Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-01-05

in the Congress of tAe Confederation, it is not t
he supposed that the question Of future relativv
power, as between the States which retained ant
those which did not retain a numerous colored pop
%ulation, escaped notice or failed to be considered
and yet the concession of that vaet territory to TIL
interests and opinions Of the Northern States,
Territory now the seat of FIVE among the larges
members of the Union was, in great measure, thu
act of the State Of Virginia and of the South.
When Louisiana was acquired by the United
States, it was an acquisition not less to the Nortl
than to the South; for while it was important tc
the country at the mouth of the river Mississippi
to become the emporium of the country above it,
so also it was even more important to the whole
Union to have that emporium; and although the
new province, by reason of its imperfect settlement
was mainly regarded as on the Gulf of Mexico
yet in fact it extended to the opposite boundaries
of the United States, with far greater breadth
above than below, and was, in territory as in ev
erything else. equally at least an accession ~ thu
Northern States. 1t is mere delusion and preju
dice, therefore, to ~speaklof Louisiana as an acquisi
ton in the special interest of the South.
The patriotic and just men, who participated in
that act were Influenced by motives far above all
sectional jealousies. 1t was in truth the grea,
event, which by completing for US the possession
Of the valley Of the Mississippi, with commercial
access to the Gulf of Mexico, impaired unity and
strength to the whole Confederation, and attached
together by indissolublc ties the East and the Vest,
as well as the North and the South.
AS to Florida, that was but the transfer by
| Spain to the United States of territory on the east
side of the River Mississippi, in exchange for large
territory which the United States transferred to
Spain on the west side of that river, as the entire
diplomatic history Of the transaction serves to
demonstrate, Moreover, it was an acquisition de-
manded by the commercial interests and the secu-
rity of the whole Union.
Meantime, the people of the United States had
grown up to a proper consciousness of their
strength, and in a brief contest with France, and
in a second serious war with Great Britain, they
had shaken off all which remained of undue rev.
erence for Europe, and emerged from the atmos-
phere of those transatlantic influences which sur
rounded the infant Republic and had begun to
turn their attention to the full and systematic de-
yelopment of the internal resources of the Union.
Among the evanescent controversies of that Pc
Rod, the most conspicuous was the question of
regulation, by Congress, of the social condition of
the future States to be found in the Territory of
Louisiana.
The ordinance for the government Of the terri
tory northwest of the river Ohio had contained a
provision, which prohibited the use of servile la
Dor therein, subject to the condition of the extra
dition of fugitives from service due in any other
part Of the United States. Subsequently to the
adoption of the Constitution this provision ceased
to remain as a law; for its operation as such was
absolutely superseded by the Constitution. But
the recollection of the fact excited the zeal of So
cial prOpagandism in some sections of the confed-
N+"NS'1 WV IN " bSSOho GNibSi efub "a
RI, came to be formed in the territory of Louisiana,
a proposition was made to extend to the latter ter
ritory the restriction originally applied to the
country situated between the rivers Ohio and Mis-.
sissippi.
Most questionable as was this proposition in all
its constitutional relations, nevertheless it received
the sanction of Congress, with some slight modif-
cations of line, to save the existing rights of the
intended new State. Ii was reluctantly acquiesced
in by Southern States as a sa critice to the cause of
peace and Of the Union, not only of the rights
stipulated by the treaty of Louisiana, but of the
principle Of equality among the States guaranteed
by the Constitution. 1t was received by the North
ern States with angry and resentful condemnation,
and complaint. because it did not concede al
which they had exactingly demanded. Having
passed through the forms of legislation, it took its
place in the statute book, standing open to repeal,
like any other act of doubtful constitutlonality
subject to be pronounced null and void by the
courts of law, and possessing no possible efficacy
to control the rights of the States, which might
thereafter be organized out of any part of the orig
inal territory of Louisiana.
In all this, if any aggression there were, any
innovation upon preexisting rights, to which por-
ton of the Union are they justly chargeable?
This controversy passed away with the occasion,
nothing surviving it save the dormant letter of the
statute.
But long a~fterward, when, by the proposed ac-
cession of the Republic of Texas, the United
States were to take their next step in territorial
greatness, a similar contingency occurred, and be-
came the occasion for systematized attempts to in
tervene in the domestic affairs of one section Of
the Union, in defiance of their rights as States,
and of the stipuldtions of the Constitution. These
attempts assumed a practical direction in the shape
of persevering endeavors by some of the Repre-
sentatives, in both Houses Of Congress, to deprive
the Southern States of the su pposed benefit of the
provisions of the act authorizing the organization
of the State of Missouri.
Rnt the rond sencn of the peop1a and the vital
force of the Constitution triumphed over sectional
prejudice, and the political errors of the day, and
the State of Texas entered to the Union as she
was, with social institutions which her people had
chosen for themselves, and with express agreement
by the reannexing act, that she should be suscep.
tible Of subdivision into a plurality of States.
Whatever advantage the interests of the South
ern States, as in the progress of time, to those
which sprang from previous concessions made by
the South.
To every thoughtful friend of the Union; to the
true lovers Of their country, to all who longed and
labored for the full success of this great expert
ment of republican institutions, it was cause of
congratulation that such an opportunity had oc-
Cured to illustrate our advancing power on this
continent, and to furnish to the world additional
of strength and stability of the Consti-
tuition. Who would wish to see Florida still a Eu-
ropean Colony? Who would rejoice to hail Texas
as a lone star, instead of one of the galaxy of
States? Who does not appreciate the incalculable
benefits of the acquisition of Louisiana? And
yet narrow views and sectional purposes would in
have excluded them all from the Union.
But another struggle on the same point ensued,
our victorious armies returned from Mexico,
and it devolved on Congress to provide for he ter
ritories acquired by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hid
The great relations of the subject had now
become distinct and clear to the perez ption of the
public mind, which appreciated the evils Of section
Al controversy upon the question of the admission
Of New States. Ia that crisis intense solicitude
pervaded the nation. But the patriotic impulses
Of the popular heart, guided by the admonitory
advice of the Father of his Country, rose superior
to all the difficulties of the incorporation of a new
empire into the Union. In the counsels of Con-
gress there was manifested extreme antagonism of
opinion and action between some representatives,
sought by the abusive and unconstitutional
employment of the legislative powers of the Gov
eminent to interfere in the condition of the in
,hoate States, and to impose their own sociai. theo-
ries upon the latter; and other representatives,
rrIn ranallod tho intarnneitinn nt tho Ganeral EoV-