Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1854-07-07
Address of the Members Of Congress
Opposed TO the Nebraska Bill.
WASHINGTON. Wednesday. June u. ,54.

WASHINGTON, Wednesday, June 81, '54.
AT a 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,
in the City of Washington. on the Goth
day of June, instant the Hon. Solomon
Foot of Vermont was elected Chairman,
and the Hon. Daniel Mace of Indiana and
the Hon. Reuben Z. Fenton of New York
were appointed Secretaries.
A Committee appointed for the purpose
reported an Address to the People of the
United STATES. which having been discuss
ed 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
forever prohibited, has been repealed
That law. which, in 1920, quieted contro-
yersy which menaced the Union. and upon
which you have so long reposed. is obitera-
ted from he statute-book We had no rea-
son 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 not be told that the Slavery
question lies at the bottom of it. AS it
was, the slaveholding power that deman-
ded the enactment Of the Missouri Com
promise, so it is the same power that has
now demanded its abrogation.
African Slavery was regarded and de-
nounced as great evil by the American
colonies. even before the Revolution; and
those colonies which are now tlaveholding
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
arbitrary power to enlarge and perpetuate
a system universally regarded as equally
wrongful in itself and injurious to the col
onies, was one of the causes Of the Revolu.
ton. When the war was ended there was
an imperious necessity for the institution
of some government in the then unoccapi-
ed Territories Of The United States. In
1884. Jefferson proposed. and in 1887 the
Continental Congress adopted the ordi-
nance for the government Of the territory
lying north. west OF the Ohio, by which it
was declared that there shall be neither
Slavery or involuntary servitude except for
the punishment of crime. The great and
iourishing States since organized within
that territory, on 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 antic-
ipsted that the foreign slave trade would
be promptly prohibited, that all parties &C
quiesced IN stipulation postponing that
measure till 1908. The foreign slave trade
was piOu'OitSu-buuo tuc tOuICC VI oidfoTy
was understood TO be dried up, while the
introduction Of slavery in TO the Territories
was prohibited. The slavery question, so
far as it was national one was understood
to be finally settlad, and at the same time
the States had already taken up and were
carrying forward asystem of gradual eman-
cipation. In 1903 Louisiana was acquired
by purchase from France, and included what
are now known as the States Of Louisiana,
Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa. and the Ter
ritories known as Kansas and Nebraska
Slavery existed at the time in New Orleans,
and at st. Louis, and so this purchase re-
suited in bringing the slavery question
again before Congress. In 1912, the re-
gion immediately surrounding New Orleans
applied for admission into the Union under
the name Of the State of Louisiana, with a
constitution toleraiing slavery. and the free
States scquiescsd. Eight years sftervard