Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-09-29

OF our Territories, or, by retaining
the restriction, indirectly TO abolish slavery in
Missouri. Ii the latter alternative had to be
il would have been an act of charity
and mercy to the Shareholders Of Missouri to
warn them in time of the necessity of abandon
ing their homes or manumitting or selling their
slaves-to give them ample time to determine
between the sacrifice of fifty millions of slave
property and seventy millions Of landed estate.
Direct legislation would have been preferable to
indirect legislation, leading to the same result,
and the enforcement of the restriction in the
settlement of Kansas was virtually the abolition
of slavery in Missouri. But Congress acted more
wisely, think, and with greater fidelity to
the Constitution and the Union.
The history of the Kansas Nebraska bill is
known to the country. IL abolished the geogra-
phcal line Of SO deg. 80 min. by which the limits
of slavery were restricted, and substituted con-
stitutional and just principle, which left to the
settlers of the Territories to adopt such domestic
institutions as suited themselves If ever there
was principle calculated TO commend itself TO
all reasonable men and reconcile all conflicting
interests, this would seem to have been the one.
1t was the principle of popular sovereignty-the
basis upon which our independence had been
achieved-and it was therefore supposed to be
justly dear to all Americans, of every latitude
and every creed. But fanatcism was not salts
he'd The Abolitionists and their allies moved
heaven and earth To accomplish its defeat, and
although unsuccessful they did not therefore de-
spair Outvoted in Congress, receiving no coun-
tenance from the Executive, they retired to ano-
ther theatre of action, and, strange to say, they
prostituted an ancient and respectable Common
wealth-one of the Old Thirteen--to commence,
in her sovereign capacity a State, with the
means and imposing attitude incident to such a
position, crusade against slavery, novel in its
character, more alarming in its features, and
likely to be more fatal in its consequences than
xt-I
since the appearance of Abolitionism political
party in 1895. They originated and matured n
scheme, never before heard of or thought of in
this country, the object and effect of which was
to evade the principle OF the Kansas Nebraska
bill, and, in lieu of non-interventon by Congress,
to substitute active intervention by the States.
An act OF incorporation was passed; company
with capital of five millions was chartered; and
this company was authorized to enlist army of
mercenary fanatics and transport them to Kansas.
Recruiting officers were stationed in places most
likely to furnish the proper material; premiums
were offered for recruits; the public mind was
stimulated by glowing and false descriptions Of
the country proposed to be occupied, and Hes
sian band of mercenares was thus prepared and
forwarded TO commence and carry on war of ex-
termination against slavery
10 call these people emigrants is a sheer per-
version of language. They are not sent to cult
vate the soil, to better their social condition, TO
add to their individual comforts or the aggregate
wealth of the nation. They do not move from
choice or taste, or from any motive affecting, or
supposed to affect, themselves or their families
They have none of the marks of the old pioneers,
who cut down the forests of Kentucky Ohio, and
Indiana, or levelled the canebrakes of Tennessee
and Mississippi, or broke up the plains of Illinois
and Missouri. They are mostly ignorant OF agri-
culture; picked up in cities or villages, they of
course have no experience as farmers, and if left
to their unaided rcsources-ifnot clothed and fed
by the same power which has effected their trans
portation-they would starve freeze. They are
hirclings-an army of hirelings-recruited and
shipped indirectly by a sovereign State of this
Union, TO make war upon an institution now eX-
isting in the Territory to which they are trans
planted, and thence to inhict fatal blow upon
the resources, the prosperity, and the peace of a
neighboring State They military colonies,
planted by State government to subdue Ter
ritory opened to settlement by Congress, and take
exclusive possession thereof. In addition TO that
esprit du corps which of necessity pervades such an
organization, they have, in common, reckless
and desperate fanaticsm which teaches them that
slavery is sin, and that they are doing God s
service in Fastening its destruction. They have
been picked and culled from the ignorant masses,
which Old England and New England negro phi
lanthropy has stirred up and aroused to madness
on this topic, and have been selected with refer
ence to their views on this topic alone. They are
men with single idea and to carry out this
they have been instructed and taught to disre
gard the laws OF God and man; to consider blood
shed and arson, instruction, destruction Of pro-
perty, or servile war, as the merest trihes, com
pared with the glory and honor Of seducng
single slave from his master, harboring and
the thief who has carried him Off
That such population wonld be fatal to the
peace and security of the neighboring State of
Missouri, and immediate destruction of such
owners of slaves as had already moved TO the Ter
rtory of Kansas, is too clear TO admit Of argu-
ment. A horde of our western savages, with
ayowed purposes Of destruction to the white race,
would be less formidable neighbors
The colonization OF Kansas with a population
of this character was n circumstance which
aroused attention and excited alarm among our
citizens here and those who had already emf
grated to Kansas. Could any other result have
been expected? Did sensible men at the North
did the Aboltionists themselvcs-expect any
other?
Missouri contained, as we have seen, one hun
dred thousand slaves, and their value amounted
who pronounced slayery All vdu siV sin aH and
national curse, ever yet pointed out any decent
ly-plausble scheme by which IL could be re-
movedl The entire revenue Of our State, for or
binary fiscal purposes, scarcely reaches FIVE hun
dred thousand dollars, and the abolition Of sla-
very here would involve the destruction Of pro-
ductive capital estimated at fifty millions of dol
lars, or taxation upon the people Of five millions
Of dollars annually, which is the legalized interest
upon this amountof capital, besides the additional
tax which would he necessary TO raise sinking
fund TO pay off the debt created. The Constitu-
ton of Missouri prohibits the Legislature from
passing laws emancpatng slaves without full
TO their owners; and il is therefore
apparent that tenfold the entire revenue Of the
State would be barely sufficient TO pay the inter-
est upon sum equivalent TO the actual money
value of The slaves, without providing any means
10 extinguish the principal which such debt
would create. We omit altogether, in this cal
culation, the impracticability and impolicy and
cruelty, TO both races, of liberating the slaves
here, with provision for their removal, and the
additional debt which such removal would create,
equal, in all probability, to that occasioned by
heir mere emancipation. Ii would seem, then,
hat the merest glance Mt the statistical tables Of
our State, showing its population and revenue,
must have satisfied the most sanguine abolitionst
IF the futility Of his schemes If the investigation
vas pursued further, and our estimate was made
% embrace the three millions and half Of slaves
now in the Southern and Southwestern States, and
the billions TO which our computation must ascend
n order to ascertain their value in money, this
inti-slavcry crusade, which presents itself in
orm-o of open aggression against the white race,
without the sembance or pretext of good TO that