The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-30
MR.. DOUGLAS IN THE SOUTH.

Mr.. Douglas made an elaborate speech at
Memphis, while on his way down the river, and
repeated it. in substance, at New Orleans The
friends of the black man will be gratiftd to
learn that the Illinois Senator had the indie
pendence to ayow, in the presence of a South
ern audience, his preference for negroes over
crocodileS. 1t is true that he goes for the per
petual enslavement of the negro. but that is
from the necessity of the case, the Almighty
having drawn a line south ofwhich Slavery must
exist. He SAYS:
Whenever Territory has a climate, soil.
and production, making it the interest of the
inhabitants tie encourage slave property, they
will pass slave code, and give it encourage
mcnt. Whenever the climate, SOIL and produc-
ton, preclude the possibility Of Slavery being
profitable, they will not permit il. You come
right back to the principle of dollars aud cents
do not care where the migration in the South
ern country comes from; if old Joshua Il. Gid.
dn9S should raise colony in Ohio. and settle
down IN Louisiana, he would be the strongest
advocate Of Slavery in the whole South he
would find, when he got there, his opinion would
be very much modified; he would find on those
sugar plantations that it was not question be-
tween the negro and the crocodile
He,woud say that, between the negro and
the crocodile, he took the side of the negro But.
between the negro and the white man he would
60 for the white man. The Almighty has drawn
the line on tins continent, on one side of which
the soil must be cultivated by slave labor: on
the other, by white labor. That line did not
run on thrty-siX degrees and thirty minutes. for
thIriy-SlX degrees and thirty minutes runs over
mountains and through valleys But this slave
line meanders in the sugar-ields and planta.
tons OF the South the remainder of the SEN
tence was lost by the confusion around the re-
porter. And the people living in their different
localities and in the Territories must determine
Tor themselves whether their middle bed is
best adapted to Slavery or Free Labor
" Hence, under the Constitution, there is no
power to prevent Southern man going there
with his slaves, more than a Northern man"
On this question, of what has been fore-or-
dained in the councils of the Almighty in regard
TO the perpetuation of Slavery, the Democratic
doctors disagree very materially. For instance
there was Mr., Jefferson, whose authority was
formerly much respected in Democratic circles
who expressed opinions directly the reverse OF
those given above from the speech of the Illinois
statesman and philosopher. In his Notes on
Virginia, Mr.. Jefferson said
With the morals of the people, their indus
try also is destroyed for, in a warm climate
no man will labor for himself who can make
another labor for him. This is so true. that o.
the proprietors of slaves, a very small propor
! ton, indeed, are ever seen to labor. And car
the liberty of a nation be thought secure, wher
we have removed their only firm basis-a con
viction in the minds Of the people that thes,
liberties are the gift of God-that they are no
to be violated but with his wrath ? Indeed
hembie for my country achen / reflect tia
God isJHst; tint his Justice cannot sleep for
eoer; that, considering numbers, nature. anC
natural means only, revolution of the vince
of fortune, an exchange of situation. is amons
possible events that it NAV become probabl,
by supernatural influence! THE ALMtGHTY ba
attribute achich can take side icih as in s,,cJ
a contest"
Again, in letter to one of his friends h,
saws
" But it was found the public mind would no
bear the proposition, nor will it bear it even a
this day 1921 yet the day is not distan
when it must bear and adopt it, or worse vii
follow. Nothing is more certainly written il
the Book Of Fate, than that these people are t