in regard to it by various
interests, and the matter seemed to him eminently one for compromise and
amicable adjustment. We gave what seems a large sum (ten millions of
dollars), to Texas for relinquishing her claim, but half this amount we
owed her creditors for having taken the revenues to which they looked
for payment of their debts. Mr. Clay said he voted the money very
cheerfully, because he believed it would be applied to the payment of
her public debt; and he wished that we had some legitimate ground for
giving to every debtor State in the Union money enough to pay all its
debts, and restore its credit wherever it has been tarnished. Of the
fugitive slave bill Mr. Clay said simply that its object was simply to
give fair, full, and efficacious effect to the constitutional provision
for the surrender of fugitives. The act abolishing the slave trade in
the District of Columbia, was of little practical importance to southern
interests, while it was demanded by every consideration of humanity and
of national self-respect. In looking at the result of the whole, Mr.
Clay thought that neither party, so far as California is concerned,
could be said to have lost or gained any thing, while in regard to the
territorial bills and the fugitive slave law the South had gained all it
could reasonably claim. The effect of these measures, Mr. Clay thought,
would be to allay agitation and pacify and harmonize the country. At all
events it will greatly circumscribe the field of agitation: for none of
these measures can be opened for renewed action except the fugitive
slave bill; and when the dispute is narrowed down to that single ground
the slaveholding States have decidedly the advantage. The Constitution
is with them, the right is with them, and the State which shall oppose
the execution of the law will place itself manifestly in the wrong. It
was not to be expected that these measures would lead to immediate and
general acquiescence on the part of the ultras of either section; but
Mr. Clay did confidently anticipate that all their mad efforts would be
put down by the intelligence, the patriotism, and the love of union of
the people of the various States. Mr. Clay went on to draw a picture of
the condition of the country, and especially of the slaveholding States,
in the event of a dissolution of the Union. Under the present law the
South will not probably recover all their fugitive slaves; but they will
recover some of them. But in