he w
April 4th (search for this): chapter 6
no doubt that recent events have increased the probability of the passage of that measure [the Compromise]. Curtis's Life, vol. II. p. 464, note. His personal feelings carried him so far, that, as Secretary of State under Fillmore, he withdrew the patronage of his department—the publication of the laws of Congress—from Whig journals opposed to the Compromise measures, and transferred it to others (sometimes religious weeklies) which supported them. Boston Courier, April 5, 1851. Atlas, April 4. The motives of Mr. Webster, whether those of personal ambition of patriotism, or however these may have been combined, need not be considered in a statement which is intended, so far as it concerns him, only to illustrate the state of affairs in Massachusetts at this time. Contemporary writers suggest that a disposition to obstruct President Taylor had something to do with the course of Clay as well as of Webster. (J. S. Pike, in Courier, April 10, 1850.) The judgment of history is
April 11th (search for this): chapter 6
imself on a matter irrelevant to the discussion, by affirming the obligation imposed by the resolutions of annexation to create four more slave States out of Texas. Webster's Works, vol. v. pp. 341, 350. He put himself in antagonism with President Taylor's plan of admitting California as a State independently, as she had a right to be admitted; and he objected to her admission unless she came with the Compromise on her back. Curtis's life of Webster, vol. II. pp. 473, 474. He voted April 11 against excluding the admission of California from the Compromise, a week after he had expressed himself in debate as in favor of her admission independently. This vote, in which he stood alone among New England senators, prevented the exclusion of California from the Compromise, and delayed by some months her admission. Boston Atlas, April 16, 1850. He supported the Texas boundary bill, putting forth as his chief ground for yielding to the pretensions of that State that a collision with
April 14th (search for this): chapter 6
er gave a certificate of rendition, and the negro was taken by three hundred armed policemen to Long Wharf, and put on board the brig Acorn, owned by John H. Pearson, a name already associated with a kidnapping case. Ante, p. 130. The agent of the owner on his return to Georgia published a card acknowledging gratefully the assistance he had received in Boston, particularly in the co-operation and sympathy of merchants of high standing. （Boston Courier, May 8, 1851.) The Boston Advertiser, April 14, announced the surrender of Sims as a matter of gratulation. While Sims's fate was pending, a public meeting was held to denounce the Fugitive Slave Act and its instruments,—in which, as before, only Free Soilers and Abolitionists took part. Sumner was also counsel in the defence of Sims. He did not enter the case at the beginning on account of the pending election for senator, in which he was the candidate. Adams's Biography of Dana, vol. i. pp 183, 188, 189, 190. In association wi
May 7th (search for this): chapter 6
among their grievances, and volunteered his support of Mason's fugitive-slave bill, with all its provisions, to the fullest extent. As the speech was first published, he pledged himself to support the bill with Butler's amendment; but in a revision the relative pronoun which was transferred so that he appeared to pledge himself to support it only as amended by himself. The transfer of the relative pronoun led to a controversy in the newspapers,——--Boston Courier, May 6, 1850 Advertiser, May 7; Atlas, May 8 and 9; Moses Stuart's Conscience and the Constitution, p. 67. He intimated his purpose to offer some amendments which would qualify its harshness, and later proposed one securing to the alleged fugitive a trial by jury; but his speeches and letters of subsequent date make it clear that the bill unamended would have received his vote. In a letter, May 15, 1850 (Webster's Works, vol. VI. p. 557), he treated the State personal liberty laws as an insuperable difficulty in the w
May 8th (search for this): chapter 6
pportunity to appear for another and third time in his career as a pacificator between contending sections and policies; and late in January, 1850, he presented his scheme of a comprehensive and final adjustment. His series of measures, reported May 8, at first failed as a whole, but afterwards prevailed in August and September in the shape of separate bills. Their success was promoted by the co-operation of Fillmore, who became President on the death of Taylor, July 9. The latter had been e pronoun which was transferred so that he appeared to pledge himself to support it only as amended by himself. The transfer of the relative pronoun led to a controversy in the newspapers,——--Boston Courier, May 6, 1850 Advertiser, May 7; Atlas, May 8 and 9; Moses Stuart's Conscience and the Constitution, p. 67. He intimated his purpose to offer some amendments which would qualify its harshness, and later proposed one securing to the alleged fugitive a trial by jury; but his speeches and lette
May 9th (search for this): chapter 6
s, and volunteered his support of Mason's fugitive-slave bill, with all its provisions, to the fullest extent. As the speech was first published, he pledged himself to support the bill with Butler's amendment; but in a revision the relative pronoun which was transferred so that he appeared to pledge himself to support it only as amended by himself. The transfer of the relative pronoun led to a controversy in the newspapers,——--Boston Courier, May 6, 1850 Advertiser, May 7; Atlas, May 8 and 9; Moses Stuart's Conscience and the Constitution, p. 67. He intimated his purpose to offer some amendments which would qualify its harshness, and later proposed one securing to the alleged fugitive a trial by jury; but his speeches and letters of subsequent date make it clear that the bill unamended would have received his vote. In a letter, May 15, 1850 (Webster's Works, vol. VI. p. 557), he treated the State personal liberty laws as an insuperable difficulty in the way of a jury trial. H
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