The Slavery Question / Speech of Hon. John M. Landrum, of La., Delivered in the House of Representatives, April 27, 1860

The speaker delivers a congressional address defending his party's conduct on slavery and attributing rising sectional discord to the opposing party's anti-slavery agitation. He invokes the founders' spirit of compromise and legislative precedent, arguing that constitutional provisions protected slaveholding states and that proposals to exclude slavery from federal territories or bar admission of slave-tolerant constitutions are novel departures. He faults the circulation of incendiary materials for inflaming tensions, notes Southern conventions preparing measures for security, and seeks to vindicate his party as adhering to established constitutional practice rather than causing the national unrest.