Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. REMINISCENCES OF THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS. Novel political complications—The Compromise Measures—First election to Congress—Sketch of the " immortal nine "—The speakership and Wm. J. Brown—Gen. Taylor and the Wil- mot proviso—Slave-holding bluster—Compromise resolutions of Clay, and retreat of Northern Whigs—Visit to Gen. Taylor —To Mr. Clay—His speeches—Webster's seventh of March speech—Character of Calhoun—Speech on the slavery question. The scheme of "pacification" and "final settlement," which was launched in 1850, under the leadership of Henry Clay, constitutes one of the chief landmarks in the history of the great conflict between freedom and slavery. It was the futile attempt of legislative diplomacy to escape the fatal logic of antecedent facts. The war with Mexico, like the annexation of Texas which paved the way for it, was inspired by the lust for slave territory. No sophistry could disguise this fact, nor could its significance be overstated. The prophets of slavery saw clearly that restriction meant destruction. They girded themselves for battle on this issue, and were not at all placated by Northern disclaimers of " abolitionism," and reiterated disavowals of any right or purpose to intermeddle withslavery as the creature of State law. Its existence was menaced by the policy of confinement and ultimate suffocation ; and therefore no compromise of the pending strife over its prohibition in New Mexico, Utah and California was possible. This strife was aggravated by its peculiar relations to the dominant political parties. The sacrifice of Martin Van Buren in 1844, because of his manly letter on the annexation of Texas, had been a sore trial to his devoted friends. They could neither forgive nor forget it; and when the opportunity for revenge fi... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.