The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-10-02

men in slavery" that "the principle of Sla-
very is in itself right, and does not depend on
difference of complexion;" that "Slavery, black
or white is right and necessary" that "our
negroes are not only better off as to physical
comfort than free laborers, but their moral con-
dition is better" The salvation, then, for the
free white laborer, falling into pauperism in the
South, and struggling in vain under the super
incumbent weight of the well-directed Slave
Power, is to make him slave, and give him
the benefit of the same masters. This is clearly
the whole drift of the policy, now for the first
time boldly enforced by argument. The bless
ing which this new feature of the peculiar insti-
tuition is to bring on our Government, is thus
illustrated in late Richmond Examiner:
"This agitation has produced one happy eff
feet, at least-it has compelled us of the South
to look into the nature and character of this
great institution, and to correct many false i'm.
pressions that even we had entertained in rela-
ton to it. Many in the South once believed
that it was moral and political evil. That
folly and delusion are gone. We see it now in
its true light, and regard it as the most safe and
stable basis for free institutions in the world.
1t is impossible with US that the conflict can
take place between labor and capital, which
makes it 30 difficult to establish and maintain
free institutions in all wealthy and highly-civil-
lied nations where such institutions as ours do
not exist. The Southern States are an aggre-
gate, in fact, of communities not of individuals.
Every plantation is q little community, with the
master at its head, who concentrates in himself
the united interests of capital and labor, of
which he is the common representative. These
small communities aggregated makethe State in
all, whose action, labor, and capital, is equally
represented, and perfectly harmonized."
| Here is new system divulged: "Every
plantation is little community, with the mas
ter at the head, who concentrates in himself
the united interests of capital and labor"
These small communities aggregated make
the State" Louis XIV, King of France,
said, ~ am the State" Each "little communi-
ty," composed of white and black, on the large
plantations of the South, has q master at the
head" and the masters of "these small commu-
mites aggregated" are the State. And to make
the masters of the blacks more absolutely the
masters of the State, we find that the represent
alton in many of the Southern States is appor-
toned on the black basis. The counties with
| great number of negroes and few whites
have in this State majority of the Legislature,
and can control that portion of the State having
much greater number of whites and fewer
slaves. Eastern Virginia, with its multitudes
of slaves and few whites, has control in the
Legislature over the larger white population
west of the mountains, and its fewer slaves. In
South Carolina, the sway of the masters in the
Legislature over the whites is made still more
absolute; for, besides basing representation upon
black population, the Constitution makes the
ownership of ten slaves qualification for a
seat in the Legislature, or an equivalent in free
hold estate. And it takes away the choice of
the Presidential electors altogether from the
people, and gives it to this slaveholding assem-
bly,.
This is the system which the Richmond press
now urges on, to establish principle that will
justify the actual enslavement of the dependent
class of the free white population. This is not
my statement of the case. 1t is the record of
the principles and policy of the Democratic
party in the South, as delineated by the leading
statesmen and presses directing its power. The
record is made by them merely copy it. Is
it the Democracy of Jefferson or Jackson, or
of the true Republican party, built up by the
fathers of our Government? think not Their
principle was. that the white race should, by a
majority of its suffrages, WELD the authority of
the State Governments. They allowed repre-
sentation in Congress to the owners of slaves in
the South for three-ffths of that species of pop
ulation, in consideration that all the Territories
of the United States should be reserved exclu-
.
making this reservation, WAS before Congress
at the same moment that the Constitution was
under debate in the Convention; and these mu-
tual concessions, resigning the Territories to
freelabor on one side, and granting an increased
representation to slave-owners ON the other, con-
stituted one of the compromises which became
necessary to establish the Government of the
Union.
1t was in pursuance of this principle of com
promise between the N orth and South, engrafted
in the Constitution, that gave Missouri and all
the territory south of go 30 to slave settlement
and all north of it to the emigration of free set
tiers. This was most solemn treaty. Its
stipulations ought to be held more sacred than
any other, because it has root in the policy rec
ognised in the Constitution as the basis of the
Union-because it was proffered by the weaker
power, and was ratified, not by the sanction of
the President and Senate alone, as in the case
of ordinary treaties, but by the House of Rep
resentatives, and called, in contradistinction to
other statutes, by universal accord, the Mis-
souri, Compromise" The breach of this, like
the breach of treaties among independent
States, has brought on an appeal to force. Civil
| war between the free and slave States is impend-
ing, and nothing can avert it but return to the
principle of the Compromise and of good faith.
1t is on this ground that the Republican party
has taken its stand
The Presidential candidates of the opposing
parties-Mr. Fillmore who heads one ticket,
and Mr.. Breckenridge on the other, who speaks
for Mr.. Buchanan and himself-say that the
election of the Republican candidate will be
signal for the dissolution of the Union. The
Charleston Mercury proclaims that all parties
in South Carolina are resolved. and Mr. Brooks,
already notorious by his attack in the Senate
n fho af Al
that body, has declared that Fremont's election
would be followed by the seizure of the Capitol
and archives of the Government by a military
force; and Mr.. Wise, of Virginia, has written
letters and given verbal assurances to counte.
nance the design.
What men will rally to this standard of dis.
union? Will the free white men, who have no
slaves, enlist to break up the Government and
| to destroy an Administration which comes into
power on principle and under the most sacred
pledges to restore their violated rights? The
| Republican party directs its efforts to the res
toration of the soil dedicated to free labor, to
that class of citizens, North and South, for whom
its settlement was reserved, to deliver them
from the encroachment and gradual monopoly
which the owners of slaves always accomplish,
wherever the institution is admitted The sim
gle-handed freemen cannot hold his own against
one who has the advantage of a multitude of
hands. The result in the South settles this
point. And it is to this fact Colonel Fremont
adverts in the strong pledge he gives to the
free laborer, who has neither lands nor slaves,
in this passage of his letter accepting the nom.
ination to the Presidency. Speaking of the
breach OF the Missouri Compromise, he says:
THAT fatal act which gave birth to this purely
sectional strife, originating in the scheme to
take from free labor the country secured to it
by solemn covenant, cannot be too soon dis
armed of its pernicious force. The only genial