Felix Walker

“ Sir, let it be remembered, that we came here to legislate for freemen, not for slaves; we hold our seats by their suffrage, we preside over the destinies of the nation, their dearests interests are in our hands, and they look to us for the security and protection of their rights, and to them we are responsible for our conduct as their legislators. Let us not forget the duties of our high station and the trust reposed in us, by legislating on the principle of slavery, which is altogether an abstract proposition, slaves being the property of the citizen as much as any other he possesses ”

“ Sir, by attempting to cure one evil absolutely incurable, let us be aware we don bring on ourselves a complication of evils more dangerous and fatal than all the slaves and slavery that ever did or ever will exist in the United States, by introducing a doctrine that will have a tendency to lessen the confidence between the states, and violate that harmony and union which from the beginning and at this time binds us together. ”

“ Sir, the people of Missouri are competent judges of their political rights and will most assuredly claim and contend for them, in equality with other states in the union; we must regard the voice of the people, it is a sovereign voice that will be heard , a voice that we must all obey, and is a fact you will find to be true, that the further west from you metropolis, the greater the enthusiasm for liberty: the people of Missouri will cheerfully yield to your constitutional powers, but beyond that will not go, nor can you compel them. ”

“ If it is true, and I believe it will be found to be true, that whatsoever we sow we shall reap; let us pause, and beware that we do not sow the seeds of discord among our brethren--it will be a root of bitterness that will spring up and fasten on the vitals of our republic; will eat like a canker and bring forth the poisonous fruits of discontent, contention, confusion, and universal discord, and perhaps in the last resort end so dissolution or separation, which is more to be dreaded than all the evils that can be placed upon us by the united world. ”

“ Now the true principle is, the evil that we cannot prevent, and the good in which we all are partakers; let it be universal between state and state, citizen and citizen, mingle the bowl, everyone his draught, share and share and share alike, each their portion equally distributed of both the good and evil, and not by any discriminating policy, give a preponderance of power or interest to any one section of the Union, in preference to another. ”

“ Sir, when I meet my fellow citizen from the east and north, I wish and feel to give my hand as a brother, without reserve as children of the same great family, united in the sympathies of mutual affection and reciprocal interest and equal participants in all the rights, benefits and privileges that government bestows. ”

“ Sir, the amendment proposed in the bill, to restrict and prevent slaves from being taken into the Missouri, is perhaps one of the most momentous & important questions that ever was or can be presented for legislation, as it has a tendency in its consequences to affect the vital interests of the people of the whole United States, and unhinge that policy which has so long and so firmly bound us together, and on the decision of which the peace and safety of the union measurably depends. ”

“ Sir, we are not, nor can we be, united by the coarser ties of human laws, or by measures of rigorous and rigid policy, but by the silver cords and mutual embraces of interest, friendship, and affection, adopt a policy that will tend to weaken or dissolve those solid (?) relations; you destroy the intercourse between the states, and sap the foundations of your republic. ”

“ While they are loosening the cords and knocking of the fetters from the slave, they are fastening a more galling and infamous chain on their masters and the free people of the South--and while they are endeavoring to find an expedient to restore the privation of natural liberty to the slave, are attempting to fix an odium, an ignominious restriction, on the slave-holding states, in the privation of political toleration in denying the the free exercise of their constitutional and natural rights, in emigrating to the West with their slave property. ”

“ In taking a view of the situation of the American people, we must acknowledge that the hand that placed and planted us in this western hemisphere, in our present attitude, is divine. Severed, as it were, from the discordant and conflicting politics of foreign powers, holding in our hands the olive branch of peace, possessing the happy privilege of self government, in the exercise of religious liberty and rights of conscious ”

“ We have lately emerged from a cruel and desolating war, that exhausted both blood and treasure--but it was a war in which we all united against our common foe and wherein we acquired national honor, and, I believe, national prosperity will be the increase; but sir, both these wars bear no proportion to the calamities we must expect to suffer, and the difficulties we must encounter, should we ever be so unfortunate as to draw our swords against each other ”

“ Sir, it is our duty as legislators to adapt our measures of policy to the habits and customs and event to the feelings and prejudices of each other, in the different sections of the Union, a due deference to such views--would prevent a multitude of evils. Gentlemen who support this restrictive system seem to have no correct views of the economy and usages of the people of the southern states in relation to the ir slaves; they have drawn a horrid picture of whips and scorpions, they suppose we have no further regard for them than for the fruits of their labor ”

