There are considerations belonging to the present period which give new strength to this proposition. Public Opinion, which, under a popular government, makes and unmakes laws, and which for a time was passive and acquiescent, now lifts itself everywhere in the States where the Act is sought to be enforced, and demands a change. Already three States, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Michigan, by formal resolutions presented to the Senate, have concurred in this demand. Tribunals of law are joining at last with the people. The Superior Court of Cincinnati has denied the power of Congress over this subject. And now, almost while I speak, comes the solemn judgment of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, delivered after elaborate argument, on successive occasions, before a single judge, and then before the whole bench, declaring this Act a violation of the Constitution. In response to public opinion, broad and general, if not universal, at the North, swelling alike from village and city, from seaboard and lake,—judicially attested, legislatively declared, and represented also by numerous petitions from good men without distinction of party,—in response to this Public Opinion, as well as in obedience to my own fixed convictions, I deem it my duty not to lose this opportunity of pressing the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act once more upon the Senate. I move, Sir, to strike out all after the enacting clause in the pending bill, and insert instead these words:—
"That the Act of Congress, approved September 18, 1850, usually known as the 'Fugitive Slave Act,' be, and the same is hereby, repealed."
And on this motion I ask the yeas and nays.
On taking his seat, Mr. Sumner was followed by Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, when the following passage occurred.
Mr. Butler. Mr. President, I have no idea of irritating sectional differences. If gentlemen have the opinions which it seems the gentleman from Massachusetts entertains, be it so. I assure him I do not intend to bandy words with him. He talks as if he was disposed to maintain the Constitution of the United States; but if I were to put to him a question now, I would ask him one which he, perhaps, would not answer me honestly.
Mr. Sumner. I will answer any question.
Mr. Butler. Then I ask you honestly now, whether, all laws of Congress being put out of the question, you would recommend to Massachusetts to pass a law to deliver up fugitives from slavery?
Mr. Sumner. The Senator asks me a question, and I answer, frankly, that no temptation, no inducement, would draw me in any way to sanction the return of any man to slavery. Others will speak for themselves. In this respect I speak for myself.
Mr. Butler. I do not rise now at all to question the right of the gentleman from Massachusetts to hold his seat, under the obligation of the Constitution of the United States, with the opinions which he has expressed; but, if I understand him, he means, that, whether this law or that law or any other law prevails, he disregards the obligations of the Constitution of the United States.
Mr. Sumner. Not at all. That I never said. I recognize the obligations of the Constitution.
Mr. Butler. He says he recognizes the obligations of the Constitution of the United States. I see, I know he is not a tactician, and I shall not take advantage of the infirmity of a man who does not know half his time exactly what he is about. [Laughter.] But, Sir, I will ask that gentleman one question: If it devolved upon him as a representative of Massachusetts, all Federal laws being put out of the way, would he recommend any law for the delivery of a fugitive slave under the Constitution of the United States?
Mr. Sumner. Never.
Mr. Butler. I knew that. Now, Sir, I have got exactly what is the truth, and what I intend shall go forth to the Southern States.... When the gentleman talks in the way he does, I choose to rebuke him. Any man who comes up here with a philanthropy inconsistent with what is practical justice and liberty, I do not say that I scorn him,—I use no such word,—but by heavens[174]....
The question, being taken by yeas and nays on the amendment offered by Mr. Sumner, resulted,—yeas 9, nays 30,—as follows.
Yeas.—Messrs. Brainerd, Chase, Cooper, Fessenden, Gillette, Seward, Sumner, Wade, and Wilson,—9.
Nays.—Messrs. Adams, Badger, Bayard, Bell, Benjamin, Bright, Brown, Butler, Clay, Dawson, Douglas, Fitzpatrick, Geyer, Gwin, Hunter, Jones, of Iowa, Jones, of Tennessee, Mallory, Mason, Morton, Pearce, Pettit, Rusk, Sebastian, Shields, Slidell, Thomson, of New Jersey, Toucey, Weller, and Wright,—30.
So the amendment was rejected.
Footnotes
[1] Mr. Downing was accidentally drowned in the Hudson River.
[2] The members of this Convention were not required to have their domiciles in the places which they represented. Mr. Sumner sat as member for Marshfield, by which place he was chosen while absent from the State.