Speech of the hon. R. Barnwell Rhett on the relation of the states and the general government towards the territories Page: 3 of 16
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SPEECH.
Mr. CHAIRMAN:
I send to the clerk's table three resolutions, which I beg may be read for
the information of the committee. They were passed unanimously by the
Legislatures of the States of Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama. They contain,
I believe, the principles of the South on the important subject to which they
relate-principles which it is my purpose to vindicate and enforce in this
debate.
A resolution of the Virginia Legislature:
"Resolved unanimously, That under no circumstances will this body recognise as binding any
enactment by the Federal Government which has for its object the prohibition of slavery in any
territory to be acquired either by conquest or treaty; holding it to be the natural and indefeasi
ble right of each and every citizen of every State of this Confederacy to reside with his pro-
perty, of whatever description, in any territory which may be acquired by the arms of the
United States, or yielded by treaty with any foreign Power."
A resolution of the Georgia Legislature:
"Be itfwrther resolved by the authority aforesaid, That any territory acquired, or to be acquired,
by the arms of the United States, or by treaty with a foreign Power, becomes the common
property of the several States composing this Confederacy ; and whilst it so continues, it is the
-right of each citizen of each and every State to reside with his property, of every description,
within such territory."
A resolution of the Alabama Legislature:
" Be it further resolved, That under no circumstances will this body recognise as binding any
enactment of the Federal Government which has for its object the prohibition of slavery in any
territory to be acquired either by conquest or treaty, holding it to be the natural and indefeasible
right of each citizen of each and every State of the Confederacy to reside with his property, of
every description, in any territory which may be acquired by the arms of the United States, or
yielded by treaty with any foreign Power."
The State I represent has affirmed the same doctrine, adopting all the reso-
lutions passed by Virginia on this subject, word for word. As she did not
lead, but merely supported her sister States in the assertion of their rights, her
language may add but little moral weight to the position they have assumed.
Sir, there are three methods by which it has been proposed, to exclude the
southern States from colonizing any of the territory belonging to the United
States. The first, is by the legislation of Congress; the second, by future
legislation in the Territories; the third, is by the past legislation of the Territo-
ries, before they became Territories of the United States. The first of these
schemes we have met and vanquished, I trust, under the name of the Wilmot
Proviso, in Congress; the second, is the Wilmot Proviso to be carried out in
our Territories by their future legislatures;the last, affirms that the Wilmot Pro-
viso exists already in any territories we may acquire from Mexico, and pro-
poses to leave us to the full benefit of its exclusion. The logicians who have
taken up these various methods of exclusion, seem either to take it for granted
that we are very hard to exclude from our Territories, and therefore the neces-
sity of multiplying expedients, or they have no confidence in any of them,
:and therefore the old resort of a weak cause-a deluge of words. One groundl
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Rhett, Robert Barnwell, 1800-1876. Speech of the hon. R. Barnwell Rhett on the relation of the states and the general government towards the territories, pamphlet, 1848; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth497792/m1/3/?q=%22slav%22: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Schreiner University.