{"1": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3288", "width": "2342", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "peumaXtf6\u00c2\u00ab\\npH83", "height": "3382", "width": "2054", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "E 469\\n.B56\\nCopy 1\\nSPEECH\\nHON. CHARLES J. BIDDLE,\\nOF PENNSYLVANIA.\\nDELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 2, 1862.\\nThe House having under consideration Senate bill No. 184, to authorize the President\\nlof the United States to appoint diplomatic representatives to the republics of Hayti and\\nS Liberia, respectively, and the following substitute having been proposed by Mr. Cox:\\nThat there be appointed for each of the republics of Liberia and Hayti a consul general, who shall be\\nauthorized to negotiate any treaties of commerce between said republics and this country. And the\\nsalaries of said consuls general shall be the same as those now fixed by law\\nSiMr. BIDDLE said:\\nMr, Si EAker: I desire to submit a few remarks in advocacy of the amend-\\nment of tlie gentleman from Oliio, (Mr. Cox.) Coming from bim\u00e2\u0080\u0094 a distin-\\nI guished member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs it shows that the com-\\nI raiitee is not unanimous in reccmmending the bill as it stands. The bill thus\\nI amended v?ould meet, I hope, the views of many constituents and valued friends\\nof mine who have at heart the substantial interests of the colony of Libeiia. It\\nican enjoy, under the provisions of this amendment, the fullest commeicial privi-\\n|]eges. It will not have the hon()raiy dis inction of diplomatic representation,\\nthe necessity for which has been, I think, over-estimated.\\nBy the published tables, I do not find that the commerce with Liberia and\\nI Hayti suffers under any depression that might not be expected in times like\\nij these. Consular representation has sufficed there, as it has in a great many\\nother countries. A consul or a naval officer may be empowered to make a\\nI treaty, if one is needed. All this the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Cox) has fully\\nI! shown.\\nIt is true that the consul now at Hayti an intelligent gentleman from Massa-\\nchusetts is very urgent on this subject; but in the letter from him, alluded to\\nby the gentleman who first addressed the House, (Mr, Gooch,) I find stated\\np what is, perhaps, not the weakest motive for his urgency to be ranked with the\\nK diplomatists. He says\\nTheir liberal salaries enable thera to assume a style of living and a place in the social\\nworld of Hayti entirely beyond my reach.\\nSir, this is the ambition to shine in the first circles which is constantly\\nprompting our representatives at foreign courts to ask for higher rank and\\nI higher compensation, and, as constantly, this House refuses to gratify that am-\\nbition.\\nSome gentlemen are willing, I know, to grant this diplomatic representation,\\nthinking it a small matter; if it be so, let it wait till the day of small things.\\nThis is a time when small things may have great significance.\\nBut, sir, it is the present condition of the African race in this country, and\\nthe momentous political questions connected with it, which suggest to my mind", "height": "3387", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "objections to our now entering into new relations with these negro commu-\\nnities.\\nA short time since, the gentleman from Missouri, (Mr. Blair) whom I have\\nalways regarded as the Achilles of the Republican party told that party some\\nplain truths. No man knows the facts better than he does, and he said\\nEvery man acquainted with the facts knows that it is fallacious to call this a slave-\\nholders rebellion. If such was the fact, two divisions of our Army could have sup-\\npressed it without difliculty the negroes themselves could easily put down the two hun-\\ndred and fifty tliousand slaveholders; a closer scrutiny\\ndemonstrates the contrary to be true; such a scrutiny demonstrates that the lebellioii\\noriginated chiefly witli the non-slaveholders resident in the strongholds of the institution,\\nnot springing, however, from any love of slavery, but from an antagonism of race and\\nhostility to the idea of equality with the blacks involved in. simple emancipation.