The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-09-17

negroes and mulatoes should not be so
construed as to deprive any l~citizen of
the other States of any of the rights to
which they may be entitled under the
constitution of the United States. Or,
in other words, Mr.. Clay having adjust
ed the question between the bank and
the State of Ohio, to the satisfaction of
the bank, then the partizans of the bank,
who had availed themselves of the clause
in the constitution of Missouri, to renew
the agitation by refusing to permit the
Senators and Representatives from Mis-
sour to take their seats in Congress, were
interested in giving to Mr.. Clay the
credit of having compromised" the
question which had endangered the
peace and threatened the dissolution of
the Union, aud therefore Mr.. Clay was
enabled to make the compromised
And what was his compromise 1t was
a resolution permitting the Senators
and Representatives of Missouri to take
their seats in Congress upon condition
that the Legislature ofthe State of Mis-
souri, would, by a solemn act, declare
that the constitution of the state should
not authorize the Legislature to violate
the constitution of Tho United States ! =
For it amounts TO NJ more. And what
gave character to the whole proceeding,
was the fact that the pretense on which
the anti-slavery party in Congress had
refused to permit the Senators and Rep
resentatives from Missouri to take their
seats, was the objection raised to a
clause in the constitution, which could
not be amended or modified but by a
convention, and in the mode prescribed
in tho constitution, yet, all that the
compromising resolution required, was
that the Legislature of Missouri should
declare by a solemn act, that tn citi-
zens of the other States should not be
deprived of any of the rights to which
they were entitled under the constltu-
ton of the United States, as the condi-
ton on which they were to take their
seats. Now, inasmuch as no act of the
Legislature could modify or change the
constitution, and as the solemn farce OF
the passage of that resolution by the
Legislature was all that was required to
enable the Senators and Representatives
to take their seats as members of Con-
eress, that fact proves conclusively,
that the proceeding had been gotten up
by the agents and attorneys of the bank,
to excite and occupy the public mind,
and to prevent agitation IN relation to
the proceedings in the adjustment of the
issues on the controversy between the
bank and the State of Ohio, and that
having obtained a satisfactory adjust
ment Of those issues it was the interest
and policy of the bank to restore the
era " of good feelings y and that there
fore they united in magnifying the impor-
lance of The compromise" as a means
of restoring peace, and quoting the agl-
%tation.
1 repeat, that I write from memory
that my books and papersare at Wash
iugton; but 1 was a citizen of Missouri
and q member of the convention, and
of the Legislature of that State, and, as
such, had to act my part in the proceed
ings got up for that occasion ; and that
therefore I know that what 1 write is
correct.
You will see that there was no cont
promise" between the North aud the
South-that the anti-slavery party did
not consider the act authorizing Nilsson
ri to adopt q constitution, containing
tho provision relative to line SO deg. 80
min, as an adjustment binding on them
an that, therefore, they renewed the
agitation at the next session. 1t is a
fact notorious that the abolition party of
the North never did, by any act Of theirs,
pledge themselves to respect or accept
the line of SO deg. 80 min, as an adjust
ment, AID that SO far from accepting
such adjustment, they assaulted as
"doushfaces" every northern Senator
and Representative who voted for that
line and that, with scarce a single ex-
ception, every Senator and Representa-
tive who voted for it was driven from
public life. 1t is therefore not true, as
asserted by Mr.. Seward and others, that
Sc deg. 80 min. was q compromise line
agreed upon by a solemn compact be-
tween the North and the South, and l
defy him and all others to cite any proof
of the truth of his assertion.
AS to Mr.. Clay's compromise, it meant
nothing and accomplished nothing but the
admission OF the Senators and Represeu-
t~atives to their seats in Congress, from
which they had been excluded under q
false pretense, intended 10 cover over
his negotiation with Hammond. How
ridiculous and false, then, is the pre-
tense that the Kansas a~ctrepealed
a compromise binding upon the South,
because the North had accepted the line
of SO deg. 80 min. as an adjustment of
the slavery question I repeat, that
the North never did in Congress or else
where, (but in the convention which
framed the federal Constitution agree
to any compromise or adjustment of the
slavery question, and it follows that the
pretense that the Kansas act was a vio-
~lation of any pledge made by the South
and accepted by the anti slavery party
of the North is not true-for the aboli-
tion party of the North never did agree
to abide by or to respect the line of 500
80. They as a party in Congress, voted
against the act containing the provision
relative to that line, and as a party, they
denounced and prescribed the northern
members who voted for it. What I'M
blushing impudence, what shameless
hypocrisy, therefore, is it in them, at
this day, to come forward and make the
repeal of a measure which they mover ap-
proved and have always opposed, the
pretense for the renew all of the anti-sla-
very agitation!
In subsequent letters, I will show why
the agitation as again revived by John
Q. Adams, and that the anti slavery
movement is in accordance with the pol
icy and subsidiary to the interest of
Great Britain. DUFF GREEN.