WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1850
120
These considerations awaken my solicitude for the adoption of the resolution which I had the honor a few days since to submit to the Senate. It cannot be expected than the country will enjoy either happiness or prosperity while we see a practical suspension of that Congressional action which is necessary in the main- tenance of general prosperity, or until Congress again, in good earnest, fulfills the duties which are devolved upon it by virtue of its representative character. I trust, Mr. President, that it may not be inappropriate to request the reading of the resolution submitted by me. [Mr. Foote here requested the Senator from Texas to give way for a moment, that he might make a motion for the suspension of the rules of the Senate with regard to admission upon the floor of the chamber. He had just received notice that there were many ladies waiting without, who had not been able to gain admittance to the gallery, and who were anxious to hear the remarks of the honorable Senator from Texas. The rules ,vere suspended by unanimous consent.] The resolution [submitted January 14] was then read as fol- lows: "Whereas the Congress of the United States, possessing only a delegated authority, has no power over the subject of negro slavery within the limits of the United States, either to prohibit or interfere with it in the States, Territories, or District where, by municipal law, it now exists, or to establish it in any State or Territory where it does not exist; but, as an assurance and guarantee to promote harmony, quiet apprehension, and remove sectional prejudice, which by possibility might impair or weaken love and devotion to the Union in any part of the country, it is hereby "Resolved, That, as the people in the Territories have the same inherent rights of self-government as the people in the States, if, in the exercise of such inherent right, the people of the newly acquired Territories, by the annexation of T·exas and the acquisi- tion of California and New Mexico, south of the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes of north latitude, extending to the Pacific Ocean, shall establish negro slavery or prohibit it, such establish- ment or prohibition of negro slavery in the formation of their State government shall be deemed no objection to the admission of such State or States into the Union, in accordance with the Constitution of the United States.'' Mr. President, my object in the introduction of this resolution was to present a ground which I believed was equitable and just,
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