368 ELI THAYER
that we have violated our oaths, by admitting Oregon into the Union with that organic law? By no means. We have not sworn that the people of Oregon shall support the Constitu- tion of the United States. We have sworn to support it our- selves, not that anybody else shall do so.
But, sir, this provision is no more hostile to the United States Constitution than are the laws of Indiana and Illinois, which exclude free negroes and mulattoes from their bound- aries. Certainly not. It is no more to exclude the suit of the man, than to exclude the man himself. Is the negro less than his suit? I contend that he is greater than his suit. The greater contains the less, and the statutes of Illinois and Indiana are as unconstitutional as is the provision of the Oregon Con- stitution. But it does seem, at the first view, that it was a wanton and unprovoked outrage upon the rights of these men who are excluded from that state. I think there is a real apology for the action of the States of Illinois and Indiana. They are in close proximity to the institution of slavery. They are under the shadow of the dying tree of slavery, and its decaying limbs are constantly threatening to fall upon their heads; and I cannot censure them for taking such means as they see fit to protect themselves from such imminent peril. I am not disposed to call into question the right or constitution- ality of their action.
Is there no apology, then, for the people of Oregon? Have they committed a wanton and unprovoked outrage upon the rights of negroes and mulattoes, in excluding them from that Territory ? I say that there is an apology, and that it consists in this : they believed that they were obliged to choose between a free-state constitution with this provision, and a slave-state constitution without it. There were three parties in the Terri- tory at the time this constitution was made and adopted. There was the Free-State party, which was composed of Free-State Democrats and Republicans. There was the Pro-Slavery party, in favor of a slave state. There was, between these two, a very considerable party, supposed to hold the balance of power,
