domestic institutions of the states that compose the Union; and that it is the solemn duty of the Government to resist all attempts by one portion of the Union to use it as an instrument to attack the domestic institutions of another, or to weaken or destroy such institutions, instead of strengthening and upholding them, as it is in duty bound to do.

"Resolved, That domestic slavery, as it exists in the Southern and Western States of this Union, composes an important part of their domestic institutions, inherited from their ancestors, and existing at the adoption of the Constitution, by which it is recognized as constituting an essential element in the distribution of its powers among the states; and that no change of opinion or feeling on the part of the other states of the Union in relation to it can justify them or their citizens in open and systematic attacks thereon, with the view to its overthrow; and that all such attacks are in manifest violation of the mutual and solemn pledge to protect and defend each other, given by the states respectively on entering into the Constitutional compact which formed the Union, and, as such, is a manifest breach of faith, and a violation of the most solemn obligations, moral and religious.

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Resolved, That the intermeddling of any state or states, or their citizens, to abolish slavery in this district, or any of the territories, on the ground or under the pretext that it is immoral or sinful, or the passage of any act or measure of Congress with that view, would be a direct and dangerous attack on the institutions of all the slaveholding states.

"Resolved, That the union of these states rests on an equality of rights and advantages among its members; and that whatever destroys that equality tends to destroy the Union itself; aud that it is the solemn duty of all, and more especially of this body, which represents the states in their corporate capacity, to resist all attempts to discriminate between the states in extending the benefits of the Government to the several portions of the Union; and that to refuse to extend to the Southern and Western States any advantage which would tend to strengthen or render them more secure, or increase their limits or population by the annexation of new territory or states, on the assumption or under the pretext that the institution of slavery, as it exists among them, is immoral or sinful, or otherwise obnoxious, would be contrary to that equality of rights and advantages which the Constitution was intended to secure alike to all the members of the Union, and would, in effect, disfranchise the slaveholding states, withholding them from the advantages, while it subjected them to the burdens, of the Government."

Mr. Calhoun defended his resolutions in a sort of running debate, during which he examined the relative rights, obligations, and duties, of the governments and the citizens of the slaveholding and non-slaveholding states. With some slight modifications, all the resolutions passed the Senate, except the last, which had reference obviously to the admission of Florida, opposition to which was already threatened, and to the contemplated acquisition of Texas.

While upon this subject, it will not be amiss to state, once for all, what were the opinions of Mr. Calhoun on the subject of slavery. In his view, it ought not to be considered, as it exists in the United States, in the abstract; but rather as a political institution, existing prior to the formation of the government and expressly recognized in the Constitution.* The framers of that instrument regarded slaves as property, and admitted the right of ownership in them. The institution being thus acknowledged, he contended that the faith of all the states was pledged against any interference with it in the states in which it existed; and that in the District of Columbia, and in the territories from which slavery had not been excluded by the Missouri Compromise, being the common property of all the states, the owner of slaves enjoyed the same rights and was entitled to the same protection, if he chose to emigrate thither, or if already a resident, as if he were in one of the slave states—in other words, that upon common soil, his right of property should be respected. Any interference with it, therefore, direct or indirect, immediate or remote, * Article i., Section 2; Article iv., Section 2.

"Madison Papers," (Debates in the Convention) pp. 181, 391

he felt bound to oppose, and did oppose to the very close

of his life.

He held, too, that it was desirable to continue the institution at the south; that it had been productive of more good than harm; and that "in no other condition, or in any other age or country, [had] the Negro race ever attained so high an elevation in morals, intelligence, or civilization."* Slavery, he was accustomed to say, existed in some form or another, in all civilized countries; and he was disposed to doubt the correctness of the sentiment contained in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born free and equal. Natural rights, indeed, in every age, in every country, and under every form of government, have been, and are, regulated and controlled by political institutions. He considered the colored population as constituting an inferior race, and that slavery was not a degradation, but had the direct tendency to improve their moral, social, and intellectual condition. The situation of the slaves was an enviable one in comparison with that of the free negroes at the north, or with that of the operatives in the manufactories, and the laboring classes generally in Great Britain.† Of what value, except relatively, he asked-and asked, too, with a great deal of pertinence-were political rights, when he saw thousands of voters, in the northern states, in the service of powerful monopolies or employed on

*Letter to Mr. Pakenham, April 18, 1844.

See Humphrey's Tour, vol. i. chap. 20; Durbin's Observations in Europe, vol. ii. chap. 13; Head's Manufacturing Districts of England, passim.

public works, fairly driven to the polls with ballots in their hands?

The negro slave, he contended, felt and acknowledged his inferiority, and regarded his position as a proper and natural one. * The two races in the Southern states were almost equal in numbers. They could not live upon terms of equality. "It may, in truth, be assumed as a maxim," was his language," that two races differing so greatly, and in so many respects, cannot possibly exist together in the same country, where their numbers are nearly equal, without the one being subjected to the other. Experience has proved that the existing relation, in which the one is subjected to the other, in the slaveholding states, is consistent with the peace and safety of both, with great improvement to the inferior; while the same experience proves that * * * the abolition of slavery would (if it did not destroy the inferior by conflicts, to which it would lead) reduce it to the extremes of vice and wretchedness. In this view of the subject, it may be asserted, that what is called slavery is in reality a political institution, essential to the peace, safety, and prosperity of those states of the Union in which it exists"+

Entertaining these views, it is not strange that Mr. Calhoun regarded the movements of the abolitionists as being dictated by a false philanthropy, and that he thought them calculated, if persisted in, to jeopard the happiness and tranquillity of the slave states, and to endanger the peace of the Union; nor that he so often warned his fellow-citizens of the Southern states against

* Dr. Estes' Defence of Negro Slavery, p. 74.

Letter to Mr. Pakenham.

the designs openly avowed, or secretly cherished, which, if not early opposed or counteracted, would prove highly prejudicial to their interests and their welfare. Where so much was at stake, he thought it well to be wise in time.

At the session of 1838-39, in a speech characterized by his usual ability, Mr. Calhoun opposed a bill introduced by Mr. Crittenden, to prevent the interference of certain federal officers in the elections. He took the ground, that the acceptance of an office under the federal government, did not deprive the individual of the right of suffrage guaranteed to him by the constitution and laws of his own state, and ought not to debar him from the exercise of any of the privileges incident thereto. He further argued, that the true cause of the increase in strength and in influence of the executive power, was to be found in the large revenue which had been collected and expended,-in the latter operation. adding materially to the patronage of the federal government and its head. He stated that it would be presumptuous in him to advise the administration, but if they would hear the voice of one who wished them well, he would recommend to them to bring back the government to the true Jeffersonian policy. You are placed," he said, "in the most remarkable juncture that has ever occurred since the establishment of the federal government, and, by seizing the opportunity, you may bring the vessel of state to a position where she may take a new tack, and thereby escape all the shoals and breakers into the midst of which a false steerage has run her, and bring her triumphantly into her destined port, with honor to yourselves and safety to those on

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