\\ni\\nThere the gentleman from Missouri touched the true point; there he hit the\\nright nail on the head. The leadeis of the rebellion had diverse aims; but it\\nwas only on one point that they could unite the people. Who helped them to\\ndo so, and how the white population of the South was driven to frenzy on that\\npoint, I will not stop now to discuss. A triumphant anti-slavery pirty; resist-\\nance by mobs and State legislatures to the fugitive slave law; the John Brown\\nraid, and the public rejoicings over it; the fanatical crusade in which pulpit,\\npress, and forum joined the programme of the Helper book and the Chicago\\nplatform endorsed by leading politicians of the ISorth these should have been\\nweighed more calmly at the South. Secession and war could afford no remedy\\nfor any of them. It was no case for an appeal to the sword; the appeal lay to\\nthe intelligence and sober second thought of the Ameiican people.\\nAnd, now, sir, in the midst of a great civil war, in which every incident is\\nseized upon to heighten and exasperate the angriest passion.s, even the recogni-\\ntion of these small colonies gathers importance froni its relation to the subject\\nof this strife.\\nThe bill before us is not an isolated measure it is a part of a policy that has\\ngreatly contributed to the severance of the Union it is part of a policy, the\\nprevalence of which in the councils of the nation is at this moment the greatest\\nobstacle to the restoration of the Union, and the successful prosecution of the\\nwar.\\nThe futile question of slavery in the territories acquired from Mexico threat-\\nened the Union in 1850; but the great intellects of the generation that gui-\\nded then the destinies of our country a generation of which a few still tower\\namong us showed to the intelligence of the American people that they were\\nabout to find cause of quarrel in a straw. Webster, and Clay, and Cass, and\\ntheir compeers tossed aside the Wilmot proviso, and like firebrands, and,\\nwithout }.)roscribiug slavery, left it to make its dreaded inroads upon Utah and\\nNew Mexico.\\nWhat followed Let the census answer. In twelve years, in Territories left\\nopen to it, slavery established itself to this formidable extent: New Mexico,\\ntwenty-four slavts; Utah, twenty-nine. In Kansas there were many pio-slavery\\npoliticians, many anti slavery politicians, but, I believe, no slaves at all.\\nAnd now, sir to come at once to the present time it has* just been an-\\nnounced to the American people, divided and impoverished by a mad strife\\nabout this slavery question, that the Chicago platform is at last fulfilled the\\nTerritories of the United States are free Yes, we have achieved freedom for\\nthe twenty-nine slaves in Utah, and for the twenty-four slaves in New Mexico,\\nand for the cooks and chambermaids in this District; but at an awful cost, an\\nawful cost to the cause of constitutional liberty throughout the world perhaps\\nthroughout all time\\nWhy, it was such a futile question, this question of slavery in the Territo-", "height": "3382", "width": "2054", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "3\\nries, that you might have left it to th ftrst five or six men whom you could\\nget to act as arbitrators. William Penn, the illustrious founder of Pennsylva-\\nnia, once proposed to the States of Europe, to sheathe the sword forever, and\\nsettle all their differences by arbitration. The great men who framed a Consti-\\ntution for the States of America realizeil tbat no)ble thought of Penn. They\\nestablished a great national tribunal, and tjave to its decisions the sanctity of\\nlaw thus they thought to avoid forever the antiquated, barbarous, and uncer-\\ntain arbitrament of the sword. Beforw the judges of this tribunal came this\\nfiUile question futile as masonry or anti-masonry the question of slavery in\\nthe Territories. They could decide it; not so as to please everybody no private\\ncause is ever so decided as to please both plaintiff and dtilendaut; but what\\nsociety asks of its tribunals is to put an end to strife ut sit finis litium. The\\nSupreme Court pronounced against the proscription of an institution once com-\\nmon to all the States, and which fifteen of them still maintained. Some thought\\nthe judgment right, some thought it wrong but it seems to me that the mad-\\ndest zealot will admit, now, that any peaceful arbitration was better than the\\ncarnage and devastation of a civil war.