The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-05-01

State Government. AS well might the old
heather deity, whose prolific brain gave birth to
Minerva, when confronted by his own offspring,
complain that he had created a god.
But if Kansas is not State-if she does not
possess the power to make laws, which is defined
to be I" the supreme power in State IF this
right of self-government aoGs not carried by the
people from the States to this Territory-ind if
Congress did not confer on the people of Kansas
! the right to enact all needful laws and to regu-
late their own domestic institutions in theft own
way-if the squatters are not sovereign-then this
I supreme power must be vested in the Government
| of the United States. Her will, legitimately ex-
pressed, is the law. She has the full and COM
plete power in legisatng for her Territories, "to
command what is right and to prohibit what is
wrong"
The power of Congress to exclude Slavery from
! all the Territories of the United States nos en-
braced within the limits of any State being estab-
lished or conceded, inquire, secondly, ,esether
this pooer ought TO be exercised in the establishment
of Territorial Governments achere Slavery did pre-
| viously e1ist.
In the discussion of this proposition, sesire
to probe the subject to the core. prefer to rush
away the surface rubbish, and to lay the fot nda-
| lions of the superstructure on the solid rocE
l. Is Slavery right? Is it in accordance with
the principles of natural justice? The time has
been, when very few in the country defended the
moral right of one to hold another in perpetual
bondage. Its continuance hitherto has been
defended by citing the difficulties that surrounded
the question of emancipation. But the passage
| of the Kansas Nebraska law has wrought a sad
change, fear, in the moral tone and TEMPER of
this discussion. Members of Congress now tell
you that the enslavement of the African race by
the Anglo-Saxon is no evil that it is a blessing
that it is the natural condition of the two eaces
! that an enlightened philanthropy require the
enslavement of the African; that he belongs to an
inferior race that he cannot endure the sSstk of
contact with his Supporters; that annihilat 1n or
servitude is the only alternative.
| AS the African is presented to my mind y the
traveller and the historian and by my pc sonal
observation, 1 am compelled to admit the 'aferi-
ortty; but, if the right Of the Anglo-Sas IN to
enslave him depends on his manifest ufes ority,
| it becomes the duty of every Senator to eS mine
closly the nature of that inferiority. Is t the
result Of the enslavement of his ancestry fo
than thousand years, or is it a natural ~pecifc
difference, developed analysis of the ellen ntdry
| ldDs of matter and of mind?
In laying the foundations of new State, this
problem is worthy of the careful attention of the
proudest and wisest statesman on the floor of the
American Senate; for in its solution he egj lates,
by its influence for the whole human rac''-not
only for the one thousand millions of peopIa that
now live, but for these teeming millions % they
shall continue to come and go while time. shall
| last
That each may arrive at correct decision of
the nature Of the admitted naferiorrty Of the African
to the Anglo-Saxon, 1 request Senators to GLOW
me to refer them to their early elementary read
ing-to a succinct view of this subject, 4srived
| from standard writers ON physical, ment and
moral science--from such works as are SEED in
| colleges, academies, and seminaries of lie ming,
| all over the country-such works as are placed
in the hands of the student of law, of mi hcine,
| and of theology.
Psychologists tell US that there is no specific
difference in the physical structure of Re two
races; that the solid parts of their bod IS are
| constituted of the same number of bon and
joints, similarly located and distributed that
| there is not muscle, or tendon, or ligap mt or
| vein, or artery, or secretion or Absorb mt, or
| nerve Of motion of volition, found in The or
| ganism of one that does not exist in the other
| that each possesses the same senses of ght, OF
touch Of TASTE of smelling, and of hearing !; that
| each possesses the same specific means Of Masti-
cation, digestion, and procreation. There al Z, how
| ever physical differences. The skin of is
black-of the other, white; the hair of {, We, fine
| and knotted-of the other, coarse and ST aight
the lips of the one, thick and protruding of the
other, thin and compressed; and the p 'spira-
tory exhalations of the one said to more
odorous than of the other. But these aret IL said
l
specific faculties and functions. No spe ifc or
gan has been omitted or added.
We are told, by writers on mental scien e, that
| the natural sensibilities aroused in 18th by
the use of the same organs that the african
and Anglo-Saxon alike experience plea ure in
the mastication of food, in the inhalation IF fra
grant odors, in the exercise of the sense touch,
in gazing at the beauties of creation, andi listen
ing to the melody and harmony of sound that
1 the same sounds and cOlOre and rnotio q and
heights, and depths, and expanses, and 10 inifest-
ations of power, that elevate the feeling of one
to key of grandeur or sublimity, overwt elm the
other with kindred emotions. They tell 10 that
in each they find the same specific desj es, in
stincts, appetites, and passions; that es h may
love, and hope, and fear, and hate-may be en-
vous, jealous, and revengeful; that in ea sh they
discover the faculty of perception, of con option,
OF memory, of imagination, of belief, and Of will
that each experiences paternal fraternal, and fill
| al affection that each experiences emotions of
humanity, of patriotism, and of piety
| From this physical and mental analysis, it will
| be perceived that each organ may be afHaher in
one race than in the other but that in other re-
spects they do not materially differ. The anato-
my of the one is the anatomy of the otter; the
mental science that describes the laws of mind of
| the one, delineates the spiritual nature of the
other; the moral philosophy that analyses the
moral emotions of the one, reveals the moral fac
uties of the other. All the laws of herlth and
| culture applicable to the one, are applicable to
the other The same physician that pfescribes
| for the African slave in his howell, a bed of
straw, prescribes with equal success for ais mas
| ter, in a stately mansion, on couch Of down
| The same minister of righteousness whe soothes
the sorrows and assuages the griefa and 'hergizes
| the hopes of the slave, when the shsdows of
| death hover around him, administers with equal
success the consultations of the same Gospel to
| the man of whittier skin.
| The manifest inferiority Of the African. to the
| Anglo-Saxon does not consist in a generic or
specific difference. 1t is that kind of inferiorty
which, doubtless, the enlightened Statesman
| would expect to find among the descendants Of
those who had been doomed to absolute servi-
| tude from time immemoral His BODY is less
| symmetrical his face less beautiful his appe-
| tites, passions, instincts, and desires, less
ageable; his perceptions less acute; hi52 concep-
tons, less clear; his memory, CONSEQUENCES, be-
lief, powers of reasoning and will, mo- e feeble ;
his love of parents, of offspring, of man, of coun-
try, of truth, of honor of justice and of God, less
reliable. But is any one of these ABSENT If so,
| what element of manhood has been omitted?
None not onei
| But if he is inferior to the white maH' in this
sense-if his body is weak, his mind feeble, his
| moral sensibilites obtuse-does that sopfer the
| right the man of strong body Of vigorous
intellect, and of acute moral sensibitie,Sto seize
orerd,ce, and enslare him Is it might that deter
mines the right? Because you have tae potcer
| may you of right enslave your fellowsmen? Is
this the voice of Northern gallantry and of South
| ern chivalry?
| 1t might do for Louis Napoleon, as Se sits on
| a usurped throne, to claim the right, because he
has the po,cer to control the destinies of other
men. 1t might do for Alexander, the CT VI Of Rus
STA, as he sits enthroned where the old Wizard of