The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1856-01-26
THE PERRYSBURG JOURNAL.

ldUlllly vi private COM lraClS, Ol Tue security
of private property, and OF universal educa-
ton, stands the great interdict against slave
ry, acknowledging and impartialy protect
ing the rights of man as man. The words
to which we always recur when seeking in
the ordinance the peculiar springs of our
wonderful prosperity and progress, are those
which embody this prohibition. Never did
the noble pioneers who laid the foundations,
on which we now joyfully build complain
of that interdict as an abridgment of any
rights, personal or political. On the contra
ry they have ever spoken Of it as the pillar of
fire by night and of cloud by day which gui-
dAu and protected them in the wilderness
More than any other state, Ohio, as the first
born of the ordinance, and indebted to the
ordinance for her proud position, as the third
state of the cOntederacy, and first among the
new states, is bound to cherish and defend
its great and beneficent principles. In so
doing we shall be fellow workers with its
illustrious framars in their own declared pol
icy and purpose of ''extending the funda-
mental principles of civil and religious lib
erty whereon these republics, their laws and
constitutions are erected, and fixing and es-
tablishing those principles as the basis of all
laws, constitutions and governments which
forever hereafter shall BE- formed in Ameri-
can territory" No political duty appears
to be more urgent than this.
The question of slavery, it is almost uni
versally conceded, transcendS in present i'm
portance all other political questions of d ma
tional character The repeal of the Missou-
ri prohibition, abrogating the Missouri com
promise, opens anew the whole subject of the
relations of slavery to the Union, to the
states, and to the territories. Ia dntermin
ing the true line of duty, under these cir
cumstances, it seems to be the part of wis
dom to recur to the acts of the founders Of
the republic, and to the principles Of the con-
stitution. To me these guides seem to indi-
cate plain path. 1t leads back to the orig
inal national policy. That policy, have al
ready remarked, while it sanctioned no out
side interference with slavery III slave states,
contemplated no extension of it beyond state
limits. 1t tregarded slavery in all its relations
as subject, exclusively, to state legislation,
and absolved the general government from all
responsibility for its existence or cUnlnu-
ance. Our return To that policy should be
Sgnalzad By the restoration of the guaran
ty of freedom 10 the territories which have
been deprived Of it by the retrograde legisla
ton of congress. Had the policy originally
adopted been persistently pursued, the ques
uOl vi slavery Wuulu nave CGdS6u lOllS SlilCe
to vex our repose and disturb our councils.
Should that policy be restored, may we not
confidently expect the restoration, also, of
those relations of harmony and good will
which characterized the era of its adoption,
and that, through repeal Of all national leg
isIation in support of slavery and the consu
tutional action of state governments, the ar
dent desire Of our fathers for the deliverance
Of the whole country from the great evil, may
at length be fulfilled? No worthier objects
than these, in my judgement, can engage the
united efforts Of lreeman. Frank and cordi-
al CO operation for these noble ends excludes
all invidious and unjust discrimination on
account of birth Or creed, endangers no right
of any individual Or any state, but promises
the happy result Of ID more perfect Union,
established upon the solid foundations OF ex-
act justice and equal rights.