Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-01-19
HEANTI-SLAVE BUGLE.

IEuln1ltltts4 Nltu Multt We EAii NViAiiAA'N 49,
amply and freely 10 the annual revenue. it is no'
an agreeable reflection that, Of ull tie Sintcs III
Wbich the UeH eral Government has asserted u rru'
pgictary right to the soil, Ohio has received the
least in grants Of lands for education, improve
ments and other like purposes; and that while mil
lions are expended for the protection ana benent
Of Commerce en- the Ocean Coasts Of the Kepub-
tic, the property and lives Of our own people are
exposed to continual peril and enofnious loss upon
our Rivers and our Lakes for the want OF ccnpar
atively insignificant appropriations tor the I'M
proyement of their channels and harbors. The
injustice Of unequal grants Of lands is perhaps be'
You'd remedy; Lut it will he our own fault II our
Rivers and IIarSors continue to be thus neglected.
While in these and mGny other important details
of administration the interests Of our own State
are deeply affected by the action of the National
Government, we are even more vitality concerned
in the great principle by which that action and the
progressive development Of our country are regu-
lated and controlled.
AS man is more than his circumstances. as free
dom is better than wealth, as rights are more inn
poltant than Institutions, it becomes us to look
vol to the fundamental ideas which determine the
character of Government and the course OF its
practical operation.
The basis of American Institutions is the demo.
cratic principle Of equality among men. They
rest upon the solid foundation Of popular consent.
The primary objects of their establishment are
the defense and protection Of personal rights. II
thy fail &c secure these ends, it is the duty OF the
people who established them to amend or change
them. 10 organize and administer government
upon these principles is the work Of a republican
people.
Willie the democratic idea thus constitutes the
basis Of American Institutions, various expec;a-
tons, under the pressure Of real or supposed ext
gencies, have been admitted to its universal appli.
cation. Among these, Slavery, the creature OF
despotism and the deadly opposite of democracy,
claims baneful pre-eminence.
When our country asserted her independence,
slavery existed in all the States. Its evil %infuen-
ces, social and political. were, however, well I'M
derstood, and its irreeoncilable antagonism to the
rights of human nature and the principles oil just
government, was universally acknowledged.
The founders Of the Republic, in framing our
institutions, were careful to give no national sane
ton to this portentous anomal y; but they attempt
ed no interference with its existence in the States.
Outside of State limits, they allowed it no shelter.
Within State limits, they left 1t to the exclusive
disposition Of States Immediately concerned. No
fact is better established by the records Of the past,
than the prevalence, during the earlier period OF
our history, of an almost universal expectation
that slavery, excluded, by positive prohibition,
from all national territory, would gradually but
certainly, and at no distant day under the opera
ton Of the principles of the Declaration OF lnde'
pcndcnce, aud through the action Of the State au-
thorities, disappear wholly from every State Of the
Union. The foremost champions Of freedom were
citizens Of slave States, and occupied the highest
stations in the State and National Governments.
In l7S4 immediately after the partial adjustment
of the conflict between the claims Of the Union and
the pretcntions Of the States in respect to the terri
tory between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi.
through the cession by Virginia, of the territory
northwest of the Ohio. Jefferson proposed to pro-
vide forever against the extension of slavery, by
a positive prohibition of its existence after lSO0,
in any territory coded or 70 be coded, or in any
State to be created out of such territory. This
r,rArn ,rnbil;t;,n ,anniynI tho yntns nf ciytann
ous of twenty three delegates, and of six out of
nine States in the Congress Of the Confederation.
1t failed to become a law by reason of that pro-
vision of the Articles Of Confederation which
made the concurrence of at least seven States nee
essary to an affirmative decision of any question.
The great majority in its favor indicates, however,
the prevalent sentiment of the time.
Three years later, the Ordinance of 1877 impress
ed upon the soil of the Territory northwest Of the
Ohio an indelable prohibition of Slavery. That
Ordinance was adopted by the unanimous votes of
all the States in Congress. 1t covered every inch
of Territory subject to the exclusive regulation Of
the General Government.
In the same gear the National Constitution was
framed. Mr.. Madison declared it wrong tn admit
in the Constitution the idea that there could be no
PROPERTY in man." No such word as Slave or Sla-.
very found place in any of its provisions. All re,
cognition Of the rightlulness of slavehoIding, and
all national sanction Of the practice. was carefully
excluded from the instrument. In every clause
which has been, or can be construed rs referring to
Slavery, it is regarded as the creature of State leg
islation, and dependant. wholly, upon State legisla-
ton for its existence and continuance. There is no
trace of the Constitution itself or in the debates
Of its trainers, of any expectation or apprehension
Of the institution or maintenance Of Slavery by ma
tionnl law, or in national territory. No one antici-
pated its extension beyond the limits Of tho'exist
ing States.
But the people required additional security.
! Whom tbArpfOTn VIRGINIA supgnStn1 nm nnonn1-
ment of the Constitution, that no freeman ought
to be deprived Of his life, liberty or property, jut
Jy tile lac Of the lind" Congress refuses to sane
ton this restricted guaranty, but proposed for the
adoption Of the States, an amendment embracinga
comprehensive ana express interdict against all in
vasion of personal rights by the General Govern
ment. That interdict, made part of the Constitu-
zion by the consent Of the States, in these words:
mo person = = = = = shall be deprived
of life, liberty or property, without due process
of law" So long as this provision remains una
altered, it is not easy to see how Slavery can be
constitutionally introduced any where or continued
any where by National legislation or in National
territory.
This brief statement will suffice to show what
was the policy and what vas the anticipation OF
the founders of this Republic in respect to Slave
ry. Their policy was one OF repression, limita'
ton, Encouragement; they anticipated with conf
dence the suspicious result of universal freedom.
Persistent adherence to their policy would doubt.
less have realized their anticipation.
need not say to you that this policy has not
been adhered to; nor need | trace the gradual pro-
cess by which the Constitution has been wreSted
from its original purposes, and the Government
has been converted into an instrument for The
maintenance aud extension of Slavery.
By the cessiols from original States, and by
treaties which foreign Governments. vast Terrific
ries have been acquired, in all of which the orig
nal policy of this Government required prohlbi-
ton. but to none of which was prohibition actually
ap olied, until resistance to the further increase of
Slavery and the Slave power in the Republic by
the admission Of Missori as a Slave State, led to
the great contest between the extensioniSts and
the Restrictions, which, 1920, terminated in the ad-
iustment generally known as the Missouri Com
promise.
The terms OF that compromise were these: that
Missouri should he admitted with Slavery; that
LSInrnrr rLnull In Gnrnunr urnhihitnl in tha tnrritu.