CH. VII.] THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS. California and the gold region, caused a large increase of duty to the president, and anxious consideration on his part how best to protect the emigrants flocking thither, and how to sustain, properly and effectually, the authority of the United States in a region which had no settled government of any kind as yet provided for it. The intense application to public business began to tell upon the president's health, and the effect of the new cares and responsibilities he had assumed, was becoming evident as the summer passed away and the time for the opening of Congress approached.* The thirty-first Congress began its first session on the 3d of December, 1849, and the contest for the speakership of the House, and the other offices, immediately commenced. Two hundred and twenty-three out of two hundred and thirty-one members of the House answered to their names, and as, according to the list which was given by the newspapers, there were a hundred and twelve democrats, a hundred and five whigs, and thirteen free-soilers, it was evident that there would be a sharp battle before a speaker could be elected. And from that day, day after day for nearly three weeks, the members of the House wasted the time which belonged to the people in balloting and speech-making about filling the vacant chair. Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, and Mr. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, were the respective democratic and whig candi * On the 12th of August, 1849, the venerable statesman and financier, Albert Gallatin, died in the village of Astoria, New York. Mr. Gallatin was in the eightyninth year of his age. 475 dates, and either of them would have proved satisfactory to the country as speaker of the House. At last, on the 22d of December, the question was settled by a resolution that, as Mr. Cobb had received a plurality vote, he should be declared duly elected speaker; and the House was accordingly organized for the discharge of its proper duties. 1849. The president's message was sent in on the 24th of December, and read to both Houses. It proved to be a plain, clearly written paper, and not nearly so long as several of those which issued from General Taylor's predecessors. Its recommendations were characterized by good sense and moderation; and there ran through it a vein of earnest and sincere devotion to the best interests of our country. "For more than half a century," said the president, in conclusion, "during which kingdoms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended into the grave; yet still it remains, the proudest monument to their memory, and the object of affection and admiration with every one worthy to bear the American name. In my judgment, its dissolution would be the greatest of calamities; and to avert that should be the study of every American. Upon its preservation must depend our happiness and that of countless generations to come. Whatever dangers may threaten it, I shall stand by it and main tain it in its integrity to the full extent of the obligations imposed ar d the pow er conferred upon me by the Constitu tion." The exciting topics of former years, Texas boundary difficulty, and stated, that the people in the western part of California had formed a constitution, the consideration of which was recommended to Congress.* Senator Foote of Mississippi, a few days previously, (January 16th) had brought forward a bill to provide a territorial government for California, Deseret, and New Mexico, and to enable the people of Jacinto, with the assent of Texas, to provide a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union. The subject came as the tariff, internal improvements, and the like, having in great measure been put to rest, the attention of the country was devoted almost entirely to the aspects of the slavery question, growing out of the vast increase of territory gained by the Mexican war. The south, naturally enough, rejoiced in the acquisition of Texas,* and the enlargement of the area out of which new slave states might be formed, and it was also sanguine in the expectation that New Mexico and California might be included in the same category. The north, on the other hand, while yield-up as the order of the day, on the 22d, ing to the necessity of Texas being under the influence and guidance of slaveholders, was earnest in seeking to prevent the spread of what it deemed a great evil and stain upon our national escutcheon; and as it became more and more probable that slavery would be excluded from California and New Mex-mit California as a state; to form terico, the north could not but exult in the prospect, and also urge in Congress measures calculated to depress southern power and influence in our Pacific possessions. and gave rise to considerable debate. On the 29th of January, Henry Clay brought forward a series of eight resolutions, by which he hoped to provide a basis of compromise for the firm and lasting settlement of the slavery question. His plan in substance was, to ad ritorial governments in other parts of the territory acquired from Mexico; to fix the boundary of Texas and New Mexico; to propose to Texas to pay off her debt contracted previous to annexation to the United States; to declare it inexpedient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, while it exists in Maryland, without the consent of the people of the state and the district, and without compensating the slave-owners in the district; to declare it expedient to prohibit the slave trade in the District of Columbia; to make more effectual provision for the recovery of fugi * Deseret was the name adopted by the inhabitants for the new state; it was subsequently organized as a territory under the name of Utah. CH. VII.] CLAY, CALHOUN AND WEBSTER. tive slaves; and to affirm that Congress 477 settled opinion, that the course of the north was so aggressive and unjust as fully to authorize this last resort. However undoubted were Mr. Calhoun's integrity and sincerity, his views met with but little favor, even among southern state rights men; and it was impossible that his scheme for settling existing difficulties could be agreed upon by the American people. We may mention here, that the great South Carolina Senator ended his career a few weeks later. His strength sank rapidly from this date, and on the 31st of March he was called away from earth to his final account. Nearly threescore years and ten at the time of his death, Mr. Calhoun had spent the larger part of his life in the service of his country; and however unacceptable a large portion of his views must ever be to the majority of his countrymen, there is no one who can doubt his uprightness, his purity of private life, his vast intellectual force and energy, and his earnest wish to promote the welfare of the United States.