The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-04-01

a lighthouse upon the remotest point of our
extended coast. Millions of our citizens have
been thus DISTINGUISHED, for their opinions
concerning slavery, and the vast patronage of
! the general government has been systemati-
caly welded in its service, and for the pro-
motion of its designs.
IL was by such discipline, and under such
influences, that the government and The coun-
try were prepared for the second great stride
of slavery towards new dominion, and for the
| avowal of motives by which il was attended.
Texas was admitted into the Union on the
Goth of December, ls45,-with Constitu-
tion forbidding the abolition of slavery, and
stipulation that four more States should be.
come members of the Confederacy, when
ever they might be formed within her limits,
and with or without slavery as their inhabi-
tants might decide. The General Govern
ment thus made virtual provision for the ad-
dition of flee new slave States to the Union
practically securing to the slaveholding in
terest ten additional members in the senate
representing States, it might be, with less
thanofn rIie Bia States with an aggregate pop
tiiation of eleven millions. The corrupt and
tyrannical Kings of England, when votes
were needed in the House of Lords 10 sustain
them against the people, created Peers ast be
emergency required. Is there in this any
thing in more hagrant contradiction to the
principles of Republican Freedom, OF more
dangerous to the public liberties, than in the
system practiced by the slaveholding interest
represented in the General Government9
But third opportunity was close at hand,
and Slavery made third struggle for the ex-
tension of its domain and the enlargement of
its power.
The annexation of Texas involved US in
war with Mexico. The war was waged on
our part with vigor, skill and success 1t re-
! suited in the cession to the United States Of
New Mexico, California, and Desoret, vast
territories over which was extended by Mexi-
can law prohibition Of Slavery. The Slave
holders demanded access to them all,--resist-
ed the admission Of California and New Mexi-
co, which the energy of freemen, outstrip-
ping in its activity the Government and even
the Slaveholding interest, had already con-
verted into free States, and reasonably men
aced Congress and the Union with overthrow
if its demands were not conceded. The free
spirit Of the country was reused to indigna-
ton by these pretensions, and for time the
whole nation rocked 10 the tempest which
they had created. Untoward events aided
the wrong. The death Of the President
threw the whole power Of the Administration
into timid and faithless hands. Party resent
ments and party ambitions interposed against
the right. Great men, leaders of the people
from whom in better days the people had
learned lessons at. principle and patriotism,
yielded to the howlings Of the storm and
sought shelter, in submission, from its rage.
The Slavehotling interest was again victori-
Gus. California, with her free Constitution
was indeed admitted to the Union; but New
Mexico, with her Constitution forbidding
Slavery within her borders was denied adj
mission and remanded to the condition of a
Terrtory-and while Congress refused to en-
act positive prohibition Of Slavery in the
Territories of New Mexico and Deseret, il
was provided that, when they should come
in with, or without Slavery, as their inhabi.
tants might decide. Additional concessions
were made to the Slave Power:-the Gener
al Government assumed the recapturc of fu
gitive slaves, and passed laws for the accom-
plishment of that end, subversive, at once o.
State sovereignty, and of the established safe
guards of civil freedom. Then the country
again had rest Wcaricd with its effort, o.
content with their success, the Slaveholdine
interest proclaimed truce.
When Franklin Pierce, on the 4th o
March, 1883, became President of the Uni
ted States, no controversy growing out o
Slavery was agitating the country Estab
lished laws, some of them enacted with un
usual solemnity and under circumstance
which made them of more than ordinar,
obligation, had fixed the character of all tn
States, and ended the contest concerning tn
Territories. Sixteen States were Free States
and fifteen States were Slave States, b,
the Missouri Compromise of 1920, SLAYER,
was forever prohibited from all the Louisan
, Territory lying north of the line of 36 deg
80 min.: while over that Territory lyinJ
south of that line, and over the Territorie
: of New Mexico and Deserct, no such prohi
bition had been extended. The whole coun
try reposed upon this arrangement. All sec
tions and all interests, whether approving
or not, seemed to acquiesce in its terms =
The Slavcholding interest, through all its oil
gans and especially through the Genera
= Government, proclaimed that this was fina
and irrcpealable adjustment Of the struggl
between Freedom and Slavery for politica
power that it had been effected by mutus
! concessions and in the spirit of compromise
|, and that it should be as enduring as tn
Union, and as sacred as the Constitution il
|, self. Both political parties gave it their sane
: tion in their National Conventions; the Who'll
!. country asscnted to its validity; and Pres
dent Pierce. in his first official message I
Congress, pledged himself TO use all the pow
er of his position to prevent it from bcin
:, disturbed.
! But all these protestations proved delusiv'
> and the acquiescence and contcntment whic
they produced afforded the opportunity, nc
. only for new aggression on the part of Slave
: ry, but for the reputation of engagement
J. into which its agents had solemnly entered
I. Less than year had elapsed before thes
!. pledges were broken, and the advantage
3 which they secured to Freedom withdrawn b
y | Al IL