Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1854-07-13
Address
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
BY the AnIi-Ne braska Members of
Congress.

WAsHIEGroN, June 2l, 1854
AT meeting of the members of Congress
who opposed the passage of the bill TO organ
ize the territories of Nebraska and Kansas
held last evening, pursuant to previous notice,
in this city, Hon. Solomon Foot, of Vermont
was elected chairman, and Daniel Mace, o.
Indiana, and Reuben E. Fenton, of New York
were appointed secretaries. at a< o.. E.r
ii A committee appointed for the purpose. re
ported an Address to the People of the Uni
ted States, which having been discussed ant
amended, was unanimously adopted and order
ed to be published. l-t- ZOO 8.
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED
...r STATES.
The 9th section Of the act for the admission
of Missouri into the Union, known as the Mis-
souri, Compromise Law, by which the introduc
ton of Slavery into the regions now known as
Kansas and Nebraska was forever pr ohibited
has been repealed That law, which, in 1890
| Quoted controversy which menaced the U
MON, and upon which you have so long repo
sCd, is obliterated from the statute book. w
had no reason to expsct any such propositoI
when we assembled here six months ago, n O
did you expect it. No Sta.e, no citizen of any
State, had demanded tie repeal. sAa saf'
1t seems duty we owe to the country, Il
state the grounds upon which we have stead
fastly, though Intellectually, opposed this alar
ming and dangerous act,
You need not be told that the Slavery ques
ton lies at the bottom of it. As 1t was th,
Slavehelding power that demanded the enact
ment of the Missouri Compromise, so it is th'
same power That has pow demanded its abro
CATION. ....,... .., ,t.......,,.........s .r.....
African Slavery was regarded and denoun
ced as a great evil by the American Colonies
even before the Revolution and thosa colo
MES which are now S!aveholding States, wer'
equally earnest in such remonstrances with
those which are now free States. Colonial laws
framed to prevent the increase Of Slavery
we're vetoed by the King of Great Britain. :
This exercise of arbitrary power, to enlarge
and perpetuate a system universally regarded
as equally wrongful in itself and injurious tt
the Colonies, was one of the causes Of the
Revolution. When the war was ended, there
was an imperious necessity for the institution
of some government in the then unoccupiel
Territories Of the United States. In 1874 JEFF
ferson proposed, andin 1887 the Oonunenta
Congress adopted the ordinance for the gov.
eminent Of the territory lying north west Of the
Ohio-by which it was declared, that there
shall be neither Slavery nor involuntary ser
vitude, except for the punishment Of 'crime.- =
The great and fourishing States since organ
ized within chat territory, on the basis of tina
ordinance. are enduring monuments of thu
wisdom of the statesmen Of the Revelation
The foreign Slave trade was regarded as th'
source Of American Slavery, 4whice it was be
lieved would be dried up, when that fountain
should be closed In adopting the Constitu
ton. It was universally antiCipsted'thst the for
egn slave trade would beoprompty prohibi
ted, that all parties acqulesced in q Hhpulation
postponing that measure till 1903. The for
eign slave trade was prOhibited-thus the
source Of slavery was understood TO be dried
up, while the Introduction of Slavery into th,
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