\\nBut, sir, politicians rebelled against that decision; they formed a political\\nparty to resist it, as they resisted the fugitive slave law they filled the minds of\\nthe southern people with the fear that the C. nstitution would prove no shield\\nfor the rights of the minority; and now the hopes of the wise and good are\\nbaffled, and the blind and bloody arbiter, the sword, is settling for these States\\ndisputed points of constitutional law. Yes, this futile abstract point of law\\nabuut slavery in the Territories was that on which politicians shouted No com-\\npromise! No aibitratiou No Supreme Court forgetting, or perhaps not\\nknowing the deep truth uttered by the great thinker Edmund Burke:\\nAll government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every\\nprudent act is founded on compromise.\\nThe apprehension that the party about to assume power would so use it as\\nto distuib the relation between the races was, as the gentleman from Missouri\\nhas truly said, the cause of this rebellion. Through it the rebel leaders roused\\nthe people and raised their armies. Now, my notion of policy has always been\\nnot to accredit those leaders by doing all they said we would do, but by our\\naction, to discredit them, and disabuse the minds of the people, I would have\\nthe war prosecuted for attainable ends you may crimson a thousand battle-\\nfields and never wash the blackamoor white.\\nTo preserve the old frame of government, to rally to it the old affections, to\\ndivide the enemy, and to offer always terms that make submission better than\\nresistance this has seemed to me true policy, civil and military, such as the\\nold masters practiced. An eminent writer on military science, Jomini, speaking\\nof war against a united people, says:\\nIf success be possible in such a war, the following; course will be most likely to in-\\nsui e it, namely: make a dis|)liiy of force [iroportioned to the ol)staeles and resistance\\nlikely to be encountered, calm the popular jiassiotis in every possible way, exhaust them\\nby time and patience, display courtesy, gentleness, and severity united, and particularly\\ndeal justly. The example of Henry IV in the wars of the League,\\nof Hoche in La Vended, are models of their kind, which may be employed, according\\nto circumstances, with equal success.\\nSir, if to this time the people of the boi der States had offered to the masses\\nof the South a spectacle of entire contentment and security upon this negro\\nquestion, I believe the credit of the southern leaders would have been so shaken\\nthat they could not have kept an army in the field.\\nI know that there are gentlemen who have deemed all policy on this subject\\nlittle better than timidity who say liere constantly that they do not care how\\nmuch they irritate rebels; but the result has not been happy. The gentleman", "height": "3470", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "from Missouri nearest to me [Mr. Phelps] told us that Fremont s proclamation\\nraised an army for the rebels in that State and other proclamations have been\\nissued, and bills passed here, that niiglit have been drafted by Jetf. Davis him-\\nself, they suit his purposes so wtdl.\\nSuch, it seems to me, has been ihe t\u00c2\u00bb^ndency and lie character of our African\\npolicy, of which this bill is a part. It has doubled the woik fur our armies.\\nSir, the crisis seems to me too great, the proportions of this rebellion are yet\\ntoo vast, for us to treat it flippantly. To achieve success that shall be Insting\\nand substantial, it is not enoutrh to defeat southern armies. Till the masses of\\nthe southern people yield a cheerful allegiance to this Government, we shall\\nnever again have the Union in which there is strength. We may have a vast\\nstanding army, but; if it be fully occupied at home, it can inspire no dread\\nabroad. Till we again have a cordial Union of these once United States, we\\nare like the house divided against itself; in the eyes of Europe we will be\\nthe sick man of the western hemisphere.\\nNor do I see any gleam of hope for returning prospi rity to my countiy in\\nthe unnatural schemes for turning the fertile regions of the South into a howl-\\ning wilderness of revolted negroes. As an American citizen, nay, even as the\\nrepresentative of a mercantile community, I may utter my protest against that.\\nYou must treble, too, vour present army to accomplish it.