The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-01-19

Gent to repress the aggressive operations o.
Slavery. Texas, department. of Mexico, was
brought under the control Of American adven
turers, who established Slavery there in def
ance Of Mexican Law Rebellion arose, ending
in Revolution, which finally led to the annexa
ton OF the Province, as State, to the United
States. The Anti Slavery sentiment had again
rallied, though not 50 vigorously as in 1920; but
1t was still strong enough to require at least
the shadow Of q ccnccssiOn-and it was SOL
EMMY enacted that in any State or States, that
might be erected out Of Texas north Of 80 deg.
80 min, Slavery should forever be prohibited.
What had been left, however, to implication in
1920, in regard to the Territory of Louisiana,
below SO deg. 80 min, was in this case, owing
to the Increased power of the Slave Interest,
made matter of express enactment All the
States that might be formed out of Texas be-
low that line, it was enacted, should be admit
ted into the Union, with or without Slavery
as their Consultations should prescribe This
| Compromise, so far IS Freedom was concern
Cd, was miserable mockery, as there was
scarcely, If any room for a State north Of SO
|
pocted that the State Of Texas would give its
consent to the organization Of Free State
This was the second great triumph of the
Slave interest, but even here it was deemed &c
cessary to concode something 20 the Anti-Sla-
very sentiment.
In 1913, we acquired California and New
Mexico as the result of war, precipitated by
the Pro-Slavery party. The Territories were
exempt from Slavery by Mexican law. All
parties at the North were DESTROYS to keep them
freei The Slave Intercs. insisted that, az they
had been acquired 10y the COMMON blood and
treasure of the Union, they ought to be thrown
open for the benefit of all the people of the IN
ion-that no restriction should be imposedup
them which would operate unfavorably agains.
Slavery. Meantime, the people of California set
tied the matter for themselves and, on the prin-
ciplc Of squatter- sovereignty, announced in the
Cass- Nicholson letter, founded State Const:-
tuition excluding Slavery, and demanded admis-
sion into the Union. The Slave Interss st, which
through its organs now is insisting upon the
recognition of the principle opposed it fercely
then, because its practical operation had inur-
ed to the gain Of Freedom. A Compromise
was formed, as it was called. California, with
the restrictive clause, was admitted as free
State Utah and New Mexico were organized
under Territorial Government, without the re-
strictive clause as to Slavery, but with an ex-
press proviso that States formed out of them
should be admitted with Or without Slavery as
their Constitutions might prescribe.
Here was another step III advance. In
1920 the Slave Interest asked for the tolera.
ton of Slavery, where it already existed, for
the admission Of q State which recognised it
and agreed, if this were granted, to the perpet-
ual exclusion Of Slavery from the whole, or
nearly the whole, of the unorgan:zed Territory
of tho Union. In ls45 it simply insisted upon
tho application of the principle of this compro-
mise to Texas. But, in 1850, it so far succeed |
cd in revereing the original policy of the Gov
eminent as to transfer to all the new free Ter
ritories acquired from Mexico, Except Califor-
MIA, which had become State, that tacit pro-
viso of the Missouri Compromise, and express
provso of the Texas Compromise, which had
been confined in them exclusively to Slave Ter
ritory.
There remained but one step more to take |
in this aggressive march of the Slave Interest |
and the reversal of tho original hnti-sio-ery |
policy OF the country and the Federal Govern
mcrt would be completed: that was, not a
tacit or express liberation of existing Slavery,
not a disregard Of the lea loci of new free Ter
ritories acquired by conquest, and their expo
sure 70 the intrusions of Slavery but the abro-
CATION Of American Law, established in the |
solemn form Of q perpetual covenant exempt
ing all the old organized Territory Of the Union
from the curse of Slavery--in other words, the |
repeal of the Anti-Slavery proviso of the Com
promise Of 1920, so as to transfer to the vast |
free Territory which it has preserved inviola-
bic for thirty three years, the pro-slavery part
of that Compromise, which originally applied |
only to Territory in which Slavery already cx- |
listed This step the Slave Interest has ut last |
taken the Nebraska Bill in the Senate is in
tended to consummate the policy of that Inter-
est in relation to United States Territory and
to establish its complete and perpetual ascend |
ency
Nebraska embraces the whole of the unor-
gained Territory Of the Union--thc extent of
its boundary il over three thousand miles--its
area about five hundred thousand square
mles--capable of being formed into a dozen
States, each as large as Ohio This magnifi-
cent domain has been for whole generation
the heritage Of Freed nl-held, under the high
sanction Of American Law, sacred TO Free La
Dor and Free institutions. The Nebraska Bill
proposes to abrogate this L2w, to remove the
guarding it against Slavery, and to allow the
Destroyer to enter and do his work Of death
or, to speak more plainly, to lay the fouuda-
tons of q vast Slave Empire from the Gulf of
Mexico to the British Provinces dividing the
Free States east of the Mississippi, from the
Free States west of the Rocky Mountains, and
thereby obtaining the mastery of the Missis-
sippi Valley directly, and indirectly Of both
the Atlantic and Pacific coasts
Now, look back upon the successive steps of
this dangerous Power, which aims at 10 less
than the subjugation Of this entire North Amer
lean Continent to Slavery See how insidions
has been its growth, how unrelenting its pur-
pose, how it has fattened and grown insolent
upon every Compromise. See how the Free
States superior as they have been in wealth,
and education, and population, have been con-
stantly yielding, until the sentiments which
were held by Franklin, Jay, Jefferson, and La
fayettc, are now, in the year of our Lord 1854,
deemed disqualification for any office under
the Federal Government which has announced