Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-01-11

: pie Of the Southern States confine their al
tention TO their own affairs, not presumin
officiously to intermeddle with the soeia
institutions of the Northern States, too man.
of the inhabitants Of the latter are perma
nently organized in associations to infie
injury on the former, BY wrongful act:
which would be cause of war as betweei
foreign powers, and only fail to be such i
our system, because perpetrated under cove
of tho Union.
1t is impossible to present this subject a
truth and occasion require, without noticin:
the reiterated, but groundless allegation
that the South has persistently asserted
claims and obtained advantages in the pratt
cal administration of the general govern
ment, to the prejudice of the North, and il
which the latter has acquiesced. That is
the Stasas, which either promote or toler
ate attacks on the rights of persons and o
property in other States, to disguise thei
OWE injustice, pretend or imagine, and con
stantly aver, that they, whose constitution
rights ara hus systematically assailed, arC
themselves the aggressors. At the present
time, TINS imputed aggression, resting as il
does, only in the vague, declamatory charge:
of political agitators, resolves itself into mis-
apprehension or misinterpetation of the
principles and facts of the political organi.
zation of the new Territories of the United
States.
What is the voice of history? When
the ordinance which provided for the gov
ment of the territory northwest of the river
Ohio, and for its eventual subdivision into
new States, adopted in the Congress of the
confederation, it is not to be supposed that
the question of future relative power, as
between the States which retained and those
which did not retain, numerous colored
population, escaped notice, or failed to be
considered. And yet the concession of that
vast territory to the interests and opinions of
the Northern States, a territory now the
seat of five among the largest members of
of the Union, was, in great measure, the
act of the State of Virginia and of the
South.
When louisiana was acquired by the Uni
ted States, it was an acquisition not less to
the North than to the South; for while it
was important to the country at the mouth
of the river Mississippi to become the en-
porium of the country above it, so also was
it even more important to the whole Union
to have that emporium; and although the
province, by reason of its imperfect settle
ment, 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 everything else,
equally, at least, an accession to the North
ern States. 1t is mere delusion and preiu-
dice, therefore, to speak of louisiana as an
acquisition in the special interest of the
South.
The patriotic and just men who partici-
pated in that act were influence by motives
far above all sectional jealousies. 1t was,
in truth, the great event which, by compile
ting 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 at
tached. together by indissoluble ties the East
and the West, 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 tho Uni
ted States transferred to Spain on the west
side of that river, as the entire diplomatic
history of the transaction serves to demon
strate. Moreover, it was an acquisition de-
by the commercial interests and
the security of the whole Union.
In the meantime, the people of the Uni
ted States mad grown up to a proper con-
Sciousness of their strength, and IN brief
contest with France, and in the second seri-
Var with Great Britain, they had sha-
ii off all which remained of undue reEer-
enco for Europe, and emerged from the at
mosphere of those translate influence
which surrounded the infant republic, and
had begun to turn their attention to the
full and systematic development of the inter-
nal resources of the Union
Among the eYanescent controversies of
hat period, the most conspicuous was the
question of regulation by Congress of the
social condition of the future States to be
cunded in the Territory of louisiana.
The ordinance for the government of the
erritory northwest of the river Ohio had
provision, which prohibited the
Use of servile labor tneirin, subject to the
of the extradition OF fugit;yes from
service due in any other part of the United
States. Subsequently to the adoption of
he constitution, this provision ceased to re
main as law for its operation as such was
Ibsolutely superseded by the constitution.
But the recollection of the fact excited the
eal of social propagandism in some sections
# the confederation, and when a second
State, that of Missouri, came to be formed
n the territory of Louisiana, proposition was
made to extend to the latter territory the |
estriction originally applied to the country
ituated between the rivers Ohio and Miss
ssippi.
Most questionable as was this proposition
n all its constitutional relations, neverthe-
ess it received the sanction Of Congress,
With some slight notifications of line, to
ave the existing rights of the intended new
State. 1t was reluctantly aequiesced in by
Southern States as a sacrifice to the cause
f peace and tho Union, not only of the
ights stipulated by the treaty of Louisiana,
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