\\n_ The restoration of the Federal authority was tlie reasonable and legitimate\\naim that enlisted the northern and the border States in the prosecution of this\\nwar. Wars of vengeance and ambition had fallen under the ban of religioa\\nand humanity; and to all war so many evHs are incident that a modern states-\\nman, echoing the sentiment of Cicero, declared tliat the worst peace was better\\nthan the best war. I have, however, so far dep4rted from the piincfiples of\\nmy Quaker -forefathers as to recognize the necessity of war. Even the jealousy\\not foreign Powers did not prevent them from recognizing in this war a legiti-\\nmate effort to restore authority thrown off with precipitate and insulting vio-\\nlence. But, sir, when, in the language of the gentleman from Massachusetts,\\n[Mr. Thomas,] you turn this war into a remorseless struggle over the dead\\nbody of the Constitution, you will make it repugnant to the sentiments and to\\nthe interests of the civilized world.\\nI cannot see that the policy of which this bill is a part, is statesmanlike\\nand judicious at this time. The African policy of the majority of this Con-\\ngress is spreading far and wide a just alarm for the future of our country and\\nour race. Prompted by that alarm\u00c2\u00bbwe have seen men, bound together by no\\nparty ties, assemble in this Hall when the tedious duties of the day were over,\\non a call to defeat the scheme?^ of the abolitionists and the secessionists.\\nThus were justly coupled the authors of the ills that now afflict our country,\\nand I believe that throughout the land thoughtful, conservative. Union loving\\nmen everywhere do so couple them.\\nWhen Andrew Johnson, fresh from his seat in this Congress, lately ad-\\ndressed the people at Nashville, he told them Sumner wants to break up\\nthe Government, and so do the abolitionists generally. Sir, it is in this day\\nof double danger to the Constitution that we are called upon to weigh well the\\nacts of legislation that may afford countenance to either class of its enemies.\\nWhen I see with whom this Senate bill originated I cannot disregard the\\nwarning of Andrew Johnson. I cannot recognize this measure as now\\nprompted by that genuine philanthropy of which political abolitionism is the\\nbasest of counterfeits.\\nI know, sir, well, that the constant effort of the abolitionist is to foster the\\nbelief that only those whose inierests are involved in slavery oppose the aboli-\\ntion policy. Representing a free State, I may well say of slavery:\\nWhat s Hi^cuba to me, or I to Hecuba,\\nThat I should weep for her?", "height": "3382", "width": "2054", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "Sir, when tbe Representatives of thp \u00c2\u00ab^ave States exercised a large influence\\nin this Government, I never receiveii nor asked their favors. Now, surely it\\nwould not be a propitious time fv: m man to range himself on the side of\\nslavery.\\nBut, sir, though no interests on nvth are more remote from me and mine\\nthan the interests of slavery, yet I sh-..;^ to the full the apprehension, the alarm\\nthat has been expressed by the Representatives from the botder States upon this\\nfloor. Sir, that alarm would spread to every man of my constituents who loves\\nhis country and his race, if the public mind were not lulled and put to sleep\\nwith the word colonization. I say the loord, not the thing for no practi-\\ncable and adequate scheme for it has ever been presented or devised. The\\nword is sung to us as a sort of lullaby. I am fully conscious of the value, in\\nthis respect, of the Liberian colony. But I vyill not be misled by it. It gives\\nus the means of measuring the adequacy of colonization to meet general, pre-\\ncipitate emancipation. Sir, it is illusory; it does nut tranquilize me. When I\\nsee men bent on breaking down the dikes and opening the floodgates that shut\\nout an inundation, I am not tranquillized, because some philanthropist stands\\nby with a pint mug, promising to bail it out again. Colonization may carry\\noff the leakage and the running over but if you suddenly let in the floods, it\\nwill prove but a pint mug measure of relief. It is vain to suppose that the\\nindustrial interests of the North can be made to bear a frightful expenditure to\\nbuy up and send away the productive labor of the South. That is political econ-\\nomy run mad. Indeed, when the proposition came before us, one of my col-\\nleagues, an eminent supporter of the Administration, the chairman of the Commit-\\ntee of Ways and Means, [Mr. Stevens,] said, with his usual frankness, that it\\nmade no difference whether we adopted or rejected it he said it was about the\\nmost diluted milk-and-water gruel proposition that was ever given to the Amer-\\nican people. Another distinguished colleague of mine, the chairman of the\\nJudiciary Committee, [Mr. HickxMAn,] who voted for Mr. Lincoln, I believe,\\ncalled him a coward for making such a proposition. While eminent mem-\\nbers of the party in power thus laugh to scorn this colonization scheme, I may\\nwell say it remains but an empty word. Yet, all measures for freeing slaves\\nare pushed with the utmost activity.