Page images
PDF
EPUB

been interwoven into our system. I, Mr. Chairman, am one of those whom these poor wretches call master; I do not task them; I feed and clothe them well; but yet, alas! sir, they are slaves, and Slavery is a curse in any shape. It is, no doubt, true that there are persons in Europe far more degraded than our slaves, worse fed, worse clothed, etc.; but, sir, this is far from proving that negroes ought to be slaves.

to be regretted that mistaken ambition or the hope of is a great curse-one of the greatest evils that could have promoting a party triumph should have tempted any | one to raise this question again. But in an evil hour this Pandora's box of slavery was again opened by what I conceive to be an unjustifiable attempt to force Slavery Into Kansas by a repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the floods of evils now swelling and threatening to overthrow the Constitution, and sweep away the foundation of the Government itself, and deluge this land with fraternal blood, may all be traced to this unfortunate act. Whatever might have been the motive, few acts have ever been so barren of good, and so fruitful of evil.

John Randolph, of Virginia.-Sir, I envy neither the head nor heart of that man from the North who rises bere to defend Slavery upon principle.

MR. CAMBRELENG'S VIEWS.

EDWARD EVERETT'S OPINIONS ON SLAVERY. THE following is an extract of a speech of Churchill C. Cambreleng, of N. Y., (formerly of N. C.) Mr. Everett, delivered in the House of Represen--The gentleman from Massachusetts has gone too far. tatives, March 9, 1826. (See Benton's Abridg-out animadversion. I heard them with equal surprise and He has expressed opinions which ought not to escape withment of Congressional Debates, vol. 8, page regret. I was astonished to hear him declare that Slavery 711.)

-domestic Slavery-say what you will, is a condition of life, as well as any other, to be justified by morality, religion, and international law; and when at the close of his opinion he solemnly declared that this was his confession of faith, I lamented, sincerely lamented, that

Having touched upon this point, I ought, perhaps, to add that, if there are any members in this House of that class of politicians to whom the gentleman from North Carolina Mr. Saunders) alluded, as having the disposition, though not the power, to disturb the compromise contained "Star-eyed Science should have wandered there in the Constitution on this point, I am not of the number. To bring us back the message of despair." Neither am I one of those citizens of the North, to whom If, sir, among the wild visions of German philosophy I another honorable gentleman referred, in a publication to had ever reached conclusions like this; if in the Aulæ of which his name was subscribed, who would think it im- Gottingen I had ever persuaded myself to adopt a politimoral and irreligious to join in putting down a servile in-cal maxim so hostile to liberal institutions and the rights surrection at the South: I am no soldier, sir; my habits of mankind, I would have locked it up forever in the darkand education are very unmilitary, but there is no cause est chambers of my mind. Or if my zeal had been too in which I would sooner buckle a knapsack to my back, ardent for my discretion, this place, at least, should never and put a musket on my shoulder, than that. I would have been the theatre of my eloquence. No, sir, if such cede the whole continent to any one who would take it had been my doctrines I would have turned my back forto England, to France, to Spain; I would see it sunk in ever on my native land. Following the course of "the the bottom of the ocean before I would see any part of dark rolling Danube," and cutting my way across the this fair America converted into a continental Hayti, by Euxine, I would have visited a well-known market of Conthat awful process of bloodshed and desolation, by which stantinople, and there preached my doctrine amidst the alone such a catastrophe could be brought on. The great rattling chains of the wretched captives. Nay, sir, I relation of servitude, in some form or other, with greater would have gone from thence, and laid my forehead upon or less departure from the theoretic equality of man, is the footstool of the Sultan, and besought him to set his inseparable from our nature. I know of no way by which foot upon my neck, as the recreant citizen of a recreant the form of this servitude shall be fixed, but political insti- Republic. tution. Domestic Slavery- though, I confess, not that form of servitude which seems to be the most beneficial to the master-certainly not that which is most beneficial to the servant is not, in my judgment, to be set down as an immoral and irreligious relation. I cannot admit that reigion has but one voice to the slave, and that this voice is, "Rise against your Master." No, sir; the New Testament says, "Slaves, obey your Masters;" and, though I know full well that, in the benignant operation of Christianity, which gathered master and slave around the same communion-table, this unfortunate institution disappeared in Europe, yet I cannot admit that, while it subsists, and where it subsists, its duties are not presupposed and sanctioned by religion. I certainly am not called upon to meet the charges brought against this institution, yet truth obliges me to say a word more on the subject. I know the condition of working classes in other countries; I am intimately acquainted with it in some other countries, and I have no hesitation in saying that I believe the slaves in this country are better clothed and fed, and less hardly worked, than the peasantry of some of the most prosperous States of the continent of Europe. Consider the checks on population. What keeps population down? Poverty, want, starvation, disease, and all the ills of life; it is these that check population all over the world. Now, the slave population of the United States increases faster than the white, masters included. What is the inference as to the physical condition of the two classes of society? These are opinions I have long entertained, and long since publicly professed on this subject, and which I here repeat in answer to the intimations to which I have already alluded. But, sir, when Slavery comes to enter into the Constitution as a political element-when it comes to affect the distribution of power amongst the States of the Union, that is a matter of agreement. If I make an agreement on this subject, I will adhere to it like a man; but I will protest against any inferences being made from

it like that which was made by the honorable mover of these resolutions. I will protest against popularity, as well as votes, being increased by the ratio of three-fifths

of the Slaves.

MR. MITCHELL'S VIEWS.

Mr. Mitchell, of Tennessee.-Sir, I do not go the length of the gentleman from Massachusetts, and hold that the existence of Slavery in this country is almost a blessing. On the contrary, I am firmly settled in the opinion that it

EDWARD EVERETT ON GEOGRAPHICAL PARTIES. But, sir, I am not prepared to admit that geographical parties are the greatest evil this country has to fear. Party, of all kinds, in its excess, is certainly the bane of our institutions; and I will not take up the time of this Committee by disputing which is most deleterious, arsenic or laudanum. It is enough that they are both fatal. The evil of geographical parties is, that they tend to sever the Union. The evil of domestic parties is, that they render the Union not worth having. I remember the time, sir, though I was but a boy, when under the influence of domestic parties, near neighbors did not speak; when oid acquaintances glared at each other as they passed in the streets; when you might wreak on a man all the bitterness of your personal and private enmity, and grind him into the dust, if you had the power, and say, he is a Democrat, he is a Federalist; he deserves it. Yes, sir, when party spirit pursued its victim from the halls of legislation, from the forum, from the market-place, to what should be the sanctuary of the fireside, and filled hearts that would have bled to spare each other a pang, with coldness and esThere does not live the man, I thank God, on earth, totrangement. Talk not to me of your geographical parties. ward whom I have an unkind emotion-one whose rights I would invade, whose feelings I would wound. But if there ever should be a man to whom I should stand in that miserable relation, I pray that mountains may rise, that rivers may roll between us-that he may never cross my path, nor I his, to turn the sweetness of human nature into bitterness and gall in both our bosoms.-Speech in the House of Representatives, 1826.-Benton's Debates, vol. 8, p. 718.

MR. EVERETT'S VIEWS IN 1837 and 39. Oct. 14th, 1837, Hon. Wm. Jackson, of Newton, Mass., wrote to Mr. Everett a long letter containing the following questions:

Do justice, humanity, and sound policy, alike require that the slaves of this country should be emanci pated?

Is it the right and duty of the citizens of the nonslaveholding States to require of the General Government the abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia?

Is it just or safe, with regard to our foreign relations | it. I will only say, that if, at this moment, when an alland domestic compact, to admit Texas into the Union?

MR. EVERETT'S REPLY.

BOSTON, 31st October, 183,

SIR: I have duly received your communication of the 14th inst., in which you desire to be furnished with my views on certain questions therein propounded. Under other circumstances, I should deem it proper to preface my answer with some preliminary remarks, but my engagements at the present time compel me to reply as concisely as possible.

In answer to the first question, I observe, that Slavery being, by universal admission, a social, political, and moral evil of the first magnitude, it is required by justice, humanity, and sound policy that the slaves should be emancipated by those having constitutionally the power to effect that object, as soon as it can be done peacefully, and in a manner to better the condition of the emancipated. I believe the most considerate portion of the people of the United States, in every quarter, unite in this sentiment; and you are aware that the most eminent Southern names can be cited in its support.

In reply to the second question, I would remark, that all the considerations in favor of emancipation in the States, apply with equal force to the District of Columbia. My opinions on this subject are fully expressed in the resolution adopted by the legislature last winter, with a near approach to unanimity, in the following terms: "Resolved, That Congress having exclusive legislation in the District of Columbia, possesses the right to abolish Slavery in the said District, and that its exercise should only be restrained by regard to the public good."

I know that the slave-trade is carried on to a shocking extent in the District of Columbia. There is no part of the South, where it is reputable to be engaged in this traffic; and no Southern State, I am persuaded, would permit its existence in its own capital, as it exists at the national capital. The South and the North ought to unite in prohibiting it, by act of Congress-which is the local legislature of the District. This has been loudly called for, from the District itself. I have before me a copy of a petition, couched in very strong language, against both Slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, which was presented to Congress in 1824, 8gned by nearly seven hundred and fifty names of citizens of Washington, seve: al of whom were known to me to be of the first consideration. I may observe in this connection, that at the same session, I voted in the negative on a motion to lay upon the table the petition of the American Anti-Slavery Society for the abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia, and on two other motions, intended, in like manner, to deprive this class of petitions of a respectful reception and considera

tion.

The last question propounded by you refers to the annexation of Texas. It presents the subject of Slavery, in most of its bearings, in a new light. In the States, its introduction was the result of a legislation forced upon the colonies, and in many cases, in despite of acts passed by their legislators, for the prohibition of the slave-trade, and regulated by the crown. Its existence is recognized by the Constitution of the United States. The rights of property growing out of it are in some degree protected by law in the non-slaveholding States (see the opinion of Chief Justice Shaw in the case of the Commonwealth vs. Aves-an opinion in the doctrines and principles of which I fully concur); and morality and religion frown on all attempts to put an end to it by violence and bloodshed. But none of these principles countenance a voluntary extension of Slavery; and as the question of annexing Texas is one of volun' tary, and almost boundless extension, it presents the subject, as I have said, in a new light. It has been officially stated by the Texan Envoy that the region so called contains two hundred thousand square miles. other words, it might form twenty-five States large as Massachusetts. In this vast region, Slavery was prohibited by Mexico; it has been restored, and is rapidly spreading itself under the new government; and no one denies, that if the independence of Texas is sustained, Slavery will be indefinitely extended throughout its ample borders.

In

as

The Executive Government of the United States has promptly recognized this independence, and by so doing, has discharged the whole duty that could be required by the law of nations. Whatever step we take toward annexation is gratuitous. This whole subject has been so ably discussed by Dr. Channing, in his recent letter to Mr. Clay, that it would be superfluous to enlarge upon

important experiment is in train, to abolish Slavery by peaceful and legal means in the British West Indies, the United States, instead of imitating their example, or even awaiting the result, should rush into a policy of giving an indefinite extension to Slavery over a vast region incorporated into their Union, we should stand condemned before the civilized world. It would be vain to expect to gain credit for any further professions of a willingness to be rid of Slavery as soon as possible. No extenuation of its existence, on the ground of its having been forced upon the country in its colonial state, would any longer avail us. It would be thought, and thought justly, that lust of power and lust of gold had made us deaf to the voice of humanity and justice. We should be self-convicted of the enormous crime of having voluntarily given the greatest possible enlargement to an evil, which, in concert with the rest of mankind, we had affected to deplore, and that at a time when the public sentiment of the civilized world, more than at any former period, is aroused to its magnitude. There are other objections to the measure drawn from its bearing on our foreign relations; but it is unnecessary to discuss them. I am, sir, respectfully, Your obedient servant, EDWARD EVERETT.

[blocks in formation]

amendment, were adopted by the legislature. They apThose resolves, after having been somewhat enlarged by pear to cover the whole ground of your two interrogatories. Having cheerfully coöperated in the passage of which they are sustained in the powerful report of the the resolves, and concurring in the general reasoning by chairman of the committee, I respond to both your inquiries in the affirmative.

The first of the three subjects in your inquiry is the only one of them which came before Congress while I to lay upon the table the petition of the American Antiwas a member. I voted in the negative on the motion Slavery Society for the abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia, and on other motions of the like char

acter introduced to cast off the consideration of this class of petitions.

I am, dear sir, very respectfully, your friend and serEDWARD EVERETT.

vant.

[blocks in formation]

Resolved, That Congress has, by the Constitution, power to abolish Slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, and that there is nothing in the terms or circumstances of the acts of cession by Virginia and Maryland, or otherwise, enforcing any legal or moral restraint on its existence.

Resolved, That Congress ought to take measures to effect the abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. Resolved, That the rights of humanity, the claims of justice, and the common good alike, demand the suppression by Congress of the slave-trade carried on in and through the District of Columbia.

Resolved, That Congress has, by the Constitution, power to abolish Slavery in the Territories of the United States.

[For later views of Mr. Everett, see his letter | a fusion of the Republicans with the other Opposition eleaccepting the nomination for the Vice-Presi- ments in the campaign of 1860, has been received. dency in 1860.]

ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Massachusetts is a sovereign and independent State, and I have no right to advise her in her policy. Yet, if any I one is desirous to draw a conclusion as to what I would do, from what she has done, I may speak without improRe-priety. I say, then, that so far as I understand the Massachusetts provision, I am against its adoption, not only in Illinois, but in every other place in which I have the right to oppose it. As I understand the spirit of our inI am, therefore, hostile to anything that tends to their destitutions, it is designed to promote the elevation of men.

Mr. Lincoln having been invited by the publicans of Boston, to attend a Festival in honor of the anniversary of Jefferson's birthday, on the 13th of April, 1859, replied as follows: SPRINGFIELD, Ill., April 6, 1859. GENTLEMEN: Your kind note, inviting me to attend a festival in Boston, on the 13th inst., in honor of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, was duly received. My engagements are such that I cannot attend. Bearing in mind that about seventy years ago two great political parties were first formed in this country; that Thomas Jefferson was the head of one of them and Boston the headquarters of the other, it is both curious and interesting that those supposed to descend politically from the party opposed to Jefferson, should now be celebrating his birthday in their own original seat of empire, while those claiming political descent from him have nearly ceased to breathe his name everywhere.

basement.

It is well known that I deplore the oppressed condition of the blacks; and it would, therefore, be very inconsistent for me to look with approval upon any measures that infringes upon the inalienable rights of white men, whether or not they are born in another land, or speak a different language from my own.

can be effected on Republican principles, but upon no In respect to a fusion, I am in favor of it whenever it other condition. A fusion upon any other platform would be as insane as unprincipled. It would thereby lose the whole North, while the common enemy would still have the support of the entire South. The question in relation to men is different. There are good and patriotic men and able statesmen in the South, whom I would willingly support if they would place themselves on Republican ground; but I shall oppose the lowering of the Republican standard even by a hair's breadth.

Remembering, too, that the Jefferson party was formed upon its supposed superior devotion to the personal rights of men, holding the rights of property to be secondary only, and greatly inferior; and then assumI have written in haste, but I believe that I have aning that the so-called Democracy of to-day are the Jeffer-swered your questions substantially. son, and their opponents the anti-Jefferson parties, it will be equally interesting to note how completely the two have changed ground as to the principle upon which they were originally supposed to be divided.

The Democracy of to-day hold the liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with another man's right of property. Republicans, on the contrary, are both for the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.

I remember being once much amused at seeing two partially intoxicated men engaged in a fight with their great-coats on, which fight, after a long and rather harmless contest, ended in each having fought himself out of his own coat and into that of the other. If the two leading parties of this day are really identical with the two in the days of Jefferson and Adams, they have per

formed the same feat as the two drunken men.

But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation.

Respectfully yours,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

NEW-YORK FOR THE WILMOT PROVISO.

In January, 1847, Col. Samuel Young introduced the following resolve into the New-York State Senate, and on the 27th of that month it was adopted by a vote of 22 to 6:

Resolved, That if any Territory is hereafter acquired by the United States, or annexed thereto, the act by which such Territory is acquired or annexed, whatever such act may be, should contain an unalterable, fundamental article or provision whereby Slavery or involuntary servi tude, except as a punishment for crime, shall be forever excluded from the Territory acquired or annexed.

This resolve subsequently passed the Assembly

One would state with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of by a vote which was almost unanimous. Euclid are true; but nevertheless, he would fail, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. And yet they are denied and evaded, with no

NEW-YORK FOR FREEDOM IN 1858.

The following preamble and resolutions were small show of success. One dashingly calls them "glit-adopted by the Assembly of the State of Newtering generalities." Another bluntly styles then "selfevident lies." And others insidiously argue that they apply only to "superior races."

These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and effect-the supplanting the principles of free government, and restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are the vanguard, the sappers and miners, of returning despotism. We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us.

This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

All honor to Jefferson-to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity, to introduce into á merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression. Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN. Messrs. H. L. PIERCE, and others, etc.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON NATURALIZATION.

DR. THEODOR CANISIUS:

SPRINGFIELD, May 17, 1859.

York on the 10th day of January, 1848, by a vote of 108 to 5, and by the Senate, a few days later, by a majority nearly as emphatic as that of the Assembly:

Whereas, The President of the United States, in his last annual message, has recommended the establishment by Congress of territorial government over the conquered provinces of New Mexico, and the Californias, and the retention thereof as an indemnity, in which said Terri tories the institution of Slavery does not now exist, therefore

Resolved (if the Senate concur), That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use their best efforts to insert into any act or ordinance, establishing any or all such provisional or ter ritorial government or governments, a fundamental article or provision, which shall provide, declare, and guaranty, that Slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been first duly convicted, shall be prohibited therein, so long as the same shall remain a Territory.

Resolved, That the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the Assembly, be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolutions and preamble to each of the said Senators and Representatives.

NEW-YORK AGAIN FOR FREE TERRITORIES IN 1849. DEAR SIR-Your letter, in which you inquire on your The following preamble and resolves were in own account, and in behalf of certain other German cntroduced into the New-York Senate on the 24zens, whether I approve or oppose the constitutional provision in relation to naturalized citizens which was lately of January, 1849, passed that body by a unani enacted in Massachusetts, and whether I favor or opposo mous vote on the 4th, and were concurred in

by the Assembly two days later, on the 6th of following are extracts from the address then January: adopted:

Whereas, The people of the State of New-Mexico have petitioned Congress for the establishment of a Terrtorial Government which shall protect them against the institution of domestic Slavery while they remain a territory of the United States, and have also petitioned Congress for protection against the unfounded claims of the State of Texas to a la ge portion of their territory lying east of the Rio Grande; and, whereas, it would be un-fornian may not be as good an American citizen as himjust to the people of New-Mexico and California, and revolting to the spirit of the age, to permit domestic Siavery an institution from which they are now freeto be introduced among them: and, whereas, since the acquisition of New Mexic by the United States the people thereof have a right to expect the protection of the General Government, and should be secured in the full possession and enjoyment of their Territory: therefore Resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be requested to use their best efforts to procure the passage of laws for the establishment of governments for the Territories acquired by the treaty of peace with Mexico, and that by such laws involuntary servitude, except for crime, be excluded from such Territories.

Resolved, That the existence of prisons for the confinement and marts for the sale of slaves, at the seat of the National Government, is viewed by this legislature with deep regret and mortification; that such prisons and marts ought forthwith to be abolished; therefore be it

further

Resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be requested to use their strenuous efforts to procure the passage of a law that shall protect slaves from unjust imprisonment, and shall effectually put an end to the slave-trade in the District of Columbia.

FELLOW-CITIZENS: Hitherto when we have assembled in Convention, there were well known and well recognized bounds to our country, but now that the spirit of conquest has been let loose, who can tell where is his country, whether on the Rio Grande, the Sierra Nevada, the Rio Gila or the Gulf of California, or whether part Spanish, much Indian, and some Negro, Santa Fean or Cali self? Our flag is borne, with fixed bayonets to surround it, and unmuzzled grape-shot to clear the way, in the conquering footsteps of Cortes-by the base of the snowy peaks of Popocatapetl, to the Eternal city of the Aztecs and Mexicans of every color, and every breed, sprung from commingling Moor and straight-haired African, as well as from Castile and Leon, are made American citizens, or prepared for being made so, by the gentle logic of red-mouthed artillery, thundering from the bristling heights of Cerro Gordo to the bloody plains of Contreras and Churubusco. Wherever that flag is, with its stars and stripes, the emblem of our Nationality, there our hearts are; but woe! woe! to the men, we cry, who have dispatched it upon its mission of Conquest, and what is yet worse, the conversion of a Free into a Slaveholding Territory.

Resolved, That the territory lying between the Nueces and the Rio Grande is the common property of Fellow-citizens, disguise the Mexican war as sophistry the United States, and that our Senators and Representa-may, the great truth cannot be put down, that it exists tives in Congress be requested to use their best efforts to because of the annexation of Texas; that from such a preserve the same as such common property, and protect cause we predicted such a consequence would follow: it from the unfounded claim of the State of Texas, and and that, but for that cause, no war would have existed prohibit the extension over it of the laws of Texas, or the at all. Disguise its intent, purposes and consequences institution of domestic Slavery. as sophistry may struggle to do, the further great truth cannot be hidden, that its main object is the conquest of a Market for Slaves, and that the flag our victorious legions rally around, fight under, and fall for, is to be desecrated from its holy character of Liberty and Emancipation into an errant of Bondage and Slavery. In obedience to the laws, and in a due and faithful submission to the regularly constituted government of our country, we will rally by and defend our flag on whatever soil or whatever sea it is unfurled; but before high Heaven we protest against the mission on which it is sent, and we demand its recall to the true and proper bounds of our country, as soon as in honor it can be brought home. We protest, too, in the name of the rights of Man, and of Liberty, against the further extension of Slavery in North America. The curse which our mother country inflicted upon us, in spite of our fathers' remonstrances, we demand shall never blight the virgin soil of the North Pacific. We will not pour out the blood of our countrymen, if we can help it, to turn a Fren hundred millions of dollars per year to make a Slave into a Slave soil. We will not spend from fifty to a Market for any portion of our countrymen. We will never, for such a purpose, consent to run up an untold mongers, Tax-Brokers, Tax-gatherers, laying an excise or National debt, and saddle our posterity with Fundan impost on everything they taste, touch or live by. The Union as it is, the whole Union, and nothing but the Union, we will stand by to the last-but No More Territory is our watch-word,unless it be Free.

Resolved, That the Governor be requested to forward copies of the preceding resolutions to each Senator and Representative in Congress from this State.

MR. DIX FOR SLAVERY PROHIBITION.

These resolutions were presented in the U. S. Senate by the Hon. John A. Dix (now, 1860,) Postmaster of New-York, and defended by him m an elaborate and able speech. On the first resolution, he said:

This resolution was in sentiment, if not in words, identical with those which have been passed by fifteen of the thirty States of the Union. With a single exception, all the non-slaveholding and one of the slaveholding States have declared themselves opposed to the extension of Slavery into territory now free. Sir, I fully concur in the propriety of this declaration. I believe that Congress has the power to prohibit Slavery in California and New Mexico; that it is our duty to exercise the power, and that it should be exercised now. I am always for acting when the proper time for action has come. I am utterly opposed to any course which shall cast upon others the responsibility which belongs to ourselves. The resolution looks to the exclusion of Slavery from New Mexico and California during their territorial condition only. It does not look beyond that condition with a view to control the people when they shall have come into the Union. It contemplates no invasion of State sovereignty. In this view of the subject, one of the New-York presses which has resisted all interference with Slavery, even in the Territories, pronounced these resolutions conciliatory in their character. I do not know that I should call them either conciliatory or the reverse. They take firmly the ground that New-York has always taken, that Slavery shall by no act of hers be further extended. She believes it to be the ground of principle, of justice, and of right and I do not hesitate to say she will never abandon it-never, never.

THE NEW-YORK WHIGS FOR FREEDOM IN 1847. At the Whig State Convention held at Syraouse, October 6, 1847, the Hon. James Brooks reported a brief address to the Whigs of the State, which was unanimously adopted. The

RESOLVES.

Among the Resolutions unanimously adopted by this Convention was the following:

Resolved, That while the Whig Freemen of New-York, represented in this Convention, will faithfully adhere to all the compromises of the Constitution, and jealously maintain all the reserved rights of the States, they declare-since the crisis has arrived when the question must be met-their uncompromising hostility to the Extension of Slavery into any Territory now Free, or which may be hereafter acquired by any action of the Govern went of our Union.

FREE DEMOCRACY OF NEW-YORK CITY AGAINST
SLAVERY EXTENSION.

Park at New-York, October 9, 1848, at which
At a Free Democratic Meeting held in the
Henry Everson presided, and S. J. Tilden, John
Van Buren, and John Cochrane spoke, Mr..
Cochrane introduced the following Resolves,
which were adopted:

Resolved, That the politics of the times indicate precisely to whom remain the principles of the Democracy; cial and commercial questions which formerly defined

that the absence from the field of discussion of the finan

law.

political differences, permits that other party tests than single foot of soil where it is not now authorized by those which, even if demanding attention, still as but questions of expediency, should be, as they have been, postponed to the consideration of that one of vital importance, the freedom of our land.

tense.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GREENE C. BRONSON.
To Messrs. J. COCHRANE, and others, Committee.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE FOR THE WILMOT PROVISO.

The legislature (then Democratic) of New Hampshire, in June, 1847, passed the following resolution:

Resolved, that we think contemptuously of the mind which discovers in the extension of the area of Freedom cause for the degradation of the South. Could nature so belie herself that the preservation of their "inalienable rights" to any portion of mankind, must be attended by proportionate violation of those of any other portion, we say, perish those rights dependent on the Slavery of others, rather than one tittle of those be injured that are Resolved, That in all territory which shall hereafter be consistent with the rights of all; that our Constitution added to or acquired by the United States, where Slavery and our federal history speak to us through the voices of does not exist at the time of such addition,or acquirement, the Jeffersons, the Pinckneys, the Lees, and the Ran- neither Slavery or involuntary servitude, except for the dolphs of the South, against this miserable, false pre-punishment of crime, whereof the party has been duly It is not so! The success of the free principles convicted, ought ever to exist, but the same should ever for which we contend, will reestablish the lost equality of remain free; and we are opposed to the extension of the States-lost in the insidious increase of the Slave Slavery over every such Territory-and that we also States from six, their original and constitutional number, approve the vote of our Senators and Representatives in to fifteen, the present aggressive and unconstitutional Congress in favor of the Wilmot Proviso. number-lost in the twenty-one voices and votes which Southern chattel slaves possess among the representatives of a free people at Washington-lost in the limited wealth, in the low intelligence, and in the inferior civilization of the South. We would restore this lost equality, and, so far from degrading any portion of the Union, we mean to elevate the whole to the possession of that Freedom which alone should be the National characteristic. Resolved, That our senses reject the audacious assertion that the Extension of Slave Territory at the South will abate the evil at the North. Aside from the absurdity which it involves, that an evil declines in proportion to and expires with the substance which it procures, experience has taught, and the history of the "Peculiar Institution" itself manifests, that the slaveowner of the "Old Dominion" breeds an increasing gang, and amasses an accumulating hoard, just as the demand for slaves increases with the diffusion of Slavery over free

territory at the South. In the year 1790, when Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida, were free soil, the slave population was 697,896. In the year 1840, when Slavery had spread over this free soil, it numbered 2,487,355, being an

increase in fifty years of 1,787,457 slaves. The extension of Slavery to new territory, instead of abating the evil in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, where it numbered in the year 1810, 590,000 slaves, has multiplied them to 775,000, in the year 1840, showing an increase in thirty years of 185,000 slaves. The existence of Slavery depends on its diffusion.

