VOA慢速英語:1850年對奴隸制的妥協(xié)旨在拯救聯(lián)盟

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From VOA Learning English, welcome to The Making of a Nation, our weeklyprogram of American history for people learning American English. I’m SteveEmber.

The United States faced a deep national crisis in 1850. That crisis threatenedto split the nation in two.

It began over the issue of slavery in the new territories of California and NewMexico. Many northerners wanted to ban slavery in the new territories. Butsouthern states believed the federal government did not have the right todecide where slavery could or could not go.

President Zachary Taylor had no clear policy on the issue. He attempted to beneutral. He hoped the problem would solve itself. But he did not get his wish.

Split Over Slavery Widens

In fact, the split between North and South grew wider. Many southerners saidthe South should declare its independence from the rest of the country. Then,Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky stepped forward with a plan to save theUnion.

Clay had left the Senate in 1842, but returned in 1849. He was surprised tofind how bitter the North and South had grown toward each other in his sevenyears out of the Senate. Clay urged his friends in the “border states” -- thosebetween the northern and southern states -- to work to build public support for the Union. He believed their support would help prevent the South fromseceding.

Clay also began to think about a compromise that might settle the differencesbetween the two sections of the country. He once said: "I go for honorablecompromise whenever it can be made. Life itself is but a compromisebetween death and life. The struggle continues through our whole existenceuntil the great destroyer finally wins. All legislation, all government, all societyis formed upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, and courtesy.Upon these, everything is based."

Clay was sure that a compromise between North and South was possible. Near the end of January in 1850, Clay completed work on his plan. Mostparts of it already had been proposed as separate bills. Clay put themtogether in a way that both sides could accept.

Clay Proposes Compromises to Save Union

Clay proposed to the Senate that California join the Union as a slave-freestate. He said territorial governments should be formed in other parts of thewestern territories, with no immediate decision on whether slavery would bepermitted.

Clay proposed the western border of Texas be changed to give New Mexicomost of the land disputed by them. In exchange, he said, the nationalgovernment should agree to pay the public debts that Texas had when itbecame a state.

He proposed that no more slaves be sold in the District of Columbia for useoutside the federal district. But he also said that slavery should not be endedin the district unless its citizens and those of Maryland approved. Clay said abetter law was needed for the return of fugitive slaves to their owners.

And, he proposed that Congress declare it had no power to interfere with theslave trade between states. Senator Clay believed these eight steps wouldsatisfy the interests of both the North and the South.

Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi declared that Clay's compromises didnot offer anything of value to the South. He said the southern states wouldaccept nothing less than extending the Missouri Compromise line west to thePacific Ocean. Extending the line meant that land to the south would be opento slavery.

Clay answered that no power on earth could force him to vote to establishslavery where it did not exist. He said Americans had blamed Britain forforcing African slavery on the colonists. He said he would not have the futurecitizens of California and New Mexico blaming Henry Clay for slavery there.

Henry Clay proposed a compromise over the issue of slavery in the United States in 1850

Clay Urges Careful Study, Not Debate

Clay said he did not want to debate, but wished that the senators would thinkcarefully about his proposals. He said he hoped they would decide on themonly after careful study. He asked them to see the proposals as a system ofcompromise, not as separate bills. Clay expected extremists on both sides todenounce the compromise. But he believed the more reasonable leaders of the North and South would accept it.

One week after Clay first proposed the compromise, he rose in the Senate tospeak in its defense. The Senate hall was crowded. People had come from as far away as Boston and New York to hear Clay speak. Some senatorssaid there had not been such a crowd in the capitol building since the day Claysaid goodbye to the Senate eight years earlier.

Clay had to rest several times as he climbed the steps of the capitol. He told afriend that he felt very tired and weak. His friend advised Clay to rest and makehis speech later. "No," Clay said. "My country is in danger. If I can be the oneto save it from that danger, then my health and life are not important."

Senator Clay began his speech by talking of the serious crisis that faced thenation. He said that never before had he spoken to a group as troubled andworried as the one he spoke to now. Clay listed his eight resolutions.

Then he said: "No man on earth is more ready than I am to surrender anythingwhich I have proposed and to accept in its place anything that is better. But Iask the honorable senators whether their duty will be done by simply limitingthemselves to opposing any one or all of the resolutions I have offered.”

“If my plan of peace and unity is not right, give us your plan. Let us see howall the questions that have arisen out of this unhappy subject of slavery can bebetter settled more fairly and justly than the plan I have offered. Present mewith such a plan, and I will praise it with pleasure and accept it without theslightest feeling of regret."

Clay said the major differences separating the country could be settled byfacing facts. He said the first great fact was that laws were not necessary tokeep slavery out of California and New Mexico. He said the people ofCalifornia already had approved an anti-slavery state constitution. And he saidthe nature of land in New Mexico was such that slaves could not be used.

Clay said there was justice in the borders he proposed for Texas -- it wouldstill be a very large state after losing the area it and New Mexico each claimed. And he said it was right for the United States to pay the debts of Texas,because that state no longer could collect taxes on trade as an independentcountry.

Clay said there was equal justice in his resolutions ending the slave trade in the District of Columbia and strengthening laws on the return of runawayslaves. He said the South, perhaps, would be helped more than the North byhis proposals. But the North, he said, was richer and had more money andpower.

To the North, slavery was a matter of feeling. But to the South, Clay said, it was a hard social and economic fact. He said the North could look on insafety while the actions of some of its people were producing flames ofbitterness throughout the southern states.

Then Clay attacked the South's claim that it had the right to leave the Union. He said the union of states was permanent -- that the men who built thecountry did not do so only for themselves, but for all future Americans.

Clay warned that if the South seceded, there would be war within 60 days. Hesaid the slaves of the South would escape by the thousands to freedom in theNorth. Their owners would follow them and try to return them to slavery byforce.

These events, he said, would lead to war between the slave-holding and freestates. He said this would not be a war of only two or three years. Historyhad shown, he said, that such wars lasted many years and often destroyedboth sides.

Even if the South could secede without war, he said, it still would not get anyof the things it demanded. Secession would not open the territories to slavery. It would not continue the slave trade in the District of Columbia. And it wouldnot lead to the return of slaves who escaped to the North.

So, said Clay, the South would not help itself by leaving the Union. His two-day speech gave new hope to many that the Union could be saved. Butextremists on both sides opposed his plan. The continuing dispute will be ourstory next week.

I’m Steve Ember, inviting you to join us next time for The Making of a Nation —American history from VOA Learning English.