The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-08-02
No. 10.

the first Congress in relation to slavery in the Ter
rtories of the United States seems to have been
this II acquiesced in government for the North
west Territory based upon pre-existing anti-sa-
very ordinance, created government for the
country coded by North Carolina in conformity
with the pro-savery clause in her deed, and ex-
tended this pro-slavery clause to all the rest
of the territory claimed by the United States
south Of the Ohio river. This legislation vindi-
Gates the first Congress from all imputation oil
having established the precedent claimed by the
friends Of Legislative exclusion. The next terri
torial act which passed was that Of the 7th of
April, 1898. II was the first act Of territorial leg
lslation which had to rest solely upon original
primary, constitutional power over the subject. II
established government over the territory incu-
ded within the boundaries Of line drawn due
east from the mouth of the Yazoo river to the
Chattahoochee river, then down that river 10 the
thirty-frst degree of north latitude, then west on
that line to the Mississippi river, then up the
Mississippi to the beginning. This territory was
within the boundary of the United States as de-
| fined by the treaty of Paris, and was not within
the boundary Of any Of the States.
| The charter of Georgia limited her boundary on
the south of the Altamaha river. In 1863, after
the surrender of her charter, her limits were ex-
tended by the crown to the st. Mary's river, and
west the thrty-frst degree Of north latitude to
the Mississippi. In l764, on the recommended
ton of the board of trade, her boundary was
again altered, and that portion of territory within
the boundaries which have described, was an
nexed to West Florida, and thus it stood at the
revolution and the treaty Of peace. Therefore
the United States claimed it as common property,
and, in 1913, passed the act now under review
for its government In that act she neither
claimed nor exerted any power to prohibit slavery
| IN 1t. And the question came directly before
Congress; the ordinance ofl7S7, in terms was APP
piled to this territory, expressly excepting and
| excluding the last article of the ordinance, y
a IL o. IL.
! Northwest Territory. This is precedent di-
rectly in point and is against the exercise of the
power now claimed. in 1909, Georgia ceded her
western lards she protected slavery in her grant,
and the Government complied with her stipula-
| tons. s. H r.s 81. aat
In 1903 the United States acquired Louisiana
from France by purchase There is special
reference to slavery in the treaty; it was
protected only under the general term of pro-
fperty. This acquisition was soon after the
treaty divided into two Territories--the Orleans
| and the Louisiana Territores--over both of which
governments were established The law of sla-
very obtained in the whole country at the time
we acquired it. Congress prohibited the foreign
and domestic slave trade in these territories, but
gave the protection Of it's laws to slave owners
emigrating thither with their slaves. Upon the
admission of Louisiana into the Union, new
government was established by Congress over the
rest of the country under the name ofthe Missouri
\
shareholders emigrated to the country with their
slaves, and were protected by their government
In 1919, Florida WINS acquired by purchase; it's
laws recognized and protected slavery at the time
of the acquisition. The United States extended
the same recognition and protection.
| have thus briefly reviewed the whole terrific
rial legislation of Congress from the beginning Of
the Government until 1920, and it sustains my
| proposition that within that period there was no
precedent where Congress had exercised, or at
tempted to exercise any primary constitutional
power to prevent shareholders from ernigrating
with their slave property to any portion of the
public lands and that it had extended the pro-
lection fits laws and tsarms over such persons,
all cases except in the Northwest Territory where
| it fettered and restrained by an organic law
| established before the formation Of our present
Constitution. In 1920 this power Of Congress
over the subject Of slavery in the Il rrtories was,
for the first, time distinctly and broadly asserted
1t was sternly resisted by the South; the struggle
conyulsed the republic; il resulted in what is called
compromise, by which Missouri was finally ad- I
mtted into the Union without any restriction
against slavery in her constution-and slavery
was prohibited in all that part of the territory
acquired from France, not within the State Of Mis-
sour, lying above 800 30 north latitude. The
South made this concession to union and hnrmo-
ny. II scarcely remains to be seen whether this
shall be an exception to the general rule, that
cessions to unjust demands are fruitful of nothing
but future aggression. We are now daily threat
ened with every form Of determination if we do
not tamely acquiesce in whatever legislation the
majority may choose to impose upon us in rea-
to this subject t ~ li.. #tEff
The gentleman from Massachusetts Mr. MANI
threatens us with three millions of hostages Che
means substltutes) IN the persons of our slaves,
to enforce Free-soil insolence The gentleman
from Illinois Mr. BrssELL] threatens us with
twice, thrice, yea four times nine regiments ready
to immediate themselves in this cause, under pre-
text of supporting the Union These are brave
words even for amilita colonel. Illinois can march
down the regiments, she has sufficient numbers
how many of them she will march back again
will depend upon ourselves. Gentlemen may
spare their threats he who counts the danger of
defending his own honor is already degraded the
people who count the cost Of maintaining their
political rights are ready for slavery. The senti-
ment of every true man at the South will be: We
took the Union and the Constitution together
we will have both We will have neither. This
! cry of the Union is the masked battery from be-
hind which the Constitution and the rights of the
South are to be assaiIed. Let the South mark the
man who is for the Union at every hazard and to
the last extremity; when the day of her peril
comes he will be the imitator of that historical
character to whom the gentleman from PenDsyl-
vania Mr.. McLANAHAN] referred, ''the base Ju-
dean who, for thirty pieces of silver, threw away
a pearl richer than all his tribe" rgssae..
The South acquiesced, sir, in this compromise.
Texas being the next acquisition after its adoption,
it was applied to that country. Our claims to
Oregon being settled, and all of that country lying
above the compromise line the North applied the
prohibition of slavery ofthe whole Of that coun-
try, aud the South acquiesced in it. Mr.. Polk
placed his approval to the bill upon that express
ground The North, after applying the compro-
mise line to Texas, now seeks to get rid Of ii by
restricting the just territorial rights and limits of
Texas. In this we think we have just cause Of
complaint; but the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
CAMPBELL,) manufactures out of this transaction
two Of the main counts in his indictment against
the South That gentleman congratulates himself
upon the fact that Ohio has schoolhouses and
schoolmasters at home. From the singularly in
accurate account which he gave Of that very re-
cent and marked event in our public history,
could not resist the conclusion that Ohio needed
her schoolmaster. That gentleman charges the
annexation Of Texas upon the South, and through
that policy, he says, Northern labor was stricken
down by the overthrow of the tariff of lS42 by
the votes of the Senator's from Texas.
Mr.. CAMPBELL here stated that he said it
was Southern policy. '.....8 4ss.e. si.8a
Mr.. TOoMBS continued. Neither allegation
is supported by the facts. When Mr.. TYLER at