Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-11-06

their farmers to slave culture and to the pro
duction of slaves, and Boston and New York
become once more markets for trade in the
bodies and souls of men, 1t is the failure to
apprchend this great truth that induces SC
many unsuccessful attempts at final cOmprO-
mise between the slave and free States, and
it is the existence of this great fact that rem
ders all such pretended compromises, when
made, vain and ephemeral Startling as this
saying may appear to you, fellow citizens, il
is by no means an original or even modern
one. Our forefathers knew it to be true, and
unanimously acted upon it, when they framed
the Constitution of the United States. They
regarded the existence of the servile system
in so many of the States with sorrow and
shame, which they openly confessed, and they
looked upon the collision between them, which
was then just revealing ITSELF and which we
are now accustomed to deplore, with favor
and hope. They knew that either the one OF
the other system must exclusively prevail.
Unlike too many of those who, in modern
time, invoke their authority, they had a
choice between the two They preferred the
system of free labor, and they determined so
to organize the government, and so to direct
its activity that that system should surely
and certainly prevail. For this purpose, and
no other, they based the whole structure of
government broadly on the principle that all
men are created equal, and therefore free
little dreaming that within the short period of
one hundred years their descendants would
bear to be told by any orator, however pOpu-
lar, that the utterance of that principle was
merely a rhetorical rhapsody; or by any Judge,
however venerated, that it was attended by
mental reservations, which rendered it hypo-
| ~ Dxy no or,l,nonon of 1907
they dedicated all the national domain, not
yet polluted by slavery, to free labor immedi-
ately, thenceforth and forever while by the
new constitution and laws, they invited for
eign free labor from all lands under the sun,
and interdicted the importation of African
slave labor at all times, in all places and I'M
der all circumstances whatsoever. 1t is true
that they necessarily and wisely modified this
policy of freedom, by leaving it to the sew
eral States, affected as they were by differing
circumstances, to abolish slavery in their own
way and at their own pleasure, instead of
confiding that duty to Congresses, and that
they secured to the Slave States, while yet
retaining the system of slavery, three-fifths
representation of slaves in the Federal gov
ernment, until they should find themselves
able to rclinquish it with safety. But the
very nature of these notifications fortified
my position that the fathers knew that the
| two systems could not endure within the
Union, and expected that within short pc
Rod slavery would disappear forever. More
| over i'll order that these notifications might
not altogether defeat their grand design of a
Republic maintaining universal 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 to again 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
| do confidently believe and hope that my
| country will yet become land Of universal
| freedom do not expect that it will be made
| so otherwise than through the action of the
several States, cooperating with the Federal
government and all acting in strict conformity
with their respective Constitutions.
The strife and contentious concerning slave
ry, which gently disposed persons to habitu
ally deprecate, is nothing more than the ripe
ming of the conflict which the Fathers them
selves not only thus regarded with favor, but
which they may be said to have instituted.
1t is not to be denied, however, that thus
| far the course Of the contest has not been &C
| cOrding to their humane authorizations and
wishes In the field of federal politics, slav-
| cry, deriving unlocked for advantages from
commercial changes and energies, and unfore-
seen from the facilities of combination between
| members of the slavehOlding class and other
| property classes early rallied, and has at length
made a stand, not merely to retain its original
| defensive position, but to extend it's sway
! throughout the whole Union. 1t is certain
! that the slavehOlding class Of American citi-
zens indulge this high ambition, and that they
derive encouragement for it from the rapid
and effective political success which they have
already obtained. The plan Of operation is
this: By continued appliances of patronage,
and threats of disuniOn, they will keep ma
jority favorable to these designs in the Senate,
where each State has an equal representation.
Through that majority they will defeat, as best
they can, the admission of Free States, and
secure the admission of Slave States. Under
the protection of the Judiciary they will, on
the principle of the bred Scott case carry
Slavery into all the Territories of the United
States now existing and hereafter to be organ
lied BY the action of the President and the
Senate, using the treaty-making power, they
will annex foreign sl;;vehOld States In ia
vorable coniuncture they will induce Congress
to repeal the act of 1903, which prohibits the
foreign slave trade, and so they will import
| from Africa, at the cost of only twenty dol
lars a head, slaves enough to fill up the interi-
or of the continent Thus relatively increas-
ing the number of slave States, they will al
low no amendment to the Constitution preiu-
dicial TO their interest, and so, having perma-
nently established their power, they expect
the Federal Judiciary to hullify all State laws
which shall interfere with internal OF foreign
commerce in slaves. When the free States
shall be sufficiently dcmOraliZed to tolerate
these designs, they reasonably conclude that
slavery will be accepted by those States them
| selves.
| shall not stop to show how speedy or how
complete would be the ruin which the accom-
plishment of these slaveholding schemes
would bring upon the country. Fer one, |
should not remain iii the country to test the
sad experiment. Having spent my manhood,
though not my whole life, in a Free State no
Aristocracy of any kind, much less an Arts
tocracy of Shareholders, shall ever make the
laws of the land in which shall be content
to liye. Having seen the society around me
universally engaged in Agriculture, Manufac-
lures and Trade, which were innocent and
beneficent, l shall never be denizen of a
state Nllere lnell anu WOiIlen are reared as
cattle, and bought and sold as merchandise
When that evil day shall come, and all furth-
er effort at resistance shall be impossible, then
if there shall be no better hope for redemp-
ton than can now foresec, l shall say with
Franklin, while looking abroad over the whole
earth for new and more congenial home
"Where Liberty dwells there is my country"
You will tell me that these fears are extrav-
agant and chimerical. | answer, they are so,
but they are so only because the designs Of
the Shareholders must and can be defeated.
But it is only the possibility of defeat that
renders them so. They cannot be defeated
by inactivity. There is no escape from them
compatible with non-resistence. How, then
and in what way, shall the necessary resist
ance be made? There is only one way. The
Democratic party must be permanently dis
lodged from the government. The reason is
. that the Democratic nartY Is inextricahlv