\\nTake your post on the avenue towards nightfall you shall see troops of fu-\\ngitives poifring into this city. Lately an appeal to us to provide for ttiem was\\nlaid ou the desk of every member. Where do they go to? To South Amer-\\nica That is one of the loords in fashion now. No, sir. There are no ways,\\nno means, as the chairman of that committee said, for sending them to South\\nAmerica, and we own no place there to send them to. If you really meant to\\ncolonize the negroes, you should not set them free till you were ready to col-\\nonize them.\\nBut the fact is that the abolitionists always have been,. and now are, noto-\\nriously the bitterest opponents of colonization. Just now the word suits them,\\nbut they abhor tlie thing. It is no pan of their plan to send the negro race\\naway. They want it here. They want it armed. They want it clothed with\\npolitical rights. They want it to support their power, now on the wane among\\nwhite men.\\nDo they not constantly tell us here that instant emancipation is best, because\\nthe negroes then will hold possession of the southern States? But this leaves\\nwholly out of account the white race. If not exterminated, it will resume^ its\\nsway as soon as we withdraw our armies, and, as every State assumes the right\\nto fix the status of the negro race within its borders, slavery may be re-estab-\\nlished. To this they answer, we will keep a force there to maintain the free-\\ndom of the blacks. I want no more than this to show that endless intervention", "height": "3470", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "6\\niQ the States, for the sake of the blacks against the Vvhite?, is a necessary con-\\nsequence of the abolition policy.\\nThe fear that their power is passing away seems to cumulate the promoters of\\nthis policy to cousum:oate it irremediably by the most precipitate anil despetate\\nmeasures. There has been a persistent elfort to nullify all laws, State and Fede-\\nral, for the reclamation of fugitives. Firtt you forbid the military .-luthority to re-\\nstrain slaves, then th* military is made to exclude the civil jurir-diclion ot the sub-\\nject. Thus, wherever our furces move, involuntary servitude is at an end, whether\\nit be in a hostile or a loyal district. To carry their points, by military power\\noutside of the Constitution is the plain, indeed, the avowed intention of the\\nabolitionists. At whose instance has a general officer lately disseminated far and\\nwide his edict abolishing the institution of slavery in three States? I have here\\none of the handbills, transmitted from the spot, to one of my constituents, by a\\ndisgusted officer. Here we^ are told thut slavery and martial law in a free\\ncountry are altogether incompatible. Rarely have words so incompatible met\\nin the same sentence. Where maitial law prevails, there, for the time at least,\\nit is no longer a free country. Not slavery, but freedom and its pillars free\\nspeech, free press, and habeas corpus are incompntible with military rule.\\nTherefore it is that everywhere a just susceptibility has been aroused by the pre-\\ntension that in States ivmote from the theatre of war, in States where every\\ncivd tribunal is in the full and undisturbed exercise of all its functions in Penn-\\nsylvania, in New Jersey, in New York, in Connecticut ^^irbitrary arrests, arbi-\\ntrary imprisonments, arbitrary suppressions, may be justified by an appeal to\\nmartial law.\\nSir, when this last pretension for military power fiist met the public eye, and\\nmen doubted its authenticity, the abolition press knew it was genuine and burst\\nout in preconcerted exultation. The higher law was to be realized, and\\nHayti was to be brought to every man s door. What followed, sir, when the\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2President proclaimed his disavowal The abolition press scoflVd at it; and set\\nup at once the doctrine that the President had no power to affect rights that\\nhad accrued under General Hunter s order. I find this doctrine maintained\\ndaily in the paity organ in this city, called The National Republican. And,\\nsir, the vote taken last week upon the wild and unconstitutional emancipaiion\\nscheme proved, that in any constitutional or conservative policy which the Pre-\\nsident may adhere to, his sujjport must come from the Democrats aiwl the bor-\\nder State men, and a very few Republicans who enjoy lucid intervals upon the\\nnegro question. The vote stood ayes 74, noes 78 but to that vote against the\\nbill the party which elected Mr. Lincoln did not contribute a corporal s guard\\nless, I think, than a dozen nearly all eminent lawyers, who could not compro-\\nmise their I eputations by voting tor what was so flagrantly unconstitutional.