Staunton vindicator and general advertiser. (Staunton, Augusta County, Va.) 1858-1860, 1858-03-27
Senator asason'S Views on Kansas.

In the Senate, On Monday, ,ir Mason
Of Virginia, in an elaborate argument, re-
viewed the history Of the events and causes
which have brought African slavery into
discussion as connected with the expansion
Of our territory and tho admission Of new
States BY the very terms Of the Con-
stitut;cn, African slaves were rccogni-
sed as an element Of political power, and it
was chiefly, if not solely, because of this
fact that the increase Of slayehoiding States
vas opposed. So it had been in 1920.
when the Missouri contest arose, and so it
had been at the subsequent periods at y Iich
the antislavery agitation had been revived
in Congress.
AIueI. stsess gas laid by many Senators
on the ordinance Of 1887, as indicating a
repugnance on the part Of the early states
men Of the land to the spread of slavery =
fIe had the authority Of Mr.. Madison for
affirming that that great measure was de-
signed as blow against the slave trade
rather than the migration and diffusion of
slaves already Within our borders lnproof
Of this he cited letter addressed by Mr.
Madison to Robert Walsh, Esq.
After reciting the circumstances under
which the compromise measures OF 1850,
were passed, Mr. Mason proceeded to de-
fend the repeal Of the Missouri restriction
in connection with the Kansas Nebraska
act. Heretofore it had been usual for Con-
gress to reserve to itself supreme control
over the Territories Of the Union BY that
bill new policy was inau.urated the
policy Of non Intervention, which left the
people free, under The. limitations imposed
by tiae Constitution, to for.li and regulate
their Institutions in their own way This
act gave no scountenance to 'ssquatter SOW
ereignty.o lie had never admitted that the
people ola Territory were competent to ex-
clude slavery Until a TIE period Of forming
sheir State constitution, and, at tie passage
OF the hansas-Nebraska law, he Lad antici-
patcd that the more southerly CT the two
Territories would become siaveholding
State. And such, in all probability, would
have been the result, if, in violation Of the
spirit Of the act, the North had not resor-
ted to such extraordinary means and agen-
cies for peopling the Territory with emf
grants from the free States This was in
reality an attempt to dcfraud the South and
to defeat tie natural and legitimate working
Of the bill.
Mr.. ~, after Reviewing the progress Of
political events in Kansas, proceeded to dis
cuss the foundation upon which the right Of
property in slaves is defended He held
thatsthat right was before and higher than
any constitutional sanction, resting as it
does on the same basis with all other prop
erty, and being equally entitled to respect
whore it is not positively intcraicted. Be
fore our separation from Great Britain
slaves were held under the common law Of
that country, which recognised as property
whatever was held as property in the land
from which it came. Slavery, being thus
planted in this country, had grown up as a
domestic condition, and did not rest for its
establishment upon any positive law. Tx
perlence had proved that slavery was the
natural and normal condition CT the Afri-
can race Under it the negro was elevated
in the scale Of being Left 10 Himself he
relapsed into barbarism. In view Of the
moderation wrought in his condition by in
voluntary seryitpde, and ii view Of the ben
ehcent agency nov ezerted b. African labor
III the production IF staples needed by the
whole world, why was ii that the extension
Of slavery encountered such determined OPP
position from the North 1t was because
the Constitution had made it an clement Of
political power,
The speaker closed bis remarks By allu-
ding to the capacity for expansion possess
ed by aconfederatod Government like ours,
provided each member Of the Coufederacy
would respect the just rights Of the others.