The Context Changes, but the Issues Don’t
The following words appear in the Congressional record…. Our government is deeply disordered; its credit is impaired; its debt increasing; its expenditures extravagant and wasteful; its disbursements without efficient accountability; and its taxes (for duties are but taxes) enormous, unequal, and oppressive to the great producing classes of the country.
Reading them, one would think Elon Musk or a member of the DOGE team or U.S. Congressman or Senator spoke them in 2025. The topics are familiar – fraud, waste, and abuse in Federal programs, taxes, duties on foreign goods (i.e., tariffs), tax cuts for the middle and lower classes vs. taxing the rich, etc.
But they weren’t. These words are a part of a speech written by Senator John C. Calhoun and spoken on March 4th, 1850, by James Mason, a friend of Calhoun’s and a Senator from Virginia. Calhoun, who would die from tuberculosis 27 days later, was too weak to stand, much less speak. He watched Mason deliver his speech wrapped in a blanket.
The speech was made during the debates for what became the Great Compromise of 1850, which was one of, if not the most contentious in our history. All the major players in Congress – Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay – and the president, Zachary Taylor, were born during the American Revolution or shortly after. Millard Fillmore was born in 1800.
The issues were fundamental to the future of the United States, i.e.,
How does the country divide the territory acquired from Mexico after the Mexican War?
Does the U.S. admit California as a state?
Will slavery be permitted in the newly organized Oregon, New Mexico, and Utah territories or the unorganized territory?
Will slavery continue to be allowed in the District of Columbia?
How does the Federal government deal with fugitive slaves?
What will be the boundaries of Texas?
Will the Federal government assume the State of Texas’ $10,000,000 (worth about $409,998,718 on June 1st, 2025) in debt?
On the floor of the House and Senate, it went beyond yelling. At one point, when Vice President Fillmore, sitting as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, told Missouri Senator Thomas Benton he was out of order. Frustrated that Benton did not obey the order to sit down and be quiet, an additional argument ensued between Benton and Mississippi Senator Henry Foote. Benton charged Foote who drew a pistol. Ultimately, cooler heads prevailed and the speeches continued.
In the middle of the debate, President Taylor died and was succeeded by Fillmore. Eight bills written primarily by Senator Henry Clay from Kentucky were proposed and were supported by now President Fillmore who, by the way, for the rest of his term did not have a Vice President.
Clay’s bills provided for the admission of California as a free state. Texas would relinquish its claims to New Mexico and Colorado in exchange for the U.S. assuming its debt. The New Mexico and Utah territories were created, and as states were created from these territories, the citizens could choose if they would allow or prohibit slavery. Another bill forbade importing slaves into the District of Columbia for sale.
However, the key to getting the southern states to vote for the other bills was Clay proposed what became the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. It was more stringent than the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 in that it required law enforcement agencies to return fugitive slaves to their owners. Fines and penalties were written into the law to be assessed to policemen who did not enforce the new law.
Needless to say, the law was not popular in the states where slavery was not permitted. It led to willful disobedience by local governments who flatly refused to enforce the act’s terms and conditions and by private citizens who facilitated the movement of fugitive slaves from the U.S. to Canada.
Map of the U.S. after the Compromise of 1850 by Golbez.
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