\\nAnd this vote is to be reconsidered.\\nSir, the imposing strength of a party in this Congress bent on making new\\nHaytis, affords to me, at least, sufficient reason for not now recognizing the old\\none. For if, sir. General Hunter s proclamation was regarded with alarm when\\nit was thought that it had the sanction of the President, can we regard it with\\nless alarm when we find it promulgated in contempt of his authoiity, at the\\nbidding of a faction that stops at nothing to attain its aims and bolster up its\\npower. How gieat that power yet is, this House does not need to be told it\\nis felt here, it is felt everywhere; the ambitious and the venal court it, and the\\ntimid fear it. There was a time when the abolition party was alike harmless\\nand insignificant, and, while it remained so, secession was the esoteric doctrine\\nof a small clique in Charleston. These parties sjn-ead and grew together till,\\nnow, thev confront each other, in vast proportions, like Death and Satan at the\\ngates of Hell, as Milton pictuies them.\\nAs secession has deluded the South, so abolition has deluded the North. Its", "height": "3382", "width": "2054", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "venal press has played its batteries of calumny and clamor against every man\\nwho has dart d to oppose it. Whenever, in military or civil life, a man has\\ntreated this negro question as one that was too great to be made the shuttle-\\ncock between the enthusiast and the d*: magogue whenever any public man\\nhas ventured to cry, Hold, this slavery is one of the great interests of our\\ncountry, let us deal with it as sane men deal with the great interests of their\\ncountry, what a howl this faction raised against him. How it has howled\\nagainst the Democracy, because, yielding to the instinct of race, their fitst soli-\\ncitude has been for the liberties of white men. It strangled the old Whig par-\\nty, and hounded Choate and Webster to their graves. Yes, it slew the prophets.\\nAnd now you hear its mntterings rising against Abraham Lincoln, whenever\\nthe sobering influence of his great office seems to weigh upon him.\\nIt was within the scope of the President s authority to recognize these coun-\\ntries without an act of Congress, but he has thought proper to refer the matter\\nto our deliberation. Thus he has recognized the fact that this is no unimport-\\nant measure. Sir, for that and every other instance of moderation, I pay to him\\nmy humble tribute of respect and, sir, I can truly say that I desire to take no\\ncaptious exceptions to his policy.\\nBut, sir, the African policy that I am now commenting on is, in my judg-\\nment, utterl_y erroneous, and it shall not have the support of my vote in any\\nstagH of it. While we, as representatives, may claim no supe iority of judgment\\nover thousands of our constituents, yet, sir, we are the sentinels on the ram-\\nparts, and it is our function to give the alarm. Sir, the repugnance to negro\\nequality is as strong in the middle States as it is at the South. It finds expres-\\nsiun in our lejgislation as well as in our social habits. I object to the establish-\\nment, at this time, of diplomatic relations with Hayti and Liberia, because it\\nwill be taken, and, by those who are at this time its prime movers, it is intended\\nas an acknowledgment of the equality of the races. That may be a philosuphic\\nidea, an English idea, but it is eminently un-American. That we are to have\\na negro here as a minister was frankly admitted by the gentleman from Maine.\\nHe did not evade it by saying that white men would be sent from these African\\ncommunities.\\nMr. Fessenden. That remark was made by the gentleman from Massachu-\\nsetts, [Mr. GoocH.] My remark simpl^ was, that the gentleman from Ohio\\nmight draw his own inference.\\nMr. GoocH. I did say, Mr. Speaker, that the bill proposed that we should\\nplace Eayti and Liberia on an equality with other nations. I now ask the gen-\\ntlemen to tell me if he knows of any other rule by which diplomatic relations\\ncan be established I ask him whether it is not a fixed pritciple that indepen-\\ndent nations are equals? I said nothing about equality of races.