The Kanzas news., 1858-03-27
BY P. B. PLUMB

1
If the three candidates now here-Kanzas
Minnesota and Oregon-shall be admitted
as free States, then there viii be nineteer
free States to fifteen slave States. Original.
ly there were twenty-four Senators of slave
States, and only two of free States; now
there are thirty-two Senator'S of free States,
and thirty of slave States. In the frs
Constitutional Congress the slave States hat
ffty-seven Representatives, and the one fret
state had only eight now the free State:
have one hundred and forty -four represen.
tatiVes, while the slave States have only
ninety. These changes have happened in
period during which the slave States have
almost uninterruptedly exercised paramount
influence in the Government, and notwith.
standing the Constitution itself has opposed
well known checks to the relative increase
of representation of free States. I assume,
therefore, the truth of my first proposition
l suggested, sir, a second Circumstance,
namely: That whereas, in the earlier age
of the Republic, the National Government
favored this change, yet it has since alto
gether reversed that policy, and it now op-
poses the change. I do not claim that
heretofore the National Government always,
or even habitually, intervened in the Terri
tories in favor of free States, but only that
such Intervention preponderated. While
slavery existed in all of the States but one,
at the beginning, yet it was far less intense
In the northern than in some of the south
ern States. All of the former contemplated
an early emancipation. The fathers seem
not to have anticipated an enlargement of
the national territory consequently, they
expected that all the new States 10 be there
after admitted would be organized upon
subdivisions of the then existing States, or
upon divisions of the then existing national
domain. That domain lay behind the thir-
teen States, and stretched from the lakes to
the gulf, and was bounded westward by the
Mississippi. 1t. was naturally divided by
the Ohio river, and the Northwest Territory
and the Southwest Territory were organized
on that division. It was foreseen, even
then, that the new States to be admitted
would ultimately overbalance the thirteen
original ones. They were, however, mainly
to be yet planted and matured in the desert,
with the agency of human labor.
The fathers knew only of two kinds of
labor, the same which now exist among our
selves-namely, the labor of African slaves,
and the labor of free men. The former
then predominated in this country, as it did
throughout the Continent. A confessed de-
iciency of slave labor could be supplied
only by domestic increase, and by continu-
ance of the then existing Importation from
Africa. The supply of free labor depended
on domestic increase, and a voluntary inn
migration from Europe. Settlements which
had thus early taken on free-labor charac-
ter, or slave-labor character, were already
maturing in those parts of the old States
which were to be ultimately detached and
formed into new States. When new States
of this class were organized, they were ad-
mitted promptly, either as free States or as
slave States, without objection. Thus Yer
mont, free State. was admitted in 1871
Kentucky, slave State, in 1893; and Ten
nessee, also slave State, in 1896 Five
new States were contemplated to be erected
in the Northwest Territory. Practically it
was unoccupied, and therefore open to labor
of either kind. The one kind or the other,
in the absence of any anticipated emulation,
would predominant. just as Congress should
intervene to favor it. Congress interviewed
in favor of free labor. This, indeed, was
an act of the Continental Congress, but it
was confirmed by the first Constitutional
Congress. The fathers simultaneously
adopted three other measures of less direct
intervention. First. they initiated in 1889,
and completed in 1903, the absolute sup
preston of the African slave trade. Sec
ondly, they organized systems of foreign
commerce and navigation, which stimulated
voluntary immigration from Europe Third
ly, they established an easy, sim pie and uni
form process of naturalization. The change
of the balance of power from the slave
States to the free States, which we are now
witnessing, is due chiefly to those four early
measures of national Intervention in favor
of free labor. It would have taken place
much sooner If the borders of the Republic
had remained unchanged. The purchase of
Louisiana and the acquisition of Florida,
however, were transactions resulting from
high political necessities, in disregard of the
question between free labor and slave labor.
In admitting the new State of Louisiana,
which was organized on tie slave-labor SET
tlement of New Orleans, Congress practised
the same neutrality which it had before ex-
ercised in the States of Kentucky and Ten
nessee. No serious dispute arose until
1919, when Missouri, organized within the
former province of Louisiana, upon slave
labor settlement in St. Louis, applied fol
admission as a slave State, and Arkansas
was manifestly preparing to appear soon in
the same character. The balance of power
between the slave States and the free States
was already reduced to an equilibrium, and
the eleven free States had an equal repre-
sentation with the eleven slave States in the
Senate of the United States. The slave
States unanimously insisted on an unquali.
fed admission of Missouri The free States
with less unanimity demanded that the new
State shonld renounee slavery. The contro-
versy seemed to shake the Union to its
foundations, and it was terminated by 8
compromise. Missouri was admitted as