Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1849-03-26

harllships of the condition, and not the legal en-
actments by which that condition is secured or
enforced Tor it Is, III no respect; even suppose
bic either that the treatment Oh the slave Will be
harsher in the territories than in the States, or
that the property OF police laws which govern
him there will differ i'll any material point from
those to which he has elsewhere been subjected.
II slavery, then. i'll its most important aspects,
in its PERSONAL numerical, moral, ard legal as
poets, is unchanged, if not Interchangeable by It's
admission into the territories, where is the harm
which comes of this .teNttrslon," that 1t should
be $, frriousv and relelltessly resisted There
is but one solitary element OF increased strength
or power to slavery which this extension can
involve and tRat is the political one which may
ycontingently inure to it from increased rep
resentation i'll the United States Senate. Should
the admission Ct it into heterrtories result, as
probably it would, in the final recognition and
establishment of it under their State constitu-
lions there would result with it the advantage
of being represented by additional members i'll
the Senate and in that rarticlilar and that only,
the extension wolld3brn@ with it an unqnes-
tionable gain. In this House there would be
none The representation in it being founded
in numbers, the whole of the slaves who would
be counted for representatives in California and
New Mexico, but for their removal there, would
have been added. with all their increase, TO the
count or reckoning of the STATE s from hioh they
were taken.
In this House, therefore, the strength of slave
rv will not be increased a single particle by its
deprecated extension. In the Senate it will be.
and it is just and right, upon the Whole spirit
and structure of cur Government that it should
be- We of the South as | have already said,
are in double minority-one of numbers and
one of interest and on behalf particularly of our
interest minority, we are entitled, consistently
with the defensive principles of our political sys-
tenn, to direct and adequate constitutional Pro-
tection.
A minority in numbers may be so identical
in sympathy and interest with the majority in
numbers as to enjoy, practically and ill fact, the
full benefit and protection OF the majority pow
er But this can never be the case with the
minority in interest, as we have some painful
occasion to know. Our interest is separate, sec
tional and pecuiar-at all points an interest OF
antagonism adversary, as our constitutional col
leagues allcge, to h2ir feelings their habits,
thei, convictions of right, and their sense OF pub
lie duty, to sanction OF maintain it and hence
it is an interest which is especially liable to at
tack and aggression, and will be sure to suffer
from both unless protected 'by a sufficient con-
stitutional shield. This would be afforded, in
some measure, by adding directly to its repre-
sentation i'll the Senate, and afforded precisely
on the same principle on which that representa-
ton was originally granted to such States az
namely, of defending the weaker against The
power and aggression OF the stronger. But even
then. with all the benefit OF new and augmented
numbers in the Senate, the whole necessities OF
our case will not, at last be reached for, to
other minorities, we are destined to that of mi
-4lority of States, as we'll Of population and in
terest.
Turn your eye upon that part of our national
map which is yet to be parceled out into States
the Mexican territories included, and it would
seem that the probable and natural division oil
it would be into about five new slayellodlno
States, and six or eight non-slaveholding Or
t.Free-soil'' States. Add these five to our pres
eent stock of fourteen, (for do not reckon Della
ware amongst the slavelolding States and we
shah have nineteen States, represented by thlr-
weight Senators. Add the new to the sixteen
free States, and they will amount, at the lowest
estimate, to twenty two in adj, having forty-tour
Senators.
Thus, upon the suppostion that New Mexico
and California should both become slavelloldino
States, the other States have now and will con
Ainue to have, a fixed, established, and immoy;-
-ble majority, Their present majority, also, j.,
this House, is obliged to become progressively
greater and greater, at every successive reap
portiopment of It's numbers. Almost all of the
loreion and almost all of the internal inlmiora-
ton IS also to them and, what is more, it is in
the power of their Representatives in Congress,
being majority of the whole, so to dispose OF
this territorial subject as to stimulate that emf
grafton from the slavehoding States to a greater
and more mischievous extent than ever.
Although it would be easy, MIR. Chairman, to
illustrate the nature and effect of that eXten-
sion.n SO denounced and,so resisted by gentle
men here in still other aspects, yet enough has
been said think, to show that the main idea
which it CONVEYS TO the popular mind is a de-
sceptve and mistaken one; that, in point OF fact,
the extension of slavery to the territories will
not and cannot make one single human being III
this country slave, who would not have been
one without it ; that it Will not render the per-
sonal condition of the slave a particle harsher
than now that it will not render the rights OF
& slavery, as a social or legal system particle
stronger than now that it will not add anything
Whatsoever to It's strength, except, contingently
in its greater political representation Ill the U
States Senate, and that the addition made tc
it there is not only i'll strlctest accordance with
the guarantee principle on which that branch Of
Congress, for Just such cases, constituted, bu
falls short OF full and perfect protection, because
.4eof that ultimate minority in which the slave
holding States are destined to remain.
We thus see, Mr.. Chairman, what extension
4riN net do Let us reverse the picture for mo-
ment. and see what it acill do. 1t will co-ope-
rate with other causes already existing for the
gradual transfer of slaves from situations where
their labor is least valuable, to where it will be
most so that is, from the grain-growing to The
planting regions OF the United States. " hereyel
sugar and cotton-growing lands could be had IL
these Territories cheaper and more productive
than similar lands in the States, they would bt
bought up and settled with slaves, and these, te
that extent, would be drained off from their pres
ent abodes into them. This deportation Of slaves
for the very purpose of settling such lands has
s'been steadily going on for many years am ongst
,4ho States them selves mill at ennth 1t has come
TO mark itself upon the condition Of property and
the structure OF society in some of them-Vir-
ygnia, for MISTAKENLY consequences otthe most
decided and revolutionary kind. First, the an
..1,ual reduction of the black race by removal is
equal to, if not greater than his natural annual
increase Second, this reduction OF black labor
"opens up many employments, especially me-