\\nMr. BiDDLE. My answer to that is, that I do not wish to establish this diplo-\\nmatic relation at all.\\nMr. Fessenden. Will the gentleman from Pennsylvania let me say in this\\nconnection, that I concur in the remark made by the gentleman from Massa-\\nchusetts, tliough that remark did not fall fiom me.\\nMr. Cox. When I asked the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Fessenden)\\nwhether he proposed to have black ministers come here from Hayti, the gentle-\\nman from Maine said why not? Now, what did he mean by that? I ask\\nhim whether or not he is willing to receive black ministers from Hayti?\\nMr. Fessenden. Certainly, sir.\\nMr. Cox. Well, that is all. (Laughter.)\\nMr. BiDDLE. Then I have been interrupted, but not corrected at all.\\nMr. LovEjOY. I want to ask the gentleman from Pennsylvania whether he\\nthinks the Chinese equal to the Yankees?\\nMr. BiDDLE. That is an ethnological question which is not pertinent to t", "height": "3470", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "LIBRARY u\u00c2\u00bb-\\nilPllHllllllMilill!\\n8\\n0 013 700 925\\npresent subject. I will tell the gentleman what I thi ^oiuesu on some\\nmore appropriate occasion.\\nMr. Speaker, I have always regarded Liberia with interest that infant colony,\\nthe child of American benevolence, I have looked to as the means of elevating\\nAfiica to a place among the nations. But when I see how deeply the Provi-\\ndence of God has rooted the institution of slavery in this land, I see that it can\\nbe safely eradicated only by a gradual process, in which neither the civil nor\\nthe militaiy power of the Federal Grovernment can intervene with profit. Gen-\\neral emancipation can be safely reached only through State action, pi ompted\\nby conviction and the progress of natural causes.\\nMeanwhile, States that refuse admittance to the negro race within their bor-\\nders, or hold it there in political subordination, have no right to affect a phara-\\nsaical intolerance towards States which solve the negro question by means of\\ndomestic slavery. Through much of all the anti-slavery sentiment of the North\\nthere runs a vein of insincerity; and if, through the great exodus predicted\\nby the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. Bingham,) the negroes in great numbers are\\nti ansferred to the North, this unfortunate race may find itself there in a posi-\\ntion as unenviable as that from which it may escape.\\nMr. Bingham. Will the gent eman from Pennsylvania allow me to sug-\\ngest to him that I never intimated that the people would make an exodus to\\nthe North. I made an intimation that they would make an exodus from the\\nhouse of their bondage, if you dealt justly by them. I never made an inti-\\nmation that they would make an exodus to the North. The history of the\\nRepublic shows well that, left to the enjoyment of their freedom, they would\\nnot make exoduses to the North.\\nMr. Biddle. I thought the gentleman was so good a bibli cal scholar that\\nhe would use the word exodus in its appropriate sense, and in relation to\\nsuch an exodus as that of which we read in the Bible.\\nMr. Bingham. I do not know that the word exodus suggests to the black J\\nor to any other race of men that they should make an exodus to the North.\\nMr. Biddle. That is a philological question, and I have not time to enter!\\nupon it at present.\\nAnd now, Mr, Speaker, I will not say by my vote that I think this great*\\nnational crisis is the happy hour at which to accord, for the first time, diploma-\\ntic representation to the negro. Many a true friend of Liberia will admit thati\\nthis is not the time to assert her claims. Such, at least, is my conviction and[\\nmy vote therefore will express that conviction. This is no time to give an inchs\\nto those who will take an ell. I will not help to stick a new feather in theS\\ncap of abolition that Gessler s cap to which it is sought to make the Nortl\\nbow down, in violation of its sentiments and its interests. I will vote for tht\\namendment; if that is lost then I shall vote against the bill.\\nL. Towers Co., Printers, corner Sixth Street and Louisiana avenue.", "height": "3382", "width": "2054", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3470", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3382", "width": "2054", "jp2-path": "speechofhoncharl00bidd_0012.jp2"}}