The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-17

mocks them with promise, that, if they shall
hereafter deport themselves properly, under the
control Of authorities by which they have been
disfrinchised, in determining institutions which
have been already forcibly determined for them
by foreign invasion, that then they "must be pro-
tected against interference by citizens of any of
the States"
The President, however, not content with q
statement obscure and unfair deyotes a third
part of the annual message to argumentative
specuiztions bearing on the character of his
aceuser Each State has two and no more
Senators in the Senate of the United States
in determining the apportionment of Represent
aiiTes in the House of Representatives and in the
electoral colleges among the States, three-fifths
OF all the slaves in any State are enumerated
The slaveholding non-slaveholding character
OF State is determined not at the time of its
admission into the Union as a State but at that
eafier period of its political life in which, being
called Territory, IT is politically dependent on
the United States, or on some foreign sovereign
Slavery is tolerated in some of the States, and
forbidden in others. Affecting the industrial and
economical systems of the several States as
Slavery and Freedom do, this diversity of prac-
tice concerning them early worked out a CORES
ponding difference of conditions, interests and
ambitions, among the States, and divided and
arrayed them into two classes. The balance of
political power between these two classes in the
Federal system is sensibly affected by the access
sion of any new State to either of them. Each
State therefore watches jealousy the settlement,
growth and inchoate slaveholding and non-slave-
holding characters of Territories, which may ulti-
lnstey come into the Union States. 1t has
suited from these circumstances, that Slavery, in
relations purely political and absolutely Federal,
lie an element which enters with more or less
tivity into many national questions Of finance, of
revenue, of expenditure, of protection, of free
trade, Of patronage, of peace, of war, of annexa-
top, of defence, and of conquest, and modihes
opinions concerning constructions of the Constitu-
ton, and the distribution of powers between the
onion and the several States by which it is consti
tuted. Slavery, under these political and Federal
aspects alone enters into the transactions in Kan
sas, with which the President and Congress are
concerned. Nevertheless, he dsingenuously al
ludes TO those transactions in his defence, as if
they were identified with that moral discussion
of Slavery which he regards odious and alarm
ing, and without any other claim to consideration
Thus he slludes to the question before as
belonging TO political agitation f" concern
ing matter which consists TO great extent of
exaggeration of inevitable evils, or over-zea in
social improvement or mere imagination of
grievance, having but a remote connection with
any of the constitutional functions of the Fed
eral Government, and menacing the stability of
the Constitution and the integrity of the
Union"
In like manner the President assails and stig-
mstizes those who defend and maintain the
canse of Kansas, as " men Of narrow views and
sectional purposes" engaged in those wild and
chimerical schemes of social change which are
generated one after another in the unstable minds
of visionary sophists and interested agitators"-
-" mad men, raising the storm of frenzy and fac
ton" sectional agtators, "enemies ofthe Con-
stitution, who have surrendered themselves so
far to fanatica devotion to the supposed inter
of the rel ativeiy fricana m the Initial
States, as totally to abandon and disregard the
interests Of the twenty-five millions of Americans
and trample under foot the injunctions of moral
and constitutional obligation, and to engage in
plans Of vindictive hostility against those who
are associated with them in the enjoyment of the
common heritage of our free Institutions" Sir,
the Presidents defence on this occasion, if not
q matter simply personal, is at least one of tenn
porary and ephemeral importance Possibly, all
the advantages be will gain by transferring to his
aocuser portion of the popular prejudice against
Abolition and Abolionists, can be spared to him.
1t would be wise, however for those whose inter-
ests are inseparable from Slavery, to reflect that
Abolition will gain an equivalent benefit from the
Identification Of the Presidents defence with their
cherished institution. Abolition is a slow but
irreprsssble uprising Of principles of natural JUS
tice and humanity, obnoxious to prejudice, be-
cause they conflict inconvenently with existing
material social and political interests 1t belongs
to Others than statesmen, charged with the of
present interests to conduct the social reformation
of mankind in its broadcast bearings. | leave to
Abolitionists their own work of Standardization.
may however remind shareholders that there is
time when oppression and persecution cease to
be ehectual against such movements !; and then
the odium they have before unjustly incurred be-
comes element of strength and power Chris
tianity, bindly maligned during three centuries,
by Pretors, Governors, Senates, Councils, and En-
perors, lowered above its enemies in fourth; and
even the cross which its Founder had expired,
and which therefore was the emblem of its shame,
became the sign under which it went forth ever
more thereafter conquering and TO conquer. Abo-
lition is yet only in its first century.
The President raises in his defence false issue,
and Celebrates an irrelevant argument to prove
that Congress has right or power, nor has
any sister State any right or power, TO interfere
within a slave State, by legislation or force, to
sboli:h Slavery therein-as if you, or |, or any
other responsible man, ever maintained the con-
trary.
The President dstorts the Constitution from
its simple text, so as to make it expressly and d.
rectly defend, protect, and guaranty African
Slavery. Thus he alleges that I" the Government"
which resulted from the Revolution was " Fed
eral Republic OF the free white men of the Colo
MES, whereas, the contrary. the Declaration of
Independence asserts the political equality of all
men, and even the Constitution itself carefully
avoids any political recognition not merely OF
Slavery, but of the diversity of races. The Pres
,ident represents the Fathers az having contem-
plated and provided for permanent increase of
the number of slaves in some of the States, and
therefore forbidden Congress to touch Slavery in
the way of attack offence, and having there
fore also placed it under the general safeguard
of the Constitution; whereas the Fathers, by au-
thorizing Congress TO abolish the African slave
trade after ls06 a means of attack, inflicted
ON Slavery in the States blow, of which they
expected it TO langush Immediately, and ulti-
mately 10 expire.
The President closes his defence In the annual
massage with deliberate assault, very incongru-
ous n; such place. upon some Of the Northern
States. AT the time he abstains, with
marked caution, from naming the accused States.
They, however, receive a compliment at his hands,
by way of giving keenness to his rebuke, which
enables US to identify them They are Northern
States which were conspicuous in founding the
Republic" All of the original Northern States
were conspicuous in that great transaction. All
of them, therefore, are accused. The offence
charged is, that they disregard their constitu-
tionsl obligations, and although "conscious of
their inability 10 heal admitted and palpable
cial evils OF their own confessedly within their
jurisdiction, they engage in an offensive, hope
less, and illegal undertaking. to reform the do
mestc institutions of the Southern States, at the
peril of the very existence of the Constitution,
and of all the countless benefits which it has
conferred" | challenge the President to the
proof, in behalf of Massachusetts,; although |
have only the interest common TO all Americans
and to all men in her great fame. What one
corporate social evil is there, of which she is
conscious, and conscious also of inability to heal
it? Is it ignorance, prejudice, bigotry, vice,
crime public disorder, poverty, or disease, affict-
-