The Seventh of March SpeechMarch 7, 1850
Source: Shewmaker, 121-130
Then,
Sir, there are the Abolition societies, of which I am unwilling to speak, but
in regard to which I have very clear notions and opinions. I do not think them
useful. I think their operations for the last twenty years have produced
nothing good or valuable. At the same time, I believe thousands of their
members to be honest and good men, perfectly well-meaning men. They have
excited feelings; they think they must do something for the cause of liberty;
and, in their sphere of action, they do not see what else they can do than to
contribute to an Abolition press, or an Abolition society, or to pay an
Abolition lecturer. I do not mean to impute gross motives even to the leaders
of these societies, but I am not blind to the consequences of their
proceedings. I cannot but see what mischiefs their interference with the South
has produced. And its it not plain to every man? Let any gentleman who
entertains doubts on this point recur to the debates in the Virginia House of
Delegates in 1832, and he will see with what freedom a proposition made by Mr.
[Thomas] Jefferson Randolph for the gradual abolition of slavery was discussed
in that body. Every one spoke of slavery as he thought; very ignominious and
disparaging names and epithets were applied to it. The debates in the House of
Delegates on that occasion, I believe, were all published. They were read by every
colored man who could read, and to those who could not read, those debates were
read by others. At that time Virginia was not unwilling or unafraid to discuss
this question, and to let that part of her population know as much of discussion as they could learn. That was in
1832. As has been said by the honorable member from South Carolina [Calhoun],
these Abolition societies commenced their course of action in 1835. It is said,
I do not know how true it may be, that they sent incendiary publications into
the slave States; at any rate, they attempted to arouse, and did arouse, a very
strong feeling; in other words, they created great agitation in the North
against Southern slavery. Well, what was the result? The bonds of the slave
were bound more firmly than before, their rivets were more strongly fastened.
Public opinion, which in Virginia had begun to be exhibited against slavery,
and was opening out for the discussion of the question, drew back and shut
itself up in its castle. I wish tooknow whether any body in Virginia can now
talk openly as Mr. Randoph, Governor [James] McDowell, and others talked in
1832 and sent their remarks to the press? We all know the fact, and we all know
the cause; and every thing that these agitating people have done has been, not
to enlarge, but to restrain, not to set free, but to bind faster the slave
population of the South...
In the speech of March 7th,
1850 from Senator Daniel Webster we read how he felt about ending slavery and
how he viewed talks of abolition of slavery. In his speech he asks the other
members on the senate to not even entertain the talk of slavery. He mentions
how the talks of this subject in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832
brought to light the sentiments of many in the South particularly of Virginia’s
representatives. They wanted no part of it.
I chose this paragraph because it
shows how a lot of people used to think about slavery in that time. We see
Senator Webster speak like slavery was never going to end. Yet we had the 13th
Amendment 14 years after his speech. Mr. Webster died two years after this
speech, from a fall off his horse and suffering injuries to the head, thus not
seen the 13th Amendment come to pass. I would had liked for Mr.
Webster and a lot of the people that were against slavery see this very important
feat.
