The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-09-28
point is untouched by the COMPROMISE meas.


, ures.
f The bird expedient by the action of Congress
8 to assail slavery in the Stntes,is TO abolish il
= in our forts, arsenals and dock-yards, so that
: any slave who shall enter any of these places
I shall be free. The ground for this legislation
on the part Of Congress-, il that assumed IN Eng
land, when her judges declared, in llberating a
} slave, who WAS brought before them from one OF
the colonies, that the air Of England was too
pure for slave to breathe" Our Northern peo-
Pile have pure air also; and wherever their Jurs-
dction, in common with us extends through the
! General Government, in any OF the Southern
States, there the purity of the atmosphere they
create, shall abolish slavery, Thus, at Cock
spur, in your State, near the mouth OF the Sa-
vannah river, where u United States fort exists,
!. every slave who can crter it, shall be forthwith
4 emancipated, from the purity of the air Gem
temen, have breathed the air of England, not
only on her hills and castles, but in her factories
aud mines; and | assure you, In these latter
places, found it by no means remarkable pure.
| At all events it has n marvellous aptitude for
making paupers, who are only diseased slaves.
| And even the greater part of her best laboring
| population would rejoice, | think, to have the
good food and light labor of our plantation
slaves. That our Northern population are better
of, may, perhaps, be attributable, in no small
| degree, to the contributions they have wrung
out Of the South, through the General Govern
ment The Compromise measures, do not touch
| this point.
| The fourth expedient of assaiIing slavery in
| the Southern States, is to steal our slaves from
their masters, and protect fugitive slaves from
re-capture in the free States. The Northern
| States, in their Legislatures, and their people
out Of them, have virtually nullified the Const-
tuition and the laws of Congress on this subject.
| A nf
rebuke or threat Of coercion has been heard, in
or out of Congress- 1t is the North which null
! liies-and their notification concerns slavery
/ That Is enough But it is clear from the debates
! in the Convention which framed the COnstltu-
| ton, that it could never have had existence, but
for the clause guaranteeing the rendition OF fugi-
tive slaves 1t is estimated, that within the last
| thirty years, mot less than twenty millions OF
dollars worth of slaves have been thus taken
from the Southern States; aud sec it vaunted,
that there are now thirty thousand fugitive slaves
! from the Southern States in the Northern States
| Congress- without the cooperation of the State
authorities in the free States, which the Consti-
tuition contemplates and requires, can do moth
/ ing effectual, however stringent may be its laws,
to prevent the continuance Of this outrage on the
| South and the Constitution. The evil is hope
! lessly remcdiless, without an entire change of
opinion and feeling in the free States, (Which it
i is quite as hopeless to look for.) Where judges,
and uries, and the mob combine against law
law is Of no avail. This point is embraced by
the compromise measures in Congress, but !
fear to very little purpose
i The .ffh expedient determined on, to affect
and abolish slavery in the States, is to admit no
more slave States into the Union. BY keeping
the slave States numerically as they are, and
multiplying free States, the mastery III Congress
~ Al M. Co.
n surrounded by them on all sides, will be open
to abolition influences on all their frontiers:-
!. When Mr.. Webster declared in the Senate, that
according to the terms of annexation, Texas
could rightfuly be divided into four new slave
/, States, you saw how promptly Massachusetts
I denounced his course. 1t is this policy which
has dictated the seizure of California and if we
/ submit to be excluded from that mighty region,
! this policy must be successful. The Southern
States will be surrounded by free States, appro-
: priating all our territories and not another
/. slave State will be added to the Union The
t compromise measures beforz Congress, give the
South no protection against the enforcement of
this policy. On the contrary, by surrendering
i California, they make it inevitable.
n The sirth and last expedient for assailing
J by the action of Congress, the institution OF
Y slavery is to exclude, on account of it, all the
Southern States from our territory. This point
, is certainly embraced by the compromise mca-
. sure. They propose to admit California into
) the Union and thus exclude the South from
my portion of that territory They propose to
smember Texas, and thus to take from the
South territory over which slavery now prevails,
and to create out of it two free States,--closng
| up by free States our whole Western frontier
i They propose by the precedent of California, to
admit shortly as States into the Union, with
constitutions prohibiting slavery, the rest of our
territories and thus to exclude the South from
4 every foot of our territories. This is the way
this point is to be settled. Whether it will
bring the anticipated joy and peace to the Union,
or will rend it asunder, time must show
Now my friends, suppose everything to be
| done, which the compromise measures propose
to do, how stands the matter for the peace of
the South and the Union! Imagine that the
South shall look upon them all as splendid con-
eessions to her rights, instead OF being as they
| are, enormous outrages-two points alone OIL
agitation and of invasion on the institution of
| slavery are settled. A very good fugitive slave
| bill is passed, which is nugatory; and the South
is excluded from all of our territories. What
becomes of the other four points have enumer-
ated heretofore constituting the main subjects
of agitation in Congress and in the the Union.
They are left untouched and unsettled. Will
they 90 to sleep! Is there anything in the two
points the compromise measures have settled,
TO put down agitation on all the rest? On the
: contrary, will they not encourage and stimulate
future agitation and fercer attacks on the insti-
tuition of slavery! The objcct--the one great
object of all these attacks on slavery in Con-
gress, is to abolish it in the States
; Having vanquished US, and kept us out of all
5 our Territories, and by multiplying free States
, in the Union, strengthened their despotic sway
e. i'm Conurass will they suddenIv cease from MI
these aggressions,-and depart from the very
policy for which they have appropriated our Ter
ritories? Regardless of the Constitution, they
seize two of the meanst TO accomplish their end /;
what is there TO induce the belief that they will
not press on TO secure the other four! And
when they shall have secured the other FOUR
what is there to induce the belief that they will
not eonsummate the great object they are all in
tended to accomplish the slaves OF