I can't remember their order, their substance, beyond the fact
that they looked to the territorial control of slavery. But I remember a
very cutting reply that he made to one Senator who interrupted him to
ask by what authority a territory could legislate upon slavery. "Your
bill conceded that a representative government is necessary--a
government founded upon the principles of popular sovereignty, and the
right of the people to enact their own laws; and for this reason you
give them a legislature constituted of two branches; you confer upon
them the right to legislate upon all rightful subjects of legislation,
except negroes. Why except negroes? I am not therefore prepared to say
that under the Constitution we have not the power to pass laws excluding
negro slaves from the territories. But I do say that if left to myself
to carry out my own opinions I would leave the whole subject to the
people of the territories themselves."
In a sense Clay was the center of attraction, both because he had
returned after a long absence and because he was expected to use his
conciliatory power toward a settlement which would satisfy both the
North and the South. He had come to Washington expecting to be received
with open arms by President Taylor. He had been disappointed. He was not
overstrong, being in his seventy-third year.
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