Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-08-30

ltantS saw now we'll tnelr Opposfe heiSupOi
Indiana and Illinois, prospercd under the prohlbl
tion of slavery which involved in the terms OF
cession of their laud and they wJuld lave ac-
quesced in restriction which imposed no soft OF
hardship or disappointment at tho moment; but
Mr. Clay imposed slave institutions on them to
please the South, and destroyed forever the old
plea, that slavery was an inherited mischief and
not cherished vice. lie proposed an enactment
that, on condition of Missouri being now admitted
on Southern terms, slavery should be henceiorth
prohibited forever on atcrritory recently acquired
from France, lying north of SO deg. so min north
latitude that is, of the southern boundary of
Missouri. These are the terms:-"Aud be 1t
further enacted. that in all territory ceded by
France to the United States under the name OF
Louisiana, which lies north of 80 deg. 81 MN.
north latitude not included within the limits ot
tie State contemplated by this act, slavery and
involuntary servitude, otherwise than IN the pun
ishmcnt of crime, whereof the parties shall have
been duly convicted, shall be, and hereby is, pro
hbted forever"
CONSEQUENCES OF THE MISSOURI CoMPRoMIsE-THE
FLORIDA wAR-THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS
STRUGGLE BETWEEN TIE NORTH AND SOUTH FOR
THE FORMATION OF NEW STATES.
This is the celebrated Missouri Compromise
passed early in 1920 1t needs no showing that
the prohibition of slavery north Of certain line
determined Its existence in new States south OF
that line and Florida and Arkansas were soon
admitted as slave Territories, and then as slave
States. Among the first fruits of the arrangement
was the Seminole war. The truth of that wal, when
dsoncumbered Of the patriotic cant Which, invested
it, is this. BY the law of all the slave States,
where there is no legal marriage among the negroes,
the children "fOllow the fortunes of their mother
are the property Of the owner of the mother.
Many slaves escaped into Florida, and lived there
among the swamps, and intermarried with the
Seminole Indians. As soon as Florida entered
the Union a territory, the southern slaveholderS
allpupI that they n with the ScmluOlcS,
and demanded and obtained the aid Of the Federal
forces. Many fine young men we're there among
those troops who died in the swamps without
knowing tlat they were usei by the slave
holders for the purpose of recovering runaway
slaves, and, yet more, of seizing the halicaste
children of negro women married to Indians on
the legal plea that the children of slaves, follow
the fortunes of :heir mother" This Incident is
only in the long series which exhibit the free
and prosperous North the tool and the servant
of the slayehOlding and declining South. We
have space for no more but there are enough to
fill volumes.
After the compromise, the state of affairs was
this. The oldest slave States wore becoming i'm
poyeriShed under the natural and invariable oper-
alton of ''the peculiar institution" Virginia was
yearly lapsing into wilderness and depending
more and more on slave-breeding for existence.
North Carolina sunk past retricva; and
others were declining New territory wanted
for products and population, well rs for keep
ing up numbers in the Senate. The North could
mo longer be looked to. beyond the Ohio. the land
pledged to free institutions. There remained
only the Far West beyond Arkansas, of American
territory. But to the Southwest there was Texas
and beyond Texas, Mexico. The first American
settlers in Texas were farmers, who had gone
thither to escape from tho slave institutions and
who titled their lands with tl.eir own hands,
jiocing that slavery had been abolished in Texas
and Mexico. Southern aIventurers followed them:
and by the peculiar methods" now familiar to
observers of American. as also of Russian, aggres-
sion, they first stirred up mischief then nterposed
to put it down; then offered protection; and at
length proceeded to the act of annexation. We
need not, if we had space, relate the story of the
annexation Of Texas. Everybody knows the facts
though few are aware of the origin and bearings of
the enterprise.
As soon as it was known that the South proposed
to divide Texas into five States, sending ten sena-
tors to Congress the inhabitants of the less sophis
ticated and most rural Northern States determined
to be even with their rival. Natural rs is the am
bitiOn to belong to n large State, with n view
to its future Importance the settlers in the North
western territories resolved rather to cut up Iowa
and Wisconsin into five more States than to
allow the thny peoplcd South preponderance in
the Senate An equality there, with pro-slavery
President, was bad enough, since it enabled the
South to throw out every measuse which did not
suit her institutions. A decisive mn iOrity in the
Senate would overawe the House OF Representa-
tives SO leave choice to the North but to be
chained to the wheels of the triumphal chariot of
which the slave driver would be the charioteer. 1t
may ihus be seen how the vital American contro-
versy is determined to the new lands, within and
beyond the frontier-honesty American, or Mexi-
can, Costa Rica or other.
DISTRICT OF coLUMBIA-RIGnT OF PLTTTloN-JonN
QUINCY ADAMs-POlICY OF THE NoN.voTING ABB
CLITloNIsTs-THE POLITICAL ABoLITIoNIsTs AIM
ONLY AT THE LIMITATION OF SLAVERY.
There was, however, another centre of action
The Congressional District, of which Washington
is the capital, is wholly and absolutely under con
gressiOnal government. 1t is territory of sixteen
miles square, ceded by Maryland and Virginia for
federal purposes In the great struggle for supre-
macy-the struggle as Sumner puts it, whether
liberty shall be sectional and slavery national, or
the reverse-the political position Of this district
Of Columbia must be of high importance If ftherc
could be an exact balance in the two Houses. and
perfect mpartiality in the President, slavery
would still be national institution while it exis-
ted, and particularly it the sale of slaves went on
within its boundaries The abolitonists, who rose
into notice las a moral sect. not political party)
! in 1892 began their enterprise by portinacous pc
titOning for the abolition Of slavery in the Dis
I trct Of Columbia. The consequence was as our
readers can scarcely need to be reminded that the
right of petition itself suspended. \ ter this
no man in the whole Union could pretend to con-
slider 'the difficulty" as anything less than all im
portant. The noble defence Of the right Of petit
tion by ex-President Adams on the floor Of the
House OF Representatives, in 1887, is fine pas.
sage Of History. In 1885, Mr. Clay, Mr.. Calhoun,
and other Southern leaders were--or pretended to
bo--confdent that the subject of slavery would
never be discussed in Congress, and they thought
they had secured the ful6!ment Of their own proph
ecy when they had obtained the suppression of the
right to petition But they merely changed the
course of action of the abolitonistS and strength
ened their hands by furnishing them with the ar
gument that the whites now made slaves by
the deprivation of their constitutional liberties in
Congress. In ten years from the suppre sson of
the right of petition, not only had the right
been restored, but the Southern policy re-
received its first decided check, by the throwing
out of proposal to pxtsna the line Of the Mis-,
souri, Compromise to the Pacific 0cean-that is.
to establish slavery everywhere south Of that line
1t now appears probable that before the second
ten years over the South will have either
sneenmbed 70 the true rennbliean nolicY. or have