Speech of Hon. R. S. Baldwin, of Connecticut

Excerpt from Speech of Hon. R. S. Baldwin, of Connecticut: In Favor of the Admission of California Into the Union, and on the Territorial Bills, and the Bill in Relation to Fugitive Slaves, in Connection With Mr. Bell's Compromise Resolutions

The Senate having under consideration the resolutions of Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, and the motion of Mr. Foore to refer them to a Select Committee of Thirteen,

Mr. Baldwin said: To that motion, Mr. President, an amendment was offered by myself on a former occasion, which was subsequently modified at the suggestion of the Senator from Missouri, [Mr. Benton,] to exclude from the consideration of the committee the subject-matter of the message of the President transmitting the constitution of California, and recommending her admission into the Union. It is upon that motion that I propose to address the Senate, availing myself of the opportunity it affords me to express my views somewhat at large upon other questions connected with the proposition and with the resolutions introduced by the Senator from Tennessee, [Mr. Bell.]

I have listened, Mr. President, with deep interest to the discussions in the Senate on the questions presented by the message of the President, and the resolutions of the distinguished Senators from Kentucky and Tennessee. In the general tone and spirit which have characterized the debate, I have seen much to admire and something to regret. It has been my endeavor to keep my own mind free from any undue excitement, with a determination, in any legislative act which I may be called upon to perform, to be governed by the spirit of the Constitution and of the distinguished men who cooperated in is formation and adoption. That sacred instrument speaks in no sectional language. The voices of the whole American people are there united in harmonious concord, proclaiming union, justice, liberty, domestic tranquillity, and the general weal, to be its glorious purposes. It was made and adopted in a spirit of liberal indulgence to conflicting interests and sentiments, tolerating, no doubt, some, institutions then regarded as temporary, and some compromises which many of us of the present day doubtless would wish had been otherwise. But they are there - they are in the Constitution; and so far as my constituents are concerned, I feel myself authorized by the resolutions of the General Assembly of Connecticut, now lying upon your table, to say that the people of my own State are prepared to adhere to and abide by those compromises, to the letter and in the spirit of the same.

Such, sir, are the instructions, such is the solemn declaration of the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, passed by a nearly unanimous vote of both Houses of the Legislature. But they have also instructed their Senators, and requested their representatives in Congress, to oppose, in all constitutional ways, any and every new measure of compromise by which any portion of our free territory may be given up to the encroachments of slavery, or by which the people of the United States may be made responsible for its introduction or continuance. These instructions are in accordance with my own deliberate judgment. It will, therefore, afford me great pleasure to conform to them. I wish, however, not to be understood as concurring in sentiment with the distinguished Senator from Michigan, [Mr. Cass,] whom I do not now see in his seat, and with friend from Illinois, Mr. Douglas, who have, addressed the Senate on the subject of instructions. I should never be willing, standing here as an American Senator, to record my vote for any measure contrary to the dictates of my own judgment, enlightened by the deliberations of this body, even though I were positively instructed to do so by the Legislature of my State. If I believed in this doctrine of instructions - if I believed that it was improper for a Senator to avail himself of the position in which his constituents had placed him, to vot