Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1848-09-21
Slavery Extension Question.

on Tuesday last by ROBERT DALE OWEN relates to
the important and much ogiiaied question of the
tension Of slavery into the Territories recently
CURED from Mexico. The report has been revised by
Mr.. Owen. We commend it to the attention of our
friends of the Free Soil Party.
MR. OWENS REMARKS.
Some hold that the acquisition by the Mexican
Treaty. Of California and New Mexico, is a national
evils because it brings up prominently and for speedy
settlement the question of slavery in the Territories.
| | am not sorry that it does. The question is by
many considered to be full of danger. So much the
greater that We should look it boldly in the
face Come up sooner later ii must that is evil
dent to every Then let it come To tenn
porze is but weakness, or worse. The most
fol evasion would be but the bequeathing a fatal
| legncy to children.
| A movement, displaying in remarkable conjunction,
the names of Van Buren, and Adams has taken for
It's idea the perpetual exclusion of slavery from
territory free. do share the feeling which
some eyince towards MIR. Van Buren,. His course
seems ill-zdsised, maturely considered. And
| in my judgment of the man | 60 no further We
should rarely NEEDLE with motives if we re-
hected how often these msjudged.
A Free soil advocate-and here employ the term
in its restricted party sense. not TO designate
who is opPOsed To the extension slavery territory
now free, for millions among US, of varying
political creeds. but the which the political
supporters Of Van buren, and Adams have selected
and appropriated member of the Free Soil party
says 10 me- that negro slavery is great evil So it
is Ii he says it is The great evil of the world deny
lit; II is evil far greater, infinitely lament
able. that in civilized nation, q speak Of poor Ire
land an time OF peace aud IN the course of a single
short year, hundred thousand men, women and
children, without crime, without imputed offence,
nave died a death Of ;orture-the of ortures-
of starvation
But slavery is among the great evils of the
world; the Free Soil party right in that. And
they desire to it's extension prevented. So do |.
So did Jefferson So do thousands of shareholders at
this day. But then little question that has puz-
Zed good intentions so often-How!
BY Winot provso, the non-extensionsts reply;
by law resolution of Congress- declaring slavery
10 be forever excluded from these Territories
In the first place, ssch provso is, and can be, but
an exclusion of slavery for the time being. The
words for ever, in such a connection, without
! force. What Congress does Congress undo. 1t
is enough that pass law now; it is Idle and alb
surd to declare, that successors, through all time,
shall never repeal IT.
Under Charles | Of England each student, on en-
tering The University of Oxford was required TO SUBJ
scribe article, aburng the doctrine that subjects
might, under any circumstances, resist King. That
learned University, not satisfied with this, by a SOL
emu decree, required them To take an OATH that they
not only abhorred heretical opinion al the time
being, but neUer icOud entertain IL, long as hey
tired. Let not initiate that exploded absurdy.
There is mode only, now no longer possible, by
which such exclusion could have acquired character
Of legal permanence; if it had entered, namely, into
the Mexican treaty, one of its stiPulations As it
E is its perpetnity must depend upon public opinion.
But such n proviso may be enacted and then ii
will require positive legislation to undo it. Let
see wha; sdvaaisge thus be gained, beyond That
which occrues from absaining General Cas- holds
that ought, from all legislation slavery in the
Territories.
For many years past, there has existed by law in
Mexico, miserable system Of peondge indeed, which
should be repealed, but Slarery involuntary
vitude Some sceptics have expressed doubts this
head but a recent communication by our Secretary
+ Of State to the Editors of the Union the matter
at rest. Mr. Buchanan, under date of August IL,
lS45 sends to that paper ransatons Of the decree of
President Guerrero, OF the 10Th September, 1929 de-
carng slavery abolished throughout Mexico, and of
the law of the Mexican Congress of the 9th April,
1887, confirming, by special enactment that decree,
and making provision for indemnifying the of
slaves thus liberated The law commences fol-
lows:
throughout the whole Republic.
ART II. The slaves manumitted by the
present law BY The decree Of September 10, 1922 shall
be Unidentified for their interests in them according TO the
proofs that may be presented" Sc0cOiieetion de Leyes
SIP SOL.
In California and New Mexico them ut the moment
r they were ceded to US, no slavery existed.
Was it introduced by that cession! Some South
ern that it was; and declare that, foras
I much our Mexican acquisitions the joint
property Of the Union all citizens have right 10
. take their property of every kind there, and to be
alike secured in its poss sson: all have equal rights
in il.
+, This is sophistry; a mere play upon words The
argument proceeds on vague idea that territory
be both free and slave ut the time. That is
impossible. slave State is not State in which all
must orn slaues but only one in which some may
them. If some may slaves in California, then II
slave territory utterly, absolutely; as much so
South Carolina. But northern frcemen may emigrate
!, thither without slaves. OF course. So they may to
South Carolina. But in either they must live
amidst slavery, if shareholders choose to settle
them II is clear that the matter must be settled
sune other principle tran this.
The main point in the whole case, which If we
}, pass by we but grope in the dark. is this. Does
Slavery, al tiS moment, exist 6y iao an CdfyorHia
\ and Neu Merico, or does ii not?
o. This is a legal question of the deepest interest (;
and involving Of the must important principles OF
= international law. | have examined it with SOME
: care; and here stake whatever OF reputation may
a have public man, the assertion, that there is
r. not in the whole range of Common Law, in all
. that code of maxims and humane principles known
the Law OF Nations, single doctrine better es-
tablished than that which Declares that into Caifor
MIA aud New Mexico, free territories before cesson,
slavery WAS NOT INTRODUCED VIRTUE THEIR
= INCORPORATION WITH THESE UNITED STATES.
. Your time aud the limits of this Address compel
i compress within brief limits the proofs Of the
assertion here made | ask for these your calm and
I earnest attention. They well deserve il.
e And, first let me point you TO the common law
doctrine, laid down by Of its abest expound
lers.
Lord Coke. in the Calrin case. thus decided:
o "If king come to kingdom by conquest, he may at
pleasure alter and change the laws OF that kingdom,
bat until he doth make alteration, the ancient iaaos
2 that kingdom remain"
This old English authority is the weighter, mas
much the power of n king is more absolute than