The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-08-05

y but little idea Of purchasing another. Th
u doctrine Of manifest Destiny" had not the
q been begotten. And in the organization 9
I this Territory embracing Ohio, Indiana
o Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin, il was enac,
! ed upon motion of Thomas Jefferson, and wit
j scarcely dissenting voice in the entire Con
! tinental Congress, that slavery or involunta
ry servitude, except for the punishment Q
! crime, should never exist therein. SLAYER
! was permitted to live and die land its dealt
. was daily expected) where il was; but
. the very adoption of the Constitution il wa
sternly and forever shut out from the entire
national domain. Ten hours argumen
could not make it palmer that the policy o
the Fathers of the Union was the non-exten
sion and speedy non-existence of a system
so anomalous under government avowedly
free. The very men that made the Consti
tuition assisted in making and united in up.
holding the ordinance of 's7. They had not
yet learned that the prohibition of Slavery
was unconstitutional. This discovery was
reserved for Mr.. Cass and Mr.. Douglas and
their Southern coadjutors sirty years after
wards! We had thought that Geo. Wash
ington, Roger Sherman, Alexander Haml-
ton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison.
and Robert Morris, and their associates in the
constitutional Convention understood the
meaning of the document they had formed,
and which they had spent from the 18th of
OF May to the 18th of Sept in discussing.
and perfecting. We had supposed them to be
among the ablest and acutest men, and the
Proioundest statesmen our nation had every
produced. But alas for our unfortunate mis-.
take! All of them together did not happen
to know as much Of the power of words and
the meaning of sentences, as the clustering
staggering Senator who cxults in the name
OF the "Little Giant of the West" PITY
that ne had not pre-existed, so that his deep
er penetration might have been, through
some spirit medium, vouchsafed to Washing
ton, Franklin, Hamilton and Madison, in
structing them as to the import and sienifi-
canoe OF their own words Pity too that he
could not have lived to enlighten the Adams
es, and Calhoun, and Pinckney and Writ, and
Marshall, and Clinton, and Monroe, and Jack
son, and Webster, and Clay Surely he has
been as ono born out of due timel But the
poor benighted men to whom we have refer
red, having never received this neu hoht.
werc only responsible according to the meas
ure of their capacity Mr.. Douglas is a great
man! He can say with one of Shakespeare's
heroes
"These signs have marked me extraordinary
And all the courses Of my life do show
am not In the roll Of common men!"
And were all our mighty dead to stand up,
they might say in the language of another
character:-
why man, he doth bestrde the narrow world
HI n md
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
10 find ourselves dishonorable gravesl"
..Oh It is excellent to have giants strength:
BUTT Is tyrannous to use it like n giant"
No! Fellow Citizens; The Fathers of 's7
intended and expected that Slavery should
lie. They erred only in making provision
or Its declining years and in arranging to
yive it decent burial. But it is not for us
heir degenerate sons to Judge them harshly
or this. If they arc permitted to know of
'ur history since, no doubt they have long
go regretted their mistaken kindness. and !
ntimely forbearance. {
l. But the first serious aggression which G
Slavery made upon liberty was in securing a
presentation in the National Councils of
lave property. In all the jurisprudence of t
nc South, 'slaves ar, adjudged to be chat c
Els personal in the hands of their owners to q
II intents, purposes and constructions what t
'ever.' Yet in the appointments for Con- b
ress three-fifths of them are reckoned: and u
lus the slavc-holding States, while DENYING o
their slaves every civil right, send as p
ANY members to the lower House in Con-
ress, as it three-ffths of these marketable q
were free whto male inbabi- O.
nts, with all the privileges of citizenship b
that has been the result? WHY this:
From 1887 to 1892 seven representatives s
slave property sat in Congress. U
From 1872 to 1907 there were 5su,.... 81
From 1903 TO 1919 /" Z" Efieen al
From 1913 to 1923 nipete,n "A
From 1929 to 1873 t,,,nty fno oi
From 1899 TO 1919 f,o,y,y A.. M
From lsI3 to 1853 tvenfy.on, &
Since 1883 there have been tpsnty.6u again. m
The advantage which Slavery thus se- w
res is too obvious to need illustration. For CIV
lrty years past this representation has 81
en- equal 10 that of the entire states of cb
aine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and W,
'rmont, and for the most of this period it has ap
en- equal to these states and Michigan and an
node Island besides. This is sometimes isl
oxen of as one of the Compromises of the ca
But what compromise is pl
,re in this, unless the North should be al
we'd to represent in like manner a certain ST.
'portion of their cattlel Like all the mi
Ter compromises between slavery and lib vo
y,slavery has taken everything and yielded Re-
hing promises for the future which tn,
We been broken when the time came for Co
,ir ful6llment! Slavery promised to die; ev,
on that ground it was agreed that while GA
ived it should be represented in Congress. In
when the time came in which it was to ap
, it utterly refused to do it; and it lives on,
. This is compromise with slavery Gus
again: Slavery has sometimes ravcd and ma
'shed its teeth, and threatcned-"I shall sor
tainly do something badw "Oh, don't" cor
have said, "if you won't, we'll give you SO,
iethingp And zoe have g;ven H.; and lib,
Is compromise with Slavery for
When DR.. Franklin was agent in England eul
the Province Of Pennsylvania, he was tat
luontly applied to by the Ministry for his the