Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1848-08-18

existing Iu our land ls clearly To DC Traced
For who can doubt that, but for that woiul bar
gain. Slavery would by this time have disappear
cd from all the States Ihen in the Union, with
one or Two cxccpuousl The number Of slaves
in the United States at this period was about six
hundred thousand; il is now three Millions
Aud just as you extend the area Of Slavery, so
YOU multiply the difficulties which lie IN the way
of It's exlermination. Il had been infinitely bet
Ter that day that South Carolina and Georgia
had remained out Of the Union for a while, ra-
ther than lha, the Constitution should have been
made to sanction the slave trade for twenty
years. The dissolution Of the old Conledera-
ton would have been nothing in comparison
with thai recognition Of piracy and murder. !
can conceive Of nothing in the dark record of
mans enormities, fromIhe death Of Abel down
to this hour, so horrible as that Of stealing peo-
pie from their own home, and making them and
their posIerity slaves forever. Il is a crime
which we know has been visited with such sig
nal punishment in the history Of nations as to
warrant the belief that Heaven itself had inter-
lered TO avenge the wrongs Of earh.
In thus characIerizing this accursed traffic,
speak but the common sentiment Of all man
kind. | could not, if ! taxed my feeble intel
lect to the utmost. denodnce it in the language
as strong as thai uttered by Thomas Jefferson
himself Nay, more-the spirit Of that great
man descending to his grandson, in your Vir-
gna Convention, denounced the Slave Trade,
as now carried on between the States, as being no
less infamous Than atloreign Slave trade carried
on in ships that went down into the sea. |
speak Of Thomas jefferson Randolph. If you
would not 90 TO Africa, aud thence people
California with slaves, may you not perpetuate
equal enormIties herel You take the child from
its mothers bosom-you separate husband and
wite-and you transport them three thousand
miles off to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
know that this is peculiar institution; and
doubt not thai in the hands of such gentlemen
as talk about il here, it may be made very at
uactlye. ltmay bea very agreeable sight TO be-
hold large company Independents, kindly lrea-
ted by a benevolent master, and to trace the
manifestations of gratitude which they exhibit.
But in my eyes a much more grateful spectacle
would be that of patriarch in the same
neighborhood, with his dependents all around
| him, invested with all the puributes Of freedom
bestowed upon them by the Common Father, in
whose sightalI are alike precious! Itis, indeed,
very "peculiar" institution. According to the
account of the Senator from Mississippi, Mr..
Davis, this institution exhibits all that is most
amiabe and beautiful in our nature. That Sem
ator drew picture of an old, grey.heuded ne
gro woman, eXhausting the kindness of her
! heart upon the white child she had nursed.-
! This is true; and it shows the good master and
| the grateful servant. But. sir, all are not such
as these. The Senator concealed the other side
of the picture; and it was only revealed TO us by
the quick apprehension of the Senator from
! Florida, Mr.. Wcscou, who wanted the pow
er 10 send patrol all over the country to pre-
vcntthe slaves from rising to upturn the order
of society! had almost believed, after hear
| ing the beautiful, romantic, sentimental narra-
ton of the Senator from Mississippi, that God
had, indeed, as he said, made this people in Afri.
ca to come over here and wait upon us, I'LL the
Senator from Florida walked me up to a recol
lection of the old doctrines Of Washington ant
Jefferson, by assuring us that wherever that pa
trarchal institution existed, rigid police shoulC
be maintained in order to prevent the uprising
of the slave. Sir, it is indeed a peculiar insti
tuition. | know many good men, who, as mas
ters, honor human nature, by The ekndness, equi
/, ty, and moderation of their rule and govern
, ment Of their slaves; but put bad man, a
f sometimes happens, as often happens, in posses
, sion of uncontrolled dominion over another
f black or white, and then wrongs follow that MAKE
angels weep. 1t Is, sir, troublesome lnsulu
ton; it requires too much law, too much force
to keep up social and domestic security; there
fore, do not wish to extend it to these new AM
$ as yet feeble Territories.
? Is it pretended that slave labor could be pro
| ftable in Oregon or California! Do we eXpec
t TO grow cotton and sugar there? do not know
. that it may not be done there; for, as the gen
/ tleman from New York has told us, just as yo
/ go west upon this continent, the line Of lalitud
4 changes in temperature, so that you may hav
a very different isothormal line as you approac
$ the Pacific ocean. But do not care so muc
2 about that, My objection is radical one t.
t the institution everywhere. | do believe,
/ there is any place upon the globe which we in
habit where a white man cannot work, he ha
f no business there. If that place is fit only fo
black men to work, lei black men alone wor
there. do not know any better law for man,
| good than that old one, which was announces
| 10 man after the first lrangression, that by III
f sweat of his brow he should earn his bread,
, don't know what business men have in the world
t unless it is to work. If any man has no wor
l of head or hand to do in this world let him &C
D out of it soon. The hog is the only gentleman
, who has nothing to do but cat and sleep. Hin
2 we dispose of as soon as he is fat. Difficult a
, the settlement of this question seems 10 some
+ tits in my judgment only so because we will nc
look at it and treat it as an original proposition
} to be decided by the influence its determnao
l may have on the Territories themselves. W
, are ever running away from this, and inquirin
how it will affect the ''sove States" or the FIRE
States The only question mainly to be cor
/ sidered is, How will this policy affect the TER
tories for which this law is intended! Is SLAYER
K a good thing, or is it bad thing, for hem7 Wit
my views Of the subject, must consider it ba
b policy TO plant Slavery in any soil where d
/ not find it already growing. | look upon ii 9
: an exotic, that blights with its shade the soil
a which you plant il; therefore, as | am Statistic