The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-03-11

at once: Kansas protests here, and stands, by
your own confession, in an attitude of rebellion
at home, to resist the annexation which you con-
tend she is soliciting at your hands.
| Sir, if your proofs were a thousand times
stronger, would not hold the people of Kansas
bound by them. They all are contradicted by
stern fact. A people be bound by no ac-
/ ton conducted in their name, and pretending
to their sanction, unless they enjoy perfect free
/ dom and safety in giving that consent. You have
held the people of Kansas in duress from the
! first hour of their attempted organization as d
community. Toerown this duress by act, at
once forcing Slavery on them which they hate,
and them into union with you, on terms which
/ they abhor, would be but to illustrate anew, and
on grand scale, the maxim
| "Prosperar ct teIir scelus, virtus vocatur."
! Mr. President, it is an occasion for ioy and
| triumph, when community that has gathered it.
self together under circumstances of privation and
exile, and proceeded through season of Terrific
rial or provincial dependence on distant central
authority, becomes State in the full endowment
/ OF civil and religious liberty, and rises into the
dignity OF member of this Imperial Union But,
In the case of Kansas, her whole existence has
been, and it yet is, a trial. tempest, chaos
/ and now you propose to make her nuptals q
celebration OF the funeral of her freedom. The
people OF Kansas are entitled TO save that free
! dom, for they have won it back when it had been
wrested from them by invasion and usurpation.
Dir, you are great and strong. On this continent
i there is no Power resist YOU On any other,
there is hardly Power that would not reluctant
/ ly engage with you-but you can never, never
! conquer Kansas. Your power like a throne
/ which is built of pine boards, and covered with
purple, Is weakness, except it be defended by a
people confdng in you, because satisfied that
you are just, and grateful for the freedom that,
under you, they enjoy.
Sir, In view, once more, of this subject of
! Slavery, | submit that our own dignity requires
that we shall give over this champerty with
Shareholders, which we practice in prescribing
acquiescence in their rule a condition of toler-
alton of self-government in the Territories. We
are defeated in it. We may wisely give it up,
and admit Kansas as a free State, since she will
consent to be admitted only in that character.
Mr.. President, if | could at all suppose it de-
srable or expedent to enlarge the field Of slave
labor, and Of slaveholding sway in this Republic
should nevertheless maintain that it is wise to
reilnquish the effort to sustain Slavery in Kan
sas. The question, in regard to that Territory
has risen from private one about Slavery as n
domestic Institution, to one of Slavery as a
national policy. At every step, you have been
failing. Will you go on still further ever con-
| tdent, and yet ever unsuccessful?
believe, sir, to some extent in the isothermal
theory. think there are regions beginning at
Slavery will die out soon, if it be planted; and
know, too well, that in the tropics, and to some
extent northward OF them, Slavery lives long
and is hard to eXtirpate. But | cannot find
certain boundary. ! am sure, however, that 360
| 3O/ is too far north think it is a movable
boundary, and that every year it advances to-
wards more southern parallel.
But is there just now a real want of new
State for the employment of slave labor? l see
and feel the need OF room for a new State to be
assigned to free labor, of room for such a new
State almost every year. | think | see how it
arises. Free white men abound in this country
and iii Europe, and even in Asia. Economically
speaking, their labor is cheap-there is a surplus
of it. Under improved conditions of society, life
grows longer, and men multiply faster. Wars,
which sometimes waste them, grow less frequent
and less destructive. Invention is continually
producing machines and engines, artificial labor
ers, crowding them from Que field of industry to
another-ever more from the Eastern regions of
this continent TO the West, ever more from the
overcrowded Eastern continent to the prairies
and the wildernesses in our own. But do not
see any such overlooking of the African slave
population in this country, even where it is
unresisted Free labor has been obstructed in
Kansas. There are, nevertheless sc, 900 or 60 600
freemen gathered there already gathered there
within four years. Slave labor has been free to
importation. There are only 100 to 200 slaves
there To settle and occupy new slave State
anywhere is, Pdri pdssu, to depopuate old slave
States. Whence, then, arc the supplies of slaves
to come, and how? Only by reviving the African
slave trade. But this is forbidden. Missionaries
dream that the prohibition can be repealed. The
idea is insane. \ Republic Of thirty millions of
freemen, with free white laboring population so
dense already to crowd on subsistence to be
brought to import negroes from Africa to sup
plant them as cultivators, and to subject them
selves to starvation! Though Africa is yet I'M
organized and unable to protect ITSELF still it has
already exchanged, in large degree, its wars to
make slaves, and its commerce in slaves, for
legitimate agriculture and trade All European
States are interested in the civilization of that
continent, and they will not consent that we
shall arrest it. The Christian church cannot
be forced back two centuries, and be made to
sanction the African slave trade as a missionary
enterprise.
Every nation has always some ruling idea. |
which, however, changes with the several stages
of its development. A ruling idea of the colonies
on this continent two hundred years ago was |
labor to subdue and reclaim nature Then Afri- |
can Slavery was seized and employed as an aux
Hilary, under a seeming necessity. That idea |
has ceased forever. 1t has given place to a new
one. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of the nation, not indeed
as it once was, to make small State great |
but to make State already great the great |
est OF all States. 1t still demands labor but il
Is no longer the Ignorant labor of barbarians |
but labor perfected by knowledge and skill |
and combination with all the scientific principles
OF mechanism. 1t demands, not the labor of |
slaves, which needs to be watched and defended |
but voluntary, enlightened labor stimulated by |
interest, affection, and ambition. 1t needs that |
every man shall own the land he tills that every
head shall be fit for the helmet and every hand |
mt for the sword, and every mind ready and oual-
fled for counsel. To attempt to aggrandize a |
country with slaves for its inhabitants would be
to try to make large body of empire with feeble |
sinews and empty veins.
MIR. President the expansion of territory to |
make slave States will only fail to be a great |
crime, because it is impractcable, and therefore
will turn out to be stupendous imbecility |
free republican Government like this. notwith-
standing all its constitutional checks cannot |
long resist and counteract the progress Of socie-
ty. Slavery, wherever and whenever, and in
whatsoever form it exists, is exceptional, local,
and short-lived. Freedom is the common right
interest, and ultimate destiny, of all mankind. |
All other nations have already abolished, or are
about abolishing, Slavery. Does this fact mean
nothing All parties in this country that have
tolerated the extension of Slavery, except one |
has persisted for that error already. That last
Democratic party-is hurryinp on ire |
trlevably, toward the same fate. All Admins |
trations that have avowed this policy have gone
down dshonored for that cause, except the pres
ent one. pit deeper and darker still is OPEN |
ing to receive this Administration, because il |
sins more deeply than its predecessors. There
is meaning in all these facts, which it becomes |
US to study well. The nation has advanced
another stage it has reached the point where
by the Government, for Slavery and
slave States, will no longer be tolerated. Free