Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1823-10-11

plotting their destruction. This they
would suffer, in common with others.
But the unspeakable adherence in
which slavery is held by great proper
ton of their fellow citizens, who took
refuge in this state as an asylum from
that CALAMITY, would render it impossi-
BILE to carry mo effect the brutalizlng
system by which alone these devoted
beings are kept down when their num-
bers become considerable.
Having founded our constitution on
the unalenable rights oil man, and en-
tered into compact with each other
and with the general government that
slavery shall not hereafter be introduced,
Il will be VAN to urge us legality, al
though short sighted majority may OBJ
Jsie is admission. As well might they
Legally robbery and murder!
Is introduction would always be felt
by a very LARGE par, of the community
az an invasion Of their rights, Ihey
would view II as il staiked through the
land, with horror and impatient loath-
ing as they would with the inlrns ion OF
an armed Toe No laws on the subject
/
minds of those persons, or repress the
indignation they would experience OH
Dehoidng heir fellow creatures--bought
and sold and trampled upon; no fsarss
as To consequences, could restrain them
from the expression OF their sentiments
Hence perpetual animosities and hatred
would prevail between neiphbors, de-
stroyine all social enjoyment, and that
fellow feeling among the citizens which
is essential to the general happiness and
prosperity would cease forever.
A people on assuming the exercise OF
It's rights, may discover zorongs in its
old Institutions which it cannot redress
without the hazard of still greater; or,
The influence OF custom, or OF ayarlce,
or OF ignorance in portion OF a commu~
nifty, may prevent ii.
Thus il was with the colonies on
their emancipation from Great Britain.
Amoug lhe institutions OF their society
lhere existed system o. gvrong, which,
I lor some, or all ot The causes above as
signed, was not rsdressed. That sys-
E TEN was slavery. Il was not actually
+ tolerated by The constitution, or meant TO
/ be, as no exception in lis favor appears.
The evil was suffered to exist, because
r it could uot be desfsoyed,
Under the sacred transcript of ur
versal rights on which the people of
United Sates founded their coDstitu'
If it had not pre-eXisted 10 the con
nifty, it could not have been inrodp
! they could not have created 81
nor can The peopie Of Illinois
: for the same reason.
1t is moreover, expressly prob.
: in this state, not only by our own
r pac, above alluded to, bu, by the
; nance of congress providing agsins
( inu oduction is'o the North We.
Territory or the states form ed therer,
which ordinance is the supreme law
the land, according 10 article e, of III
j constitution ot the United States, which
is as follows:
{" This constitution and the iQws Of
Me United STATES which sbaU be made
IN pursuance mereT and aH treaties
mate or 7vhich ShaH be made under the
aufhority Of The Unued States shall be
| INC supreme tuTp " f6C tHtui anu INC
Judges in every state shall be bound
thereby. any thing in the constitution or
iazps Of any state to the contrary not
40ihstanding."
Those who settled in the Illinois, be-
: lore 1t became state, ceived pledge
) IRON the Congress of the United States,
N the ordinance of 1887, that slavery
could not be Introduced. When the
constitution in conformity with the ordi-
nance, was accepted on that condition,
others, in great numbers, repaired tn
This as a free state, and established
themselves in i, with entire confidence.
4 They had selected for their abode, a
country free, as they thought, from the
i pollution Of slavery, and by its eonstitu-
ton ever 10 rsmain SO.
| With this calamity under which their
existence would be bur,hen, they are
Ihow threatened, and the mere apprehsn-
sion throws gloom over th-ir pros.
poets. What csu the advocates OF
slavery gain by its Introduction, to put
in competition with the evil and inus-
tice they would inIllct upon sheso their
fellow citizens!
AID is there, then, nothing fixed, nos
thing secure, in the foundation of our
social compact? The blessings pro-
missed by a free constitution, can they
be taken from US and the greatest Of
curses given 10 their room, because pur-