The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-01-31

crowded with events which the future historian
may have to record as so many successive steps
of an oligarchical revolution, demolishing the
republican fabric of the statesmen of seventy
years ago. A brief recital of a portion of these
events, which it is proposed to present in a few
papers, may well be introduced by still more
concise reference to some of those, at earlier
periods, which prepared the way for them.
In 1920, Dutch ship, coming with cargo
Of Africans into James river, laid the founda-
ton of the social fabric of what were to be the
Southern States. The Carolinas, Maryland,
and Delaware, followed the example of Vir-
ginia as did Georgia, after her first twenty
years, to the great grief of her philanthropic
founder. The three middle Colonies had some
slaves, chiefly employed in domestic service.
Some negroes having been brought to Boston
in 1876, the magistrates sent them back to
Guinea, declaring themselves bound by the
first opportunity to bear witness against the
heinous and crying sin of man-stealing, Mass.
Colony Records III, 1851 and deter all others
belonging to us to have to do with such vile
and most odious courses, justly abhorred of all
good and just men," In May, 17Ol, Boston
instructed its Representatives to move to "put
period to negroes being slaves" But the
of any such legislation, and a small number of
slaves continued to be held in the Northern
Colonies.
| The census of 1890 showed 100000 slaves
in the United States-of which number, Virgin
ia counted 5000; South Carolina, lO7 900 !;
and Georgia, $4,000. During the war of the
Revolution, their presence had been felt seri-
ously to cripple the military efficiency of the
Colonies wherein they were held; and their
large number in Virginia must be regarded as
furnishing the chief explanation of the fact that
she sent to the field only between one third and
one half as many soldiers as Massachusetts,
though the soil of the latter Colony was clear
of the enemy after the first year of the war;
! While the feeling which dictated the asser-
ton in the Declaration of Independence, of the
inalienable right of all men ito life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness" was still recent
| and operative, there was general disposition
in all the States, except South Carolina and
Georgia, to relieve the country from the evils
of Slavery, present and threatened. A year af-
ter the peace with England, March l, 1884,
Mr.. Jefferson reported to the Congress of the
Confederation plan for the government of all
the territory ceded or to be ceded, by the in
dividual States to the United States" 1t pro-
vided that such territory should from time to
time be % formed into distinct States" and that
Z" after the year 1900 of the Christian era, there
should be neither Slavery nor involuntary SER
vitude in any of the said States, otherwise than
in the punishment of crime, whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted to have been
personally guilty"
OF the twenty three delegates present and
voting, sixteen were in favor of the provso !;
seven were opposed. But the rules of the Con-
federation Congress required a majority of the
thirteen States to carry measure and no State
could give vote except through as many as
| two delegates Six States voted for the pro-
viso. One more vote wanted. Delaware
was without representative. New jersey had
but one. He voted for the plan, but his col
league, who would have sustained him, and car
! ried it. was called away from Congress day
or two before the decision of the question, and
was detained till day or two after; and so
that benefcent measure failed. 1t was revived
by Mr.. Dane, of Massachusetts, in 1887, and
| carried, but then in a more limited FORM being
made to apply only to the territory northwest
of the Ohio.
In the Convention which framed the Federal
Constitution, Slavery secured three advantages
| 1t obtained provisions-l. That neither the i'm
portation of slaves from abroad nor their mi
grafton from one State to anotherl should be
prohibited by Congress for the next twenty
| years. 2. That no State should pass q law Civ
ing freedom to slaves escaped from other
States. 8. That five slaves should be counted
as equivalent to three freemen, in fixing the
population basis of representation in the lower
House of Congress. These provisions endan-
| gered the adoption of the Constitution by the
Northern States. Gouverneur Morris said, in
the Convention that he would sooner sub
NIT himself to tax for paying for all the ne
groes in the United States than saddle poster-
ty with such a Constitution" Gle never
would concur in upholding domestic Slavery.
1t was a nefarious institution Madison Pa
pers, 1868, 1865.
In the Massachusetts Convention for adopt
ing the Constitution, Judge Dawes urged the
shortness ofthe time that the offensive provisions
would have any force although Slavery is
not smitteO 5y an apoplexy, yet it has received
a mortal wound, and will die of a consump-
tom EUiot's Debates, II, p. al.
After the year 1905" said Mr. Wilson. in
the Pennsylvania Convention, I" the Congress
viii have power to prohibit the Importation of
slaves, notwithstanding the disposition of any
State to the contrary. consider this as lay
ing the foundation for banishing Slavery oat of
the country; and though the period is more
distant than l could wish, yet it will produce
the same kind, gradual change that was pro-
duced in Pennsylvania. - Did, p. ASP.
The Federal Constitution was ratified; the
Government was organized accordingly. and
before the close of the century and of the third
term of Presidential Office, the Slavery interest
had already carried two points, of which recent
events have manifested the extreme importance.
In a careful Interpretation of the clause of the
Constitution relating to fugitive slaves, its pur
port appears to have been merely to restrain
States, into which they might fee, frora passing
laws for their emancipation. They shall not,
in consequence of any law or regulation
therein, be discharged from such service or
clause contains no grant to Congress of power
over the subject, though in the next preceding
section power is expressly given ito prescribe
the manner in which acts, records, and pro-
( ceedings," of one State, "shall be proved in an
other" Mr. Rantoul very fully and conclu-
sively argued this point in his speech of June
ii, 1852 See appendix TO tie Congressional
| Globe, XIV, 1872. Mr.. Webster, in his 9TH
of March speech, declared that it had been, and
continued to be, his opinion, that the Constitu-
tional provision was simply San injunction up
on the States themselves" p Ibid, XXI, 274.
But the Second Congress thought differently,
pass a law empowering not only Judges of the
United States, but town and county Magistrates,
on the production of evidence satisfactory to
them, of escape from labor or service, to issue
warrants for the removal of fugitives to the
States from which they we're alleged to have
| fed. The act placed every mans Liberty, black
or white, in one State, at the mercy of an ire