The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-07-25

have thousandsn Up. 202l A country owned by
one tribe capable Of sustaining nearly 100000
inhabitants, and yet, as Mr.. Webster AYERS, mac
cessibe to slavery, on account Of It's barrenness
Speaking of the Indians, (Pueblos) on the Rio
Grande, Mr. Calhoun says: "These people Can
raise immense quantities Of corn and wheat and
have large herds of sheep and goats. The grazing
for cattle generally is SUPERIOR (P 206) OF the
more western Pueblos, he says they have Fan
extent Of country nearly four hundred miles
square more than twenty times as large as
Massachusetts 80 they have rich valleys to cul-
tivate, grow quantities of corn and wheat, and
raise vast herds of horses, mules sheep and
goats, all Of which may be immensely increased
by properly stimulating their industry, and in
structing them 10 the agricultural arts.n (P 2l5)
might cite much more from the same author
ity, to the same effect but do not refer to Mr.
Calhoun 80 much for the purpose Of showing the
agricultural capabilities of New Mexico, as Of
asking why Mr.. Webster did not quote from this
recent official work, which has been lying on the
tables Of members for months, instead of quoting
descriptions from military officers respecting a
country which he we'll knew they had never seen 2
There is good reason TO believe that there are
wide t-Sn,s Of fsr'ile J@sJ ipinS bAt-aAs the
, -..s-. Is4IlsO. on
tSI 81 S>.S v ~ aasSi TIE 32d and 35th degrees
of latitude. The waters at the mouth of river
give no doubtful indication respecting the coun-
try from which they flow IL the volume be
large, we know it must drain an extensive region
for the waters of great river cannot be supplied
from narrow surface. Soft the water be muddy,
as is said to be the case with that Of the Colo
RADIO, it is proof that it courses through dilu-
vial country. But however this may be, all nc
counts concur ia representing New Mexico to be
rich in mines; and mines are the favorite sphere
for slavery, as the ocean 10 for commerce
In his late speech in the Senate, Mr.. Davis of
Massachusetts said that however it might be with
regard to employing slaves in New Mexico for
raising crops Of corn cotton, there was still one
purpose to which they might be applied the
most odious Of all purposes to raising crops from
themselves From this Southern Hive,n the
markets of Texas and Louisiana might be sup
piled with "vigintial" crops of human beings.
Ii will be incumbent on Mr.. Webster to invent
some new physical law to meet this astute
suggestion of his colleague "Asiatc scenery n
will hardly answer bis purpose here.
Within the limits of the proposed Territory of
New Mexico, it is supposed that that powerful
anu comparadseiy orvn--- t>e~r.., -xss fStecs,
once resided. Can any person for q moment be-
lieve, that the Aztecs ever grew to opulence or
power; in any such sterile and desolate region, az
Mr.. Websters "diigent reading portrsysi
But what must satisfy every man whose blind
ness is not of the soul rather than of the senses
is the fact, that the people of New Mexico, In
the Constitution which they have just framed
have embodied a prohibition of slavery in
their fundamental law Had slavery been for.
hidden there by any @ Asiatic scenery" or by any
claw of physical geography who should know it
better than they? They have had slavery
amongst them heretofore, and therefore they
know it can invade them again, and therefore
they forbid it and in the choice Of Senators to
Congress under the new organization, should any
candidate put forward the vagsry, the phantasm,
the faulty, that slavery cannot exist among them,
they would doubtless deem him less fit subject
for the Senate of the United States, than for
itary treatment.
How stands the evidence, then, on the question,
whether "California and New Mexico from
their geology, their geography, or their Asiatic
scenery, are inaccessible or not, to the invasion
Of slavery? IL is well known that the war with
Mexico was provoked, and violently precipitated
upon the country in order to extend the domain
and the power of slavery. In negotiating for the
cession Of California and New Mexico, the Mex
lean Commissioners strove to introduce prohibi-
ton against slavery into the treaty. This demon
strates that they thought slavery could exist
there. Our Minister declared that he would
sent to no such stipulation, though they would
cover all the land foot thick with gold. This
shows the tenacity with which Mr. Folks Ad-
ministration, and all its Southern friends adhered
to their original purpose of obtaining new terri
tory for slavery. In view of this, the House Of
Representatives again and again voted to apply
the Proviso to whatever territory should be OBJ
tanned. When the treaty was ratified, many of
the leading Senators voted against the olanse for
acquisition, foreseeing the present controversy,
and hoping to avert it. Even after the treaty was
ratified, leading Southern Wings in the House
al az vipo ha otai, unda II
still clngng to the hope that the territory might
be restored to Mexico and this cause of dissen-
sion withdrawn. During all this period, fourteen
of the Northern Legislatures many of them
again and again, voted that the Proviso should be
applied. The present six months contest, in the
Senate and House, between the North and the
South, is conducted solely on the conviction that
slavery may exist in the Territories; and that it
will or will not exist there according as the law
allows or forbids it, Otherwise, it would be the
most nonsensical and nugatory discussion ever
engaged in out of lunatic sylum. Once make it
as clear as any law Of physical nature, that sla-
very can never transgress the bounds Of the new
territories and there is not man so demented
that he would any longer contend either for the
Proviso, or against it. Mr. Webster was always
of the same opinion, and has declared 1t hun
dred times In his Marshfeld speech, September
/, lS4s, he said, I" He General CASE will surely
have the Senate, and with the patronage of the
Government with every interest that he as a
Northern man, can bring to bear, cooperating
with every interest that the South can bring TO
bear, we cry safety before we are out of the
woods, If ne feel that there is no danger [of slavery
as TO these aew Territories" Up to the 9TH March,
1850, then, when he abandoned all the doctrines
and sentiments he had ever before advocated on
this subject, and when he incurred the public,
hearty approval and encomiums Of Mr.. Calhoun,
by his moral agility in springing, at one leap,
from Massachusetts, to South Carolina until
this time, Mr. Webster had always held that sla-
very would invade the new Territories If not
barred out of them by positive law And what
would be still more remarkable, If the doctrines
of the 18th of March speech had the least shadow
of soundness in them, s, that they have now been
before the public for more than four months, and
30 far as know, not single Southern man hiss
been converted by them Are not MIR. Benton,
Mr. Mason, Col Davis, and thousands of others
as good judges, or as good witnesses
as ne is Since the speech, the people Of New
Mexico have prohibited slavery in their Consti-
tuition, because they knew it to be possible among
them. Before the speech, California did the same,
and for the same reason. The Nashville Con-
vention has just resolved That California is pc.
culisrly adapted for slave labor, and that IL the
tenure of slave property was by recognition Of
this kind secured in that part Of the country
south of 800 3V, 1t would in short time form
one or more slaveholding States, to swell the
number aad power Of those already In exist
ence." Even those who seek to apologize for
Mr.. Webster, avow at the same time their
disbelief in his doctrine. Such Is the evil
dence, on the one side and on the other, as to
the possibility impossibility Of slavery in the
Territories. Mr. Webster is against the whole
world and the whole world is against him, and this,
too, on question already settled by history and
experience. He is just as much TO be believed,
as man who looks up into the clear midnight
sky, and denies the existence of the heavenly
host, while Gil the stars Of the armament are