Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1857-01-14
IoMaANn aRKANsa.,

IOWA AND ARKlANsAs.
=, Here are two States that have been made out
| of the Louisiana purchase Of ISo3 They arc
of nearly equal size. Iowa has the most good
land. There are more swamps in Arkansas
The one lies over against the Free States The
other lies over against the Slave St,s;es. Iowa
is as far from the Slave States, except Missouri
as Arkansas is from the Free States The lat.
| ter became State in 1885, the iornes. in 1916.
The one is now twenty years old. The other is
ten. 81
By the act q. Congress of 1890, authorizing
the people Of Missouri territory to form State
government, the territories of which these two
States are now composed fell under different or.
ganic laws Slavery was expressly prohibited
in all Louisiana north of Sc degrees 80 minutes
not included in Missouri while soUth of that
line-the implication and the understanding was
tina. Slavery might be Introduced or not, as the
people might desire. Twenty-Five ,,tars after
wards, this implication and understanding found
formal expression in the laws OF the United
States for the first time; to-wt: iniifs applica
ton to Texas. Stephen 4Araola Douglas ex.
tended its application in 1854 to Kansas and Ne
braska. e., I -ei2t
Behold now in Arkansas and Iowa the results
of different organic laws; III the former, Of
squatter sovereignty, in the latter Of Slavery
prohibition. 5tp@
1880, taken in June Of that year! when Iowa
was only three and half years old Arkansas
had then the largest population b. ,seventeen
thousand. Forty-seyen thousand, however,
were slaves. So that Iowa had then the larces,
free population BY thirty thousand. Since that
time Arkansas has advanced, accor ing to all
accounts, at q snail's pace; while Iowa hiss
made giant strides, The population of the lat
ter State in June, 1856, was over hal. million.
A comparison Of these two States rs to the
places OF nativity of their population shows that
the most plausible objection to the prohibition
of Slavery viz: that it is unfair to i portion of
the citizens of the United States, IS entirely
without foundation. The reverse is rather true.
The allowance of Slavery in territory serves
to bar; out much larger number of the citizens
of the Union than the prohibition oi it would.
An overwhelming majority of the American
people do not want to go into slave territory
to reside, and will not 60 They are not ing
advantages which Slavery imposes. Very little
emigration has ever gone from the Free States
into Slave territories, while the Free territories
have received a very respectable portion of their
population from the Slave States. In 1850 Ar
kansas contained 9,495 natives of tho Free
States, while Iowa numbered among its popua-
ton 81 1914 natives of the Slave States AT the
same time let it be remembered, that the white
population of the Free States is more than twice
as great as the white population Of the Slave
States This fact must be borne in mind in or
derto see the full nature of. the un.airness and
wrong perpetrated against the Free States by
the allowance Of Slavery in the territories. The
single State of Kentucky sent more of her ma
., Hfr ;. IL
together semitic Arkansas Kentucky and Vir-
ginia each sent more of their native born popu-
ation to Iowa than they sent to Arkansas
Maryland sent to Arkansas 1876 OF her sons,
while she sent to Iowa 1888, more than five
times as many. f"zieb 6 tEysA 50
These remarkable facts are highly instructive,
and well worthy the thoughtful consideration OF
every citizen. They show that those Southern
statesmen of former times, to whom the
country is largely indebted for The prohibition
of Slavery in the West, were not unjust to the
interests or the preference of the people of
their own section. Henry Clay, who, as Speak
err of the House of Representatives, gave his
influence in 1920 to the act which saved Iowa
from Slavery, performed a part in no wise de
rogatory to his native State, Virginia, or his
adopted State, kentucky. More than sixteen
of the sons of those States, prior to
coming citizens of a State where Slavery had
been forever prohibited by an act bearing his
name. The histoty OF Iowa thus shows that it
is Free Territories and Free, States that great
majority Of the American people in the whole
demand. -
Slavery also erects barrier against the ad.
venturous sons of the cid world who come to
the new to find an asylum from oppression.
Arkansas, in 1850, had only l,6:s inhabitants |
who were born in foreign lands, gHhile Iowa
had 21 1872.
This is the contribution that the history Of !
Iowa presents, at the close of its first decade,
% the solution Of the problem that now agitates
he country. Let the American people survey
he fields and shops and cities OF Iowa--let them |
ook at her industry, enterprise and cultivation
let them compare her with Arkansas, and then |
determine whether good policy, and national aud |
,atholic ideas, and the glory OF our common |
COUNTRY, demand the allowances of Slavery in |
he territories 10 as
1t might be more proper to compare Arkan
as with Michigan, and Iowa with Florida, which |
re respectively of the same age. We commend
he subject to students of American history
resident Pierce proyokes the Investigation by
special pleading of his Annual Message in IA
or Of the new-tangled notion of the equality
I the States. Let the Investigation be made
Congregational Herald go