Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1856-09-06

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tions in that quarter were carried agains
our party In this agitation the Northern
portion of the newly organized american
party fully participated, and it cordially CO
operated in all the designs Of the anti-Ne.
braska "Fusion."
The agitation at the North is justified up
on the unfounded assumption, that by the
repeal of the Sth section of the "Act prepa-
ratory to the admission of Missouri into the
Union, approved March the 9th, 1920" the
public faith was violated, and the Missouri
Compromise annulled. The 9Th section OF
that actsis aa follows
ssBe it further enacted That in all that
Territory ceded by France to the United
States, not included within the limits of the
State contemplated by this act, slavery and
involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the
punishment of crimes, whereof the parties
shall have been convicted, shall be, and here
by is forever prohibited; provided, always,
that any person escaping into the same from
whom labor or servtude is lawfully claimed
in any State or Territory of the United
States, such fugitive may be lawfully clairil-
ed and conveyed to the person claiming hse
labor as services as aforesaid"
:, This is, upon face, a simple legislative en-
actment, unjustly depriving the slaveholding
States of their equal rights in territory north
of $50 30,. It undertakes to pledge no
faith and the act no where makes the 9Th Sec
ton in the condition of anything else done or
to be done. The only consideration that
gave it greater Importance than any other
legislative Enactment was that it established
a principle for the settlement Of angry con-
troversy between the slaveholding and non
slaveholding sections of the Union upon the
subject of slavery in the Territories-the prin-
ciple of division by a geographical line
When this mode of terminating the great
controversy was acquiesced in by the whole
country, the 9Th section assumed the character
of copromise, incorporating into or legisla-
tive system permanent rule for the adjust
ment of sectional pretentions in reference
to the Territories Of the United States. The
Sth section was comprehensive, and applied
its principle to all the Territory ofthe United
States, subject to Congressional action,
whether settled or unsettled. The whole
was embraced, because a principle was es-
tablished mich was designed 10 settle the
question. SO far as the 9Th section was a
compromise of the question of Congressional
Intervention on the subject of slavery il the
Territories, tie principle of the compromise
was that the Territories were to be geograph-
ically divided between the two sections-ex-
Guiding slavery north of the designated line,
and permitting Il south of that line When
Texas was annexed, the South in faithful
observance of this compromise, applied the
principle to The unsettled and unorganized
territory within the limits Of that slave State
and prohibited slavery North of 500 20f.-
The 9Th section of the Missouri act was at
that time unhesitgtingly recognized, not
as legislative enactment, operative only
within the scope of its letter but as a COM
prehensiye compromise, embodying princi
pie upon which these sectional demads were
to be uniformly and permanently adjusted.
But when this principle might be applied
benefcially for the South to the acquisition
of Mexican Territory, it was deliberately
and repeatedly repudiated by the non-slave-
holding States In the Northern view the
9Th section then ceased to be a great compact
for the adjustment of sectional strife, ana
became mere legislative enactment, appli-
cable only as far as its terms might reach
Throughout the protracted stuggle which
was closed by the compromise Of 1850, the
Southern representatives in Congress labor
ed to maintain the Missouri compromise,
and to obtain the application Of the princi-
pie of the Sth section to the Mexican Ter
ritories. So anxious were they to preserve
the principle Of a geographical division, that
they proposed to modify the line and to make
the partition upon the line Of $50 31k. 1t
is unnecessary to go into any detailed histo-
ry of the Congressional proceedings upon
this subject The efforts of the South to
preserve the Missouri Compromise were,un-
availing, and all thee propositions we're
pertinaciously rejected by sectional major
ity. The North refused to recognize the
principle of the 9Th section as sanctioned by
public faith, or as appropriate in itself to
the settlement OF the sectional controversy
now eyinced on the subject of slavery in the
Territories. This old principle was cast
away. A new compromise had to be aran-
ged, and new principle o. adjustment was
introduced as the basis Of the measures Of
1850. The principle of Congressional Hon-
intervention was substituted for the princi-
pie of geographical partition. As we have
before said, the only consideration which
gave sanctity and the character Of ccmpro-
mise to the Sth section, was its supposed
establishment as permanently and uniform.
ly applicable to all the Territories of the
principle of partition, upon line identical
or nearly Identical with that which divided
the section applicable to the profitable EN-,
ployment of slave labor from the section not
so applicable. The action of the North had
striped the Sth section of this character and
annulled it as a compromise. Its principle
had been substituted Ill our system by the
new principle of 1850. After the passage
of the compromise measures Of 1850, rem
dered necessary by the Northern reputation
of the Missouri Compromise, in the express
sive language employed by Mr.. Buchanan,
at that time, had passed away" The 9Th
section had been stripped of its compromise
attributes, and had been rihed of the prin-
ciple which gaveitpeculiar consideration and
significance.
It thenceforward stood upon the statute
book mere legislative enactment, depfiyino
the South, without compensation, Its equal
rights in the Territories Of Kansas and Me-
braska, and making that deprivation not on
l., -, violation of rirbt aoJ III, no.4.....