Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

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2MEMOIRS OF JOHN ADAMS DIX.

miserable business. The opposition now came, or appears
to have come, mainly from certain Southern politicians."
Among them a Senator from Mississippi was particularly active. Charges which they must have known to be false were
made by prominent individuals-such, for example, as this:
that General Dix was an abolitionist, and that the administration would be untrue to the South by allowing a man
of that fanatical and extreme party to represent it abroad.
Nothing could have been more untrue. Whatever the merits of the abolitionists and their claims on the respect and
admiration of posterity, one thing was perfectly clear and
well known to every statesman, North and South-that General Dix was not of that school, but had invariably, from the
beginning of his political career, opposed their designs. His
vote had been given in the Senate for the admission of Texas
to the Union; he had endorsed the union of the Democratic
party on the basis of the Compromise measures introduced
by Mr. Clay; he was in favor of the surrender of fugitive
slaves;t he had given his cordial support to the administration. There was no ground for the charge that he was an
abolitionist; as little for suspicion of his sincerity in adhering to the Baltimore platform and desiring the removal of
the question of slavery from the national politics. When,
therefore, I find prominent Southern politicians denouncing
* See Appendix, No. IV.
t "The Northern States have been repeatedly charged in this debate,
and on many previous occasions, with aggression and violations of the
Constitutional compact in their action on the subject of slavery. With
regard to the surrender of fugitive slaves-the case most frequently
cited-it is possible that there may have been some action, or inaction,
in particular States, not in strict accordance with the good faith they
ought to observe in this respect. I know not how it is; but we know
there is an effective power to legislate on this subject in Congress, and
I am sure there will be no want of co-operation on our part in carrying
out the requirements of the Constitution by providing all reasonable
means for executing them." — U. S. Senate Debates, July 26, 1848.