The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-07-11
EDITED BIZ
:
ElIwoOd Fisher Il Edwin De Leon.
'RNTED BY @. A. SAGE.

schemes of Abolitionists, self-stvled Free Soil.
ers, and trading politicians in alliance with them
They must not rely upon conciiatino them;
they must not depend upon pntting them down,
by beating them at their own game they must
give up the idea of killing off the WiImot pro-
viso, and its advocates, by pleading the validity
OF dead lIerican proviso. Lawyers, who,
need an excuse for inexcusable votes, NAV
plead that the municipal laws of Mexico are
still in force in our dominions; but LAWYERS
who need no such excuses, have demonstrated
and plain, honest men, OF common sense, can
readily perceive the fallacy and dangerousheresy
ola doctrine that maintains that the conquered
can give law to the Conquerer, and that the
property rights of our citizens, upon our SOIL
can, in any way, be affected by the obsolete
laws of vanquished Mexico. [See note b.
II will not do to plead, that the right Of
property in slaves does not exist, except in the
local limits of the States, whose municipal
laws establish it. That, again, is false and he
retcal. The right of property Of the owner in
his slave existed before the formation of either
our State or Federal Constitutions. 1t has
never been surrendered in either but, on the
contrary, was expressly recognized and guaran-
teed in both, us II pre-existng right The slave
may roam through the free States but the Con-
stituton ordains that his owner still has the
right of property in him, and imposes positive
obligation upon the free States to acknowledge
and enforce it. The right exists upon the high
way of nations, and has been acknowledged and
enforced by this GOvernment,\ with the concur
renee of northern and southern statesmcn. For
egn nations have been compelled to acknowl-
edge it. by paving for slaves who had escaped
into their dominions, or been taken under their
jurisdiction. And if this right has not been
enforced in the Creole case and in one or two
other cases. 1t was not because it was repudiated,
but was ",caiued," in consideration of the
Wanted advantages gained by us in the Ash
burton treaty; and it is disgrace to the Gov
eminent, that it has not renumerated the suffer
ers in those eases, after failing to enforce their
acknowledged rights upon that consideration
think, sir, if had time, | could show of
certain Southern Senator, Mr.. Benton, who has
thrust himself forward the apologist if not the
advocate, of Free Soism, in no enviable light, by
contrasting certain ult a-slavery passages in his
ponderous speech against the Ashburton treaty,
with his present position and doctrines. lie | be
lieve, is the author Of the beautiful catch phrase,
1" dnti-siauery propagandisni "a new trump in the
hands Of the Free Sellers. Does he mean to stop
the generation of negroes' IF so, presume the
silvery headed patriarchs Of Abolitionism Messrs
Giddingss, of Ohio, and Mann Of Massachusetts,
would rebel against his philanthropy. If he means
not that, then everybody must perceive that he is
playing the humbugger, for nobody desires to i'm
port slaves into the country. But let him pass,
and impore you, my Northern friends, if you real
ly be friends of the Union, and desire to put down
its enemies, that you cease to rely upon amy mere
electioneering catch-Words false doctrines, no
matter how dogmaticaly urged by would-bc lea
ers, whether from North from the South
implore you to go to your people, pleading the
true doctrine of the Constitution and tearlessly
denouncing and exposing the impostures of Adolf
tionism and Free soihsm Why, what sense is
there in the name Of free soil 1t is a cheat, got
up by tricksters and it is astounding is hui
miliating-to perceive how many thousands have
been deceived and misled by its mere sound. In
reallty-if there be any reality or sense in tive
Of the South are the true free soiers. Our own
soil is free. Our northern brethren are freely ad-
mtted among us. without any question as to their
rights Of property. We receive them as citizens,
in the full enjoyment Of all the rights Of persons
| and property, with our own native citizens. They
swarm around our commercial cities You find
them in every neighborhood where money can be
made. They often supplant our regular mer-
chants IN their traffic III goods, wares, and innu-
merable yankee notions" They break down
our native mechanics, by underselng them with
the products of the cheaper labor OF the North
They preach the Gospel to us, and live upon the
fat of our land, and some ofthem get rich. They
| teach our children, and make fortunes by it {; and
in spite Of all the asperes produced by the
warfare Of the North against the South, the soil
Of old Virginia is free soil to settlers from every
|
not only freely admitted upon perfect equality
of rights, but invited to become citizens Of
State and owners and cutivators Of our SOIL
Many of them doing so.
| Many portions of our State filing up with
people from the North, demonstrating the fallacy
of another vile mposture, to wit, that free white
labor cannot thrive where slave labor exists. 1t
is grossly false for although the fact is studously
concealed from the people of the Nsrth, 1t is a
matter Of fact, which can be attested by every
/ t1a~,~ ID a.. A..
white laborers and slave laborers toll together in
| our forests fields, and workshops and carp as
hppocrites may, both classes oflaborers are exalt
ed by the proximity. The white Iaborer is exalt-
| ed by the fact, that the slave is subordinate to
him-ready to ease him off from the more mental
manipulatlons the slave is exalted and encourage
ed in his labors, because he has his master
overseer toiling with him, and has certain guar
antee Of sharing in the proceeds of their toll. The
existence Of slave labor then is no bar to white
labor. Neither is it bar to the filling up of en-
tire neighborhoods in the slave States with free
white aborers. The district which | have the
honor to represent, is large slaveholding district
and yet they are in my own county, holding more
slaves than any other In the district, large and
populous neighborhoods, in which many of the
voters, perhaps majority, are non-slaveholders.
And yet sir, while these non-slavehoders have
perhaps less felow-feeling for the negroes than
their masters have, they have more than have the
people of the North; but wo to the man who would
dare to 60 among them, pleading that negroes ought
to be free, and equal with white men and women.
repeat, sir, that far as there is any sense in
the catch-word, free-soi, we of the South are the
free soiers. We contend that our soil in Mexico
shall be free soil. We claim no exclusive rights
there as shareholders We maintain that our citi-
zens of every class, and from every section, have
equal rights there. Ifslaveholders with their slaves
settle there Observation-Disclosures will neither be ev-
cuded nor injured by it; on the contrary ifthe cir
cumstancesof the country be adapted TO slave labor,
the whole Union will be benefited byadmitting it.
[See note CT The history of the country
tains me in this position. New England, be-
Ieve, has always opposed the acquisition of new
territory, especially of slave territory, and yet
it is demonstrable, that the Northern States in gen
eral, and the New England States in particular,
owe their prosperity to the very policy which
they have resisted. Trace their prosperity to It's
sources, and you find it springing mainly from the
saveholding regions. The acquisition OF LoulsI-
ana, of Florida, the reacquisition Of Texas, the
extinguishment of the Indian titles to Southern
.nI nrn