* Daniel Webster also, on the 17th of March, gave utterance to his views on the questions under debate; and in terms which we regret we have not room to quote, he scorned the very name of secession as an act of foul treachery and depravity. Mr. Webster was willing to do any thing that was right in order to mitigate the evils of slavery; but, as he emphatically de John C. Calhoun, like his compeer, Henry Clay, advanced in years, but unlike him in other respects, greatly reduced in health and strength, brought into the Senate, on the 14th of March, a carefully prepared written speech, which, as he was too weak to deliver it, was read by Mr. Mason of Virginia. He took entirely opposite ground from that of Mr. Clay, and as was to be ex-clared, secession would be, must be, pected from him and his well-known views on the subject of southern rights and claims, he advocated the dissolution of the Union, and gave it as his *The Works of John C. Calhoun have been collected and published in six volumes, which the stu dent of history will find it of value and importance to consult and study. the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Long and wearisome debates and disputes followed, for week after week, to little or no purpose, and by the begin ning of August it was found, that the omnibus bill could not be carried in its present shape.* Important events meanwhile had transpired. The Nashville convention of the supporters of slavery met, early in June, and notwithstanding at one time it seemed to threaten serious consequences, it eventually dispersed without leading to any difficulty. Its propositions for 1850. referred to a select committee 1850. of thirteen, with instructions to endeavor to effect a compromise upon all the vexed questions then arising out of the institution of slavery. Mr. Foote's resolution was debated from time to time, but was not disposed of till the 18th of April, when it was adopted by a vote of thirty to twenty-settling the troubles then agitating the two. The compromise resolutions of Mr. Clay, and also others which had been offered by Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, were referred to this same committee, which was composed of six northern and six southern members, and a thirteenth, the chairman, chosen by the other twelve. Mr. Clay was elected chairman of this committee. On the 8th of May, Mr. Clay, in behalf of the select committee, brought in a report of a plan of compromise, which, it was hoped, would allay existing excitement. A series of bills was presented-more generally known as the "omnibus bill"-to admit California as a state, to establish territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico, to pay Texas a sum of money sufficient to satisfy her on the subject of her boundary, to provide for the recovery of fugitive slaves, and to abolish * *Senator Benton delivered himself of an elaborate speech against Mr. Clay's plan of slavery compromise, from which copious extracts are given in the "Thirty Years' View," vol. ii., pp. 749–65. country were neither new nor important. Texas, too, had taken lofty ground, and presumed to enter upon such a course as would lead to a settlement of the boundary question with New Mexico, on terms entirely acceptable to herself. That, however, could not for a moment be thought of, and the presi dent took measures to see that the laws should be faithfully carried out in the section of country in dispute. In the midst of this excitement, the national holiday was again observed, and General Taylor participated in it, like every good citizen; but within less than five days he quietly sank to his rest. On the 9th of July, 1850, Zachary Taylor died, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and before he had had opportunity to develop his plans and purposes as president of the United States. The lamentations for his death were *For a long and able review of the debate on the compromise bills, delivered in the Senate, July 22d, 1850, see "The Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay," vol. vi., pp. 529–67. CH. VII.] ry TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO BOUNDARY. wide spread and sincerely expressed, and the honors heaped upon his memodemonstrated that, whatever difference of political sentiment may exist among us, no one doubted that General Taylor was an honest, patriotic lover of his country, and one who would have discharged the duties of his lofty station with sincere and earnest zeal and unimpeachable integrity. 1850. Millard Fillmore, on the 10th of July, addressed a brief but touching message to both Houses of Congress, formally announcing the afflictive dispensation which had raised him to the presidential chair, and recommending suitable honors to be paid to the distinguished dead. Mr. Fillmore took the required oath the same day; the funeral was celebrated on the 13th; Mr. W. R. King was chosen president pro tempore of the Senate; and the cab-| inet having resigned, others were immediately appointed in their places, Daniel Webster being secretary of state; and thus, without disturbance or difficulty, the new president was as firmly seated as if he had been placed in his high office directly by the popular vote. On the 6th of August, the president communicated to the House a message respecting the boundary question between Texas and New Mexico. He also sent in a copy of Mr. Webster's reply, on the 5th, to Governor Bell's letter, in which he complained of the * Thomas Corwin was appointed secretary of the treasury; C. M. Conrad, secretary of war; W. A. Graham, secretary of the navy; Alexander H. H. Stuart, secretary of the interior; N. K. Hall, postmaster-general; and J. J. Crittenden, attorney-general. 479 course pursued by Colonel Monroe in New Mexico. The letter of Mr. Webster is clear and to the point, and while it disclaims all interference on the part of the United States in matters out of the province of the executive, it still asserts, in the plainest terms, the determination of the president to sustain the laws and rights of New Mexico as well as Texas, until the matter be settled by action of Congress. A brief paragraph of this letter may not inaptly be here quoted: "In one of his last communications to Congress,-that of the 17th of June last,—the late president repeated the declaration that he had no power to decide the question of boundary, and no desire to interfere with it; and that the authority to settle that question resided elsewhere. The object of the executive government has been, as I believe, and as I am authorized to say it certainly now is, to secure the peace of the country; to maintain, as far as practicable, the state of things as it existed at the date of the treaty; and to uphold and preserve the rights of the respective parties as they were under the solemn guarantee of the treaty, until the highly interesting question of boundary should be finally settled by competent authority. This treaty, which is now a supreme law of the land, declares, as before stated, that the inhabitants shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment 1850. of their liberty and property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion. It will, of course, be the president's duty to see that this law is sustained, and the protection which it guarantees made effectual-and this is |