New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-03-07

/
SLAVERY AGITATION IN MISSOURI.
! From a late letter of Mr.. Benton 10 The Nq-
tionaI JntelieHeer which appeared in our columns
Yesterday. that gentleman would seem to suppose
that a certain clause in the Const tuition of Mis-
souri,, which he claims an agency in Ia, ng intro
duced into it, constitutes, while it remains therein,
an efIectual bar to the agitation of the Slavery
question in that State. The clause to which he
refers is as follows:
"The General assembly shall have nopower tOpass
laws for the emancipation Of slaves without the con-
sen; of their owners and witho paying them, before
such emancipation full equivalent for such slaves 80
cpated and removing such slaves 30 eInancipated
out ct the state.
This clause, Mr. Benton insists was put into the
Constitution of Missouri " for the express pur-
po.e Of keeping Anti-slavery agitation out of the
State"
1t is sometimes difficult to recOllect at the end
Of FIVE aid thirty years, the precise object for
which certain thing was said or done third OF
century previous Nj Calhoun, as Mr.. Benton is
vel aware fell occasionally into gross historical
crroIs by trusting too implicitly 10 bis memory;
and what leads Us to imagine that Mr.. Benton may
as to tn matter, have fallen into similar error
is our total inability to perceive how the clause in
question has the slightest tendency to accomplish
the object at which it is said to have been aimed.
In the first place, there are many ardent adyo-
Gates of the abolition Of Slavery who hold that
under the circumstances Of the case, if eInancipa
ton should be carried out, the masters of the
slaves would be justly entitled " to full equiva-
"lent for such slaves so emanci pated." In fact,
this proposition is not denied even by the most
radical of the abOlitionists, who bring themselves
lastly within this Missouri constitutional restric-
ton by arguing that in the unburdeniug of their
consciences in the relief from domestic terrors
and anxetes about pOsOnings and escapes, and in
the great increase in the value of land and the fresh
openings for talent, industry and enterprise which
the abolition Of Slavery would carry with 1t, the
masters though not paid a cent in the name OF
compeI satiOn, would yet receive, in the words OF
the Constitution of Missouri, which, it must be
admitted, are rather vague, "a full equivalent
" for such slaves emancipated."
As to the consent Of the masters, there are
many friends of the abolition Of Slavery who, in
any plan of emancipation which they might think
of proposing, would not hesitate 10 include
that provision Constituting as the shareholders
do in all our slavehoding States, the most intelli-
gent influential and wealthy inhabitants, and en-
bcdyiDg az they do fair proportion of the morality
and religion of those communities, it would be
absurd TO suppose that any great change in the
social condition of the slaveholdng States, like
the abolition of Slavery, could be carried, short Of
violent interference from abroad without the con-
sent of the shareholders themselves. In fact the
whole agitation throughout the Southern States
for the abolition Of Slavery, begun in IT'S, or
thereabouts by Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Wash
ipgtop, and carried on with great energy even so
late as 1882, in the debates in the Virginia Legisla
ture which followed the Southampton insurrec-
ton-this agitation extending over a period Of
some sixty years, during which the abolition of
Slavery was freely discussed at the SQnth, was
carried on we believe, exclusively by persons be.
longing to the ssveholding class
The other clause, about removing the emancipated
slaves out OF the State, would also receive the ap-
probation of many peTsons hostile to Slavery, as is
evident from the fact that many of the delegates in
the late Kansas Cow, ntiCn who were Jealous for
Prostate Constitution were scarcely less Jealous
for clause prohibiting the settlement of free
negroes in the lew State.
If, on the other hand there were, or should q.
any time come to be- any considerable number of
the citizens of Missouri who held or hold that
emancipation ought to take place without any OF
the restrictions which this clause imposes upon the
acts of the Legislature touching this .ubject-in
that case, the existence of this clause in the
State Constitution is nothing more nor less than
standing challenge to all such persons TO agi-
tate for the amendment of the Constitution in this
behslt-a thing at present very easy to be done
when the popular will inclines that way, as the
Constitution itself provides opportunity for pro-
posing amendments once in four years.
The provision in the Constitution of Missouri. TO
which Mr. Benton ascribes such an exaggerated
efficacy might be entitled to approval Is restraint
upon the Legislature from carrying an important
question, as it were, by snap judgment, without
notice, or due noice-such proceeding as that.
for instance, by which the Kansas-Nebraska bill,