The Kanzas news., 1857-06-06
EMpg5RI KAazAs, JUNE 6, 1851.

In fSlhI IsAR
. the various kinds of serfzes. uzlta the d
rect and erosser forns Of i we're nearly,
not altogether extinct, assumed once moas
new character and new life Is com.
Hlercial speculation The slave. say.
Arthur Helps. uss no longer an aecidenl
lof var; he had become the object of war
! He was no longer anere accidental subjec
iof barter: he was to be sought for-to b
/ hunted Quito be produced and slavery
became more momentous question than j
had ever been before. =
ssIn this country, the efforts of the colo
nists to secure their twn liberties, had
brought the greater part, at an early day, g
Esympathize IN the general movement for bib
ferty. Slavery existed among them, but i
existed as an inheritance, and not as a thing
which they approved. .'There is not, =
says Ranereft. Tin all the colonial legisla-
ion Of A AzneEica, one single law which re-
cognizes the nghtfuiness of slavery insthe
abstract. Every province favored freedom
as such.' In his address to the Virginia
Convention of 1774, Jefferson said, ''that
the abolition of domestic slavery IS the great
est object of desire IN these colonies, where il
was unhappily introduced in their infant
state" They were embarrassed alone as
to what to do with the serviie class, even
then very large. 1t was, however, univer-
sally supposed that by restricting the i'm
portation of slaves, the odious system would
die out. The earliest continental Congress
| (1774) )-the first union of the provinces
that was ever held-accordingly agreed to
discontinuance of the slave-trade. In the
original draft of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, that trade was stigmatized as ga
cruel war against human nature and the
paragraph was Withdrawn only at the in
stance of South Carolina and Georgia, not
then prepared to abandon the traffic forever.
By 1884, Massachusetts, and New Hamp-
shire had abolished slavery; Pennsylvania,
Connecticut and Rhode Island had secured
personal liberty by statute to all the future
natives of those states; New York, New
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia
had prohibited the further introduction of
persons claimed as slaves; the last two had
repealed the old colonial laws against man
omission by individuals; and at the close
of the war, the last continental Congress
proclaimed that the war of independence,
then successfully closed, had been war
for Wharf.-The rights of race?-no! but
''for the rights of human nature
''What were the opinions, then, of the
men who framed the Federal Constitution?
What were the opinions of Washington, JEFF
ferson, Patrick Henry, Morris, Madison,
Hamilton, Franklin, Adams, Jay-and all
the other leading spirits of the day? We
might quote in reply sentence after sentence
from the speeches or writings of these dis
tinguished men, going to show their deep
seated adherence of slavery, their anxious
interest in the question as to the best means
of its termination-and their assurance that
the curse was but ransitory-destined to
pass rapidly away. But the late political
campaign has made their words too familiar
to every reader, to need that we should cite
them here. Mr.. Webster, who, it is uni
versally admitted, whatever we may think
of his politics, was more profoundly versed
in all the knowledge that relates to the for
nation of the Constitution than any other
man, has forcibly but accurately described
the state of feeling at the time of the Fede-
raj Convention. cit viii be found" he
said, s'if we carry ourselves, by historical
back to that day, and ascertain
mems opinions by authentic records, still
existing among us, that there was then no
diversity of opinion between the north and
the south on the subject of slavery. twill
be found that both parts of the country held
it equally an evil. moral and political evil"
''The eminent men, the most eminent men,
and nearly all the conspicuous politicians
of the south held the same sentiments-th
slavery was an evil, blight curse. There
are no terms of reprobation of slavery so
vehement at the north at that day as In the
south. The north was not so much excl
ted against it as the south, and the reason
is, that there was much less of it, at the
north, and the people did not see the evil
so prominently as at the SOUTH" But Mr..
Webster need rot to have confined his re-
marks to the evidences of the politicians; the
churches-every leading denomination
speaking through their most influential or
gans and teachers-were far more urgent In |
their denunciations than the politicians;
while the general literature of the country
the first American novel that was ever prin-
ted, one of the earliest of American poems,
the newspapers and the collegesHwas equal |
y earnest in its protests. "If we Judge the
future by the past, :" said Jonathan Edwards, |
r., in 1871, 'ewithin fifty years from this
time it will be as shameful for man to hold
a negro slave, as to be guilty of common
robbery or theft"
''In the Federal Convention itself, which,
though not authorized to act upon the inter-
nal affairs of the separate states, was vet
bound IN some sort to recognize them, the
almost pains were taken, not only TO ex-
,lude the word sLave and the word servifude
rom the instrument of government, but TO
shut out every expression or phrase which. /
wen by implication, would sanction the
light of property in man. Eve intend this
Constitution said Madison, addressing
he Convention, s'to be the GREAT CHARrER