The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-22

made the people of Massachusetts,, or of any
State, responsible for Slavery anywhere outside
of their own jurisdiction. Were men prescribed
then who held the views that we on this side
of the Chamber now hold2 No. sir; the men
who promulgated the Declaration Of lndepend-
ence, who carried us through the Revolution,
who framed the Constitution of the United States,
and who held the first Offices, were all men OPP
posed to Slavery. Washington was President. He
had declared that no man in America was more
in favor of the abolition of Slavery than himself,
and his vote should never be wanting to effect
that object John Adams had declared that con-
senting TO Slavery was sacrilegious breach OF
trust. Thomas Jefferson had proclaimed, over
and over again, his views in favor of emancipa-
tion that " the abolition of Slavery was the first
object of desire"
Alex Hamilton was removed from the Presi-
dency of an Abolition Society in New York, to the
head of the United States Treasury John Jay
was taken from Abolition Society in New York,
and made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States yet he had proclaimed to the
world that our prayers to Heaven would be
impious" until we abolished Slavery Iredell, of
North Carolina, had declared, that when the abo-
lition of Slavery took place, it would be an act
pleasing to all generous minds, and he was made
Judge of the Supreme Court. Wilson, of Penn
sylvana, in the Convention for the adoption of
trine, that the new States were TO be under the
authority of Congress, and that Slavery would
never go there He, too, was placed on the
bench OF the Supreme Court Gouverneur Morris,
who was sent abroad to represent this country,
declared Slavery to be n nefarious institution.
Madison, Sherman, Ellsworth, Gerry, Patrick
Henry-all the great men of the country, North
and South, with the exception of a few fre-eaters
in South Carolina and Georgia-held the doctrine
then that Slavery local institution, existing
only by the force of local law that the National
Government had no connection with it, and that
it was an institution which would pass away
before our higher civilization and our purer
Christianity. All we ask of you is, to carry us
back and place us where we stood when we made
the Constitution and inaugurated the Government
Then We were not responsible for the existence
of Slavery anywhere on earth outside of our own
Commonwealth.
What have you dOne2 You accepted the
grants of North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia, over Tennessee, Alabama, and Missis-
sippi, on condition that you should not emanci-
pate the bondmen which had been carried into
portions of those Territories, thereby making US
of the free States responsible for the political
power at least of Slavery in those three great
States. Then you located the National Capitol
here on the banks of the Potomac, and continued
the laws of Virginia and Maryland, under which
the slave trade and Slavery fourished beneath
the protecting folds of the National flag Sir,
within sight of the starry banner of the Union,
which now floats over our heads hundreds of
men, for whom Christ died. are held in perpetual
bondage, for which we of the North are respon-
sible in the forum of the nations. The permanent
interests Of the country required the purchase of
Louisiana. You purchased it. You took with
it forty thousand slaves. You did not make them
free. You made the people of Massachusetts, and
the North responsible for their future slavery,
and the slavery of their pOsterity. Then you
purchased Florida, with her slaves You did not
set them Free You linked us with Slavery in
that Territory. You made us responsible for its
future existence there Then YOU annexed the
Senator's own State of Texas; and the leading
motive why it was forced into the Union at that
time, at the risk of war with Mexico, was to
strengthen the cause of Slavery. Mr.. Calhoun,
the master-spirit in that annexation, avowed this
substantially in his letter TO Mr.. King, then our
Minister at Paris. You annexed Texas with her
slaves, and you have made us responsible for
Slavery there.
In 1907, when you abolished the African slave
trade, you passed a law protecting the cOastwise
slave trade and from 1907, almost fifty years
ago, the slave trade has been carried on upon the
rivers and waters of the United States, under the
protection of the National flag. You made us
for that traffic, the trophies of which,
to use the expressive language of John Randolph,
-" are the manacle, the handcuf, and the blood
stained cOwhidc."
When we established the Constitution, when
we inaugurated the Government we reaiiirmed
the Ordinance ofl7S7 over every foot of our Ter
rtory; we stood as nation before the world not
for Slavery I'VE had not its guilt or
its shame upon us. BY sixty years OF legislation
you have connected and associated us with that
system, until you have arrived at this point when
you claim it as yourright to carry Slavery, under
the Constitution, into all the Territories of the
United States. If you can carry it there, You
can carry it into the free States for if man has
n right to hold his slave by the power of the
Federal Constitution, | do not see where a State
of this Union gets the power to abolish it,
Mr. Clay declared, in 1850, that this doctrine
was one of the most extraordinary assumptions
and most indefensible positions ever taken by
man. lie said:
"You cannot put your finger on the part of the
{ Constitution which conveys the right the
power to carry slaves from ono Of the States of
the Union to any Territory of the United States
I" If the Constitution possesses the paramount
authority attributed to it, that is, to protect
Slavery in the Territories, the laws even of the
free States of the Union would yield to that par
{ amount authority"
Denying this authority, he said:
" If slaves are voluntarily carried into such n
jurisdiction, where Slavery does not exist their
6 chains instantly drop off, and they become
free, emancipated liberated from their bondage"
The Senator from Illinois, Mr.. DOUGLAS, the
author of the Kansas and Nebraska act in reply
to this extraordinary claim, that the Constitution
carries Slavery into the Territories that to denv
it would be the denial of the equality of the States
said 1t is no violation of Southern rights TO
prohibit Slavery" for "neither the North nor
the South, rs such, have any tights there Mt all"
The denial of the extraordinary assumption on
the part of slaveholding politicians, by Northern
Senators on the Democratic side of the Chamber
are of little value The Democratic party has
its head in the South, its tail in the North, and
there iron heels arc on that. The power of the
Democratic party is in the South. Gentlemen of
the Democratic party in the North must follow
Southern lead You have been forced from one
position to another. You were forced TO abandon
your position in favor of the "Wimot Provso"
You were driven to stand upon the shifting sands
OF popular sovereignty, and you now being
driven from even that position The Richmond
Enquuer tells us that squatter sovereignty has
been repudIated by the Cincinnati Platform.
" The Democrats of the South, it tells us, seek
not merely TO retain Slavery where it is but to
extend 1T into regions where it is yet unknown
Northern Democrats agree to its extension a
matter OF right on ouy part" 1t is the glory Of
the Northern Democracy, that it files in and fol-
lows lls southern leaders and masters. predict
that the doctrines maintained on this floor by the
Senator from Mississippi Mr.. REGwNl will yet
be adopted by the NORTHERN Democracy unless
deferred by the newly-developed strength of
the awakened and aroused ffeemen of the North.
The Senator from Texas spoke Of Northern
Does he suppose that the people of
the North are so stold, ignorant, and deluded, as
to be deceived on question of such transceGdsni
magnitude? | hope the Senator from Texas,
and those who act with him, will disabuse their
minds right speedily of that idea Cast your eye
over the North take New England, with her
one hundred and fifty thousand popular majority