Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-04-06

has already exchanged, In large degree, Its
wars to make slaves, and its commerce in
slaves, for Legitimate agriculture and trade.
All European States are interested in the civil
Hzation of that continent and they will not
consent that we shall arrest it. The Christian
church cannot be forced back two centuries,
and be made TO sanction the African slave
trade as a missionary enterprise.
Every nation has always some ruling idea.
which, however. changes with the several
stages of its development. A ruling idea of
the colonies on this continent, two hundred
years ago. was labor to subdue and reclaim
nature. Then African slavery was seized and
employed as an auxiliary, under a seeming ne
cessity, That idea has ceased forever. 1t has
given place to new one. Aggrand-
izement of the nation, not indeod as it
once was, to make small State great,
but to make a State already great the
greatest of all States. 1t still demands
labor, but il is no longer the ignorant labor of
barbarians, but labor perfected by knowledge
and skill, and combination with all the scien-
tiic principles of mechanism. 1t demands,
not the labor of slaves, which needs to be
watched and defended but voluntary, enlight-
ened labor, stimulated by interest, affection,
and ambition. 1t needs that every man shall
own the land he tills !; that every head shall
be fit for the helmet, and every hand fit for the
sword and every mind ready and qualified for
counsel. To attempt to aggrandiZe country
with slaves for its inhabitants, would be to
try to make large body of empire with feeble
sinrws and empty veins.
Mr.. President, the expansion ofterritory to
make slave States will only fail to be great
crime, because it is impracticable, and there
fore will turn out to be stupendous imbecility.
A free republican Government. like this, not
outstanding all its constitutional checks,
cannot long resist and contract the progress
of society. Slavery, wherever and when ever,
and in whatsoever form it exists, is exceptional,
local and short-lived. Freedom is the common
right, interest, and ultimate destiny, of all
mankind. All other nations have already
abolished or are about abolishing Slavery
Does this fact mean nothing? All parties in
this country that have tolerated the extension
of Slavery, except one, has persisted for that
error already. That last one-the Democratic
party-s hurrying on, irretrievably, toward
the same fate.
All Administrations that have avowed this
policyhave goaedown dishonored for that cause
except the present one. A pit deeper and
darker still is opening to receive this Admin
istratiOn, because it sins more deeply than its
predecessors. There is a meaning in all these
facts. which ii becomes US to study we'll. The
nation has advanced another stage; it has
reached the point where intervention. by the
Government, for Slavery and slave States,
will no longer be tolerated. Free labor has
at last apprehended Its rights, its interests. its
power. and its destiny, and is organizing
itself to assume the government of the Re
public. 1t will henceforth meet you boldly
and resolutely here; it will meet you every
where, in the Territories out of them
wherever you may go to extend Slavery. 1t
has driven you back in California and in Kan
sas; it will invade you soon in Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, Missouri and Texas. 1t
will meet you in Arizona, in Central America,
and even in Cuba. The invasion Will be not
merely harmless, but beneficent, if you yield
seasonaby to its just and moderate d demands.
1t proved so in New York, New jersey,
PENNSYLVANIA. and the other slave States,
which have already yielded in that way to
its advances. You may, indeed, get start
under or near the tropics. and seem safe for
a time but it will be only short time. Even
there you will found States only for free labor
to maintain and occupy. The interest OF the
white races demands the ultimate emancipa-
ton of all men. Whether that contamination
shall be allowed to take effect, with needtul
and wise precautions against sudden change
and disaster, or be hurried on by violence. is
all that remains for you 10 decide For the
failure of your system of slave labor through
out the Republic, the responsibility will rest
not on the agitators you condemn, or on the
political parties you arralgn, or even alto
gether on yourselves, but it will be due to the
inherent error of the system itself, and to the
error which thrusts it forward to oppose and
resist the destiny, not more of the African than
that of the white race.
The white man needs this continent to
labor upon. His head is clear, his arm is
strong, and his necessities are fixed. He must
and will have it. To secure it, he will oblige
the Government of the United States to aban-
don intervention in favor of slave labor and
slave States. and go backward forty years,
and resume the original policy OF interven-
ton in favor of free labor and free States
The fall of the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa
determined the fate of Mexico. although sore
seges and severe pitched battles interviewed
before the capture of the capital of the Az
tees. The defeats you have encountered In
California and in Kansas determine the fate
of the principle for which you have been con-
tending. 1t is for yourselves. not for us, to
decide how long and through what further
notifications and disasters contest shall
be- protracted before Freedom shall enjoy her
already assured triumph. | would have it
ended now. and would have the wounds of
society bound up and healed. But this can
he done only in one way. 1t cannot be done
by Offering further resistance, nor by any
evasion or partial surrender, nor by forcing
Kansas into the Union as slave State, against
her will, leaving her to cast of Slavery alter
wards, as she best may nor by compelling
Minnesota and Oregon To wait, and wear the
doors of Congress. until the people of Kan
sas. or their trne defenders here, shall be
brought to dishOnorabe compromises. IL can
be done only by the simple and direct adnis
sion of the three new States as free States.
without qualification, condition. reservation,
or compromise and by the abandonment of all
further attempts to extend Slavery under the
Federal Constitution. You have unwiseiy
pushed the controversy so far. that only these
broad concessions will now be accepted by
the interest of free labor aud free States. For
myself, | see this fact, perhaps, the more dis
tinctly now, because | have so long foreseen
il. / can therefore counsel nothing less than
those concessions. know the hazards in
cur in taking this position. / know how men
and parties, now earnest. and Jealous, and
bold may yet fall away from me, as the con-
troversy shall wax warm, and alarms and
dangers now unlocked for, shall stare them
in the face. men aud parties, equally earn
est, bold and jealous, have DONE in like cir
cumstanccs, before. But il is the same posi-
ton / took in the case of California, eight
years ago. Ii is the same l maintained ON
the great occasion of the organization of Kan
sas aud Nebraska, four years ago. Time and
added experience have vindicated it since, and
| assume il again, TO be maintained to the
last, with confidence, that ii will be Justified,
ultimately, by the country and by the civil
lied world. You may refuse to yield il now,
and for short period but your refusal will
only animate the friends of Freedom with the
courage and the resolution, snd produce the
union among them, which alone are necessa-
ry, on their part, to attain the position itself
simultaneously with the impending overthrow
of the existing Federal Administration aud
the constitution of n new and more indepen-
dent Congress.
Mr. President, this expansion Of the empire
Of free white men is TO be conducted through
the process of admitting new States and not
otherwise. The white man. whether you con-
sent or not, will make the States to De admit
It'd. and he will make them all free States
We must admit them. and admit them all free
otherwise. they will become independent and
foreign States, constituting new empire 10
contend with US for the continent. To admit
them is a simple, easy, and natural policy. II