Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1856-08-29

S dom is the inheritance Of every perso
: held in bonGage.
y When Missouri sought admission int
: the Union as slave State. the rights {
: freedom were invoked by the North
: There was nothing in the soil, climate @
t productions of Missouri that rcndefe
slavery desirable in that territory, an
more than there is TO invite slavery int
Kansas to-day. The great bulk Of tk
l free men of Missouri, to-day regret it wa
| not made a free State. A small bod,
3 Of planters hold power over it ,and for th
$ present, keep back efforts for her imam
cipation from the curse of negro bond
) are. The recent election in Missouri
shows tina. a mighty change of opinion
} has been already effected in that State
| In an evil hour, in 1920, few Northern
Senators and Representatives from the
| North, united with the South and allow
: ed Missouri to come in as slave State
The terrific consequences Oft their treach-
cry to the constitution is seen in the de-
graded condition of society in Missouri
as compared with new free States west.
The history of that whole country would
have been different. had it not been for
the votes of few Northern men in the
Congress of 1920.
4 Senator Benjamin, on Thursday eve
ming, undertook to review the events of
the same period as that above spoken of
by US, and praised in the most exaggera-
ted terms the few men of the North who
at that time, as he stated, did justice to
the South. He denounced also in the
most fierce and bitter manner those who
all that time resisted the admission of
Missouri as a slave State. 1t is no more
than fair to say that his speech was an
open, bold, and unblushing defence of
slavery. He stood up for slavery and
/ Shareholders with the calmness and COM
plaeency Of a professional advocate
speaking in defence of the rights of his
client, for pay. He had no regrets to
make over the wrongs of the SYSTEM
He never seemed to understand that be
was addressing New England audience
who were listening with attention and
with subdued adherence of his doc
trincs. He spoke of the men who re.
sisted the extension of slavery into Mis-
souri, as worthy of indignant reproba
tion. His attack on the North was so
emphatic that at the next election, the
members of Congress who stood by the
South in that struggle were repudiated,
cast off, loathcd, dishonored and des-
pissed forever after at home.
He stigmatized the north who showed
-anti.slavery prciudices, as false to the
Union and the Constitution then, as those
are false to it now. who resist the Kan
sas Nebraska act, by which s'avery was
admitted into Kansas. Both, he says
are false to the Union and Constitu-
| tion
His argument is this-that the pur-
chase of Louisiana was made by the COM
mon treasure of the whole country, and
therefore that slavery had the same
right to 90 into Kansas as frccdom.-
/ That as California, New Mexico, Utah
and Texas were acquired by the blood
and treasure of the whole Union, that
slavery had the right to go there without
restraint under the constitution. That
the north had no right to exclude sla-
very from the Territories and that its
exclusion was a practical denial of the
rights Of the south inconsistent with the
continuance of the South in the Union.
His speech was repetition Of what he
stated in the Senate.
This we believe, is a fair statement Of
the argument of Senator Benjamin on
Thursday evening, if argument it can be
called.
Mr.. Benjamin has a frank manner and
good voice. He concealed the bitter
ness of his invcctivc by the abundant
use of imagery a1d a proper discharge
ofrhetorical hDurishos. While giylu g
him full credit for ingenuity and tact, a
sense of duty requires us to say that
more barcfaced misstatement was never
before attempted i'll public debate. HIS
statement of the case was talslfcation
of the truth of history. and libel on the
people of Maine.
Tell the men of Maine a. this day, in
the city of Portland, in plain terms, that
Ezekiel Whitman and Enoch Lincoln
disregardcd their duty in 1920. when
they voted against the admission Of Mis-
souri, as slave State. and the walls of
the building in which he was speaking
would cry out, Shame Shame And
yet he did that very thing. The Hon.
| Ezekiel Whitman at that time represent
cd this district in Congress, and voted
against the admission of Missouri as
slave State Yet he retains to this day
the confidence and respect Of all men
who know him, after enjoying the high
est official position, the office of Chief
Justice of the Supreme judicial Court.
The Hon. Enoch Lincoln, who repre-
sentcd Oxford District, voted with
Judge Whitman, and died in early man
hood, filling the office of Governor Of
Maine.
Senator Benjamin should know better
that thus to insult the memory of the
dead, and the opinions of the living
He knows that the foundation of the
Constitution rests on the doctrine of the