A Biography of Henry Clay, the Senator from Kentucky / Containing Also, a Complete Report of All His Speeches; Selections From His Private Correspondence; Eulogies in the Senate and House; and a Poem, by George D. Prentice, Esq.

by Unknown

But I have risen, as I announced, more particularly for the purpose of entering into some further explanation of the course of the committee, and of throwing out some few observations in support of the measures which they have recommended for the adoption of the senate.

The first measure upon which they reported was that of the true exposition of the compact between the United States and Texas, upon the occasion of the admission of that state into the Union. Upon that subject, as already announced in the report, I am happy to say, there was an undivided opinion. Two honorable senators—one of whom is now absent, and the other present—while they declared that they would not hold themselves, and did not intend to be regarded as holding themselves, in every possible state of things, and in every contingency, to vote for the admission of states that might hereafter be carved out of Texas; but that they reserved to themselves, as I understood them, the right to determine this question whenever any new states formed out of Texas should present themselves for admission.—Whether, under all the circumstances of the country, and the circumstances under which a newstate might present itself it should or should not be admitted, they made this reservation; and yet they united most heartily in the true exposition of the compact between Texas and the United States, according to which, as we all know, a number of states, not exceeding four, with or without slavery, having the requisite population, with the consent of Texas, were to be admitted into the Union, from time to time, as they might be formed, and present themselves for admission.

But I will not dwell longer upon that part of the subject. I will now approach that which, in the committee, and perhaps in the two houses, has given the most trouble and created the most anxiety, amongst all the measures upon which the committee have reported—I mean the admission of California into the Union. Against that measure there were various objections.One of these objections was with respect to its population. It has been contended that it ought only to be admitted, if admitted at all, with one representative; that if admitted with two representatives, it would be a violation of the Constitution of the United States, and that there is no sufficient evidence before the senate and the country that its population would entitle it even to one representative. I suppose that no one will contend—California and the other acquisitions from Mexico having been admitted into the Union only about two years ago last February (that, I believe, was two years from the date of the treaty of Hidalgo)—that that sort of evidence, to entitle her to one or two representatives, which is furnished by the decenial enumeration of the population of the United States, would be requisite. It is impossible, with respect to California, that any such evidence should be furnished, she having been a part of a common empire only for the short time I have mentioned. Now, let me ask, what was done in the institution of the first apportionment of the representation among the states of the Union? There was no federal enumeration of the people of the United States upon which that apportionment was made. So many representatives were allowed to one state, and so many to another, and so on, completing the number provided for by the Constitution of the United States; but in that instance, the convention that allotted these representatives to the various states based it upon all the information which they possessed, whether it was perfectly authentic or not. It is known by those who are at all acquainted with the adjustment of the question of representation among the several states, that in several of them (I may mention Georgia) it was pretty well known at the time that a larger number of representatives were allotted than the exact state of the population would authorize. But it was said in that case, ‘Georgia is a new state, rapidly filling up; a strong current of emigration is flowing into her limits, and she will soon have—perhaps by the time the two representatives take their seats—the requisite population.’ In this way, not upon information obtained under federal authority, but upon information obtained by all the modes by which it could beprocured, and which was of a nature calculated to satisfy the judgment of the convention, was the apportionment of the representation made by the framers of the constitution.

So of a more recent acquisition or annexation—that of Texas. Nobody believed, I think, at the time, that Texas had a population sufficient to entitle her to two representatives. As in the case of some of the old thirteen states, so in the case of Texas, it was known that she was rapidly filling up—as I have no doubt will turn out to be the fact when the next census comes to be taken in Texas—that before the enumeration of the next census was taken, she would have a population entitling her to two, and probably more representatives.

Now, sir, there is an error existing, as it seemed to me from the observation of one or two friends the other day, with regard to the requisite population to entitle California to two representatives. It is not, as it is supposed, double the ratio which was fixed by congress ten years ago. The ratio was fixed at 70,680; but it was expressly provided in the law establishing it, that any state which had an excess beyond a moiety of the ratio established, should be entitled to an additional representative. According to the provision of that law, to entitle California to two representatives, she would only be required to have a population of 106,021, and not as was supposed, 140 odd thousand. Now, the question is, leaving out of view altogether the rapid augmentation which is daily taking place in the population of California, whether she has a population at this time—at the time when two members come to be admitted—which would entitle her to two representatives. Upon this subject, I have that which appears satisfactory to my mind, and I trust, to the minds of other senators.

In the first place, I offer to the senate an extract from a memorial of the senators and representatives of the state of California to the congress of the United States. To read this memorial, or to state it in substance in detail, would take up a considerable time; and as that memorial has been before senators, and can at any time be referred to and perused by any who have not already examined it, I will merely state, that according to the statements of that memorial—a portion of which are conjectural and a part official—the population of California, from the 1st of January, 1850, was 107,069, exceeding the number requisite to entitle the state to two representatives. But that brings it down only to January, 1850. Since that time we are authorized to add to the number, by that of the arrivals by sea at the port of San Francisco, as shown by the official report of the harbor-master from the 1st of January, 1850, to the 27th of March, 1850. Without going into the classification, there are of Americans, 8,697; of Californians, 13,454; and of foreigners, 5,503—making a total of 16,957. The number of deserters from ships, as stated in the memorial before alluded to, is put at 3,000, in round numbers. The official statement of the harbor-master, made on the first of March last to the legislature, states the number of officers and seamen that left their vessels from various causes to be 14,240.The aggregate of all these statements will give the following results, viz: 1st January, 1849, 26,000—8,000 Americans, 13,000 Californians, and 5,000 foreigners; on the 1st of January, 1850, the population was 107,069—making a total number on the 27th of March, 1850, of 124,026; to which add the number of deserting seamen, 14,240, makes a total of 135,256. Add to this the population arrived from the United States and other places since that time, and altogether, I have no earthly doubt—I am perfectly satisfied in my own mind—that, putting all these statements together, there is at this moment a population in California that would entitle her to two representatives, even supposing there had been no provision for a fraction exceeding the moiety of the ratio fixed by Congress.

