Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1844-04-04

population. The duIlsf eve can also see that
the African by association with the white race,
has improved in intellect, and by being transferred
to temperate Cline and forced to labor and throw
off the Incidence of his native land, he is increasing
physical power while the white, by the same re-
Versed laws, is retrograding in the same respects
Slavery then cannot remain forever as it. That
the black race will be exterminated seems hardly
probable from the above reflections, and because
the great mass Of human passions will be in favor
of the increase of the slaves ad intermin. Pride,
love of power, blind avarice, and many other pas
sons for it and against it liberty in the OPP
posite scale. We are forced, therefore. to the
conclusion that the slave population must increase
till there is no retreat but in determination of the
whites Athens, Sparta, Sicily, and Rome nearly,
Hayti in modern times, did fall by servile wars
l have shown elsewhere that the slavery of the
blacks in the modern, is more dangerous than the
slavery of the whites in the ancient system; then
the intelligent slave was incorporated into the
high caste of quondam masters an internal safety
valve, which yet did not save from explosions emf
nently disastrous.
The negative of the second proposition, then, es-
tablishes the third unless avail ourselves of the
last-emGncipGtiOn. If my reasoning and facts be
correct, there is not sane mind in all the South
who would not agree with me, that if we can be
saved from the first named evils, by all means e.
mancipate. Emancipation is entirely safe
Sparta and Athens turned the slaves by thousands
into freedom with safety, who fought bravely for
their common country. During the Revolution
many emancipated slaves did good service in the
cause of liberty. We learn from Mr.. Quincy and
other sources to be relied upon, that British West
India emancipation has been entirely successful,
and productive of none of those evils which were
pertnaciously foretold by interested proslavery
men. The British have reg ments of black men
who make fine soldiers; protectors not enemies of
the empire. But above all rely not upon sound
priort reasoning only, but rather upon actual ex-
perience.
There are in the United States by the last census
396,265 free blacks; 170,75S of whom are in the
Free, the remainder in the Slave States There
are also 24S5,14S slaves-so that in fact about one
sixth of the whole black race in America are al
ready free! No danger or evil consequence has
ensued from the residence of these 1865 freed
men among US. Who then will be so absurd as to
contend that the liberation of the other five sxths
will endanger the safety and happiness the whites
IrepeGt then that emancipation IS entirely safe.
Emancipation must either be by the voluntary
consent of the masters, by force of law. regard
voluntary emancipation as the most probable, the
most desirable, and the most practicable. For the
slave holding land holder would not be less rich
in conse luence; the enhancement of the value of
land would compensate for the loss in slaves.
A comparison of the price of lands of equal quail
ity In the Free and Slave States will prove this
conclusively. If, however, by force of law-the
law having once sanctioned slaves as property, the
governments that private property cannot be taken
for public use, w thout just Observation-Disclosures
that slaves should not be liberated without the
consent Of the masters, or without paying equiv
alent to the owners. Under the sanction of law,
one man invests the proceeds of his labor in slaves
another in land; in course of time it becomes nee
esslry to the common wealth to buy up the lands
for redistribution or culture in common-how
should the fax be laid? Of course upon lands
slaves and personal property-in a word, upon the
whole property of the whole, people. If, on the
other hand, it should nearly the safety and
happiness OF society, stakeholder and nonslave-
holder, that slaves should be taken and emancipa-
ted then by the same legitimate course of reason
ing the v9le property Of the State should be tax
cd for the purpose. If emancipation shall take
place by force of law shall il be by the laws of the
States or by the law Of Congress? Let Congress &
bolish Slavery wherever she has jurisdiction-in
the military places, in the territories, and on the
high SEAS and in the District of Columbia, if the
contracts of cession with Virginia and Maryland al
low. | lay down the broad rule that Congress
should do no more for the pcrpetuation Ct Slavery
than she is specially bound to do. The debates in
the Federal Constitution prove that the Free
States did not intend to assume the responsibilities
OF Slavery. In the language of Roger Sherman and
others, they could not acknowledge the right of
"property in men," There is, them no moral OBJ
legation in the Union TO sustain the rights of the
South in slaves except only they are morally
bound to regard the contract with the South, and
IN the construction of that compact, the presump-
tion in all cases of doubt is in favor of Liberty
On the contrary the United States morally bound
by all means consistent with the Constitution to
eXtinguish Slavery. The word slave is not used in
the Constitution, because the promises of all the
Southern members of the Convention led to final
emancipation, and noble shame on all hands in
duced the expulsion of the word from the charter
Of Human Liberty. I cannot agree that there is
any law superior to that of the Federal Constitu-
ton. 1t is the part of Christians to model human
laws after the Divine CODE but the law in the pres
ent state of light from on High must be paramount
TO the Bible itself If any other practice should
prevail, the confusion of religious interpretations
of the Divine Will would be endless and insuf4era-
BILE. In country where Jews, Christians and In
fdels, Deists, and Catholics, and Professionals and
Fouriersts and Mormonites and Mlerites and
Shakers, all are concentrated into one nation, it
would be subversive of all governmental action,
that each sect should set up Divine code as each
understands it" superior to the Constitution it.
self II case ever arises where conscience die
tates different doctrine-that the penalty of the
law IS rather to be borne than its prescription o.
beyed-then also THERE arises at the same time a
where the sufferers must look to God only for
appreciation and sustainment-he has past from all
appeal to mankind.
dissent, then, from the ultra anti-slavery and
the ultra pro-slavery men. / cannot Join the
North in violation of the constitutional cannot
stand by the South in asking the moral sanction of
the North; nor do regard it a breach of the
constitutional compact, that she should seek a
higher grade of civilization, by using all legal
means for the entire expulsion Of Slavery in the
United States. Congress having no power over
slavery in the States, the States each for ITSELF
where its Constitution does not forbid, certainly
have and should exercise the power Of purchase and
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