The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1848-05-18

No one expects TO slavery established IN Ore
gon II is too far north It's productions not suited
10 slave labor and if they were, it would cost 10
take slave there than he would be worth but so tar
from this circumstance excusing the effort to prohibit
slavery that only exposes the reprehensbe design OF
it. The effort is 10 establish precedent, where it will
be Imperative, TO be followed in where II would
produce Its effect.
have confined myself, as the committee will perceive,
the discussion of the question 10 the power OF Con-
gress under The constitution TO prohibit slavery IN me
territories There other interesting questions which
have been mooted of late, which have purposey avoid
ed debating. They are-ls, whether If we acquire ter
nioy where slavery does not exist, Wal be legailzed
mere oy the very act OF acquisition and "a, wneher
the people of the territories through their territorial
legislatures can prohibit slavery the event OF The hrst
question being decided way, legaliZe IL IN the
event II is decided the oher These questions however
interesting, are not for us 10 decide They are strictly
Judicial questions and to the courts am willing as
shall be bound TO leave them. They are questions
which Congress has authority settle and they
questions which do not wish TO introduced here, or
INTO the politics of the country Neither the Congress
the President can have anything 10 do in their solution
But very different the character of the principle of the
Wilmot Proviso. That looks 10 congressional action
and executive sanction and If cannot be lost sight OF
No strict coniructonst, democrat can be Indifferent
to the principles which have shown it violates have
therefore confined myself TO it, and made no ausion to
the other questions any further than they referred to
in the authorities have quoted
have also absalned, by design from the discussion
OF the question of slavery in lis moral, social and pot
cal aspects For although have very decided opinions
upon the subject do not think Congress has any luris
dction over it, either in the States or the Territories aud
therefore, as member OF Congress- have commits
sion to debate it.
But there is one view of it, which has been presented
by the gentleman from Maine, Mr.. SMART,l which
consider gemane to the subject, and therefore ask per-
mission to notice very briefly He maintains that The
prohibition OF slavery IN the territories, does not prevent
any white man from the slave States emgrang to them
whereas the permission of slavery excludes the white
laborers of the non-slaveholdng States Now, sir,
hold that the very of this is Prohibit slave
ry IN territory and in what position do you place
STAKEHOLDER who desires to emgrate Before he goes he
must either sell his slaves or emancipate them. But
nineteen out of twenty of southern shareholders, pacu
lary the old States could adopt the first branch Of
the alternative, without doing the greatest possible vio
lence to every impulse of their hearts
To nineteen out of twenty-ndeed | may say ninety
nine in every hundred-of the of slaves in those
states States nothing is o trying to them than to be
them the plantation; they have enjoyed with
them the sports OF childhood, and they have feeling
wards them almost fraterna They feel, | have al
ways done, religious duty to watch and protect
them master will resent an injury to his slave,
to himself Very often they do not feel at liberty to
transfer the performance of this duty another OF whose
humanity they may know nothing. The consequence is,
that slaves are very rarely sold from calculation Of
profit. have never known thus Sold In the dis
tric of country in which live, have never known a
negro sold, except for nsubordnaton other crime,
where the master compelled TO sell in consequence
OF debt (Of course, do not allude to of sales
made at the request OF the slave hmself) And these
forced sales are generally the most trying acts of mans
life Most shareholders would be unwilling to sell their
slaves preparatory to emigration
The other branch OF the alternative would be still
worse Most OF us are unwilling TO withdraw that pro-
lection to which negroes entitled by inheritance,
and doom them as emancipation almost always does to
the condition OF miserable vagabonds, in which they
would cease to be the slave OF individual whose inter-
est and inclination 1t is to protect him. and become the
slave of the community with wish but to degrade and
Cypress him. Besides, in most of the slave States his
remaining IN the place OF his nativity after emancipation
is prohibited. Can the master take him with him. where
still ne might act as his friend The laws of most of the
non slaveholding States prohibit him from taking him
there as free negro; and il Congress has jurisdiction of
the subject the representatives of these States would
sre!re, fcrrn nn2n rH-rnry srorias Of population
which their own States exclude The people of the Ter
ories venture to say would prefer their being carried
to them slaves rather than free negroes What then
is STAKEHOLDER thus situated 10 doc You force him to
40 violence to his feelings or abstain from emigration
fou impose upon him condition precedent 10 his enjoy
ing portion OF the common property of the United States
which 1t is impossible for him TO perform.
This is not speculation. How many of the Virginia
officers OF the revolution settled upon the lands reserved
for them by the State from her magnificent donation to
the Unon' Scarcely one; The doubt about the valid
soon as she became State, would abolish slavery ex
cuded them from their property eectually if they
had been excluded by positive law and they were
compelled to sell the finest land in the world for mere
pance
! know personally several instances where the de.
scendants OF those officers, who made great sacrifices
as men ever made by the circumstances which have
alluded felt themselves and their postery excluded from
lands which their ancestors had purchased by years of
such toll and suffering rarely passed through
But although manynot all admit--of the citizens of
the slave States would be excluded by slavery prohib
ton IN the territories ye in leaving them open, you would
not exclude any emigrants from the saveholdng
States. And if it did, what then would be more proper
than to divide the territories that there might be some
to which every citizen OF every State might with
ms property There IS no restriction upon white emf
grafton in any of the slave States.
But the gentleman from Maine [Mr. SMART says
slavery, wherever it exists degrades labor and thus the
free white laborers OF the north are excluded have
heard this assertion often made in this House. and it has
always surprised me. 1t shows that want of information
upon the subject which always manifested here in the
discussions upon this subject So far from its being true
the very reverse the So far from slavery degrad
verse is the case the most notorious facts will prove
In slave State, the distinctions society do not grow
out OF the difference OF pursuits but of condition and
color II is not the fact that the negro labors that de-
grades him; for let him be idle as he nav even if he
be able to live without work, his social position is still
beneath that OF the poorest white laborer No white
in the south considers labor degraded because ne
cause many OF them profess 1t. In truth, is the
only thing which tends to elevate Them and they are not
degraded because they follow honest pursuit but in
despite of il. | have white men and their sons
worth thousands of dollars, working in tho same
field with their slaves. | have seen many as re-
working side by side in their fields with slaves they had
hired But they did not feel themselves degraded nor
does anybody consider them Go through the State of
Virginia, and you will find two thirds of the strikers in
the backsmlths' shops negroes but the white black
smith does not consider himself degraded in consequence
On the contrary they generally prefer it They can
make him perform mental duties in and about the shop
which they would be reluctant to exact of a white man
There is species of labor performed by negroes in the
southern States and but species which considered