The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-10-25


as a fact, and with the state of affairs that was
established by it.
The occupation of the new region west of the
Mississippi, which had thus been saved for
Freedom, was artfully postponed indefinitely,
by dedicating it as a home for the concentrated
but perishing Indian tribes. 1t sounds in favor
of the humanity of the unprivileged class, if not
of their prudence, that they neither remOnstra-
ted nor complained of that dedication.
The success of the privileged class, in secu-
ring to themselves immediate possession of
| Missouri and Arkansas, in exchange for the re-
versionary interest of the unprivileged class in
! the remainder Of the Louisiana purchase, slim
ulated them to move for new national pur-
chases Of domain, which might yield them fur
Their acquisitions. Spain was unable to retain
longer the slaveholding provinces of East Flor
ida and West Florida, which lay adjacent to
the slave States. They fell to the United States
| by an easy purchase, and the privileged class
with due diligence procured their organization
as State, and its admission into the Union.
| The spell of territorial aggrandizement had
| fallen on the United States of America, and
simultaneously the spell of dissolution had fall
en- on the United States of Mexico. The priv
LEGGED class on our side OF the border entered
Texas, established Slavery there in violation OF
Mexican laws, detached that territory from
Mexico, and organized it as an Independent
sovereign State. Texas, thus Independent and
| sovereign, sought annexation to the United
States. In the very hour when the virtue of a
sufficient number of the unprivileged classes
| was giving way TO effect constitutional annex
alton of Texas. the President of the United
States, with a Senate not less subservient to the
privileged class, executed "A comp etat by which
that State unlawfully, and in defiance of all
precedent, came into the Union under a cove
nant STIMULATING that four new slave States
might be created out of its territory and admit
| ted as slave States, while, By a solemn mock
cry, an inconsderable fragment that lay north
OF SO 30> was SYSTEMATICALLY dedicated to Free
dom. There remained no other new territory
within the United States; and so, by this strange
| partition of Texas, there was a third final set
Element Of the pretensiops of the privileged
| class; and il was acquiesced in by the unpriv-
| LEGGED class, who thought themselves secure in
| the old Northwest Territory by the Ordinance
Of 1887, and equally safe i'll Kansas and Ne
braska by the Missouri Compromise.
The public repose that followed the annexa
| ton of Texas was of short duration. Mexico
resented that offence. A war ensued, and ter
minated in the transfer of the entire northern
portion of Mexico to the United States. The
Mexican municipal laws forbade Slavery every
where, and the new possessions were under that
law. Not whit the less for that reason, did the
privileged class demand either an equal part-
ton, or that the whole should be opened to their
colonization with slaves. The House of Repre-
sentatives resisted these pretensions, as it had
resisted similar ones before but the Senate
seconded the privileged class with its accustom-
ed zeal. So Congress was divided, and failed to
organize civil Governments for the newly accuir-
ed Mexican territories and they were left under
| martial law. The question raised by the priv
ileged class went down to the electors. The
people promptly filled the House of Representa-
tives with majority sternly opposed to the ex-
tension of Slavery the breadth of a single square
mile. They increased the force of the unpriv-
LEGGED class in the Senate, while they called to
the Presidency General Taylor, who, although
himself a sleveholder, was committed to nom
intervention on the question in Congress, and to
execute faithfully whatever constitutional laws
Congress should adopt. Under these circum-
stances, California and New Mexico youthful
communities, practically free from Slavery, and
interrupted by the seductions of the privileged
class Of IFS political organs, FASTENED TO estab-
lish Constitutions, and apply for admission as
free States; while the eccentric population of
Deseret, indulging latitudinarian principles
equally in matters of religion and of politics,
prayed to be received into the Union as State or
as Territory, and with or without Slavery as
Congress should prescribe. The privileged class
demonstrated, and seditous movement was
organized in their behalf in the slaveholding
States, to overawe Congress, if possible, and to
naugurate revolution if their menaces failed
iou all know well the way of that memorable
controversy. How eminent men yielded to the
menaces without waiting for the revolution. and
projected and rendered to the privileged class
oGa tha q. L.
time-honored compromise of 1920. You all
know how firmly, notwithstanding this detection
of leaders honored and beloved, the House of
Representatives, and even the Senate, repealed
the compromise, and how firmly the unprveg
ed class of freemen throughout the Union de-
manded the unqualified and unconditional ad-
mission of California into the Union, and refus.
ed to allot any further territories to the privleg
ed class, for the extension of the system of hu-
man bondage. You all remember, too. how in
a critical hour the President sickened and died,
and how the hearts of Congress and of all the
| people sorrowed at his grave, and thenceforward
| all was lost You remember how the provision
| al successor Of that lamented President with
omiuous haste accepted the resignation of his
Cabinet, and committed the seals to new one,
pledged like himself to the adoption of the com
| promise which the people Rad condemned: and
| how at last, after painful struggle, its adoption
| vas effected. l think, also, that you have not
| thus soon forgotten the terms of that compro-
| mise, the fourth final and everlasting settlement
OF the conflict between the privileged and the
| unprivileged classes of this Republic You have
! not forgotten how the Ordinance of 1887, which
| excluded Slavery from the region northwest Of
the Ohio, WAS left to stand as an institution too
sacred to be even questioned. How the Missou-
ri Compromise, which extended that Ordinance
across the Mississippi, and over all Kansas and
Nebraska, was made at once the authority, pre-
cedent, and formula, ofthe new compromise, and
even declared to be an irrepealable law forever.
How California, which refused to become g
slave State, was grudgingly admitted into the
Union as free one. How the hateful and de-
testable slave auctions were banished from I'm.
der the caves of the Capitol quite across to the
opposite bank of the Potomac river. And how.
| IN consideration of these magnanimous and vast
| concessions made by the privileged class, it was
stipulated that Slavery should be continued in
the District of Columbia as long as the privileg-
ed class should require its continuance. New
Mexico, with her free Constitution, was super
| cihously remanded to her native mountains.
| while, without hearing, her ancient and free
territory was dismembered and its fairest part
| transferred to Texas with the addition Of ten
| millions of dollars, to win its acceptance by that
defiant privileged State. You remember how
1t was soemnly stipulated that Utah aud New
Mexico, If the shareholders could corrupt them,
should come into the Union, in due time, as
siaveholdiug States; and, finally, how the priv
ileged class, so highly offended and exaspera-
| ted, we're brought to accept this compromise on
their part, by re-enactment Of the then obso-
| ete fugitive slave law of 1893, with the add
ton OF the revolving features of an attempted
suspension of the habeas corpus; an absolute
prohibition of the trial by jury; an effective re-
peal OF vital rules of procedure and evidence,