Mr. Calhoun denied the existence of the power of congress to exclude the south from a free admission into the territories with its slaves. He denied what had been by many assumed, that congress had an absolute right to govern the territories. The clause of the constitution which gives "power to dispose of and make all needful rides and regulations respecting the territory and other property belonging to the United States," did not, he said, convey such a right: "it conferred no governmental power whatever; no, not a particle." It only referred to territory as public lands — as property — and gave to congress the right to dispose of it as such, but not to exercise over it the power of government. Mr. Calhoun thought the best method of settling the slavery question was by non-action — by leaving the territories free and open to the emigration of all the world, and when they became states, to permit them to adopt whatever constitution they pleased.
Mr. Calhoun considered the interference on the subject dangerous to the Union. If the Union and our system of government were ever doomed to perish, the historian who should record the events ending in so calamitous a result, would devote his first chapter to the ordinance of 1787; his next to the Missouri compromise; and the next to the present agitation. Whether there would be another beyond, he knew not. He reviewed and controverted the doctrines of the declaration of independence. The proposition that "all men are created free and equal," he called a "hypothetical truism." Literally, there was not a word of truth in it. This assertion he supported with the singular argument, that "Men are not born free. Infants are born. They grow to be men. They were not born free. "While infants, they are incapable of freedom; they are subject to their parents." Nor was it less false that they are born "equal." But in the declaration of independence the word "free" did not occur. Still the expression was erroneous. "All men are not created. Only two, a man and a woman, were created, and one of these was pronounced subordinate to the other. All others have come into the world by being born, and in no sense, as I have shown, either free or equal." This expression, Mr. C. said, had been inserted in the declaration without any necessity. It made no necessary part of our justification in separating ourselves from the parent country. Nor had it any weight in constructing the governments which were to be substituted in the place of the colonial. They were formed from the old materials, and on practical and well established principles, borrowed, for the most part, from our own experience, and that of the country from which we sprang.
Mr. Calhoun argued, that, instead of liberty and equality being born with men, and instead of all men and all classes being entitled to them, they were high prizes to be won; they were rewards bestowed on mental and moral development. The error which he was combating had done more to retard the cause of liberty and civilization, and was doing more at present, than all other causes combined. It was the leading cause which had placed Europe in its present state of anarchy, and which stood in the way of reconstructing good governments. He concluded as follows:
