Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1819-06-19

vidual interest and private rights. What
is said on this subject in the following
article from the Boston Yankee, is well
worth the candid consideration of every
citizen who values our moral and politi-
cal reputation, beyond the sordid gain
wrung from the hands of domestic
slave.-City Of Washington Gazette.
FROM THE BOSTON YANKEE.
Amidst the abundance of blessings
that Heaven has SO profusely poured
upon this favored soil, the JOY of
the patriot is checked by single cause
of regret and anxiety. The basis of re-
publican institutions is the personal
| liberty and intelligence of the citizens;
and while the former is secured 10 us
by permanent constitution, the spirit
of the age has made every provis on for
the latter, by the multiplication Of semi
naries OF instruction. The great mass
of the people of the United States can
hardly fail TO be enlightened: in our
growing settlements, large portions OF
an improving soil are set apart as per-
manent funds of instruction; and. the
learning of one age manifests itself by
increasing the facilities for another.
The delight which such reflections
scarcely fail to awaken in patriotic
bosom, is damped by the reflection that
one portion of the people IS doomed to
interminable and inveteratc ignorance.
Our system of slavery grows with the
vital growth of the republic. A foreign
scion migrated in our infant stock, it
grows with its mother plant, for the
richest soil which gives Insurance to the
one, furnishes the other with equal nou-
rishment. In the slave states, the in
crease of population is derived alike
from the progeny of the servant and the
master. The most ku;ruriant fancy can
not delight itself in anticipating the bril-
liant destinies of the one, without the
painful contrast of beholding the increas-
ing miseries Of the other, Whether the
proportion of slaves will lessen or in
crease, we do not undertake to decide,
though it might be feared, that as they
constitute property, they will multiply
rather in comparison with the wealth
than with the population OF state.
Whatever might have been the sentl-
ments of our first settlers, we believe 1t
Fe.'v - an OPINION rery generally adoPt-
| cd, that the existence ofslavery IN state
is aa evil of the first magnitude
| Among Shareholders themselves, we
have in many instances found this senti-
IN ,snt prevailing, and expressed with a
deep and earnest soiicitude. They have
! considered the existence OF slavery as
an evil deeply to be regretted IN the first
1 instance, and in the second, if not eradl-
Gated, at least to be limited and curtailed
by every possible eXpedient. One OF
the remedies proposed is to liberate the
children OF slaves after the attainment OF
a certain age; and In the next place, to
! provide colony for the free blacks,
where they may form themselves into a
separate and independent nation. We
have always understood both these pro-
iects to be more earnestly desired in the
southern than in the northern states !:
our feelings on the subject being more
actuated by sympathy and by the abstract
perfection of our republican institutions,
than any immediate participation i'll the
danger from the evil. Partial and pro-
tracled as this remedy must be, we have
nevertheless viewed it with great salts
faction, as tending gradually to diminish
the comparative strength of this misera-
bic class of people, and to enable the
healthy branches OF the republic to out
strip it in their growth. The society
formed throughout the United States for
this object, and composed Of the most
respectable names in every quarter, was
perceived with much pleasure, and this
was increased by the prospect of their
finding no formidable obstacles to the
prosecution of their design. A situation
on the coast of Africa was thought to be
within the reach of the society, and we
believe the report of the exploring
agents, sent for that special object, has
given new confidence to that opinion.
Though many of our best states had
slavery incorporated into their vital in
situations, yet the evil in the union was
only partial in its operations, and while
the system was going on to lessen the
magnitude Of that evil, firm detcrmi-
nation was supposed every where to pre-
vail in fixing limits to any further ex-
tension. 1t was in this spirit that re-
solution was offered at the last session
of congress, on the application of one or
two territories to be admitted as states
of the confederation, to prohibit the ex-