The North Star (Rochester)/1848/01/14/Mr. Hale in the Senate
POLITICAL.
The following will show to the people of the old world how the peoples petitions are treated in the first nation on the globe. We are glad that the subject is now fully up again. Such a course as that adopted by the Senate will do more to make abolitionists than many lecturers; for the latter can only be heard by the few, while the former speaks to the whole nation, in tones of thunder, telling them that their liberties are gone.
From the Emancipator.
MR. HALE IN THE SENATE.
We are able to give the following interesting particulars in regard to the presentation (on the 22d) of the memorial of the yearly meeting of anti-slavery friends in Indiana. Here follows the petition:
"To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled: We, your petitioners, believing all carnal war to be anti-Christian, and the present war with Mexico to be one of pre-eminent injustice, wickedness and barbarity, respectfully but earnestly request you to use all the means in your power to put an immediate termination to the bloody conflict. And, farther, we would solicit the exercise of the powers of the government invested in your hands, to put an immediate termination to slavery with all its horrid consequences, so far as those powers extend.
| "Signed on behalf of the meeting. | |
| Walter Edgerton, Rebecca Edgerton, |
Clerks." |
On presenting this petition, Mr. Hale said:
I suppose, Mr. President, as this petition prays for the exertion of all the powers of government, so far as they extend, in relation to this subject, it includes within its provision, slavery within the District of Columbia; and I am informed that the practice has obtained in the Senate, when petitions of this character are presented, to raise the question of reception, and that such a motion is laid on the table, and there the matter drops. As this course does not accord with my own conviction of duty, I must urge a different disposition of this petition; and I hope that if exception be taken, it will be taken without this side-blow of a motion to lay on the table.
With this view, if the question of reception be raised, I ask that it may be taken by yeas and nays.
The presiding officer.—Those in favor of taking the question by yeas and nays will rise.
Mr. Hale.—Was the motion made to lay the motion upon the table?
The presiding officer.—The question is to be put as a matter of course.
Mr. Hale.—I was not aware of the existence of such a rule; but that being the case, I would like to say a single word on the main question, as the motion to lay on the table is not debateable.
Mr. Berrien.—I trust that the established usage of the Senate will not be departed from on this occasion. When a petition of this sort is presented, the question of reception it raised by a motion to lay a petition on the table. I raise that question; I move to lay the motion upon the table.
Mr. Hale.—Upon that question I ask the yeas and nays.
Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, inquired whether it would be in order to move a postponement of the question of reception till to-morrow?
The presiding officer.—The question to lay on the table has precedence.
Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, then said that his only object was that the Senate might be full before the question was taken.
Mr. Calhoun.—What is the question?
The presiding officer.—It is to lay the motion to receive the petition on the table.
Mr. Calhoun.—What is the subject matter of the petition?
The presiding officer.—The abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia.
Mr. Hale.—If it be in order, I will state the subject matter of the petition. The petition comes from the yearly meeting of Friends at Newport, Wayne county, Indiana, praying the termination of the war in Mexico; and also praying that all the powers vested in Congress upon the subject, shall be exerted for the termination of slavery.
Mr. Butler.—That does not say anything about slavery in the District of Columbia.
Mr. Hale.—I remarked that that was included in the petition.
The question was then taken on the call for the yeas and nays. A sufficient number of members rising, the yeas and nays were ordered and were taken as follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Allen, Ashley, Atchison, Atherton, Badger, Bell, Berrien, Bradbury, Breese, Bright, Butler, Calhoun, Cass, Davis, (of Mississippi,) Dickinson, Dix, Downs, Fairfield, Felch, Foote, Hunter, Johnson,(of Maryland,) Johnson, (of Louisiana,) Manguin, Masson, Niles, Rusk, Sevier, Spruance, Sturgeon, Turney, Westcott, Yulee.—33.
Nays—Messrs. Baldwin, Clarke, Corwin, Greene, Hale, Miller, Phelps, Underwood, Upham.—9.
So the motion to receive the petition was laid upon the table.
Mr. Hale presented the memorial of David T. Burr and sixty-nine others, citizens of Pennsylvania, praying for such an alteration of the constitution and laws as shall abolish slavery throughout the Union.
Mr. Hale said:
I do not understand that there is a standing rule or order of the Senate that raises the question whether this petition shall be received, or the motion to receive it laid on the table. I ask whether the motion to receive the petition is debateable? Am I correct, sir, in supposing it is debateable?
Presiding officer.—It is debateable.
Mr. Hale.—So understanding it, sir, I wish to say a single word in vindication of the course which I deem it my duty to take on this occasion. It is with no desire to produce angry feelings, or excited discussion, but it is in the discharge of my duty, under deep and earnest convictions of my understanding, that I attempt to discharge that duty.
What is the refusal of the Senate to receive these petitoins? It is saying that there are some subjects on which the people shall not approach this tribunal.
In this day, speculation is adventurous. We venture to inquire into all the secrets of the material and the spiritual world. The researches of geological science have penetrated the bowels of the earth, and have there found the materials by which it is essayed to prove that
"He who made the world, and its age reveal'd
To Moses, was mistaken."
Nay, inquiry goes with adventurous flight to the very throne of Eternity, and undertakes to scan the laws by which He who sits thereon governs His own actions and the world he has created. And, sir, if speculation is thus adventurous, have we, in the United States of America, an institution which exalts itself above God; defying examination or inquiry, or petition? Most emphatically, sir, do I conceive that at the present day the people of the United States have a peculiar right to come and ask of this body a respectful hearing of their petitions, and a respectful hearing on this very subject. Sir, it is no mere abstraction. It is an element of political power in the formation of our constitution; it is an element on which the constitution of the other House is regulated; and it is an element in the political discussion and action of the present day, which is involving the nation in a foreign and aggressive war at an expense of forty or fifty millions of dollars annually.—And if the people of the United States are to be thus taxed for war, growing immediately and directly out of an institution of this character, are they to be told that they shall not come and respectfully present their petitions upon this subject?
I have thus discharged my duty to those who sent me here, without any expectation of influencing the action of this body, without any desire to excite angry feeling or discussion. I ask that the petition may be received.
Mr. Berrien.—The practice which has been adopted by the Senate has been the result of calm and deliberate consideration. It has protected us from those exciting discussions which, in another branch of the national legislature, have too often occurred. I do not apprehend that anything which has fallen from the honorable Senator from New Hampshire, who presents this petition, is calculated to change this well settled conviction of the Senate on this subject. I therefore, sir, the question of reception being before the Senate, move to lay that question upon the table.
The motion to receive the petition was then laid upon the table.