The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1854-06-28

Proceedings Of tie Members of Con-
grcss Opposed TO The Nebraska Bill

grcSs Opposed TO the Nebraska Bill
WASHINGTON, Juno 2l.
AT a meeting of the Members of Con.
gress, who opposed the passage of tho
bill to organize the Territories Of Ne
braska and Kansas, held pursuant to
previous notice. in the City of Wash
ington, on the goth day of june instant,
Hon. SOLOMON FooT, of Vermont. was
elected Chairman, and Hon. DANIEL
MACE, of Indiana and Hon. REUBEN 4.
FENToN, of New Y ork, were appointed
Secretaries
a Committee, appointed for the pur-
pose. reported an Address to the People
of the United States which, having been
discussed and amended, was unanimous.
ly adopted and ordered to be published.
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES
The eighth section of the act for the
admission of Missouri into the Union,
known as the Missouri Compromise law,
by which the introduction of Slavery in
to the regions now known as Kansas ard
Nebraska was forever prohibited, has
been repealed. That law which, in 1920
9uieted controversy which meuaced the
Union, and upon which you have so long
reposed. is oblitcrated from the statute
book. We had no reason to expect any
such proposition when we assembled here
six months ago. nor did you expect it.
No State, no citizen Of any State, had
demanded the repeal 1t seem duty
we owe to the country to state the grounds
upon which We have steadfastly. though
Intellectually, opposed this alarming and
dangerous act.
You need not be told that the Slavery
question lies at the bottom of it. As it
was the slaveholdng power that demand
cd the enactment of the Missouri Com.
promise, SO it is the same power that has
now demanded its abrogaton.
African slavery was regarded and de-
nounced as great evil by the American
Colonies even before the Revolution, and
those Colonies, which are now slavehold-
ing States, were equally earnest in such
remonstrances with those which are now
free States. Colonial laws. framed to
prevent the increase of slavery, were
vetoed by the King of Great Britain
This exercise of arbitrary power to en-
large and perpctuate a system universal
ly regarded as equally wrongful in itself
and injurious to the Colonies, was one Of
the causes of the Revolution. When
the war was ended there was an an i'm
perious necessity for the institution of
some government in the then unoccupied
Territories of the United States. In
1854, Jefferson proposed, aud in l7S7
the Continental Congress adopted, the
Ordinance for the government of the
territory lying northwest of the Ohio,
by which it was declared that there shall
be neither slavery nor involuntary servi-
tudc, except for the punishment ofcrime.
The great and Furnishing States since
organized within that Territory, on tho
basis of that ordinance, are enduring
monuments of the wisdom of the States
mer of the Revolution.
The foreign Slavc-trade was regarded
as the source of American Slavery, which
it was believed would be dried up, W hen
that fountain should DO closed. In
adopting the Constitution, it was so uni
vcrsally anticipated that the foreign
Slave trade would be promptly prohibit.
ed, that all parties acquicsced in a stipu-
lation postponing that measure till le0S.
The foreign Slave-trade was prohibited
thus tho source of Slavery was under
stood to be dried up, while the introduce
ton ofSlavory into the Territories was pro-
hibited. The Slavery queston,so far as it
was National one, was understood to
be finally settled, and at the Same time
the States had already taken up, and were
carrying forward, system Of gradual
mancipation. In 1903 Louisiana was
acquired by purchase from France, and
included what is now known as the States
of Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and
Iowa. and the Territories known as Kan
sas and Nebraska Slavery existed at
the time in New.Orlcans and at St.
Louis, and SO this purchase resulted in
bring the Slavery question again before
Congress. In 1912 the region immed-
lately surrounding New Orleans applied
for admission into the Union under the
name OF the State Of louisiana, with a
Constitution tolerating Slavery, and the
free States acquiesced. Eight years af-
forwards the region connected with St.
Louis demanded admission under the
name of the State of Missouri, with
Constitution tolerating Slavery. The
free States reverted to the principle of
of 1897, and opposed the admission Of
Missouri unless she would incorporate in
to her constitution an inhibition of the
further introduction of Slevery into the
State The Siaveholding States insist
ed upon her unqualified admission. A
controversy arose which was sectional
and embittered, and which We are assur
cd by cotemporaneous history, seriously
imperilled the Union The statesmen
of that day in Congress settled the con
troversary by Compromise. BY the
terms ofthis Compromise the free States
assented to the admission of Missouri
with her slaveholding Constitution, while
tho Slaveholding States on their part
yielded the exclusion of Slavery in all
the residue of the territory which lay
North of SO 30', constituting the pres
cnt territories of Kansas and Nebraska,
The Slaveholding States accepted the
Compromise as triumph, and the free
States have ever since left it undistdrbed,
unquestioned, Arkansas, part Of the
territory of Louisiana, which lay South
of SO . 30', in compliance with an ippli.
cation which was contained in this com
promise, was afterwards admitted as
Slaveholding State, and the FREQ States
acquiesced. In 1919, Florida, a Slave
holding Province of Spain, was acquired.