The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1854-07-01
Of the Members of
Congress adverse to the NebraS-
ka BiII--Their Address to the
People.
WASHINGTON, June 81, 1854.


ize the territories of Nebraska and Kansas,
held pursuant to previous notice, in the city
Of Washington, on the Goth day of June.
inst, the Hon. Solomon Foot, of Vermont,
was elected Chairman, and the Hon. Daniel
Mace, Of Indiana, and the Hon. Reuben E.
Fenton, of New York, were appointed Sec
retaries.
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 eighth section of the act for the ad
mission of Missouri into the Union, known
as the 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ever prohibited, has been repealed.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 controversy which
menaced the Union, and upon which you
have so long reposed is obliterated 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.
IT seems duty we owe to the country to
state the grounds upon which we have stead
fdstly. 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
;hc slaveholding power that demanded the
enactment Of the Missouri Compromise, so
II is the same power that has now demanded
its abrogation.
African slavery was regarded and de-
nounced as a great evil by the American
colonies, even before the revolution and
those colonies which are now slaveholding
States, were equally earnest in such remon-
Strances 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 ar
bitrary power to enlarge and perpetuate a
system universally regarded as equally
wrongful in itself and injurious to the colo
MES, was one of the causes of the revou-
ton.
When the war was ended there was an
imperious necessity for the institution of
some government in the then unoccupied
territories of the United States. In 1884,
Jefferson proposed, and in 1887 the Cont
mental 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
servitude except for the punishment Of
crime. The great and nourishing States
since organized within that territory, on the
basis of that ordinance, are enduring mon
uments 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 dntici
pated that the foreign slave trade would be
promptly prohibited, that all parties acqui-
esced in stipulation postponing that meas
ure till 1903. The foreign slave trade was
rohibted-thus the source of slavery was
understood to be dried up, while the intro
duction of slavery into the territories was
prohibited. The slavery question, so far as
it was national one, was understood to be
finally settled, land at the same time the States
had already taken up and were carrying for
ward a system of gradual emancipation
In 1903, Louisiana was acquired by purchase
from France, and included what is known
as the States of Louisiana, Missouri, Arkan-
sas and Iowa, and the territories known as
Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery existed at
the time in New Orleans and at st. Louis,
and so this purchase resulted in bringing the
slavery 0uestion again before Congress In