The Daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1845-1850, 1848-09-09

each other prompt to enlist needy talent III al SCI
tons, liberal to reward services, ana reho'seIess
to punish opposition, they virtually succeeueu -
POSSESSING themselves OF the government OF the
limited States Out of more than three millions
of American VOTERS not more than three hundred
thousand at safe estimate, are slaVehoiuers,aho
the proportion was never greater thah now Ae'
:, TX Presidential terms shareholders have exer-
cised the supreme magistracy IL times; whlle II
Judpes Of the Supreme Court have been slave
holders. out of the whole number, %; IA Attor
new Generals out OF 10; 81 Presidents OF the Sen
ate nro tempore, out of II 81 Speakers OF the
Honse Of Representatives out of 81, and 80 For
egn Ministers out of 1874 and the proportions
of Cabinet Ministers, and of high military and
naval officers have not been materially different.
The possession OF such power could not fail
to furnish to the privileged class which held it,
both means and motives to provide for its main
tenance and increase. Mr. Jefferson and the pa
triots of the confederacy had excluded slavery
forever from the FIVE States to be formed from
territory then possessed by the United States, and
they had all but succeeded in providing for It's
perpetual exclusion from territory which might
come into their possession at any future time.
But Kentucky and Tennessee, and at later peri
DDS, Mississippi and Alabama (parts of old States)
were received into the Union with the slave in
stituton and the slave representation, and at each
step the balance OF power and the securities of
liberty, were further disturbed Whatever
weight calculation of this elemen. OF political
.asceRdancy may have had in determining the
measure OF the purchase OF Louisiana, the access
sion OF that country revealed to the shareholders
the extent of their power, and emboldened them
for the policy which they have steadily pursued.
Louisiana, Missouri, and Arkansas, were admit
ted as States, with slave population and slav-
cry representation in the National Government
AT the adoption of the Constitution by the old
Thirteen States, seven had either no slaves, or SO
few that they were properly called Free States,
and the Ordinance of '87 provided for freedom in
the five States to be established north west of the
Ohio river, while slavery was believed to be des-
tined before long, under the natural operation of
right public sentiment and of free institutions,
to disappear from the remaining six, thus finally
removing SO uncongenial and noxious an element
from the operations of the government.
So far was this expectation from being fulfill
ed, that since 1872 when Louisiana was admitted
the number of free and elave states, following for
short intervals,) has been equal. The slave
States, with their comparatively small population
have held and hold, halt the votes In the Senate
of the United States while in the House, in ad
dition to the representation of their free popula-
ton, they have force OF twenty three members
representing their chattel slaves. With these adj
vantages an oligarchy small in numbers, acat,er-
ed through fifteen States, by the energetic ex err
else OF power, founded on their ownership of
colored men, have controlled and now control,
the foreign and domestic business OF this nation
OF twenty millions of people. Within our State
limits, we manage matters in our own way, and
so as to suit ourselves. But in the National gov
eminent, they have been, and they are your ru-
lers and masters.
If power wrongfully possessed, were not LA
BILE to be wrongiully used, political rights would
less deserve to be contended for. The Slave
Power, established over US by bold usurpation,
has wreaked upon US fragrant, insulting, outra.
geous injustice.
In the slave States, it is impossible that the
constituencies, though mostly consisting of nom
shareholders, should be qualified for proper ex-
ercise of the elective franchise, because it is inn
possible that there should be any system OF gen.
eral education, to prepare the elector for his mo-
mentous trust. 1t is not for the interest of the
privileged class to open the door to their poorer
nelghbors ior competition with themselves, as
there would be danger OF doing, ii they should.
open common schools. But were it other
wise, a state OF society harboring slavery,
cannot possibly sustain that benehcent institu-
ton, by reason Of the distribution of the land in
to large tracts, and tie consequent absence OF
neighborhoods sufficiently compact.
Hence unavoidably follows in such a society
an incompetency OF the mass of the voters for the
duty which our institutions commit to them
The national census OF 1910 is understood to have
Deen lar 100 laVOrdOle 10 the southern states IN
this particular but according to that census, one
person in thirteen of the adult white population in
Geogia and South Carolina, and in North Caro-.
lima, one in nine, could not read or write, while
according to recent estimate OF Governor of
Virginia nearly one quarter of the applicants tor
marriage licenses in that State in the year Just
then elapsed, were unable to subscribe their
names. People thus unrestricted, while inves-
ted with the power OF the whole within their
limits, are, to its exercise, at the mercy OF the
well educated few. They have not the means
Of lettering their condition, so as to make them
selves felt in the direction Of affairs. They can.
not have the self respect, which belongs to in.
dustrious occupation. Their knowledge, their
sentiments, their prejudiees and passions, their
likings and antipathies, are such as they gather
from the dictauon OF their slayeholding superiors
So disqualified for any intelligent choice, so
incapable Of being any thing but tools, are the
masses OF those who choose large proportion Of
our rulers. On the other hand, the rulers so
chosen, trained under circumstances unpropitious
to justice and moderation, "nursed, educated and
daily exercised in tyranny" as the STAKEHOLDER
Jefferson declared them be, cannot be expected
to manifest a cautious regard for the rights of
others, while asserting, using, and extending
what they have deceived themselves into regard