North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1852, 1850-11-30


slavery has been incessant, by means Of the press.
If State legislatures, State and county conventions,
abolition lectures and every other method which fa-
latics and demagogues could devise. The time of
Congress has been wasted In violent harangues on
he subject Of slavery. Infammatory appeals have
been sent forth from this central point throughout the
country the inevitable effect of which has been
create geographical parties, so much dreaded by the
Father OF his Country, and to estrange the northern
and southern divisions of the MON from each other.
Before the Wimor Proviso was interposed. the abb
olition Of slavery in the District of Columbia had
been the chief theme of agitation. Petitions for this
purpose, by thousands, from men, women, and chill
dren. poured into Congress session after session. Inc
rights and the wishes of the of slaves within
the District boldly disregarded. Slavery vas
national sin and national disgrace,
which the laws of God and the laws of man ought
abolish, cost what it might. Il mattered not TO
the fanatics that the abolition of slavery In the DIS
trct would convert it into cilldel IN the midsi OF
two slavehoding States, from which the abolition.
lists could securely scatter arrows, hre0rands' ana
death all around 1t mattered not to them that the
abolition of slavery in the District would be viola
ton of the spirit of the constitution and OF The I'M
piled faith pledged to Marya and virginia. because
the whole world knows that those States would new
er have ceded it to the Union, had they imagined 1t
could ever be converted by Congress into place
from which their domestic peace and security might
be assaulted by fanatics and abotlonists. Nay, the
aboitonists even still further. They agitated
for the purpose of aboshing slavery In the forts,
arsenas, and navy yards which the southern States
had ceded the Union under the constitutions for the
protection and defence of the country.
Thus stood the question when the Wilmot Provl-
in.erposed add fuel to the flame, and to ex-
cite the southern people to madness.
President Polk anxious to bring the war with
Mexico to an honorable conclusion with the least
possible DELAY. He deemed it highly probable that
an appropriation by Congress of $2,OOO,OOO, to be
paid TO the Mexican government Immediately after
the conclusion of peace might essentially aid him In
accomplishing this desirable object. lie sent mes
sage to this effect Congress in August 1916; and
whilst the bill granting the appropriation was pending
before the House, Mr.. Wilmot offered his famous
Provso amendment, which was carried by
majority of nineteen votes, This amendment, had 1t
even been proper in ITSELF of time and out of
place, because it had then been ascertaned wheth-
should acquire any territory from Mexico, and,
in point of fact the treaty of peace was not conci9-
ded until eighteen months thereafter. Besides, this
Provso by defeating the appropriation, was caicua-
ted, though cannot believe 1t was Intended to pro-
long the war.
The WilInot Proviso, until near the termination of
the last session of Congress- defeated every attempt
form territorial governments for our Mexican ac-
QUESTIONS. Had such governments been established
at the proper time, California would have changed
her territorial into State government, and would
have come into the Union naturally young
enters upon his civil rights the age of twenty
producing scarcely ripple upon the surface of
public opinion.
What consequences have resulted from the Provi-
so! 1t placed the two divisions of the U Mon in hos
tile array. The people Of each, instead of consider
ing the people of other brethren, began to view
each other as deadly enemies. Whilst northern leg
isatures were passing resolutions nstructng their
senators and requesting their representatives to vote
for the Wilmot Provso and for laws abolish slav0
ry in the District of Columbia southern legislatures
and conventions, prompted and sustained by the in
dignant and united voice of the southern people,
passing resolutions pedging themselves to measures
of resistance. The spirit of fanaticism in the
ascendant. To such height had it mounted, that a
bill introduced into the House of Representatives by
Mr.. Giddings, during the last session of the last
Congress, authorizing the slaves in the District of
Columbia to vote the question whether they them
selves should be free men, was defeated, the
ton of my friend Mr.. Broadhead of this State, by
the slender majority of only twenty-six votes.
Thus stood the question when the present Congress
assembled. That body at first presented the appear
ance of Polish Diet divided into hostile parties
rather than that of the representatives of great and
united people, assembled in the land of Washington
Jefferson, and Jackson consult and act together as
brethren in promoting the common good of the whole
republic.
1t would be the extreme of dangerous infatuation
to suppose that the Union was not then in serious
danger. Had the Wilmot Proviso become law or
had slavery been abolished in the District of Column
ba, nothing short of special nterposition of Divine
Providence could have prevented the secession of
most if not all of the slavehodng States.
1t was from this great and glorious old Common
wealth, rightly denominated the " keystone of the
Arch, that the first ray of light emanaed dispe
the gloom. She is not conscious of her own power
She stands between the North and the South, and
lay her hand either party, and say, Thus far
shalt thou go, and further" The wisdom, mod
Grafton. and frmness of her people calculate her emf
nently to act the just and equitable umpire between
the extremes.
1t the vote in our State house of representa-
tves refusing to consider the nstructing resolutions
in favor of the Wilmot Proviso. which first cheered
the heart of every patriot in the land. This was
speedily followed by vote of the House of Repre-
sentatives at Washington mailing the Wimot Provi-
so itself to the table. And here ought forget
the great meeting held in Philadelphia, on the birth
day Of the Father of his Country, in favor of the
Union, which gave happy and irresistible impulse
to public opinion throughout the State, and, may
add, throughout the Union.
The honor of the South has been saved by the
Compromise. The Wilmot Provso is forever dead,
and slavery will be abolished in the District of
Columbia whilst it continues to exist in Maryland.
The receding storm in the South still continues to
dash with violence, but it will gradually subside,
should agitation in the North. All that is ne
cessary for to do is to execute the ugitve-save
law, and to let the southern people alone, suffering
them to manage their domestic concerns in their
own way. Virginia farmer asked me if there
were two neighbors living together, what would
think if one of them should be eternally interfering
In the domestic concerns of the otherl Could they
possibly live together in peace!
Without reference to the harmony and safety of the
Union, what blessing would this policy of nou-;n-
reference be, not only to the slaves and the free ne
groes, but even to the of constitutional emanci-
patton itself!
Since the agitation commenced, the slave has been
deprived OF many privileges which he formerly en-
Joyed, because of the stern necessity Thus imnosed
upon the master to provide for his personal safety and
that of his family. The free negro, for the same
everything reason, is threatened with expulsion from
the land OF his nativity in the South and there are
strong indications In several of the northern States