Litchfield enquirer., 1858-11-11

and already, despotic as they are, we find then engaged m abollshlng Slavery. In the United States, Slavery came into collision with fire, labor at the close of the last century, and fel before It in New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and triumphed over ii ehtctually, and excluded it for d period yet un determined, from Virginia, the Caronas ant Georgia. ladccd, so incompatible are the two systems that every new State which is organi zed within our ever-extendiDg domain, make: It's hrst political act a choice of the one and ar exclusion of the other, even at the cost of civi War, # necessary. The Slave States, without law, at the last National election forbade within their own limits, even the casting o votes for candidate for President of the Uni ted States supposed to be favorable to the es tablishment of the free labor system in new States.
 Hitherto the two systems have existed ir different States, but side by side, within the American Union. This has happened because the Union is a confederation of States. But in another aspect, the United States constitute only one nation. Increase of population, which IS filling up the States out to their very bor- ders, together with new and extended net work of railroads and other avenues, and an internal commerce which daily becomes more intimate, is rapidly bringing the States into a higher and more perfect social unity or consol- idation. Thus these antagouistic systems are continually coming iuto closer contact, and col llS.on results
 Shall l tell you what this collision means ? They who think that it is accidental unneces- sary, the work of interested or fanatical agita- torS and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict be- tween opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, BECOME ENTIRELY A SLAvEHoLD- ING NATION, OR ENTIRELY A FREE-LABoR NATION Either the cotton and rice fields of South Car ollna aud the sugar plantations of Louisiana Will ultimately be filled by free labor, and Charleston and New Orleans become mortS for legitimate merchandise alone, or else the rye fields and wheat-helds of Massachusetts and New York must again be surrended by their farmers to slave culture and to the production Of slaves, and Boston and New York become once more market for trade in the bodies and souls of men, It is the failure to apprehend this great truth that induces so many unsuc- cess.ul attempts at final compromise between the Slave and Free States, and it is the exis- tehce of this great fact that renders all such StartlnsT as this saying may appear to you, te lIow-ctizens, it is by no means all original or even q modern one. Our forefathcrs knew it to be true, and unanimously acted upon it, when they framed the Constitution of the Uni ted States. They regarded the existence of the servlle system in so many of the States with sorrow aud shame, which they openly con- fessed, and they looked upon the collision be- tween them, which was then just revealing it. self, and which we are now accustomed to de- pore, with favor and hope. They knew that either the one or the other system must exclu- sively prevail
 Unlike too many of those who, in modern times, invoke their authority, they had choice between the two. They preferred the system of free labor, and they determined so to organ Ze the government, and so to direct its actIvi- ty, that that system should surely and certain ly prevail. For this purpose, and no other, they based the whole structure of government broadly on the principle that all men are crea ted equal, aud, therefore, tree-litte dreaming that within the short period of one hundred years their descendants would bear to be told by any orator, however popular, that the utter ance of that principle was merely a rhetorical lhI Isoly; CT by any Judge, however venerated that it was attended by mental reservations, which rendered it hypocritical and false. By the ordinance of l7S7, they dedicated all of the national domain, not yet polluted by Slave ry, to free lahor immediately, thencefortn and forever while by the new Constitution and Jaws, they invited foreign free labor from all lands under the sun, and interdcted the impor- tation of A frican save-labor at all times, in all places and under all circumstances whatsoever It is true that they necessarily and wisely mod flied this policy of freedom, hy leaving it to the several States, affected as they Were by differing circumstances, to abolish Slavery in their own way aud at their own pleasure, instead of con fiding that duty to Congress, and that they se- cured to the Slave States, while yet retaining the system of Slavery, q, three-fIths reprcstn- tation of Slaves in the Federal Government, until they should find themselves able to relil- qnish it with safety. But the very nature of these notifications fortfes my position that the fathers knew that tie two systems could not endure within the Union, aud expected s'"o "'e"h n shoie tSiloo Sidftty Wouiu uio- appear forever. Moreover, in order that these notifications night not altogether defeat their grand design of Republic maintaining univer- sal equality, they provided that two-thirds of the States might amend the Constitution.
 1t remains to say on this point only one word to guard against misapprehension. If these States are again to become universally slave holding, do not pretend to say with what violations-of the Constitution that end shall be accomplished. On the other hand, while l do confidently believe and hope that my country will yet become land of universal freedom, I do not expect that it qcaU De made so otherrase Mam Mrongh the action of the seceral States, cooperating aoith the Federal Gorermment, and al acting im strict conformity rath thesr respee- tsre Constitutions. -
 The strife and contentious against Slavery, which gently disposed persons habitually dep