his son, and which have formed the subject of this lecture, were unhappily destroyed by fire, with the whole library of which they formed a part, many years ago. But the son to whom they were left still lives. He is with us here this evening, full of years and of honors, exhibiting at once the energy of youth and the dignity of age; and I need no other assurance than the cordial greetings with which his presence has already been welcomed, that you will all agree with me in saying, that his long and brilliant career has furnished abundant testimony that his father's prayer has been answered, and that the Spirit of Liberty has indeed rested upon him!

THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COM

PROMISE.

REMARKS MADE AT FANEUIL HALL, FEBRUARY 23, 1854.

I CANNOT altogether refuse, fellow-citizens, to make some acknowledgment of these repeated and emphatic calls, although your Committee of Arrangements are aware that I expressly declined being responsible for any thing in the nature of a speech on this occasion. Indeed, the invitation to address you, and the fact that any meeting was to be held here this afternoon, were communicated to me at a moment when I had formed engagements which rendered it extremely uncertain whether I could be with you at all; and I have come at the last hour, with my friend Mr. Lawrence and other gentlemen who have enjoyed the honor of representing this city in Congress, to take a humble place in the rear-rank of your Vice-Presidents, and with neither purpose nor preparation to enter into the discussions of the occasion.

But, fellow-citizens, I can never be unprepared to express my cordial concurrence, not, indeed, in every thing which may have fallen from the lips of those who have preceded me, for every man speaks here, I presume, for himself and upon his own responsibility, nor yet, perhaps, in every phrase or paragraph of the resolutions which have been read, but my cordial concurrence and sympathy in the general objects and purposes of this meeting. I can never, certainly, be unprepared to declare my carnest and unhesitating opposition to the repeal of a solemn stipulation which has prohibited slavery for ever within the limits of that vast imperial domain whose destiny is now about to be decided. When I am not ready at any hour, in any presence,

under any circumstances, to make this declaration, I shall at least take good care not to show my face in Faneuil Hall.

Fellow-citizens, in every view which I can take of this Nebraska Bill, in its relations to the poor Indian, in its relations to slavery, in its relations to the national faith, the national honor, the national harmony, in every view alike, I cannot but deplore its introduction, I cannot but deprecate its passage.

It seems to me calculated to stir up more of ill-blood between different sections of the Union, than almost any thing which has occurred since the foundation of the government. It has thrown us wantonly back upon the controversies and conflicts of 1850. It has raked recklessly open the smouldering ashes of those unextinguished, and, I fear, unextinguishable, fires. And its passage, if it is to pass, threatens to render all the struggles and sacrifices of that eventful epoch utterly vain, void, and of no effect.

And upon what grounds is such a measure justified? Why, I am amazed, Mr. President, as you certainly must be also, when I find it seriously advanced and maintained, that the adjustment of 1850 was understood or intended to repeal or supersede the old compromise of 1820.

It was not my fortune, as you well know, to find myself able to give a conscientious support to some of the measures of that adjustment. I cannot claim to be one of the great and patriotic men of 1850, I suppose. I have nothing to explain, retract, or regret on that score.

But I was in the way of hearing all that was said publicly, and much that was said privately, during that memorable controversy; and I have recently refreshed my memory by running my eye over the debates of the period; and nowhere, nowhere, have I been able to find the slightest trace or vestige of any thing either said, or done, or proposed to be done, which affords the least countenance or color whatever to such a doctrine. On the contrary, my unhesitating conviction is that the leading authors and advocates of the adjustment of 1850, were they living and in the Senate Chamber at this hour, would be foremost and firmest in repudiating and denouncing such a suggestion.

What, sir! A constructive repeal of a formal compact of more

emana

than thirty years' standing! A solemn covenant overturned by an inference superseded by what is called a principle ting, let me rather say extorted, from the settlement of a wholly different and independent issue! Who ever heard of such a proceeding, or of such a proposition as this?

Fellow-citizens, the great statesman of Kentucky, now in his grave, and whom I can never think of without fresh admiration for many of the noble qualities both of his head and his heart, that great statesman had a wonderful bump of constructiveness. He built up that Omnibus with a masterly hand. He made a most capacious vehicle. But he never dreamed that he had provided a seat either an inside or an outside seat for such a passenger as this. And had such an intruder made its appearance at the time, depend upon it he would himself have ejected it with a strong hand. Had he not done so, the coach would have been hopelessly overturned, and even he himself would have been crushed beneath its fragments.

Why, Mr. President, this is a question for testimony,- for contemporaneous testimony, and not for ex post facto construction. And where are the witnesses? Who rises in his place, or out of his place, to state, upon his own knowledge and responsibility, that the authors or the finishers of the adjustment of 1850 had any such measure as the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in contemplation? A contract, we know, is to be construed according to the understanding and expectation of the parties at the time. What said the parties then? What say the survivors of them now?

There is at least one among the living, sir, whom I should like to hear upon this point. I mean our respected friend, the late President Fillmore. He was in the executive chair at the time, with those about him who knew most, and who did most, to carry through that adjustment. I should like to hear from him, as the highest authority in existence, whether in the inmost recesses of those Cabinet councils one word was ever breathed which any ingenuity could have tortured into this constructive repeal of the Missouri Compromise. I do not believe there was ever a word.

One of the later members of that Cabinet, indeed, has already spoken substantially to this point. I mean our own distin

guished Senator, Mr. Everett, who has borne the most satisfactory testimony in behalf of the dead, as well as of the living. And a most welcome rumor is at this moment coursing along the telegraphic wires, that another member of that Cabinet, the late accomplished Attorney-General, Mr. Crittenden, is about to testify to the same effect.

I know nothing of the source of this report, but I earnestly hope and trust that it may be verified. If that gallant and veteran statesman, the worthy compeer of Henry Clay, shall now throw himself boldly into the breach and plant himself upon the plighted faith of the nation, he will add fresh laurels to a brow already richly wreathed, and will reflect a new lustre upon the chivalry of old Kentucky.

But, fellow-citizens, whatever others may do or say, our course is plain; and I rejoice that there is neither halting nor hesitation in pursuing it. I rejoice to perceive, from all the circumstances of this and of other occasions, that, whatever may have been our differences heretofore upon other topics, a firm, earnest, and united remonstrance against a measure so full at once of evil omen and of real wrong as this, is about to go up to the Capitol of the Nation from this time-honored Temple of Freedom.