Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-08-30
n HISTORICAL RETROSPECT OF TUE
AMERICAN COMPROMISES.
AMERICA THE COUNTRY OF TWO IDEAS.

The existing condition Of aiflirs in the United
States naturally sets people inquiring of one an
other about the meaning of the prominent terms OF
the great domestic controversy; and there are few
who give a precise answer "What is the
Missouri Compromise :" "What is the Nebraska
Bill Y Way is the settlement of Kansas crit
ical ?" These are the questions about which most
Of readers have some idea, but which require
an accurate answer before the interior politics OF
the American Union can be so clearly understood
as they ought to be by every Englishman. A brief
statement of the historical autecedents of the con-
troversy, which has now assumed the character oil
civil war, may supply a want; and we therefore
propose to sketch the history of the Difficulty" OF
the great Republic, from the time when the found
ers % the constitution brooded it till now 1t
has been truly said that America is the country
of two ideas; and that those ideas are-Slavory
and AntSlaycry.
OPINIONS OF FRANKLIN, WASHINGTON, AND JEFFER-
son RESPECTING SLAVERY.
These ideas were in The minds of the founders
OF the Republic scarcely less prominently perhaps
than they are in the minds of President Pierce
and Of every public man in the Union. Tue differ
ence was that the first set of men used no disguise
about their difficulty, while the efforts conceal it
have been redoubled in the most recent times, and
the more eagerly in proportion to the growth OF
political danger. Franklin made the broadest 10
olitiOn speeches in the Pennsylvania gislaturc
without apparently exciting either surprise or
wrath Washington declared that the possession
of slaves Il heavy weight on his mind and he
made testamentary disposition designed to secure
their emancipa patton Jeferson's avowa on this
subject is perhaps the most celebrated of his
sayings ;-"God has no attribute which take
part with the American Shareholder" When the
Republic was founded slavery existed nearly
the whole territory Its effects were so mischev-
Gus even in those days of small things, that there
bn no off EItu frs brI
ing on ard then determining the alternative
whether to abolish or to continue it, amidst fears
and perils on either hand. On this account the
Constitution was arranged with the best skill
available AT the time The Constitution took the
least possible notice Of slavery, and gave powers
to the seperate States, and balanced those powers
in the central government in manner which
might enable it to evade the future difficulty and
to throw the settlement of it on the separate
States.
CLAUSES IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
STATES RELATING TO SLAVERY
Thus there were, in the original Constitution,
only two clauses which had any relation whatever
to slavery This is point SO important to the
understanding of the subsequent history, that we
cannot too strongly draw attention to these two
clauses, and to the fact that there more.
In section of Article l., which DEGREES the pro-
portion of representatives to populntion-vz., not
less than one for every thirty thousand-provison
is made for reckoning slaves among the constit-
uency. After giving the suffrage to"free persons
excluding Indians this clause eBacts that there
shall be added "to the whole number of free
persons three-ffths of all other persons" that is,
of slaves. A free white population does not
flourish in the presence of slavery ; and there
fore slave territory was TO be endowed with a
fictitious constituency of no less than three-fiths
of the slave population. The obvious difficulty
/ I,uoS that lotp nly
would insist on knowing whether the slaves were
or not men, with social capacities If they
were, they had right to citizenship in democrat
ic republic and if they were not, they could be
only sham constituency. The further difficulty
long ago. and is yearly on the increase that
the Northern citizens find the Southern represen-
tation to be out CT all proportion the population;
white the other hand, the South exasperated
at the rapid growth of Northern populations, and
at the danger of being swamped in Congress, is
driven to territorial aggression and to encroach-
ment on the Constitution, to keep up its numbers
in the Senate at Washington Liable to these
dangers, however, the clause was established; and
three hths of the slaves reckoned as free men
in the single particular of supplying representa-
tives to Congress. The other clause bearing on
slavery is the third clause Of Section Of Article
w., and is thus worded :-"No person held 90
service or labor in one State under the laws there
of, escaping into another, shall, in consequence
of any law or regulation therein be discharged
from such service or labor but shall be delivered
up on claim of the party to whom such service or
labor may be due" This is the Fugitive Slave
Law of 1857, Itmust be remembered that, when
it was made, the States were all slave States, and
that there was no likeness between their mutual
relation and that of the existing States which
have opposite interests from some having abolished
while others have eagerly and pertinaciously re.
tained TIE slavery. Such was in regard to slavery,
the Constitution signed by Washington Presi-
dent, and by all the most eminent of his political
comrades, as representatives Of their respective
States.
THE UNITED STATES SENATE THE GREAT POLITICAL
BULwARK OF SLAVERY.
Each State, 1t must be remembered, sends two
members TO the Senate. The largest and the small
est have the same representation in the Senate,
while the members of the other House nearly cor
respond in number with the population. As the
Northern States abolished slavery, one after an
other, the South became alarmed lest the slave
States should fall into a minority in the Senate,
as it was too clear that they must in the other