The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-05-15


anomaly should only exist tacitly and by suf-
ferance for the time necessary for its total ex-
tinction. The Constitution was formed for all
time; and, with their views, they did not dream
but that their descendants would gradually and
finally extinguish Slavery within the bound
aries of the Republic. The cotemporaneous
history of that eventfu period is plain, as to the
opposition felt by our fathers on this subject !;
and their recorded work bears the impress of
this feeling. They knew Slavery was a moral
wrong, and they feared that it would become,
what we, their descendants, see it, political
evil.
4 few brief years passed away, and the rich
alluviums of Louisiana, which commanded the
mouth of the grandest river the world knows,
attracted the attention of the then infant Re-
public. We had inherited one evil legacy in
our separation from the mother country, and
now an addition was to be made to it by her
ancient rival France. Slavery existed in the
Territory of Louisiana, as it exists everywhere,
in defiance of Justice and right; and, in addition
to that, it existed there in defiance of positive
law. The representatives of that "reign of
terror" as it is fashionable to call it-when
the crumbling throne Of one of the most ancient
of the monarchies of Europe had gone down in
a sea of blood-when the crimes OF a thousand
years were revenged by an exasperated peo-
ple-the representatives of that people did not
forget, In their Own acknowledgements, that there
were those across the broad Atlantic who
groaned in slavery. In 1874, the Constitutional
Assembly of France passed an act of enfran-
chisement, declaring all free within her colonies,
| of which Louisiana was one; but the hurried
events Of that period, the great distance of the
colony from the mother country, and the speedy
sale of it to our Republic, prevented the frui-
ton of the benevolent intentions OF those legis-
lators of the reign of terror"
From this acquisition we may date the change
in the republican policy Of our Government.
The fertility of its soil, and its applicability for
the growth of cane and cotton, for which unfor-
tunately the slave has the reputation of being
peculiarly adapted, made this territory the real
nucleus of American Slavery. 1t shut up the
road to the extension of the Western boundary
of the free States and paved the way for the
famous Compromise, over the repeal OF which
this nation is now conyulsed, from its centre
to its EXTREMIST points. Beyond the great
Northwest was a still further West, and in this
broad domain, acquired from France, it was
claimed that Slavery existed by "organic law"
This bold assumption of q most dangerous
dogma-one that has not its parallel except in
the days Of the Wambas, when the vassals OF
the barons of the Old World were held in feudal
bondage, though they did wear white skins
this assumption, say, from the very holiness
with which it was urged, was acquiesced in by
what it is now fashionable to call the "aggress-
i've North"
Another of the crumblng tyrannies of Flu.
rope soon wanted our gold, and We got in ex-
change the peninsula of Florida, and the Slave
Power got an accession to its rapidly growing
boundaries. In both these instances, the strange
fact was presented of a Republic purchasing
Slavery from ensaved nations across the At
lantic; and, with the isolated exception OF
California, no acquisition of territory made
since the foundation of our Republic has add
Ell to the strength or to the boundaries of the
free States. True, Iowa has been carved out
OF the Territory of Louisiana; but how, and for
what equivalent, will soon examine.
At the time of the acquisition of Louisiana,
seven of the original thirteen States were either
free, or had taken the initiatory steps towards
freedom from African Slavery; and the admis-
sion of Louisiana made the free and slave States
equal IN number. Now commenced the famous
system of equilibrium, in which Slavery and
Freedom were made to Jog along, pari passu,
in the fear that, if the former became stronger
in the councils of the nation than the latter,
he future would not redeem the hopes of the
iar-seeing statesmen of the South. With the
immense accession of slave territory, as fur
nished by France and Spain, began to dawn
the ambition of Power which, up to that
time, had been humble in its pretensions, the
demands of which we of the present day can
fully comprehend Hence the policy, which
was steadily pursued during thirty years of the
Republic from 1920 to 1850, which | have de-
nominated as the system of equilibrium. No
more single births were to be allowed the or
der of Nature was disturbed, to keep an equi-
librium. Twins, one black and one white,
were placed into the arms of the Republic al
each ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of the Observation-Disclosures
and Missouri, Arkansas and Michigan, Florida
and Wisconsin, Texas and Iowa. Thus were
four pairs of twins born, and the country went
on in its quiet, plodding way, never dreaming
but that it was all the result of the natural law
| of population, until the Mexican war laid open
| the wealth Of gold discovered in California.
| The citizens of the free States rushed across
the plains to this new Ophir in such numbers
| that. before the ever watchful statesmen of the
South had prepared for the event, the State OF
California was knocking at the door of the
| Union for admission. Here was dilemma
The South had got so accustomed to the twill
| system, that this threatened single birth threw
| it into a fit of CONSERVATION. The equilibrium
was about to be destroyed and we all remem
Der the struggle OF 1850, when, instead of twins
1 we got AL O1ilfllDuS lOdu HCt Oh DldtSS Ol
equilibrums, but of equivalents. The mos,
| learned political mdwives of that period oil
our Republic were in consultation how to rem
| edy the threatened epI; California would not
wait; the free spirit of her sons was unaccus
toned to the restraints and delays needed ia
keep the twin equilibrium perfect. California
| was determined to be born, and the mid
wives were compelled to assent to what they
| could not prevent or delay. But the mother
must be saved from the danger of such a VIC
lent birth and all kinds of opiates were ad
ninistered in one general prescription, labelled
compromise.
| Ahi what did that birth Of California, be
cause it was free one not cost the North
the aggressive North?" Better that it hat
| come into the Union as q slave State, than tina
the chalice, filled with bitterness, should hav,
been put to the lips of the North Her states
men forget that there is at least one thing il
this world dearer than peace-honor; one thin,
more sacred than the Union-Liberty. The,
consented to a law, at which the sefrespect o
every freeman of the North rebels, and the
compromised the manhood of the North t,
"preserye the Union" A free State, made s,
by the sons of the North, who loved Freedom
because they had been nurtured with its grea
truths, asked admission into this Republic, an,
it was met at the threshold by delays and deni
ais. 1t was enough to arouse the whole North
TO make it stand upon its reserved rights, an,
to demand instead of supplicating; yet it
statesmen forgot their duty, and compromise,
instead of acting. Aud yet, gentlemen iron
the South say that the North is aggressive;
that We who represent Freedom are arrogant il
our demands: that the South has suffered nue.
for the sake of the Union. / wish it were so
| wish l could shut my eyes to the fact, tha
that North which ia my homo wbera NV l;4
has been passed, and whose institutions / love
hos haaI, It's honor and dicaitxz In th