The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-06-21

the House from the slave States is 30, from the
free States I44-showing a majority for the
latter of "a, nearly seven times larger than
that of 1870!
Meantime, the white population of the slave
States has increased, from l,27l ,488 in 1890,
to 6,222, AIS in l85O-oA 38S per cent; while
the white population in the free States has in
creased, from l,9O0,976 in 1890, to l3,33O,65O
in l85O-or COL per cent. The white popula-
ton in the free States, which was six hundred
thousand greater that that of the slave States,
in 1890, is now seven millions greaterl
Then, as to territory: The territory now
organized into free States comprehends an
area of 6l2,597 square miles; that into slave
States, sos: but we must add to the
former the area of the Territories of Ore
gon, Washington, Nebraska, and Minnesota,
amounting to 809,959, which will swell the
aggregate area of Territory certainly free,
to ! 1922 $50 square miles. The other Terrific
ries, Utah. New Mexico, and Kansas, and the
Indian Territory, comprising an of 662, l02
square miles, cannot be classed as slave terri
tory; at the most, claim is raised to them by
the Shareholders, claim, which we hope will
soon be exploded in Kansas, and which they
will find very difficult to make good in relation
to any of the rest.
Now, add to all this, the consideration, that
the free States command the whole of the Pa
cifc coast, all the great seaports on the At
lantic, the whole system Of inland seas, stretch
fbo III fva IN tnyy ri IL
Pacific ocean; that they own the shipping,
control the commerce, and possess the disposal
BILE capital of the country that, in internal
improvements, education arts, science, litera-
ture, invention, and enterprise, they stand be-
yond comparison with the slave States-and
is it not clear as sunlight, that they have the
power in their own hands, of securing the
perpetual ascendency of Freedom and Free
Labor Institutions, and so controlling the Fed
eral Government, that the Union shall not only
not be seriously injured by Slavery, but shall,
by peaceful, constitutional methods, facilitate
its extinction?
How the removal of Slavery is ultimately to
be effected, is question which, justly awakens
painful solicitude; but certain knowledge on
this point is not at all necessary to the dis
charge of our duty as nonslaveholders. If we
firmly maintain and wisely use the power Sc
cured to US under the Constitution, and by
the laws regulating colonization, population, and
growth, in this country, come what may to Sla-
very, let the States in which it exists deal with
it as they may, we are safe, the Federal Gov
eminent is safe, the Cause of Freedom, so far
as represented by the Free Institutions of the
nation and its Union, cannot be subverted.
There may be commissions in the South, but
she cannot drag the Union to ruin, while the
Union may prove her only hope. If we save
ourselves Slavery may be wrecked, and the
Slave States still be rescued. But if we part
with the staff of accomplishment, if we forbear
to use the ample means within our reach, to
give to Freedom the ascendency, if we permit
Slavery to hold the reins of the Federal Gov
eminent, and convert it into a Juggernaut of
Despotism, then Retribution, with its thick
swarming judgments, will overtake us all, and
there will be none to deliver.
We have Oct the power, and on this point we
differ from the Edinburyh Recie,c The re-
viewer has overlooked all the encouraging indi-
cations we have just brought to view; nor
does he appear to have the least conception of
the means at our command. Admit, that all
ruling influences at the South are enlisted in
the support of Slavery; that the clergy is de.
moralzed, craftsmanship debauched, the press
enslaved-that shareholders are growing more
INSCRIPTIONS and unrelentmg every day-that
not an suspicious omen appears in the whole
Southern horizon-what then? We have
great duty to perform, and its faithful perform
ance will work revolution in the South, not
violently, not arbitrarily, but in ways which no
Interest can Withstand, no Prejudice battle, no
Law forbid. The Edinburgh Reriew talks of
the necessity of amendments to the Constitu.
ton, to enable Congress to abolish the slave
laws of the South, but comes to the conclusion
that such amendments are impossible, because
the requisite number Of slave States cannot be
induced to go for them. Congress can then
do nothing more than repeal the Kansas
Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Act!
Then it asks, in a tone of despair:
Beyond the repeal of these acts. what can
an American statesman, anxious to free his
country from that intolerabe load of misery
and crime, effect? He may indulge the hope
that the ameiorating influence of knowledge
and religion will induce the inhabitants of the
Southern States themselves to amend gradually
their atrociOus slave codes. He NAV console
himself with such a hope. We should be sorry
to deprive him of it, but we do not share it.
Public opinion in the slave States, instead of
10
strumentalites by which it can be enlightened
or shamed. The press, the pulpit the Iepisla.
tive bodies, are silenced. ANY man tainted
to use the language of a Southern Presbyterian
clergyman, with the bloodhound principles of
Abolitlonism, or even suspected of being so
tainted, is ruined, outraged, and exiled. if he is
allowed to live. That Providence will. in its
own way and its own time, work out cure. we
believe; because we believe improvement nro.
gressive, though always slow, and often inter
rupted, to be among the laws by which this
earth is governed. But We do not venture to
hope that We, or our sons, or our grandsons,
will see American Slavery extirpated from the
EARTH"
Let US see what the American Statesmen, or
rather what the American People-those of
them who think Slavery a curse-can do.
They can put down this mad crusade against
foreigners, and maintain their liberal policy in
relation to immigration, the effect of which is
to increase free population and multiply free
States. They can build up within thirty years
ten new free States, in Territory about which
there is now no contest: they can put down
the marauders in Kansas, and secure it for free
labor institutions: they can and will increase
their representation in Congress, till it become