The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches by Brian Macarthur

Author:Brian Macarthur
Language: ru
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780141960708
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-12-10T20:00:00+00:00

HENRY CLAY

5 February 1850

‘The dove of peace’

Henry Clay (1777–1852) became known as the Great Pacificator when he steered through Congress the Missouri Compromise in 1820, dividing new states between slave and free. Once again, in 1850, Clay, now the Senator for Kentucky, became the Great Compromiser during the storm over the admission of California as a free state. Clay, who believed in gradual emancipation, worked his magic for the last time, evolving a programme which admitted California (and pleased the North) but also introduced a stricter Fugitive Slave Law (which pleased the South) and which delayed the Civil War for a decade.

This extract is from the second of the many speeches he made during the furious debate in the Senate which lasted for months.

It has been objected against this measure that it is a compromise. It has been said that it is a compromise of principle, or of a principle. Mr President, what is a compromise? It is a work of mutual concession – an agreement in which there are reciprocal stipulations – a work in which, for the sake of peace and concord, one party abates his extreme demands in consideration of an abatement of extreme demands by the other party: it is a measure of mutual concession – a measure of mutual sacrifice. Undoubtedly, Mr President, in all such measures of compromise, one party would be very glad to get what he wants, and reject what he does not desire but which the other party wants. But when he comes to reflect that, from the nature of the government and its operations, and from those with whom he is dealing, it is necessary upon his part, in order to secure what he wants, to grant something to the other side, he should be reconciled to the concession which he has made in consequence of the concession which he is to receive, if there is no great principle involved, such as a violation of the Constitution of the United States. I admit that such a compromise as that ought never to be sanctioned or adopted. But I now call upon any senator in his place to point out from the beginning to the end, from California to New Mexico, a solitary provision in this bill which is violative of the Constitution of the United States.

The responsibility of this great measure passes from the hands of the committee, and from my hands. They know, and I know, that it is an awful and tremendous responsibility. I hope that you will meet it with a just conception and a true appreciation of its magnitude, and the magnitude of the consequences that may ensue from your decision one way or the other. The alternatives, I fear, which the measure presents, are concord and increased discord; a servile civil war, originating in its causes on the lower Rio Grande, and terminating possibly in its consequences on the upper Rio Grande in the Santa Fé country, or the restoration of harmony and fraternal kindness. I believe from the bottom of my soul that the measure is the reunion of this Union.

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