“ But, Sir, if your Restrictive System prevails, it will weaken that tender relation, we shall view each other with watchful eyes and cold hearts, and with a jealousy that will tend to annihilate those friendly and brotherly affections we now feel and entertain for each other, and at last be driven to relinquish the pledge of union that so long and so happily has continued to bind us together to the present day. ”

“ With Jews and Christians, Greeks and Romans, Turks and infidels, slavery or something amounting to slavery in principle and practice, has had an existence in the world, and still it was and still remains to be an evil. And yet gentlemen seem to treat the subject as a new measure, as if we were just commencing and about to colonise a new country with slaves west of the Mississippi, similar to the first introduction of them into this country. ”

“ Let us in the present instance avoid and disavow the dangerous policy of assuming greater powers in our legislative capacity than is given us by the constitution or the people; and legislate to some practical effect, by a strict adherence to the rule we are preserving, and serving the best interest of a free people. And as it regards the slaves, if the proposed amendment prevails it can have no good effect on their condition, but entirely the reverse; it will neither increase or diminish their population, the numbers will be same on either side of the Mississippi ”

“ On other advantage I will mention, that the slave has, to which every one who owns a slave is a witness: their cares are less, and their wants are fewer than the master, in their situation they fulfil and finish the circle of life in as much satisfaction as any people, and perhaps with more contentment than if they were free. ”

“ Sir in the last war we lost our thousands, but if you will force upon us this restriction, you may, in the end, in the course of your mistaken policy, which if persisted in, go on with increasing rapidity, at at last compel us take leave of each other, and lead to an event that may prostrate the lives of the ten thousands of your choice citizens and fatally terminate in the dissolution of our confederated government. ”

“ In this view of the subject it is evident the restriction operates more sever on the slave than his master, and prevents the future comforts of those unfortunate people, as well as abridges the liberty of the master, the free citizen, in removing with his slave property to a better soil, where the condition of both may be improved.--Thus, sir, I have attempted to show that we, who are walking in the good old way of general equality and universal privilege, aside from all political distinctions, are promoting the best interests of both bond and free. ”

“ Like the troubled ocean, we cannot rest; and we have truly arrived at the principle in this phantom of the mind, this creature of imagination, this particle of discord--the amendment proposed in the bill. Sir many are the evils of life incident to man, but that which exceeds all others and most to be dreaded and avoided, is family feuds and quarrels, contentions and convulsions within ”

“ Their lives are also regarded and protected from the laws, particularly I know in the state from whence I come the life of a slave is as sacred as that of his master; and the punishment is death to kill a slave as well as a freeman; so it is evident their condition is not so intolerable as is represented by those gentlemen who have undertaken to draw the picture. ”

“ On this ground they have taken a formidable stand, and impenetrable fortress, which they conceive to be invincible; they have sounded the tocsin of alarm, and are determined to arrest the progress in making the Mississippi the Rubicon of the West, over which the unhallowed foot of an African slave shall ever pollute the sacred soil. ”

“ One remark I will make, which may serve to awaken us--and for aught we know be the immediate effects of this present discussion; gentlemen seem to addressing the language of charity and benevolence, and appear to take a great interest in the deplorable situation of our slave property, perhaps they know not what they do, among men of every class, there are always some restless and interprising spirits, not contented in any situation of life ”

“ So, we are now about to give birth and bring into the union the first state West of the Mississippi; common observations and all experience proves that the infant born natural, free, and unfettered, and without impediment always brings into the world the best constitution, and is best prepared to grow and arrive at maturity, without the aid of so many nurses, to bring it to perfection ”

“ Our legislative course ought to be directed to that radical point--the first principle and lasting basis of all republics--Any innovation or departure from that rule is dangerous, and sometimes fatal: we know not where it may end--it may slide us into aristocracy, or drive us into despotism, and in the result demolish our fair fabric. ”

“ Relative to the situation of their slaves, it must be admitted that where slaves are numerous, they do not fare so well, the means of subsistence are scanty, and improvident, and not easily obtained even by those who wish to supply the slaves with sufficiency; but the further to the west the rich and more prolific and fertile the soil, and more plenty the provision, and within the reach of the hungry and naked. ”