Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-11-11
THE FREE NJ AN.
Pennsylvania Democracy and MaSSachu'
SeltS Whiggcry,


The recent election in Pennsylvania resulted, it will
be recolected, in signal triumph of the democratic
party, pledged as it has generally been in that state
to the support of the Wilmot Provso We annex the
following extracts from recentspecch of Hon. David
WimOt author of the Proviso, delivered in the demo-
cratic convention of his own county, together with two
resolutions adopted by the convention.
"What is the Provsol What is its effect
and object Although plain in its language, and
clear in its design, this inquiry becomes necessa-
ry from the covert manner in which it is contin-
uaIly assaed. The whole Southern press and
Government organs of the North represent it as
something that affects or interferes with slavery
in the States where slavery exists. Even great
men, when writing or speaking upon the subject
persist in talking about the abolition of slavery
and the rights of the States, as if the Proyiso
proposed the one, or in any respect mterfered with
the other. 1t does not propose either to abolish,
restrict or in any manner to interfere with slave
ny in any State of this Union. Its sole object is
to secure from the IaefM aggressions of slaoery
that territory which is now free, In opposing it,
continual use is made of the words, Constitution,
Compromises Of the Constitution ; as if the
former was violated and the latter assailed by the
Proviso, If this be So pledge myself to ADAM
don it.
"The Constitution was adopted as the funda-
mental law Of this Republic. 1t prescribes the
duties and defines the powers of the general gov
eminent. At the time of its formation and
adoption, slavery existed in some of the States,
and in others it was prohibited. The slave States
before entering the Union, desired certain con-
cessions or compromises, touching their peculiar
institution. They insisted upon guards for its
security against any interference with it on the
part of the General Government Accordingly
the whole question of slavery, in the States
Dhcrein 1t existed, was by the Constitution left
to those States, respectively. Each Slave State,
individually and for itself, within the limits of its
own boundaries had the sole and exclusive con-
troll over the question of savery-to regulate it,
and abolish it at the time and in the manner it
should, in the exercise of its sovereign power,
see lt Other concessions were also made by
which slaves were enumerated in fixing the rep
resentatlon of the States To the master was
also given the right to pursue into the free States
his fugitive slave, and recaim him,
"Sir, we are not without examples and prece-
dents for our guide Our fathers at an early day
had this same question in hand. Itmay be prof
table, in these days of compromise, to see what
compromise they made with slavery. In 1887
an ordinance was passed, by which slavery was
forever excluded from the territory north and
west of the Ohio. This ordinance bound every
foot Of land then belonging to the nation, This
is the compromise they made. The Northwest
ern Territory had been ceded to the general gov
eminent by Virginia. slave State, The law of
slavery extended over it at the time of the cession
and in some parts Of it slavery actually existed
yet upon every inch did our fathers impose the
seal o! freedom. Hero was abolition not in States,
but in Territory The law Of slavery was re-
peaed, and the law of freedom established
The Proviso does not even propose to do this
Its sole object is to preSerUe the law of freedom,
not to abrogate the law OF slavery. The first
Congress under the Constitution recognized the
validity of the ordinance Of $780, and passed
laws to give it force and effect 1t had received
the vote of every Representative from the slave
States. The article in it excluding slavery had
been incorporated in similar ordinance, drawn
up by Mr.. Jefferson, in 1854. The language
of the Proviso is substantially the language of
the ordinance Of 1884, as drafted by Thomas
Jefferson
'Sir, the history of the ordinance of 1887,
when contrasted with the opposition made to the
Provlso, exhibits a melancholy and alarming
change IN the public opinion of the South, be-
tween that day and the present. upon the subject
OF slavery. The fathers Of the Republic saw
and acknowledged the evils and dangers of this
institution. They covenanted not to interfere
with it in the States where it existed but in
Territories its existence did not even stay their
hands They looked forward with anxious So
lictude to the day when slavery, left unmolested
in its early limits; would wear itself out by the
laws Of population, and the force of natural caus-
es then in active operation. They made no effort
to weaken the force of this law or to postpone
the result of these causes, by widening the field
in which they were to operate, and thus putting
off to a most distant day our final redemption
from the curse of negro slavery Now the eter-
nal perpetuaton and unlimited extension of sIa-
very has become the leading if not the one idea,
of the South. In order to perpetuate slavery for
all coming time, its limits must be extended, as
the slave population increases. The old lands,
exhausted and made barren by slave labor, must
be abandoned for new and virgin soil otherwise
the slave becomes vaueess, and emancipation
of necessity follows. The value given to slave
labor, by the new and fertile regions opened for
it, serves also to give value to the slave in the old
Staes-thus retarding the progress of gradual
emancipation in them. If slave labor be profit
able on the Western side of this continent, for
the production of the staples of cotton, sugar,
tobacco, rice, &c, although these staples can no
longer be produced, or only to limited extent,
in the Atlantic States, still the slave of those
States is made valuable as an article of stock to
be there raised for the market in the distant West
Slavery is question of interest 1t will exist
so long, and no longer, as it is source of profit
to the master Keep it within limits, and in
time there will be such an abundance of slave
labor, from the increase of slave population, and
the field of its profitable labor will at the same
time become 50 narrowed and circumcised, that
the slave ceases to be of value to his master, and
he is glad to get rid of him upon any terms 1t
was to such results that the great men of the
South, in the great day of the South looked
with anxiety and hope. That slavery should not
escape its early doom, by an extension ofits Dor.
ders, they sealed up against it, by the ordinance
Of 1897 tho anfira TarritOrias &c a.