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Show 374 'l'IU~ AG1'£A'l'ION IN 184 7-50. Extract from the Speech of Mr. R. Toombs, of Georgia in the IIousc of H.cprcscntatives, February 27th, 1850. 1 Mr. Toombs said: * * * * ~,hose who claim the power in Congrc s to exclude slavery from tho territories rely rather ou authority ihn,n principle to support it. ~rhey afnrm, with singular io-norancc of or • I want of fideltly to, the fa cts, th~tt Congress has from tho beginning of the government uniformly claimed and repeatedly exercised tho power to di~cotuago slavery and to exclude it from the territories. My invcstigaLion of the subject has satisfied my own mind that neither position is sustained by a single precedent. I exclude, of com-_ c, legis. lation prohibiting the African lave trade ; and I hold the onli11ance of 17 7 not to be within tho principle as erted. For the first tllirty years of our hi Lory this gcucral duty to protect this great iutcrest equally with every other, was uuivcrsally admitted and fairly performed by every department of the government. ~'he act of 1793 was passed to secure the delivery up of fugitives from labor cscapino- to the non-slaveholding States: your navigation laws 1w~horizod their transportation on the high seas. The government dcmnntled nnd repeatedly received compensation for the owners of slaves for injuries sustained in the e lawful voyages by the interference of foreign governments. H not only protected us npon the high seas, but followed us to foreign lauds where we hall been driven uy the dangers of the sea, and protected slave property when thus cast even within the jurisdiction of hostile municipal laws. 1.,he slave property of our people was protected ugainst the incursions of Indians by our military power u.nd public treaties. The citizens of Georgia have received hnndreds of thousands of dollars through your treaties for IHdiun depredations npon thi~ species of property. That clause of the treaty of G hcllt, w]nch providctl com pen ation for property destroyed or takcu by the Britiiih govcrumcul, placed slavery preciooly TilE AGITATION JN 1847-50. 375 upon the same ground with other property; and a New England man [Mr. Adams] ably and faithfully maintained the rights of the slaveholder uuder it at the Court of St. James. 'rhcn tho government was administered according to the ConstituLion, and not ucconliug to what is now called 4'the spirit of tho ago." 'Those I gislators looke<l for political powers and public duties in the organic law which political communities had laid down for their guidance and govern· ment. llumanity-mongcrs, atheistical socialists, who woulu upturn the moral, social, and political foundations of society, who woul<l substitute the folly or men for tbe wisdom of God, were then justly considered us the enemies of the hutnan race, and as deserving the contempt, if not the exe- 'Cl·ation, of all mankind. Until the year 1820 your territorial legislation was marked by the same general spirit of fairness and justice. Notwithstanding the constant assertions to the coutrary by gcn tlomcn from the North, up to that period no act was ever passed by Cono-ress maintaining or asserting the primary constitutional power to prevent any citizen of the United States owning slaves from removing with them to our territories, and there receiving legal protection for this property. Until that lime such persons di{\ so remove into all the territories ownctl or ncquirec1 by tho Uuilc<l SLateR, except tho Northwest Territory, u.n<l were there adequately protected. rrho actiou of Congress in refercuce to the oruinancc of 1787 does not contravene this principle. ~'hat ordinance wn.s passed on the l 3th of July, 1787, before the adoption of' our present Constitu Lion. It purported on its fuce to be a perpetual compact between tho State of Virginia, the people of the territory, aud the then government of the United States, and unalterable, except by the consent of all the parties. \Vhen Co11gross meL for the first time under the new crovcrttmcnt on the 4th of l\1arch, 1780, it b I found the govcrnmcut thus establishell by virtue of this or· |