Читать книгу: «Thirty Years' View (Vol. II of 2)», страница 136
The regular inauguration of this slavery agitation dates from the year 1835; but it had commenced two years before, and in this way: nullification and disunion had commenced in 1830 upon complaint against protective tariff. That being put down in 1833 under President Jackson's proclamation and energetic measures, was immediately substituted by the slavery agitation. Mr. Calhoun, when he went home from Congress in the spring of that year, told his friends, That the South could never be united against the North on the tariff question – that the sugar interest of Louisiana would keep her out – and that the basis of Southern union must be shifted to the slave question. Then all the papers in his interest, and especially the one at Washington, published by Mr. Duff Green, dropped tariff agitation, and commenced upon slavery; and, in two years, had the agitation ripe for inauguration on the slavery question. And, in tracing this agitation to its present stage, and to comprehend its rationale, it is not to be forgotten that it is a mere continuation of old tariff disunion; and preferred because more available.
In June, 1833, at the first transfer of Southern agitation from tariff to slavery, Mr. Madison wrote to Mr. Clay:
"It is painful to see the unceasing efforts to alarm the South, by imputations against the North of unconstitutional designs on the subject of slavery. You are right, I have no doubt, in believing that no such intermeddling disposition exists in the body of our Northern brethren. Their good faith is sufficiently guaranteed by the interest they have as merchants, as ship-owners, and as manufacturers in preserving a union with the slaveholding States. On the other hand, what madness in the South to look for greater safety in disunion. It would be worse than jumping into the fire for fear of the frying-pan. The danger from the alarms is, that pride and resentment excited by them may be an overmatch for the dictates of prudence; and favor the project of a Southern convention, insidiously revived, as promising by its counsels the best security against grievances of every kind from the North."
Nullification, secession, and disunion were considered by Mr. Madison as Synonymous terms, dangerous to the Union as fire to powder, and the danger increasing in all the Southern States, even Virginia. "Look at Virginia herself, and read in the Gazettes, and in the proceedings of popular meetings, the figure which the anarchical principle now makes, in contrast with the scouting reception given to it but a short time ago." Mr. Madison solaced himself with the belief that this heresy would not reach a majority of the States; but he had his misgivings, and wrote them down in the same paper, entitled, "Memorandum on nullification," written in his last days and published after his death. "But a susceptibility of the contagion in the Southern States is visible, and the danger not to be concealed, that the sympathy arising from known causes, and the inculcated impression of a permanent incompatibility of interests between the North and the South, may put it in the power of popular leaders, aspiring to the highest stations, to unite the South on some critical occasion, in a course that will end in creating a theatre of great though inferior extent. In pursuing this course, the first and most obvious step is nullification – the next, secession – and the last, a farewell separation. How near has this course been lately exemplified! and the danger of its recurrence, in the same or some other quarter, may be increased by an increase of restless aspirants, and by the increasing impracticability of retaining in the Union a large and cemented section against its will." – So wrote Mr. Madison in the year 1836, in the 86th year of his age, and the last of his life. He wrote with the pen of inspiration, and the heart of a patriot, and with a soul which filled the Union, and could not be imprisoned in one half of it. He was a Southern man! but his Southern home could not blind his mental vision to the origin, design, and consequences of the slavery agitation. He gives to that agitation, a Southern origin – to that design, a disunion end – to that end, disastrous consequences both to the South and the North.
Mr. Calhoun is dead. Peace to his manes. But he has left his disciples who do not admit of peace! who "rush in" where their master "feared to tread." He recoiled from the disturbance of the Missouri compromise: they expunge it. He shuddered at the thought of bloodshed in civil strife: they demand three millions of dollars to prepare arms for civil war.
CHAPTER CXCIX.
THE SUPREME COURT: ITS JUDGES, CLERK, ATTORNEY-GENERALS, REPORTERS AND MARSHALS DURING THE PERIOD TREATED OF IN THIS VOLUME
Chief Justice: – Roger Brooke Taney, of Maryland, appointed in 1836: continues, 1850.
Justices: – Joseph Story, of Massachusetts, appointed, 1811: died 1845. – John McLean, of Ohio, appointed, 1829: continues, 1850. – James M. Wayne, of Georgia, appointed, 1835: continues, 1850. – John Catron, of Tennessee, appointed, 1837: continues, 1850. – Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, appointed, 1845: continues, 1850. – Robert C. Grier, of Pennsylvania, appointed, 1846: continues, 1850.
Attorney-Generals: – Henry D. Gilpin, of Pennsylvania, appointed, 1840. – John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, appointed, 1841. – Hugh S. Legare, of South Carolina, appointed, 1841. – John Nelson, of Maryland, appointed, 1843. – John Y. Mason, of Virginia, appointed, 1846. – Nathan Clifford, of Maine, appointed, 1846. – Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, appointed, 1848. – Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, appointed, 1849. – John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, appointed, 1850.
Clerk: – William Thomas Carroll, of the District of Columbia, appointed, 1827: continues, 1850.
Reporters of Decisions: – Richard Peters, jr., of Pennsylvania, appointed, 1828. – Benjamin C. Howard, appointed, 1843: continues, 1850.
Marshals: – Alexander Hunter, appointed, 1834. – Robert Wallace, appointed, 1848. – Richard Wallach, appointed, 1849.
CHAPTER CC.
CONCLUSION
I have finished the View which I proposed to take of the Thirty Years' working of the federal government during the time that I was a part of it – a task undertaken for a useful purpose and faithfully executed, whether the object of the undertaking has been attained or not. The preservation of what good and wise men gave us, has been the object; and for that purpose it has been a duty of necessity to show the evil, as well as the good, that I have seen, both of men and measures. The good, I have exultingly exhibited! happy to show it, for the admiration and imitation of posterity: the evil, I have stintedly exposed, only for correction, and for the warning example.
I have seen the capacity of the people for self-government tried at many points, and always found equal to the demands of the occasion. Two other trials, now going on, remain to be decided to settle the question of that capacity. 1. The election of President! and whether that election is to be governed by the virtue and intelligence of the people, or to become the spoil of intrigue and corruption? 2. The sentiment of political nationality! and whether it is to remain co-extensive with the Union, leading to harmony and fraternity; or, divide into sectionalism, ending in hate, alienation, separation and civil war?
An irresponsible body (chiefly self-constituted, and mainly dominated by professional office-seekers and office-holders) have usurped the election of President (for the nomination is the election, so far as the party is concerned); and always making it with a view to their own profit in the monopoly of office and plunder.
A sectional question now divides the Union, arraying one-half against the other, becoming more exasperated daily – which has already destroyed the benefits of the Union, and which, unless checked, will also destroy its form.
Confederate republics are short-lived – the shortest in the whole family of governments. Two diseases beset them – corrupt election of the chief magistrate, when elective; sectional contention, when interest or ambition are at issue. Our confederacy is now laboring under both diseases: and the body of the people, now as always, honest in sentiment and patriotic in design, remain unconscious of the danger – and even become instruments in the hands of their destroyers.
If what is written in these chapters shall contribute to open their eyes to these dangers, and rouse them to the resumption of their electoral privileges and the suppression of sectional contention, then this View will not have been written in vain. If not, the writer will still have one consolation – the knowledge of the fact that he has labored in his day and generation, to preserve and perpetuate the blessings of that Union and self-government which wise and good men gave us.
