Book Description

Excerpt from Speech of Hon. John Bell, of Tennessee, on the Nebraska and Kansas Bill: Delivered in the Senate of the United States, May 24 and 25, 1854 Mr. Bell. But the honorable Senator will not. I suppose that the honorable Senator from Indiana [m r. Pnrrn'] would be prepared to change his opinion in regard to the importance of estab lishing what he regards as a great principle of this bill, if he were to find that all the consequences, which he described to-day as likely to arise before another session ofcengress, would certainly follow the repeal of the Missouri compromise. I do not think he would be so stubborn and obstinate as to insist, at all hazards, upon getting his great principle established - upon furnishing that white sheet of paper, the tuba-la rasa, upon which the peoo ple of the Territory might write what they pleased, and thus inaugurate the doctrine of squatter sovereignty, as promulgated by the Senator from Michigan, amended and improved by the admission to the right of suffrage foreigners not naturalized as well as natives. Would he con vulse the country for the sake of establishing such 'a principle, in violation of all our territorial legislation for sixty years? I think he would not be as obstinate as the honorable Senator from Georgia; 'nor do I think he would have the same vindictive feeling against others for any change of their views on this subject. However I might have thought at first that I should be forced, under the circumstances, to support this measure, how ever much I disapproved it, yet I thought better afterwards, 'when. I became satisfied that the mis chiefs were likely to* be far greater-than I at first eu posed they would be. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."