had come hundreds of miles to hear the silver-tongued orator make his last appeal for the Union. He asserted that disunion meant war, and pleaded for a compromise which might once more make a harmonious country. For two days his eloquence swayed the audience. When he closed, the people gathered around him to show their admiration. Next came the great champion of states' rights, John C. Calhoun. He was too ill to speak, and a friend read his address. What a strange scene it was! "There he sat, motionless like a statue, with the hand of death upon him;-listening to his own words from another's mouth," and anxiously watching their effect on the faces of the WEBSTER ADDRESSING THE SENATE ON THE 7TH OF MARCH great audience. He declared that the Union was in danger because the South was alarmed at the North's hostility to slavery. He wanted: (1) An equal division of the territories between the two sections; (2) better laws for the return of fugitive slaves, and (3) the stopping of all anti-slavery agitation; and declared, "If you of the North will not do this, then let our Southern states separate and depart in peace" (§ 379). 401. Webster's Seventh of March Speech; The New Leaders. Men wondered why Webster had not yet spoken. On the 7th of March he delivered his famous speech, "For the Union and the Constitution." Webster sincerely loved the Union, for he knew its value. But in denouncing agitators both North and South, he placed most of the blame on the anti-slavery men. They were disappointed, for the great orator who had battled against Hayne and opposed all compromise with Carolina in 1833 now seemed to be deserting their cause. Anti-slavery men looked for new champions and found them in two men who had just come into the Senate: William H. Seward of New York and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. Seward's speech against Clay's measures excited widespread interest. He declared his opposition to all compromises with slavery and favored the immediate admission of California.' But he startled the country by asserting that not only the Constitution but "a higher law than the Constitution" makes the territories free. By this Seward meant the moral law. The speech of Chase followed, opposing the compromise, arguing in favor of the Wilmot Proviso, and denying the right of Congress to pass a fugitive slave law. MILLARD FILLMORE Wesley Jarvis, now in the Council The South, too, found a new leader. Jefferson Davis stepped into the place of the dying Calhoun, and, like 1 Constitution, Article IV., Sec. 3. Seward and Chase, was much more outspoken than the older statesmen. While the debates were still under way, Taylor suddenly died, and Millard Fillmore, who strongly favored the compromise, became President. 402. The Compromise of 1850. A committee of thirteen Senators reported in favor of Clay's measures, but a majority of Congress was opposed to them taken together. Taken separately, however, the following became laws: 2. The admission of California as a free state. The organization of New Mexico and Utah into territories without mention of slavery. 3. The payment of ten million dollars to Texas for disputed land claimed by New Mexico. 4. A new fugitive slave law, denying the negro the right of trial by jury, commanding all people to aid in returning an escaped slave if their services were demanded by the officers, and fining and imprisoning any one helping the fugitive or hindering his arrest. 5. The abolition of buying and selling slaves in the District of Columbia. 403. The Effects of the Compromise. The country was glad when the compromise measures passed. The majority of the people hoped, with Clay, that harmony and good feeling would return, as had happened after the Missouri Compromise. To encourage this end and to condemn further agitation, "Union meetings" were held, in which both Whigs and Democrats took part. But the fugitive slave law was in the way. The antislavery people hated the law, and many who favored its enforcement did not like it. A slaveholder could not understand why any one should oppose the return of fugitive slaves, since they legally belonged to persons in the South. But many fugitives had escaped years before and were now living happily in their own homes. 1 Constitution. Article IV., Sec. 2, ¶ 3. 2 Constitution, Article I., Sec. 8, ¶ 17. |