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Senator Benton's Letter

Senator Benton's Letter image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
May
Year
1847
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Washington City, March, 1847. My Frien'ls : For such I may cali mnny of you froin personal acquaintance.nnd n!I of you, from my thirt years' devotion to the nterests of your I íhink it right to mnke Ü.is com:nu"ication to you nt ihe present moment, when the adjournnient of Congress, without passing the hill for your government and protection, seems to have left you in n state of abandonment by your motlier country. But such is not the case. You are not nbandoried! nor will you be denied pro!ection for refusing to ndinit slavery. I, a man of the south, and a slaveholder, teil you ihis. The House of Ropre-entatives, as early os the middle of Janunry, had passed the bilí to give you n territorial government, and in that bilí had snnctioned and legalzed your Provisional Organic Act, ona oftheclauses of whicli forever prohibils the existence ofslavery in Oregon. An nmendment from the Senale's Cotnmittte, to which this bilí was referred, proposed to nbrognte that prohibilion ; and in the dnlays and ve.xations to which lliat amendment gave rise, the whole bilí u-as laid upon the table, and lost for the session. Tliis will be a great disappointment to you, and a real calamity ; already five years without law, or legal institution for the protection of life, liberty and pro, perty, and now doomed to wait a year longer. Tli is ia a strnnge and anomalous condition ! nlmosl incredible to contémplate, and most critxal to endure ! n colony of free men, 4,000 miles from the metropc litan government, and without laws or governmenl lo preserve them! But do not Ie alnrmed or desperate, you will not Ie outlnwed for not ndmitling slavery.- Your fundamental act againstthal institution, copitd from the ordnance ol 1787 - (theworkof the great men of the South, n the great day ofthe South, prohibiting slaverv in a territory far less northern thnn yours) - will uot be alirogated! nor is that the intention of the prime mover ofthe amendment. Upon the record, the Judiciary Committee of the Senate is the auihor of that amendment; but not sotho fuct! That committee is only midwife to it. lts ai:thor is the same mind thnt Igenerated the -'fire-brand resolutions," of ! wliich I send you n copy, and of whicb. the amendinent is the legitímate derivation. Oregnn is not the object. The mst rnbid propagandist of slavery cannot expert to plant t on the shores of the Pacific, in the latitude of Wisconsin, and the Lnke of the Woods. A home agitation, for election and disutiion purposes, is all that is intended by ïhrusting this firebrnr.d question into your bill ! and, at the next -ession, when it is thrust in again, we will courge it out ! and pnss your bill ns it ought to be. 1 promi-e you this in the name of the South ns weil as of tl:e North, nnd the event wi.'l not deceive me. In the mean time, the President wiil give you all the protectior. which existing laws, anddetachmenta of Ihe army and navy, can etiable him to exteml to you; nnd, until Congress has lime 10 act, your friends must rely upon yon to conlinue to govern yourselves, and as you have heretofure done, under tha provisions of your own voluntnry compnct, ond wiih ihe juslice, harmony and inodemlion which is due to vour own character and to the honor of the American name. I f end you by Mr. Shinley a copy of thn bilí of the la'e session, both as t passed the [louse of Reprpsei.tatives, and 113 proposed to be amendeJ in the Senate, wiih llie Senate's volé upon laying it on 'he lab'e, and n copy of Mr. Calhoun's resolutions - (posterior in date to the amendment, but nevertheiess father to it) - also a copy of your own provi.-ional nrganic act, as printed by order of iho Señale ; all of which will put you comp'etely in possession of the próceeding of Congress on your petilion for a lerritorin] governiiient, ami for the protection and security of your rigUs. ín coivjlusion, I have to aasure you ihat the same spirit which has made me the friend of Oregon for 30 years - which led me to dennunce t!ie joint occupation treaty ihe doy it wns made, and to oppose its renewnl in 1828, and to labor for its abrogntion utitd it was terminated ; tha same spirit wliicli led .ne to reveal the grand dotiny of Oiegon, in anieles writlen in 1818, and to support every measiire tor her benefit since - this same spi. rit still animaies me, and will continue tu do so while I live ; which I hope, will bo long enougli to see nn emporium of Asiatic commerce nt the mouth of your river, and a stream of Asiatic trnde pooting into the valley of the Mississippi througli the channel of Oregon. Your friend and fellow-cilizen,

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Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News