Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1848-09-06


lsults-we have witnessed the addition Of nn
Eslaveholding, and tEree noa-slavehoding STATE
to the confederacy, beyond those which wsr'
provided for before the adoption of the co,st;t,,
ton. making them. to standI to Is. The ,,ro.
ponderance originally secured to the non-slaro.
holding States, and with the knowledge Of Viii,
they assisted in investing the institution of shaver,
indhe States with the privileges and guarantees
!, sof the constitution hes TINS been annihilated,
+ These facts cannot Be- controverted nor con.
cealed, and when once fully understood and ap-
preciated by the people Of the on-slayeholdng
States, they must haFes q rontrolling influence
over their fstussS course The emotions they
have already excitad. tine tosurprise intelli-
i gent and ingenisa9s any elfarter.
But tbis.is peseh Il, ndseyensfIse most re.
4pnlsis VIEW which we are compelled fo take 81
Fthe; Pfssent pretensions Of our brethren of the
slave-holding States.
Slavery is now presented in livery which ii
never wore before. On every previous occasion
when there has been a conflict of opinion in re-
gard to it, the question has onr been how far the
policy of 1857 should be carried out by prohibiting
or restricting the extension of slavery in territory
which was at the time subject to its introduction.
Most of the territory of the U. s. which was thus
situated, save the State of Iowa, which was ex-
pected by the Missouri Compromise, has been
converted into slave States and admitted into the
Union as such.
Now, for the first time, the attempt is made to
permit the introduction of slavery into territories
which are free from it-terrtores from which it
had been expelled within the last Is or 90 years,
by the express and solemn act of their former gov
eminent and people-a government and people
with whom in regard to the attributes of freedom,
ours could not brook comparison.
Nor is this the only Or worst feature. In an
nexing Texas to our Union, an extensive slave
State, covering an area capable of being formed
into many more such States, we became involved
in war with Mexico, which claimed dominion
over that State.
The territories in regard to which the question
is now made, are among the conquests of this
war. 1t is, therefore, in effect, whatever may
have been the original objects of the war, an ap-
peal to the inhabitants of the non-slaveholding
States, to sanction the extension, thro our nstru
mentality, of slavery into territories which the
United States have in fact, acquired by the sword
but which others had relieved from that great
evil. Such a proposition need only. be stated,
to insure its prompt rejection by the non-slave-
holding States.
Upon what grounds is it attempted to sustain
principle so repugnant to our feengs-so des-
tructve in our view to national character, and
well calculated, if successful, to cloud the glory
of this great Republics That there should be d.
versities of opinion and feeling upon the subject
of slavery between us and our Southern brethren,
is certainly natural.
The strength of Northern aversion to the in
sitution, has recently been very truly stated on
the floor of the Senate by a very distinguished
Southern statesman. The people of the@North
could not overcome This aversion if they would,
and they cannot desire fa do so, because they re-
ligously believe that the highest earthly interests
of man are based Oh. its perlaanehcy and ufives-
salty. '-*'
At the South the feeling is very different, be-
cause the culture of their minds and dispositions,
and the force of habit, have an opposite tendency.
This known, and for season, at least, incurable
diversity of feeling and opinion should beget
spirit of Cancellation, and inculcate mutual far
bearance in speech and action. This duty has
doubtless been occasionally lost sight of, on both
sides; but it cannot be denied that the departure
from it has been the greatest on the part of our
Southern brethren.
No one will venture to insist that it is, at this
day, either expedient right to originate slavery
in territories that free from it, if it be prop
erly prevented. But it is insisted that this cannot
be done in the case under consideration and in
the form proposed. First, because the consttu-
ton does not give Congress the power to pro-
hibit slavery in the territories and that conse-
quently the great number of acts for that pur-
pose that have been passed for the last sixty
years. with general assent, were but SO many in
fractions of the constitution.
All will remember the sclemnitv and rapidity
with which State after State, at the South, in sue
cession announced this doctrine, and the acrimo-
NOUS vehemence with which their conventions
denounced political prescription, lin the form of ex
cluson from the office of President and Vice Pres
ident, of all who refused to adopt it. But it is al
ready apparent that differences of opinion upon
this important subject cannot be settled by vehe
ment assumptions, or cancellation In regard to it,
promoted bV denunclatIOO In countrv Such
difficulties must be solved by appeals to the tests
provided by the constitution. For the rectitude of
our motives and the correctness of our conduct,
we are responsible on earth to the opinion of the
civilized world, and hereafter to a power that is
greater and wiser than all.
The question of consttutionality, the gravest of
all objections that can be made against public
measurehas just passed through the ordeal of pub
lie discussion, and the doctrine in question has
been so thoroughly rejected and condemned by
the voice of the nation that it is no longer necessa-
ry to spend words in refutng it
Two circumstances have however occurred.
which though not necessary to its overthrow, gives
to that overthrow sanction that entities them to
notice. 1t now appears that % years since, at the
time of the Missouri Compromise, Mr.. Monroe,
the President, STAKEHOLDER, and elected from a
slaveholding State, submitted this very question
only that it applied to slave territory, to
a Cabinet composed, among other great men of
such giant inteects from the slavehoIdng States,
as Crawford, Calhoun and Writ, the latter the
law officer of the government; that they were
unanimously of the opinion that Congress did pos
sess the power in question; and that the then
President, man who was on the scene of action
when the constitution formed, concurring in
that opinion approved the bill. The documents
which attest these interesting circumstances, are
before the country, and every one will Judge for
himself of their claims to credence. considered in
connection with what has been said on the sub
ject by the survivor of the Cabinet referred to.
To bring the matter nearer to our own times
within few days upon the very heel of the recent
discussions upon this point, bill containing this
restriction-the very bill which has in part produ-
ced this discussion-has passed bo tn branches of
the national legislature and received the consttu-
tional approval of the present executive-an ap-
proval which it was his sworn duty to withhold if
he had not been satisfied that all the provisions of
the bill were in conformity to the constitution
The present President, also stakeholder, elected
from slaveholding State, with large portion of
his Cabinet in the same situation, has given the
highest sanction to the doctrine we contend for
that is known to our institutions; and although he
felt himself called upon to make extra message
setting forth his reasons for believing that the re-
striction ought not to be applied to our Mexican
territories he does not take the slightest notice of
the constitutional objection on which many
Southern States had based their opposition to the
general measure This branch of the subject has
been thus, and we hope forever disposed of.
1t is further contended that slaves are to be so
far regarded as property as to authorize their own
ers to carry them into any OF the territories and
hold them there, notwithstanding any act Con-
gress NAV pass on the subject. If Congress have
the constitutional power to prohibit slavery in the
territories its laws nIace the subject on the same