Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-11-03


while, with the exception of Missouri, the comrro-
misc of 17ST, by virtue of the same compromise,
was extended across the Mississippi, along the
parallel of 36o 30F, to the Rocky Mountains
Thus, and with such sOlemnities, was the strife of
The privileged class of Shareholders for nggrandize-
ment of territory finally composed and forever set
tled.
1t is not my purpose to discuss the policy or the
justice of that great sentiment. As in the case Of
The Constitution, the responsibility for that great
measure rests with q generation that has passed
away. We have to deal with it only rs n fact, and
with the state Of oflairs that was established by
itself.
The occupation Of the new region west Of the
Mississippi, which had thus been saved for free
dom, was artfully postponed indefinitely, Wy dedi-
eating il as a home for the concentrated but per-
ishing Indian tribes. 1t sounds in favor Of the
humanity of the unprivileged class, if not Of their
prudence, that they neither demonstrated nor com.
planned Of that dedication.
The success of the privileged class, in securing
to themselves immediate possession OF Missouri
and Arkansas, in exchange for the revcrsiOnary
interest of the unprivilegod class in the remainder
of the Louisiana purchase, stimulated them to
move for new national purchases of domain, which
might yield them further acquisitions. Spain
was unable to retain longer the sHaveholding prov
inces of East Florida and West Florida, which lay
adjacent to the slave States. They fell TO the Uni
ted States by an easy purchase, and the privileged
class with due diligence procured their organiza'
ton as q State, and its admission into the Union.
The spell Of territorial ACKNOWLEDGEMENT had fallen
on the United States of America, and simultane-
ously the spell of dissolution had fallen on the
United States of Mexico. The privileged class on
our side of the border entered Texas, established
slavery there in violation of Mexican laws, de-
tached that territory from Mexico, and organized
it as All 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 unpriviiegCd
classes was giving way to effect a constitutional
annexation Of Texas, the President OF the United
States, with a Senate not less subseryient to the
privileged class, executed q coup deat by which
that State unlawfully, and in defiance Of all pre-
cedent, came into the Union under a covenant
STIMULATING that four new slave States might be
created out of its territory and admitted as slave
States, while by a solemn m%ockery, an inconsider-
able fragment that lay north of $50 30/ was osten-
tatiously dedicated to Freedom. There remained
no other new territory within the United States;
and SO, by this strange partition of Texas, there
was a third final settlement of the pretensions Of
the privileged class; and it was acquiesced in by
the unprivileged class, who thought themselves Sc
cure in the old Northwest Territory by the Ordi-
nance of 1857, and equally safe in Kansas and
Nebraska by the Missouri Compromise.
The public repose that followed the annexation
of Texas was of short duration. Mexico resented
that offence. A wal ensued, and terminated in
the transfer of the entire northern portion Of Mex
leo to the United States. The Mexican municipal
laws forbade Slavery everywhere, and the new
possessions were under that law. Not whit the
less, for that reason, did the privileged class de-
mand either an equal partition, or that the whole
should be open to their colonization with slaves
The House of Representatives resisted these pre-
tensions, as it had resisted similar ones before; but
the Senate seconded the privileged class with its
accustomed zeal. So Congress was divided, end
/ failed m Orron i1a a. vii Gnvarnp NJ Dtc for tho npu1v
acquired Mexican territories, and they were left
under martial law, The question raised by the
privileged class went down to the electors. The
people promptly filed the Uouse of Representa-
tives with a majority sternly opposed to the extern
sion of Slavery the breadth of n single square
mile. They increased the force of the unprivilcg-
ed class in the Senate, while they called to the
Presidency General Taylor, who, although himself
a stakeholder, was committed to noninterventior
on the question in Congress-, and to execute faith
fully whatever constitutional laws Congress should
adopt. Under these circumstances, California and
New Mexico, youthful communities, practically
free from Slavery, and interrupted by the seduc.
tons of the privileged class of its polltica! organs,
FASTENED to establish Constitutions, and apply for
admission as free States; while the eccentric popu.
lation of Deseret, indulging latitudinarian princi.
Piles equally in matters of religion ard of politics,
prayed to be received into the Union as a State OF
as a Territory, and with or without Slavery, as
Congress should prescribe. The privileged class
demonstrated, and a seditious movement was or
gained in their behalf in the slaveholding States,
to overawe Congress, if possible, and to inaugur-
ate revolution if their menaces failed. You all
know we'll the way of that memorable controversy.
How eminent men yielded to the menaces without
waiting for the revolution, and projected and ten
dered to the privileged class a new compromise,
modelled after the already time-honored compr0.
mise Of 1920. You all know how firmly, notwith-
standing this detection of leaders honored and be-
loved, the House of Representatives, and even the
Senate, repealed the compromise, and how firmly
the uDprivileged class of freemen throughout the
Union demanded the unqualified and uneondition-
al admission Of California into the Union, and re-
fusing to allot any further territories to the priv
legged class, for the extension of the system of hui
man bondage. You all remember, too, how in a
criticel 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 provisional success
sor of that lamented President with ominous haste
accepted the resignation of his Cabinet, and com
mitted the seals to q new one, pledged like him,
self to the adoption OF the compromise which the
people had condemned; and how at last, after q
painful struggle, its adoption was effected. / think
also, that you have not thus soon forgotten the
terms OF that compromise, the fourth final and ev
erlasting settlement Of the conflict between the
privileged and the un priviloged classes of this Re.
public. You have not forgotten how the Ordinance
Of 1888, which excluded slavery from the region
northwest of the Ohio, was left to stand. as an in.
stitution too sacred to be ever questioned. How
the Missouri Compromise, which extended taat
Ordinance across the Mississippi, and over all
Kansas and Nebraska, was made at once the au,
hority, precedent, and formula, of the new com,
promise, and even declared to be an irrepealable
law forever. How California, which refused tC
become a slave State, was grudgingly admitted in
to the Union as a free one. How the hateful and
detestable slave auctions were banished from IN
der the caves Of the Capitol, quite across to thu
opposite bank of the Potomac river. And how
in consideration of these magnanimous and vas
concessions made by the privileged class, it wa
stipulated that slavery should be continued in tn,
District of Columbia as long as the privileged elias,
should require its continuance. New Mexico
with her free Constitution, was superciliously re
manded to her native mountains, while, with out
I hearing, her ancient and free territory was dis
f membered, and its fairest part transferred to Tex
as, with the addition of ten millions of dollars, Il
win it's acceptance by that defiant privileged State
{ You remember how it was s~olemnly stipulated
that Utah and New Mexico, if the Shareholder
could corrunt them. should come into tho Uninn