Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1854-02-15
Nebraska-SIavery,

The abolition opponents Of Douglas Nebraska
Bill predicate their opposition to allowing the
people to exercise their sovereignty and self-gov-
eminent upon the assumption that If such per-
mission be given slavery will be established in
the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. There
have always been class of very intelligent, patri-
otic people in this country, who have doubted the
clpacig of the people to understand their own
wants and provide for their own necessities,
and who on account oftheir own superior intelli-
gence, virtue and patriotism, have imagined them
selves ordained and commissioned to exercise
guardian care over them, and see that the people
did not do themselves harm. Such men existed
in the early history of the country, and three
quarters of a century has not served to inspire
them with confidence in the ability of the people
to manage their own affairs and provide for their
own wants, and they now manifest their distrust
by expressions of groundless fears that the peo-
pie will do themselves an irreparable injury by
planting slavery in Nebraska if they be permitted
to control their own affairs in this respect. They
have always manifested this dstrust of the peO-
pie whenever the proposition has been made to
acknowledge their right and their power. twas
no less expressed in. fanatica fears when Cali
fornia was admitted into the Union and territorial
governments organized for New Mexico and Utah,
with the confirmation of the right of the people to
control their own municipal affairs. Every one
now sees he W utterly groundess were those fears;
and not less SO are those in reference to Nebras-
Fnl Al .ln mill into
these Territories if this bill is passed is unsus-
tanned by single fact or argument. Nor have
we the charity to believe that the ultra, fanatical
agitators think so themselves.
Looking over the whole ground, taking into
consideration the climate, soil and situation OF
Nebraska, the certainty that it will be settled by
men of the North and those fleeing from the op-
preston of Europe; and, more than all, in view
of the decisions of the U. s. Supreme Court, that
slavery cannot exist without positive legislation tc
sustain it, we consider it morally impossible tha
any advantage can be ganedb slavery from the
passage of the bill. Will STAKEHOLDER take hi
property into territory every way unsuited tt
slave labor, with so much excitement on the ques
ton, and no law to protect him in the enjoymen
of that property! We think not, and in this opin
= ion we are sustained by many of the leading pa
pers both North and South.
The N. Y. Courier, edited by James Watso
Webb, one of the shrewdest and ablest Viii
papers in the Union, while it opposes the Bill o.
the ground that the Compromise of 1920 was
contract and threfore irrepealable, candidly says
"Practically, we believe, it will make little dii
ference whether slavery is or is not excluded fror
the Nebraska territory by the force of the Com
promise We consider that the same considera
h tions which Mr.. WEBSTER presented with sue
: force in regard to the natural impractacablity O
! successfully establishing slavery in New Mexico
: apply with equal power to Nebraska. Every thin
: too indicates that the territory will be settled by
i class Of pioneers, whose past associations an
whose conceptions of their own interests vii
. make them altogether averse to the adoption 0
the Institution. The difference IN the case O
Missouri must not be forgotten. Slavery was al
ready an institution of Missouri when it was ced
n ed to this country. Ithad interviewer itself wit
society, and could not have been easily dislodget
The immigrants, after the annexation, wen
: knowing that they would find slavery, and wer
t prepared for it; and, by virtue of this, SLAYER
there has lived, and grown with the growth of tn
state. 10 eStaDllSn slavery from tne very stdi
F in Nebraska, simultaneously with the flowing i
:. of great tides of population from the Norther
. States and from Europe, would be found yer
j. different business
The New Orleans Bulletin, known far and wild
as paper of marked ability, rejecting the ser
timents ofa great portion Of the South, in speak
ing of the new territory, says:
Nebraska is too far north ever to become
: slave State. There is an nsurmountable nat,
e raj law that prevents the extension of human SCI
e vitude in that direction. Therefore human lee
islation on the subject is perfectly futile, SO far
, practical results are involved. The people {
Il Maine might permit slavery, and any man wt
l. would invest one hundred thousand dollars in NJ
groes, and take them to that State would fir
himself bankrupt in five years. The same rel
% soning applies with equal force to all the mol
Northern States and Territories. Allrestrictior
: might be done away with, and no danger OF sla'
ID encroachments feared"
Canadian Monarchy.