2004-6-23
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VOICE ONE:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.
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As the administration of Martin
Van Buren came closer to an end in eighteen-forty, there was
widespread feeling that he had not been a strong president. He
seemed unable to make the people understand his policies. The
opposition Whig Party was happy over Van Buren's failures. It saw an
excellent chance to win the presidency in the upcoming election.
VOICE TWO:
The Whig leader in the Senate was Henry Clay of Kentucky. Clay
told a friend he was sure he would be called on to serve as the Whig
candidate for president. Other Whig leaders were not so sure. They
did not question Clay's ability to be president. But he had been a
candidate both in eighteen-twenty-four and eighteen-thirty-two. And
he had lost both times.
Then there was a growing political force in the United States
that would not be helpful to Clay's candidacy. That was the
Abolitionist Movement, which opposed slavery. Abolitionists did not
like Clay, because he owned slaves.
VOICE ONE:
The dispute over slavery seemed to have been laid to rest for a
time. But during the eighteen-thirties, it rose to the surface
again. A major reason why the dispute came alive again was cotton.
Cotton plants spread across the states of the south.
Cotton production had grown so heavily that it gave the south a
one-crop economy. Cotton depended on the labor of slaves. By the
eighteen-thirties, cotton planters believed that without slavery,
the whole economic system of the south would lie in ruins. To them,
slavery was no longer just a question of right or wrong. It was a
necessity for survival.
VOICE TWO:
Cotton made the agricultural south economically dependent on the
industrial north. Northern ships carried southern cotton to the
markets of Europe. Manufactured goods needed in the south came from
the north. The south put so much time and energy into growing
cotton, that it failed to give much thought to developing industries
of its own. The situation deeply troubled the political leaders of
the south. What made things worse was the fact that most of the
federal government's financial aid for public works went to the
north.
Then there was the old dispute over import taxes. Taxes on
foreign goods mostly helped the manufacturers of the north. The
taxes were to be lowered in eighteen-forty-two. But that was some
time in the future. No one could be sure what would happen then.
Such was the general political and economic picture in the United
States when the Abolitionist Movement began to make itself felt.
VOICE ONE:
In the beginning, the Abolitionist Movement was organized by
religious groups. The members of these groups believed there could
be no compromise with evil. They felt that slavery was evil. So
slavery must go.
The eighteen-thirties saw the birth of anti-slavery societies in
New York and New England. The societies published newspapers and
pamphlets. They began to flood the country with pamphlets and
anti-slavery petitions. The south tried to stop the flow of this
anti-slavery literature across the borders of southern states. The
Abolitionists, in turn, declared that such actions violated freedom
of the press and the constitutional right of petition. This was the
beginning of a long, bitter struggle. It lasted for twenty years. It
finally split the Union.
VOICE TWO:
The Abolitionists had not as yet received major support from the
people of the north. Many northerners were hostile to them. But in
eighteen-thirty-six, the House of Representatives declared that it
would not listen to any anti-slavery petitions. This became known as
the "Gag Rule."
The Senate did not pass such a rule. But the Senate still made it
almost impossible for anti-slavery petitions to come before it.
Former President John Quincy Adams, who was then a congressman, rose
up in protest. He was not an Abolitionist. But he led a campaign
against the "Gag Rule." Adams said the rule was a violation of the
constitutional right to petition Congress. The "Gag Rule" made great
numbers of people in the north very angry. Because of it, these
people began to support the Abolitionist Movement.
VOICE ONE:
The increasing bitterness over the
issue of slavery put Whig leader Henry Clay in a difficult position.
Clay was under pressure to make a decision on slavery, on the
Abolitionists, and on the southern extremists.
Where did he stand. Senator Clay had always hated slavery,
although he owned some slaves himself. In a Senate speech in
eighteen-thirty-three, he called slavery "this great evil...the
darkest spot in the map of our country."
Clay feared that the dispute over slavery might destroy him as a
political leader. And, what was worse, he was afraid that it might
destroy the nation. Clay was an extremely strong believer in the
Union.
VOICE TWO:
Clay opposed violent action. He thought the slow growth of public
opinion was better than violence in bringing about a solution to
slavery. Clay hated the Abolitionists and the great noise they were
beginning to make over slavery. He said they were interfering with a
southern institution and were forcing slavery into politics.
Slavery, he declared, did not belong in politics.
Still, Clay was a national leader. He knew it would be bad to
stand too strongly opposed to the growing Abolitionist Movement.
Clay also opposed the southern senators who tried to prevent
discussion of slavery. He said their position was emotional and
extreme. It was as bad as that of the Abolitionists.
VOICE ONE:
The Senate did, in fact, discuss slavery, in a general way. It
was concerned about the legal position of the federal government in
relation to slavery. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina
offered a resolution for consideration. This is what he said:
The Union was created by an agreement among the states. Each
state had the constitutional right to complete control over its own
institutions. It was the job -- the duty -- of the government in
Washington to protect that right. That meant protection against any
interference in the institution of slavery.
VOICE TWO:
Calhoun was most forceful when it
came to slavery in the District of Columbia and in the territories.
He declared that any federal, state, or private interference with
slavery in those places was a direct and dangerous attack on the
interests of slave states. Calhoun said the south must not surrender
an inch to the Abolitionist Movement. "If we do," he said, "we are
gone."
VOICE ONE:
Senator Clay did not like such extreme talk about states' rights.
He became especially angry when states talked about separating from
the Union, instead of trying to solve problems together.
"Separation," Clay said, "is a terrible word. One's ears should
not accept it. I desire to see -- in continued safety and prosperity
-- this Union, and no other Union. I am opposed to all separate
confederacies and to all sectional conventions. This Union, this
government, will do nothing to attack the rights and security of the
slave-holding states."
VOICE TWO:
Clay then offered his own resolution for Senate consideration.
This is what he said:
Congress had no legal power over slavery within the states.
Therefore, petitions for the abolition of slavery must be rejected,
because Congress had no constitutional right to act on them. The
Senate approved Clay's resolution. It rejected the one offered by
Calhoun.
VOICE ONE:
Clay had acted as he did because he wanted to settle the dispute,
and because he loved the Union. He did so for personal political
reasons, too. Clay had defended the constitutional right of
petition. That pleased the north. But he also had used a legal move
to block the Abolitionist Movement from bringing anti-slavery
petitions before Congress. That pleased the south.
Clay believed he had protected his national position. He told a
friend: "I have acted in such a way that I lost nothing, either in
the south or the north."
VOICE TWO:
As the national election of eighteen-forty got closer, the Whig
Party felt more hopeful. They began to believe they could defeat
President Van Buren in his attempt to win a second term. But they
also began to turn away from Henry Clay as a presidential candidate.
The election of eighteen-forty will be our story next week.
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VOICE ONE:
You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry
Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A
NATION can be heard on Thursdays.