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

It is mentioned in the report that there are other cases of states which have been admitted without the previous authority of congress. The honorable gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Clemens) stated that in all the other instances of states admitted into the Union, they had served an apprenticeship of so many years. But the statement in the report stands uncontradicted. Michigan, Arkansas, Florida, if no other states, came into the Union without any previous act of congress, according to the usage which prevailed in the early admission of states, authorizing them to meet in convention and form a constitution. But it is said that they were under the government of the United States. So much the better for them; they had a good government—a territorial government. But how was it with California? She had no government. You abandoned and deserted her—violated the engagement of the treaty of Hidalgo—left her to shift for herself as well as she could. In this state of abandonment, she has formed a constitution and come here. I ask again, as I had occasion to ask some three months ago, if she does not present stronger claims upon our consideration than any of those states which had territorial governments, but which, not satisfied with them, chose to form for themselves state constitutions, and come here to be admitted into the Union?

I think, then, Mr. President, that with respect to the population of California, with respect to the limits of California, and with respect to the circumstances under which she presents herself to congress for admission as a state into the Union, all are favorable to the grant of what she solicits, and that we can find neither in the one nor the other a sufficient motive to reject or to throw her back into the state of lawless confusion and disorder from which she has emerged.

With the committee I say upon this occasion, that all the considerations which devolve upon congress to admit California, sanction what she has done, and give her the benefit of self-government, apply with equal force to the two territories of Utah and New Mexico.

Mr. President, allow me, at this stage of the few observations which I propose to address to the senate, to contrast the plans which have been presented for the settlement of this question. One has come to us from very high authority, recommending, as I understand it, the admission of California, and doing nothing more, leaving the question unsettled of the boundary between New Mexico and Texas, and leaving the people who inhabit Utah and New Mexico unprovided for by government. I will take the occasion to say, that I came to Washington with a most anxious desire—a desire which I still entertain—to coöperate in my legislative position, in all cases in which I can judiciously coöperate, with the executive branch of the government. I need not add, however, sir, that I came here, also, with a settled purpose to follow the deliberate dictation of my own judgment, wherever that judgment might carry me. It is with great pleasure, sir, that I state that we do coöperate with the President, to the extent which he recommends. He recommends the admission of California. The committee propose it. There the President’s recommendation stops. There we take up the subject, and proceed to act upon the other parts of the territory acquired from Mexico. Now, sir, which course of the two recommends itself best to the judgment of those who are to act in the case?

In the first place, sir, if we do not provide governments for the other portions of the country acquired from Mexico, we fail to fulfil the obligation, the sacred obligation, in the treaty with Mexico. It is said that they will have a government of their own—a local government; that they have such a one now; but they have not such a one now as they had when they were part of Mexico. When they were part of the republic of Mexico, with the common government of Mexico stretching over all the parts constituting that republic, they had all the benefit resulting from their own local laws, and the additional benefit and security resulting from the laws of the supreme government, covering all parts of the republic. We have the place of that supreme government. They were transferred from that sovereignty to this sovereignty, and we stipulated with that former sovereignty that we would extend to them protection to their persons, security to their property, and the benefit of preserving their own religion according to the dictates of their own consciences.Now, sir, if you admit California, and do nothing for Utah and New Mexico—nothing in relation to the settlement of the boundary question with Texas—I ask you, in what condition, in what state, will you leave these countries? There are the Mormons—a community of which I do not wish to say a word in disrespect. I know very little about them. I have heard very often things said against them; and I believe during this session my colleague, who sits before me,[Mr. Underwood] has had occasion to present some petition or document, showing some very harsh, oppressive, and tyrannical treatment extended by those Mormons to citizens of the United States, who did not compose a portion of their community, and who were merely passing through. Of that people, of their capacity to govern, of the treatment they would give to the other citizens of the United States who might settle among them, or who might wish to pass through, not belonging there—of all these matters I shall not speak. The members from Missouri and Illinois are much more competent to afford information to the senate upon them than I am.

But I care not whether they are as bad as they are represented by their enemies, or as good as they are represented by their friends, or what they are: they are a portion of the people whom we are bound by treaty, as well as other high obligations, to govern; and I put it to you, sir, is it right to say of the people of Utah, comprehending the Mormons, and to the people of New Mexico, deprived as they are of the benefit of the government which they once had, the supreme authority of which resides at Mexico—is it right in us to leave them to themselves, and to say, they will take care of themselves, I dare say; and when they get ripe—ay, when will they be ripe for a state government?—when they get ripe, after the lapse of many years, let them come forward, and we will receive them? Is that discharging our duty?

I will go further in reference to the message, which I am sorry that I think it my duty to contrast with the plan of the committee which is now under consideration; and I will say that I have no doubt that there were strong, at least plausible reasons, for the adoption of that recommendation in the message of the President, at the time it was sent into congress, at the beginning of the session. I have no doubt it was apprehended at that time that it was impossible to create any governments for those territories, without producing scenes in congress of the most painful and unpleasant character. I have no doubt it was believed, as indeed it was stated in the message, that distraction would be aggravated—differences of opinion, perhaps, carried to extreme lengths, if any attempts should be made to extend government over those territories.

But I am happy to be able to recognise what all have seen, that, since the commencement of the session, the most gratifying change in the public mind has taken place. The North, the glorious North, has come to the rescue of this Union of ours. She has displayed a disposition to abate in her demands. The South, the glorious South—not less glorious than the other section of the Union—has also come to the rescue. The minds of men have moderated. Passion has given place to reason. Every where—every where, in all parts of the Union, there is a demand—the force and effect of which, I trust, will be felt in both branches of congress—for an amicable adjustment of these questions, for the relinquishment of extreme opinions entertained, whether upon one side of the question or uponthe other, and coming together once more as friends and brethren, living under the common country, and enjoying the benefits and happiness which have flowed from a common government. I think that if the President had to make a recommendation to congress, with all the lights which have been shed upon the subject since the commencement of the session, now that nearly five months of the session have gone, he would not have limited himself simply to a recommendation to admit California, or to leave the territories to shift for themselves as they could or might.

He tells us in one of those messages—I forget whether it is the message of December or January—that he had reason to believe that one of those territories at least (New Mexico) would possibly form a state government for herself, and might come here, even during the progress of this debate. At all events, if there had been such a state of circumstances at the period that this message was sent in as exists down to the present time, I cannot but believe that the gentleman who now presides at the head of our political affairs, if he had had the benefit of our light, would have made a recommendation much more comprehensive, much more general and healing in its character, than the simple recommendation of the admission of California, leaving all the other questions untouched and unsettled.

With regard to the abandoned condition of Utah and New Mexico, to which I have alluded, left without any authority of this government, acting locally to protect the citizen who goes there to settle, and to protect the citizen who is in transitu between these countries, without any authority connected with the supreme authority of the government here—when they are communicating from time to time this state of things existing in those countries, I submit that to abandon them, in face of our obligation contained in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and other high obligations, is not conformable to that duty which we are called upon to perform.