m our neglect to decide them. Sir, we shall stand condemned
by all human judgment below, and of that above it is not for me to
speak. We shall stand condemned in our own consciences, by our own
constituents, and by our own country. The measure may be defeated.
I have been aware that its passage for many days was not absolutely
certain. From the first to the last, I hoped and believed it would pass,
because from the first to the last I believed it was founded on the
principles of just and righteous concession of mutual conciliation. I
believe that it deals unjustly by no part of the Republic; that it saves
their honor, and, as far as it is dependent upon Congress, saves the
interests of all quarters of the country. But, sir, I have known that
the decision of its fate depended upon four or five votes in the Senate
of the United States, whose ultimate judgment we could not count upon
the one side or the other with absolute certainty. Its fate is now
committed to the Senate, and to those five or six votes to which I have
referred. It may be defeated. It is possible that, for the chastisement
of our sins and transgressions, the rod of Providence may be still
applied to us, may be still suspended over us. But, if defeated, it
will be a triumph of ultraism and impracticability--a triumph of a most
extraordinary conjunction of extremes; a victory won by abolitionism; a
victory achieved by freesoilism; a victory of discord and agitation over
peace and tranquillity; and I pray to Almighty God that it may not, in
consequence of the inauspicious result, lead to the most unhappy and
disastrous consequences to our beloved country.

MR. BARNWELL:--It is not my intention to reply to the argument of the
Senator from Kentucky, but there were expressions used by him not a
little disrespectful to a friend whom I hold very dear. * * * It is true
that his political opinions differ very widely from those of the Senator
from Kentucky. It may be true, that he, with many great statesmen, may
believe that the Wilmot proviso is a grievance to be resisted "to the
utmost extremity" by those whose rights it destroys and whose honor it
degrades. It is true that he may believe * * * that the admission of
California will be the passing of the Wilmot proviso, when we here in
Congress give vitality to an act otherwise totally dead, and by our
legislation exclude slaveholders from that whole broad territory on the
Pacific; and, entertaining this opinion, he