New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-09-23

was citizen ofPennsylrania, in which there was
less nufober Of slaves in proportion to the popula
ton than IN any other colony. and where Of course
the evils Of the institution must have been least felt
But Franklin's patriotism and philanthropy were moi
mere local sentiments, which did not know how to
step over his ewn door.sill, or which reckoned it q
piece Of impertirence to venture beyond the limits
| Of his own colony. He was, from the first, a ma
| tiona man, and as in 1853, twenty years and more
before the first confederation Of the colonies he had
drawn up the project Of similar union for the
prosecution of the war agsinst the French, and the
recovery of the western country which they had
seized upon; 40, from the first, bis plans Of social
and political reformation embraced the whole eX-
tent of the Anglo-Amercan colonies
His absence from the country ON the mission to
France, where he rendered such great services TO
his country, prevented him from taking an active
part in the abolition of Slavery in Pennsylvania;
but shortly after his return from Paris. and while
holding the Office of President Of Pennsy lyania, and
President alsO of the Convention which framed the
Constitution Of the United States he accepted the
Presidency Of the Pennsylvania Society ''for pro-
hhotinS vi ioi 'Ai' i'H'A Va
free negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and for
"improying the condition Of the African race; and
it was in his capacity as President OF this society
that he caused to be commenced the agitation OF the
Slavery question in the halls of Congress by the
presentation to the very first Congress- OF that ia
nous petition signed with his name President of
that society, in which he and they prayed Congress
70 az 70 tba nff ha y.<stpI
it for discouraging essry species Of traffic in the
"persOns of our fellow men,
This was the last, and certainly not the least
memorable act of Franklin's long political career,
since he died few days after. But neither bis
venerable age nor ilustrious services, his
subsequent death, saved him, any more than the
other petitioners, then whenever the subject
afterward alluded to--as it frequently was in that
and the following sessiOns-frOm the surs Of slave.
holding members; nor were there wanting Repre-
sentatives of South Carolina then az now, to
threaten the dissolution of the Union in case Con-
gress dared to discuss the question of Slavery. In
one respect, however, Cat debate affords striking
and most lamentable contrast to what we now.
Virginia, then represented by such men as James
Madison and John Page, and not having yet taken
to the breeding business, zeaousy opposed the
Southern fre-eaters, and assisted in procuring, in
spite of them, reference of this and other Anti
Slavery memorials to Committee The speech of
Page, afterward Governor Of Virginia and himself
very extensive stakeholder, though delivered sixty.
six years ago, is so pertinent to the present times
that We cannot help giving the contemporary
report Of il by way of offset to the
nonsense and bingsgate in which Wise, the
present Governor of Virginia, so frequently indul-
ges, and by way of contrast to what seems now the
prevailing sentiment and policy of the Virginia poll
ticans: "As to the alarm which it was said would be
produced by committing the memorial, he thought
sthere might be greater ground for alarm should
"they refuse to commit. Placing hinself in the
lease of a slave, on hearing that Congress had re.
Z" fused TO listen to the decent suggestions of
respectable part Of the community, he should
infer that the General Government, from which
"great good was expected to every class, had shut
'ther ears against the voice Of humanity, If any
thing could induce him to rebel, it must be a
stroke like this, impressing on his mind all the
horrors of despair. Were he told, on the other
hand, that application was made in his behalf,
and that Congress was willing to hear what could
"be urged in favor ofdiscOuraging the importation
of his fellow wretches he would still trust in their
Justice and humanity, and patiently await their
% decision. Presenting that those unfortunate
"people would reason in the same way, he thought
that to commit the petition wast the likeest means
:" to avert danger. He lived in a State which had
"the misfortune to have in her bosom great num-
Der of slaves He hold many himself, and was,
he believed, as much interested in the business
as any gentleman in South Carolina or Georgia.
Even were be determined to hold them in eternal
bondage he should feel uneasiness at tho refer
"ence of the memorial, relying on the virtue Of
unconstitutional power"
Nor was the speech of Madison on the same
occasion any less remarkable, or any less applicable
to current events. Though Congress- he said,
were restricted by the Constitution from imme-
diately aboishing the slave trade, yet there were
Z" variety of ways by which they might counte-
nance the abolition of that traffic. They might,
"for example, respecting the introduction Of slares
" into the ne,e States, make regulations such were
beyond their power in relation to the old settled
/" States-an object which he thought well worthy
" of consideration" Anybody who wishes to see
more of this debate, especially the bold defiance of
the Southern 6re-eaters by Scott, who represented
in that Congress the whole Of western Pennsyl-
vania, will find full account of it in Hildreth's
History of the United States, vol w., chap. ii.
But how slavery in the course Of two-thirds Of
century has dwarfed the white population of
Virginia, which, in place Of Pages and Madisons,
produces now nothing but Wises and Masons And