The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1857-03-21
CONGRESSIONAL.
sPEECH OF HON. J. n. TYSON,
" PENNSYLVANIA

SPEECH OF HON. j. *. TYSON,
on PENNSYLVANIA,
On the principles Of ugtiyessve laws and the compre
ises Of 1850 delivered in the House of Representative
February 20, 1857.
(coscLUDEDl
am no apologist for slavery in any form. believe Il
TO be opposed TO the genius OF our government ana
Gus in lis effects upon this country. But while aepoIe
s existence am not insensble to the ncontroyeruDie
fact that the African whether bond or free mas oeen
ly elevated ia character and improved IN condiuon anu
happiness by his residence among reigous al
led and free people That seryude which existed and
now exists in Africa and to which most Oh tne
of thepresent race of slaves weie
nv which natural savage people without ohiisuah
iy and without civilization Nor can any one doubt "no
Knows aught of the slave system which prevailed IN lhe
yys Indies and of the Cody system which has been SUB
stituted under English rule, which now exists Cuba
under the laws of Spain, or even the system OF Psondge
a. that obtains in Mexicothat slavery In the southern
states is comparable neither OF these The different
ys,ems referred TO admit of connvance at abuse
and not more favorable 70 the welfare ana solor.
and in degree patriarcha system existing
n our southern States Who heard that slaves in our
southern States were over-woked, undered i-ciaa OF
40 mot have the Gospel preached to hem Any one who
will carefully study the history the physiology ana CHAR
aceriscs of that division of the African race which mas
no eanaty Of rights with the races OF Europe would bring
about equality OF condition The natural ineriory OF the
negro is physically and mstaPhyscaly FACT You may
maze society level tabeand but cannot prevent the
African negro from sinking in intellectual stature below the
height of the European The laws OF our Tree STATES Whch
show the slow but certain results OF experience aes nis
1rntb by Withholding from the negro more than meas
red or qualified freedom. As the unaught Indians are
for their protection in state of tuelage to this govern
nt 90 the descendants of Africa for their security and
hannness as dependent are in similar position In
most If not all of the different States In whcn 'hey are
placed. 49, .ta h.nn;,s..
If one man in the keeping of another without more legal
esaint than at present exists in the saveholdng States
is certainly grave objections but this objection would no
aonbt he iessened if removed in GAMER eondion OF
the nopIar elements All mean to say 49, thai IT - IN
lust TO the character of this country and injurious 70 inc
social and moral standing of the southern states 70 con-
found the system of hereditary service which exists amo
them with condition of law and state OF society out OF
ali comparison inferior TO theirs in those attributes and
virtues which form and enter into the composit0n o. re-
l,oions heightened and enlightened people England
s an expuous territory suated in the same LATITUDE Win
some Of our more northern States She has no need from
climate or soil of African service more than they as
che nroved IL 78T when she sent her four hundred black
people Africa She cannot appreciate 'he want OF
labor in country stretching through every variety OF
climate from almost the rgd zone TO the equator where
the white man cannot labor but where experiences proves
he angushes and dies amid fervid and to him unnatural
heat the black delights and luxuriaes In he same
proportion that ervo- of high southern latitude ds-
sbles the European 1t is genial 10 the African Negro VINO
suffers nversey in body and mind as be advances toward
the North.
events of our own history. When the thirteen colonies
declared themselves independent OF English rule In i1I6
slavery existed in alt Let England remember, ana lo'
ton forget that ut the moment OF our separation each
colony held slaves under the counenance and regulation
of English law African slavery therefore, is to be mar
sbaed among the assets English inheritance Penn
syvana the year $780, first provided by statute for the
abolition of her domestic slaves. Massachusetts followed
by judicial construction of her constitution Ia the same
wear Connecticut and Rhode Island in l794 New York In
7s9 and several of the other States in order But 1t
fact worthy of noe-is II not an impressive passage
in our hstorytha all the States which have yet manu-
med their slaves beyond certain degree OF north
laude2 That slavery is still continued in some states
where African labor is not indispensable Is anaouoteely
true but the apparent anomaly IL well explained by the
activity of English ard northern fanstcsm in preventing
the maturity OF those wise measures OF adu alteration
which were deliberately meditated in each.
Then the question arises what it the duty of those
northern States which have abolished their respective sys-
TENS Of domestic servude or have been admitted into the
Union as ree States do in the matter of slavery in the
southern Sates2 Have they anything more TO do with IL
now than before their systems abolished? Ought
they in short to deliver back to their southern oreth
rem ugves from labor and service as the constitution en-
ons and as they agreed to do in becoming parties to that
solemn instrument of government? should they act
upon the English dogma that the soil OF tho Tree States
shonld southern slave into free
man demur to the adoption of that doctrine in these
confederate States politically and morally as man and
all the lights Of history, by every consideration OF justice
by the principles of national honor and of national policy
that bound to restore to the State and to his master
the fugitive who has left the protection of both.
Most of the thirteen colonies when they all mad COM
mon head in Great Britain enacted their systems OF
laws the capture and rendition Of fugitive slaves These
of their respective owners that the Articles OF Con
federation which followed independence in the year l7S
were entirely silent upon the subject But when the con-
stution framed 1884, two OF the states had en-
tered upon the work of Acknowledgement Pennsylvania
whose early law of 17l2 repealed by the Queen in
council no emancipated from the thradom OF
political subsection England than, true to her original
principles she passed act for the gradual abolition OF
African servitude within her borders This act bears date
the LIST of March, $780, while the Of the revolution
was still raging and its result still doubtful But while she
thus prepared for future freedom in her territory she
true the rights Of her sisters on her own soil 1t is
distinctly provided in the eleventh section of this first great
abolition act in the United States, that this act or any
thing it contained shall not give any relief shelter to
any Ascending runaway muatto slave or SER
want who has absented himself shall absent himself,
from his her owner MASTER mistress residing In any
other State country but such owner MASTER or mis-
tress shall have like right and aid demand claim, and
take away his slave servant he might have had in
this had not been passed. This enactment with
provdent and patriotic of justice which reflects
upon the of that day in Pennsylvania the most dis
tinguished honor anticipated the acquisitions of the con-
suon Seven years before that great federal State
per framed and thirteen years before the act OF Con-
gress of 1893 passed. Pennsylvania ready by her
own voluntary legislation, while aboshing her own sys-
tenn do substantial justice to all her sisters This sec
ton of her of 1880 is unpeaed to the present day
and into her satutebook present and existing
law
The constitution of the United States completed
and adopted by the convention three months after the
by Congress of the great ordinance constituting
the Territory northwest OF the river Ohio The nearly
temporaneous dates of these two papers throw light
each other in regard fugitive slaves and to congressional
power Both these bodieshe Congress and the conyen-
tonwere sitting in Philadelphia at the time in the
vicinity of each other; and the members, doubt in
habits of daily and hourly intercourse The ordinance
-