Upon this question of population I do not wish to take up the time of the senate unnecessarily. They are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, for the greater part. They have lost nothing of intelligence and capacity for self-government by passing from the United States into California. By the treaty of Hidalgo, the Californians who remain become citizens of the United States, if they do not adopt the alternative of remaining Mexicans, within one year after the treaty of Hidalgo was signed. The Constitution of the United States does not any where fix any term of residence sufficient to constitute an individual one of the permanent portion of the people of the United States. In the Constitution, with regard to the subject of taxation and representation, the term is people and number. I have very little doubt that there is a sufficient number of citizens of the United States there to entitle California to two representatives. Well, as they will not be represented in the United States, they ought to be represented somewhere. Having gone to California, it is said that they have gone there only for temporary purposes. They have gone there to dig in the mines; and how many will return, how many will remain there, it is impossible at the present time to tell. We have all a right to move from place to place.

With regard to Louisiana—I am sure I state a fact that will be borne out and affirmed by the senator in my eye from that state, [Mr. Downs]—thousands and thousands went to New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana shortly after the acquisition of that territory by the treaty of Louisiana—and even up to the present time they go there for temporary purposes, intending to make a fortune, if they can, and then return home. But, so delightful is the climate, so happy do they find themselves when they get there, the number of those who go there for such purposes, who ultimately return to their individual homes, I do not believe amounts to scarcely one in a hundred. So it is and will be of California, I dare say. Vast numbers have gone there with the intention of returning, but after they have become connected by marriage, by social ties, by the acquisition of wealth, and by all those circumstances that tend to fix to a permanent location the residence of this animal man, they will relinquishtheir purpose of returning to the United States, I have no doubt, and become permanent and fixed residents of California. On the question of population, therefore, I think there is no ground of rational objection to the number “two,” which has been proposed by the committee, and which is precisely the number in the case of Texas.

Now, sir, with regard to the limits of California.—Upon that subject, a proposition was offered in the committee to extend a line through California, first by 36 deg. 30 min. A member of the committee, however, was not satisfied with that, and proposed 35 deg. 30 min. I believe that a majority of the committee was in favor of that amendment; but when the question of any line came up, it was rejected by a majority of the committee. Is it not a little remarkable that this proposition—this attempt to cut California in two by the line 36 deg. 30 min., or 35 deg. 30 min., or by any other line—does not come from the North at all, from whence it might be supposed it would come? For, with respect to the North, there can be no earthly doubt but if there were half a dozen states made out of California they would all be free states. But the North does not ask for a division. It is from the South that the proposition to divide the existing limits of California comes. The South wants some other states, or another state there. Some gentlemen from the South, it is true, propose that there should be an express recognition of the right to carry slaves south of the proposed line. But I believe that the major part of those who ask for this line, do not even ask for this recognition, or for this enactment, to carry slaves south of this line; and I ask every body who is acquainted with the country, who has taken the pains to look over the map, if he has not come to the conclusion that a friend of mine (I believe now within my hearing) from the South, and a large planter, came to? He said to me the other day: ‘Mr. Clay, if congress was to offer me $500 for every slave I might own, requiring me to take them to one of these new territories and keep them there for ten years, I would not accept the proposition.’

Now, suppose you were to take the line 35 deg. 30 min. or whatever line was proposed, what would be the consequence? There would be an open sea on the one side for the escape of slaves—California, reduced as I have suggested, on another; and Mexico, with her boundless mountains, on another. Who would think—who believes—that, if you establish the line proposed, slavery would ever be carried there, or would be maintained there? Moreover, I think I have understood that the delegation in the convention, south of the line of 35 deg. 30 min., or north of it, voted unanimously against the introduction of slavery there. It cannot, therefore, and I suppose it is not designed with any hope that there would be slavery carried there upon the limits of the Pacific at all. The making of a new state or states out of the present limits of California is therefore but adding to the objection which has been made by the South to the preponderance and influence, and the apprehensions entertained ofthe preponderance and influence of northern power. If the North is satisfied, if the thing is not unreasonable, it seems to me that there should be on the part of our southern friends no hesitation in accepting these limits. But they are said to be unreasonable. California is some 600 or 700 miles in extent on the Pacific coast; it is too large. It is stated in the report that with respect to all that portion of California south of 36 deg. 30 min., shortly after you have left the coast, you encounter deserts of sand, which never can be inhabited; and after you pass these deserts of sand, you approach mountains, and are involved in successive chains of mountains until you reach a population that has no intercourse with the Pacific, but whose intercourse is carried on exclusively with Mexico and other countries on the Mexican Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean. When you come to the northern portion of California, there is a vast desert which is said to have never been passed—or which was never known to be passed—extending from the country which the Mormons occupy down to the Pacific ocean. There seems to me, then, to be no adequate motive for the decreasing of the limits upon the Pacific, with a view to the addition of future states—at least from any amount of geographical knowledge which we possess at present.