Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1854-06-30
Meeting Of the Opponents of the Ne.
} braska Bill.


braska Bill.
At meeting of the members Of Con
gress who opposed the passage of the bill
to organize the territories Of Nebraska and
Kansas, held pursuant to previous notice,
Hon. Solomon Foot, of Vermont, was
elected chairman, and Daniel Mace, Of Ia,
and Reuben E. Fenton, of N. Y, were
appointed Secretaries.
A committee appointed for the purpose,
reported an address to the people Of the
United States, which having been discussed
and amended, was unanimously adopted,
and ordered to be published.
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
The Sth section Of the act for the ad-
mission of Missouri into the Union, known
as tie Missouri Compromise law, by which
the introduction Of slavery into the regions
now known as Kansas and Nebraska was
for ever prohibited, has been repealed.
That law which, in 1920, quieted contro-
vcrsy which menaced the Union, and upon
which you have SO long reposed, is ublitc-
rated 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
seems 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 no, be told that the slavery question
lies at the bottom Of it. AS it was the
slaveholding power that demanded the en-
actment Of the Missouri compromise, SO it
is the same power that has now demanded
its abrogation. African slavery was regar-
ded and denounced as great evil by the
American colonies even before the Revolu-
tioD, and those colonies which are now
slaveholding 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 enlarge
and perpetuate system, universally re-
garded 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
imperious necessity for the institution Of
government in the then unoccupied terri
tories of the United States In 1884 JEFF
ferson proposed, and in 1877 the Continen-
tai Congress adopted the ordinance for the
government Of the territory lying north
west of the Ohio, by which it was declared
that there shall be neither slavery nor in
voluntary servitude, except for punishment
of crime. The great and fourishing States
since organized within that territory, OF
the basis of that ordinance, are enduring
monuments of the wisdom of the statesmen
of the revolution. The foreign slave trade
was regarded as the source of American
slavery, which, it was believed, would be
dried up when that fountain should be
closed.
In adopting the Constitution, it was SO
universally anticipated that the foreign
slave trade would be promptly prohibited,
that all parties acquiesced in stipulation
postponing that measure to 1908. The for
cign slave trade was then prohibited. Thus
the source of slavery was understood to be
dried up, while the introduction of slavery
into the territories was prohibited. The
slavery question, so far as it was nation.
al one, was understood to be finally set
tied, and at the same time the States had
already taken up and were carrying forward
a system of gradual emancipation.
In 1903, Louisiana was acquired by
purchase from France, ana included what
is now known as the States of Louisiana,
Missouri, Arkansas aud Iowa, and the
Territories known as Kansas and Nebras-
ka. Slavery existed at the time in New
Orleans and at St. Louis, and so this pur-
chase resulted in bringing the slavery
question again before Congress.
In 1912 the region Immediately sur
rounding New Orleans applied for admis-
sion into the Union under the name Of
Louisiana, with a constitution tolerating
slavery. The new State was admitted,
and the free States acquiesced. Eight
years afterwards the region connected with
ST.. Louis demanded admission, under the
pane Of the State Of Missouri, with u con-
toleratiog slavery. The free
States reverted to the principle Of 1877,
and opposed the admission Of Missouri,
unless she would incorporate into her con-
an inhibition of the further in
PRODUCTION Of slavery into the State. The
slaveholding States insisted upon her un-
qualified admission. A controversy arose,
which was sectional and embittered, and
which We are assured by contemporaneous
history seriously imperilled the Union.
The statesmen Of that day in Congress