GREENE C. BRONSON'S OPINION IN 1848.

In a letter dated July 15th, 1848, Mr. Bron: son, after declining an invitation to attend a political meeting, says:

Slavery cannot exist where there is no positive law to uphold it. It is not necessary that it should be forbidden; it is enough that it is not specially authorized. If the owner of slaves removes with or sends them into any country, State or Territory, where Slavery does not exist by law, they will from that moment become free men, and will have as good a right to command the master, as he will have to command them. State laws have no extraterritorial authority; and a law of Virginia which makes a man a slave there, cannot make him a slave in NewYork, nor beyond the Rocky Mountains.

OHIO FOR FREE SOIL.

In the Ohio House of Representatives (session of 1847-8) the following resolution was passed by a vote of 43 to 12:

Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, that the Senators and Representatives from this State in the Congress of the United States be and they are hereby requested, to procure the passage of measures in the National Legislature, providing for the exclusion of Slavery from the Territory of Oregon, and also from any other Territory that now is, or hereafter may be, annexed to the United States.

ILLINOIS FOR FREE SOIL.

The following Resolutions were adopted by the Senate of Illinois on the 8th of January, 1849, and the House of Representatives on the following day. The Legislature was largely Democratic in both branches at the time:

Resolved by the Senate of the State of Illinois, the House of Representatives concurring, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use all honorable means in their power to procure the enactment of such laws by Congress for the government of the countries and territories of the United States acquired by the treaty of peace, friendship, limits and settlement with the Republic of Mexico, concluded February 2, 1848, as shall contain the express declaration" that there shall be neither Slavery nor involun

tary servitude in said territories otherwise than in

the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."

Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring herein, That the Governor be respectfully requested to transmit to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress a copy of the joint resolution of the Senate, concurred in by the House on the 9th inst., for the exclusion of Slavery from the new territories aoquired by our late treaty with the Republic of Mexico. SOUTH CAROLINA FOR THE FOREIGN SLAVE-TRADE.

IN the annual message of Governor Adams, of South Carolina, for the year 1856, he proceeded to argue in favor of the reopening of the slave-trade, as follows:

Entertaining no doubt upon that question, I can see no occasion for asking Congress to legislate against the extension of Slavery into free territory, and, as a question It is apprehended that the opening of this trade will of policy, I think it had better be let alone. If our South-lessen the value of slaves, and ultimately destroy the ern brethren wish to carry their slaves to Oregon, New-institution. It is a sufficient answer to point to the fact Mexico or California, they will be under the necessity of that unrestricted immigration has not diminished the asking a law to warrant it; and it will then be in time for value of labor in the northwestern Confederacy. The cry the Free States to resist the measure, as I cannot doubt there is the want of labor, notwithstanding capital has the they would, with unwavering firmness. pauperism of the old world to press into the grinding service. If we cannot supply the demand for siave labor, then we must expect to supply with a species of labor we do not want, and which is, from the very nature of things, antagonistic to our institutions. It is much better that our drays should be driven by slaves, that our factories should be worked by slaves, that our hotels should be served by slaves, that our locomotives should be managed by slaves, than that we should be exposed to the introduction from any quarter of a population alien to us by birth, training, and education, and which in the process of time must lead to the conflict between capital and labor, which makes it so difficult to maintain free institutions in all wealthy and civilized nations where such institutions as

I would not needlessly move this question, as it is one of an exciting nature, which tends to sectional division, and may do us harm as a people. I would leave it to the Slaveholding States to decide for themselves, and on their own responsibility, when, if ever, the matter shall be agitated in Congress. It may be that they will act wisely, and never move at all; especially as it seems pretty generally agreed that neither Oregon, New-Mexico, nor California, are well adapted to slave labor. But if our Southern brethren should make the question, we shall have no choice but to meet it; and then, whatever consequences may follow, I trust the people of the Free States will give a united voice against allowing Slavery on a

« PreviousContinue »