Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-02-17
FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH.
SPEECH OF WILLIAM II. SEWARD,
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS BILLS,

Mr.. President:
The United States, al the close Of the Rev
oluton, rested southwark on the ST. Mary's,
and westward on the Mississippi, and possess
ed broad, unoccupied domain, circumscrbed
by those rivers, the Allegheny mountains, and
the great Northern lakes. The Constitution
anticipated the division Of this domain into
States, to be admitted as members of the Union,
but Il neither provided for nor anticipated any
enlargement OF the national boundaries The
People, engaged in recognizing their Govern
ments, improving their social systems, and
establishing relations Of commerce and friend
ship with other nations, remained many years
content within their apparently ample limits.
But Il was already toreseen that the free naviga-
tion Of the Mississippi would soon become an
urgent public want
France, although she had lost Canada, in
chlvalrous battle, ON the Heights Of Abraham,
In 1868, nevertheless, still retained her ancient
territories on the western bank of the Mississip-
p She had also, just before the breaking out
Of her own fearful revolution, re- acquired, BY
a secret treaty, the possessions on the Gulf Of
Mexico, which, in recent war, had been
wrested from her by Spain. Her First Consul,
among those brilliant achievements which
| proved him the first Statesman as well as the
first Captain OF Europe, sagaciously sold the
whole OF these possessions TO the United States,
for liberal sum, and thus replenished his treas
ury, while he saved from his enemies, and trans
lerred to friendly Power, distant and vast
regions, which, for want Of adequate naval
force, he was unable to defend.
This purchase Of Louisiana from France, by
the United States. involved great dispute con-
corning the western limits Of that province;
and this controversy, having remained open
/ INF tna Than .,I,t hfc
! which they relinquished Texas to Spain, and
accepted cession Of the early discovered and
long inhabited provinces Of East Florida and
| West Florida. The United States stipulated,
| in each of these cases, to admit the countries
thus annexed into the Federal Union.
/ The acquisitions Of Oregon, by discovery and
occupation, OF Texas, by her voluntary annex
alton, and of New Mexico and California, in
GLIDING what is now called Utah, by war, com
pleed that rapid course of enlargement, at the
close of which our frontier has been fixed near
the centre Of what was New Spain, on the At
lantic side OF the continent, while on the west,
as on the east, only an ocean separates us from
the nations Of the old world. Ii is not in my
way now to speculate on the question, how
long we are to rest on these advanced posi-
/ tons.
| Slavery, before the Revolution, existed in all
the other European plantations in America
| But it had been forced by British authority, for
political and commercial ends on the American
People, against their own sagacious instincts of
policy, and their stronger feelings Of justice and
humanity.
They had protested and demonstrated against
the system, earnestly, for forty years, and they
ceased to protest and demonstrate against It
only when they finally committed their entire
cause Of complaint TO the arbitrarnent of arms.
An earnest spirit Of emancipation was abroad
in the Colonies at the close Of the Revolution,
and all Of them, except, perhaps, South Caro-
lima and Georgia, anticipated, desired, and de-
signed an early removal of the system from the
country. The suppression Of the African slave
trade, which was universally regarded as an
| cillary TO that great measure, was not, without
much reluctance, postponed until 1898.
While there was no national power. and no
claim or disire for national power, anywhere,
to compel involuntary emancipation in the
States where slavery existed, there was at the
same time very general desire and strong
purpose TO prevent its introduction into new
communities yet to be formed, and into new
States yet to be established. Mr.. Jefferson pro-
posed, as early as 1884, 10 exclude it from the
national domain which should be constituted
by cessions from the States TO the United States.
He recommended and urged the measure as
ancillary, also, to the ultimate policy Of eman-
cipation. There seems to have been at first no
very deep jealousy between the emancipatng
and the non-emancipating States and the pol
icy of admitting new States was not disturbed
by questions concerning slavery. Vermont, a
non slaveholding State, was admitted in 1898.
Kentucky, a tramontane saveholding. COM
munity, having been detached from Virginia,
L..
the same lime. So, also, Tennessee, which
was similar community separated from North
Carolina, was admitted in 1896, with stipula-
ton that the Ordinance which Mr. jefferson
had first proposed, and which had in the mean
time been adopted for the Territory northwest
Of the Ohio, should not be held 10 apply within
her limits. The same course was adopted in
organizing Territorial Governments for Missis-
sippi and Alabama, slaveholding communities
which had been detached from South Carolina
and Georgia. All these States and Territories
were situated southwest Of the Ohio river, all
were more or less already peopled by slave
holders with their slaves; and TO have excluded
slavery within their limits would have been
national act, not Of preventing the introduction
Of slavery, but Of abolishing slavery. In short,
! the region southwest Of the Ohio river present
ed field in which the policy Of preventing the
introduction of slavery was impracticable
Our forefathers never attempted what was i'm
practicable.
! But the case was otherwise in that fair and
broad region which stretched away from the
banks of the Ohio, northward TO the lakes, and
westward 10 the Mississippi. II was yet free.
or practically free, from the presence or slaves,
and was nearly uninhabited, and quite unoccu-
pied. There was then no Baltimore and Ohio
railroad, no Erie railroad, no New York Cen
lral railroad, no Boston and Ogdensburgh rail
road there was no railroad through Canada
nor. indeed, any road around or across the
mountains no imperial Erie canal, no Wei
land canal, no lockages around the rapids and
the falls Of the St. Lawrence, the Mohawk, and
the Niagara rivers. and no steam navigation on
the lakes or on the Hudson, or on the Missis
sippi. There, in that remote and secluded