The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-10-25
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parts, and pervaded the whole of the Declare
ton Of American Independence, on which the
Constitution itself was based. We are not to
censure the fathers for these concessions they
had union of the States to create, and to their
ardent and generous minds the voluntary re-
moval of Slavery by the 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 be 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 sup
posed to exist by common law, for the recap
ture by legal process, in such State of fugitives
from labor or service, escaping from other
States.
Third: That three fifths of all slaves should
be counted, in settling the basis of representa-
ton 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 privi-
legged class.
But privileged classes always know well how
10 improve even any indirect advantages which
the Constitution or laws of a country afford.
Such indirect advantages they acquired from
two other provisions of the Constitution: LIST.
That provision which makes the State authority
independent and sovereign in municipal affairs,
Slavery being understood to be purely munich
pal in its nature. ID That provision which, out
of tenderness to the small States, gives them a
representation in the Senate equal to that of the
largest State. Freedom builds great States !;
Slavery multiplies small States, and even dwaris
great ones.
Thus we see that the American shareholders
are privileged class, standing on special and
permanent foundation, and that they are pro-
tected in their advantages by the organic laws.
| might show q prior that privileged class,
thus established on exceptional principle,
that is wrong in itself, and antagonistic to the
Fundamental principle OF the Government, must
necessarily be dangerous If 1t be suffered to eX
pand and aggrandize itself. But, unhsppily, we
are not left to the necessity of resorting spec
ulation on that subject. The policy of eman-
cipation was set back in this country during
the reaction against revolutionary principles,
which necessarily attended the reorganization
of Government; and 1t set back still more
efectually by the CONSERVATION which followed
the disastrous failure of the first republic In
France. The privileged class promptly avail
ed themselves of the advantages which the Con-
stituiion afforded, to fortify themselves in the
Federal Government. The last Federal acts
directed against the privileged class were, the
abolition Of the foreign slave trade after 1908,
broad and then unsettled region which extends
from the north bank Of the Ohio to the eastern
shore of the Mississippi. Even the passage of
that ordinance was, by its silence, assumed TO
imply a right on the part of the privileged class
TO colonize with slaves the region lying south
of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi.
Unlooked-for events have lent to the privileged
class advantages which have more than coun-
terbalanced the adverse effects of this early ma
i Il Il
gin, which easily separates the seed from the
fibre, has made cotton almost exclusive az
ricultural staple in the States of the privileged
class and an eminent commercial staple of the
whole country The national territory has ne
cessarily been enlarged, from time TO time, to
accommodate an overgrowing population and
an ever-increasing commerce. Favored by
these circumstances, the privileged class have
at the same time fonnd, in a home production
of slaves in Maryland and Virginia and other
States, a compensation for the loss of the Afri
can slave trade and they have not been sloth
full in unesrning all the fears and dismissing
all the timidty and Cancellation which marked
their conduct during and Immediately after the
revolutionary war. The admission of Ken
lucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, as
slaveholding States, into the Union, seemed un-
avoidable, inasmuch as they were the over
growth of some of the old thirteen States and
thus these new States south of the Ohio, balan-
cling the growing free States north of that river
served a sort of balance between the priv
LEGGED and the unprivileged classes, which it
was not necessary to disturb. This the
first final partition of the unsettled territory of
the United Statec between those classes.
In 1904, France ceded to the United States
a broad belt, stretching along the western bank
of the Mississippi, from the British possessions
on the north, to the Spanish province of Texas
on the south. This acquisition, which was
equally necessary for the safety of the country
and for the uses of commerce, stimulated the
desire of the privileged class for an extension
of their territory and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of
their power. New Orleans, situated practical
ly on the coast Of the Gulf of Mexico, was al
ready at once an ancient slaveholding colony
and an important commercial mart. 1t lay
contiguous to the saveholding States. Under
these circumstances, it was without any resist
ance soon organized and admitted into the
Union, with its ancient laws and customs toll
Grating Slavery. st. Louis, though destined to
acquire great commercial importance, was as
yet an inconsiderable town, with few slavehold-
ers and slaves. The Mississippi only divided
1t from the Northwest Territory, which was al
ready consecrated to Freedom. The best in
terests of the country required, and humanity
demanded, that the Ordinance of 1877 should
be extended across the Mississippi. The priv
LEGGED class, however. took possession OF the re
gion around st. Louis, and made partial settle
ments lower down on the west bank of the Mis-
sissippl. st. Louis and its environs matured
as State in 1919, and demanded admission
with Slavery into the Union. Then, only thirty
two years after the passage of the Ordinance
OF 1877, and after its unanimous ratification by
the American people, the privileged class made
common cause with the new saveholding State,
and, assuming a tone at once bold, insoent 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 privileges in the Territories. or
TO refuse admission to n State, on the
ground of its refusal to surrender 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 as they
have been backed on all similar occasions
since that time. They were met, however, with
hrmness and decision by the unprivileged class
IN the House of Representatives, and so Mis-
sour failed then to be admitted as a slave State
The privileged class resorted to new form Of
strategy-the strategy of compromise. They
offered to be satisfied if Missouri only should
be admitted as slave State while Congress
should prohibit Slavery forever in all the resi-
due OF that part of the Louisiana purchase
which lay north of the parallel of 36O 3O> of
north latitude-the territory living between this
parallel and the province of Texas, and consti
tutng what Is now the State of Arkansas being
left by implication to Slavery. This compro.
mise was accepted, and thus diplomacy obtain
ed for the privileged class Immediate adyanta
ges, wnicn nad been denied TO their clamor and