The Arkansas advocate., 1835-06-26

two senators, standing on equal ground with the other members, and welding ten tunes the influence thata Delegate possibly could do, however great his talents. The light end of the scale can be easily seen.
 That great weight should be attached to our making speedy application for admis- sion, so as to % in side by side with Mi chigan, who IS now pressing her claims, am thoroughly convinced. The vote in the United States Senate of what IS called the free States and that of the slaye-holdino States will be equally balanced. If we make application at the same time, it will be difficult for Michigan to get in without us--we shall assume the gown of manhood hand in hand with her; and when in, will still keep up the just balance between the two great interests. Let her go in alone, aud 1t Is ten 10 one that Arkansas will be held back for years, if not forever. The North will then have the power of rejection in their own hands. To the vote, now about equal, which renders the opposition powerless, let the Northern zealots spread their doctrines of unqualified and uncondi- tional emancipation, until they take root among the people of that portion of the Union-let those States send out Senators already strongly imbued with those doc- tfines, with whom the Senators from Mi- chlgan will of course coincide, their politi- calinterests all being the same-and let that Northern Senate be sustained by the pat ronage, the power, and the iatrienes of a Northern President, enc, too, of the Fede- raj school, which, although there now exists some probability, may Heaven ayert-and our rejection, as State, Is sealed forever. The power of Michigan added to that of the present free States, places Arkansas, unless she submits 10 be stript of her wealth and oyerrun with black refugees from ad- joining States, at the ban of the Union for ever as it now stands. To breathe out our existence as Territory--in our present, or a worse state of vassalage-wouId be n sublime spectacle indeed for the eyes of ffeemen to feast upon, or vassals to groan under. While on this subject, Mir. Chair man, although t Is foreign to our purpose to discuss the question of slavery abstract- ly, 1 would wish to be distinctly under stood. Were 1t not for the circumstances in which we are involyed-for the curse en- tailed upon Us by the errors or the crimes of onr ancestors, 1 should certainly breathe the same sentiment as one of Old England's $ classic sons. But 'tis not my habit to quote poetry. Our first ideas. of existence found the slaves among us. They are in- corporated in the body polite, and engraft- ed upon the institutions of the whole South ern country. To emanclpate them all at once and send them out of the United States, would be lmpossible-the contribu- tions of the continent would not begin to furnish the outfit. For them to rema in among us as freemen, would be degradation n and ruin to both races. Our own preser- yatlon compels us to enforce their obedi- ence-the impulses of humanity teach us to treat them with kindness and ameliorate their condition as much as possible.-- Things, men and circumstances, have to be treated according to the relative position in which we ind them-not as we might de- sire to place them. Arkansas IS surrounded by countries abounding in slaves--on the N ortfl is the State of Missouri with hel slaves; on the East, Tennessee and Mis- sissippi with thesr8; on the West, the hall civilized Indians with theirs and on the South, the mammoth of slavery, Louisiana
 with hers, almost equal in number 10 bel white population. Could we stand in the midst of them as a free State? Wha
 would be the consequencesl Our black: would all be free. Our whole country
 from one extreme to the other, would bt infested by, and become complete harbo
 for all of the runaway negroes from all 0
 the adjoining States. These things would inevitably have such demoralizing inau. ence upon society, that 1t would soon be
 come intoerable for white people of re
 spectability to live in the country; and tht land designed for the sustenance and com
 fort of civilized man, would become, as il days long since gone by, the refuge of th' renegade, the assassin, and the robber The work of emancipation began in tht North, and, from the force of circumstan. ees and the necessary order of things, its progress must be gradual. One half 0 the borders of any State IS enough to be in
 fested at one time with runaway slaves ant other outcasts of another. When Mlssou- II or Tennessee free their slaves, we ma, begin to follow their example. But untI the spirit gradually approaches us, we would be jeopardizing not only our rights of prop erty, but our individual safety ans prosperi
 ty too far, by placing ourselves in a situa ton where the misguided zeal of Northern fanatlcs, or opposite interests of Northern politicians could dictate 10 IS. Then ..le us be up and doing" before it's too late