Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-11-03
DANGERS OF SLAVERY EXTENSION.
SHAREHOLDERS A PRIVILEGED CLASS
GROWTH OF ouR NEGRO ARIsrocRAcY.
EXTRACT FROM A
SPEECH OF GOV. SEWARD,
AT THE REPUBLICAN MEETING AT ALBANY,
Friday Erening, Oct II, 1865.
Friday Erenina, Oct. II, 1865.

Friday Erening, Oct. II, 1865.
Think il not strange or extravagant when | say
that an aristocracy has already arisen here, aud
that 1t is already undermining the Republic. An
aristocracy could not arise in any country where
there was no privileged class, and no special ioun
dation ON which such q class could permanently
stand. On the contrary, every State, however re-
publican its Constitution may lie, is sure to be-
come an aristocracy, sooner or later, if it has n
privileged class standing firmly on an enduring
special foundations: and if that class is continually
growing stronger and stronger, and the unprivi-
legged classes continually growing weaker and wea-
ker, it is not at all essential to a privileged class
that it rests on feudal tenures, or on military com
mand, or on ecclesiastical authority, or that its
rights be hereditary. or even that it be distinguish
ed by titles of honor. 1t may he even the more
:nsiduous and the more dangerous for lacking all
these things, because it will be less obnoxious to
popular hostility.
n privileged class has existed in this country,
from an early period of its settlement. Slave
holders constitute thPt class. They have n special
foundation on which to stand-namely, personal
dominion over slaves. Conscience and sound poll
cy forbid all men alike from holding slaves, but
some citizens disregard the iniunc ton. Bone Of
the States enforce the inhibition; other States neg
lect or refuse to enforce it. In all Of the States,
there are but three hundred and fifty thousand cit
liens who avail themselves of this peculiar indul-
gence; and those, protected by the Laws Of these
Ctutesi CONSTITUTE u pIiNlIcHeu Glass;. lH6y con-
fess themselves to be such a class, when they des-
ignate the system of slavery as a peculiar" insti-
tuition.
The spirit OF the revolutionary age was adverse
to that privileged class. America and Europe
were firmly engaged thea in prosecuting what was
expected to be a speedy, complete, and un iversal
abolition of African Slavery. Nearly all the priv.
ileged classes admitted that Slavery as a perma-
nent system was indefensible, ard favored its re-
moval. They asked only, what seemed by no
means unreasonable, some securities against a
sudden, rash, and violent removal of the evil. In
der these circumstances, even the most decided op-
ponents OF Slavery consented TO ONE provisions
of the Federal Constitution which were inconsis-
tent with the stern logic Of equality that pervaded
all its other parts, and pervaded the whole of the
Declaration Of American Independence, on which
the Constitution itself was based. We are not to
censure the fathers for these concessions; they
had a union Of the States to create, and to their
ardent and generous minds the voluntary removal
of Slavery, by tie action of the several States
themselves without Federal Interference,
seemed not only certain, but close at hand.
These provisions Of the Constitution were:
First: That the foreign slave trade should not
he abolished before 1903.
Second: That any law or regulation which any
State might establish in favor Of Freedom, should
not impair the legal remedy, then supposed to ex-
list by common law, by legal process, in such
State, of f~ugitives from labor or service, escaping
from other States.
Third That three ftths of all slaves should be
counted, in settling the basis of representation in
the several States.
These three concessions, which in themselves
seem very limited, and almost harmless, are all
that the fathers consciously made to the privileged
class.
But privileged classes always know we'll how to
Improve even any indirect advantages which the
Constitution or laws of q country afford. Such
Indirect advantages they acquil cd from two other
pIovisions Of the Constitutions. 1st- Tint proyisiOn
which makes the State authority Independent and
sovereign in municipal affairs, Slavery being un-
derstood to be purely municipal in its nature
ID. That provision which, out Of tenderness to the
Senate equal to that of the largest State. Free
dom builds great States; slavery multiplies small
States, and even dwarfs great ones.
Thus we see that the American 81 aveholders are
a privileged class, standing on a special and per
manent foundation, and that they are protected in
their advantages by the organic laws.
In 1904, France ceded to the United States a
broad belt, stretching along the western bank of
the mississippi, frem the British possessions on the
north, to the Spanish province of Texas on the
south. This acquisition, which was equally neces-
sary for the safety of the country and for the uses
of commerce, stimulated the desire Of the privi-
legged class for an extension of their territory and
an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of their power. New Orleans
situated practically on the coast of the Gulf of
Mexico, was already at once an ancient slavehold-
ing colony and an important commercial mart. 1t
lay contiguous to tie slayeholding States. Under
these circumstances, it was without any resistance
soon organized and admitted into the Union, with
its ancient laws and customs tolerating Slavery
st. Louis, though destined to acquire great COM
mercial Importance, was as yet an inconsiderable
town, with few Shareholders and slaves. The Mis-
eissippi only divided it from the Northw est Terri
tory, which was already consecrated to Freedom.
The best interests of the country required, and hui
mainly demanded, that the Ordinance of 1887
should be extended across the Missippi. The priv
ileged class, however, took possession of the re-
gion around st. Louis, ana made partial settle
ments lower down on the west bank Of the Mis-
sissippi. ST. Louis and its environs matured as a
State in 1919, and demanded admission with Sla
very into the Union. Then, only thirty-two years
after the passage Of the Ordinance of 1857, and
after its unanimous ratification by the American
people, the privileged class made common cause
with the new slaveholding State, and, assuming a
tone at once bold, insolent, and menacing, they
denied the power of Congress, although in the
Territories it was supreme and exclusive, and
equally supreme and exclusive in the admission of
new States, to legislate at all against their priyi-
leges in the territories, or to refuse admission to a
new State on the ground Of its refusal to surren-
der or abate those privileges; and they threatened
in one loud voice to subvert the Union, if Missouri
should be rejected. The privileged class were
backed then by the Senate of the United States,
us they have been backed on all similar occasions
bAhC thhb tiiiCs AMY WV AH~1 '
frmness and decision by the unprivileged class in
the House Of Representatives, and SO Missouri
failed then to be admitted as a slave State. The
privileged class resorted to a new form of strategy
the strategy of compromise. They offered t,
be satisfied if Missouri only should be admitted
as a slave State, while Congress should prohibit
Slavery forever in all the residue Of that part O.
the Louisiana purchase which lay north of thu
parallel Of $50 3p Of north latitude-the territory
living between this parallel and the province o.
+. Texas, and constituting what is now the State o.
Arkansas, being left by implication to Slavery
This compromise was accepted, and thus diploma
cy obtained for the privileged class immediate ad
and PASSION This co-mpromise. however. could
have only the authority of a repealable act o.
Congress, SO far as the prohibition Of Slavery
north of 36o 30> was concerned. Wise and grea
men contrived extraordinary forms to bind thu
faith Of the privileged class to that perpetual in
.bibition. They gave TO the compromise the ma
tore and form Of a contract, with mutual equiva