Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-10-30
elusiyely egiablished il. slavcry. asI have al-

ready intimatcd, existed in every State in En. |
rope. Free labor has supplanted il everywhere |
exceptin Russia and Turkey. State necessities,
developed in modern times, are now obliging
even those two nations TO encourage and employ
free labor, and already, despotic as they are we
find them engaged in abolishing Slavery In the |
United States, Slavery came in collision with
free labor at the close of the last century, and
fell before it in New England, New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but triumphed over
it efectually, and excluded it for period yeti
undetermined, from Virginia, the Carolinas and
Georgia. Indeed, so incompatible are the two
systems that every new State which Is Organized
within our cver-extending domain, makes its
first political act choice of the one and an OK
clusion Of the other, even at the cost Of civil
war, if necessary. The Slave States, without
Law, at the last National. election, forbade, with
IN their own limits, even the casting Of votes
flor candidate for President of the United
States supposed TO be favorable to the establish
mcnt OF the free labor system inanew States.
Hitherto the two systems have existed in
different States, but side by side, within the
American Union. This has happened because.
the Union is confederation of States. But in
another aspect, the United States constitute only
one nation, Increase of population, which is
filling the States out to their very borders, to-
gether with a new and extended net work of
railroads and. other avenues, aid an. internal
commerce which daily becomes more intimate,
is rapidly bringing the States into higher and
more perfect social unity or consolidation
Thus these antagonistc systems are continually
coming into closer contact and collision results
Shall I 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. Its an irrepressible conflict be-
tween opposing and enduring forces, and it
means that The United States mast and nil
I1fe 1,7rI
nation, or enterelyG FREQ labor n1tion Either
the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina and
the sugar plantations of Louisiana will ultimate
! ly be titled by free labor, and Charleston and
New Orleans become marts for legitimate mer
chandise alone, or else the rye fields and
wheat fields of Massachusetts and New York
must again be surrendered by their farmers
to slave culture and to the production 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 apprehend this great truth
that induces so many unsuccessful attempts at
| final compromise between the Slave and Free
Estates, and it is the existence of this great fact
that renders all such pretended compromise,
when made, vain and ephemeral. Startling as
TINS saying may appear to you, fellow citizens,
| 1t Is by no means an original or even modern
one. Our foreIathers knew it to be true, and
unanimously acted Jpn 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 or the other sYs
tenn must exclusively prevail.
Unlike too many of those who, in modern
time, invoke their authority, they had choice
between the two. They preferred the system
OF free labor, and they determined so to organ
izc the government, and so to direct its activity
that that system should surely and certainly
prevail. For this purpose, andno other, they
based the whole structure of government broad
~ 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 popular, that the utterance of
thatiprnciple was merely a rhetorical rhapsody;
or by any judge, however yenerated, that it was
attended by. mental reservations, which, rem
dered it hypocritical and false By the ordi.
nance of51787, they dedicated all the national
domain, not yet polluted by slavery, to free labor
Immediately, henceforth and forever, while by
the new constitution and laws, they invited
foreign free-lahor from allslands under the sun,
and interdcted. the importation Of African slave
labor at all times, in all places and undcr all
circumstances whatsoever. 1t is true that they
necessarily and wisely modified this policy Of
freedom, by leaving it to the several States, af-
fected us they were by differing circumstances,
to abolish slavery in their own way and at
their own pleasure, instead of confiding that
| duty to Congress- and that they secured the
slave States, while yet retaining the system of
slavery, threc-ifths representation of slaves
in the Federal Government until they should
find themselves able to relinq1ish it with safety.
But the very nature of these notifications forti
fies my position that the fathers knew that the
two systems could not endure within the Union,
and. expected that within short period slavery
would disappear forever Moreover, in order
that these notifications might not altogether
defeat their grand design of Republic main
tanning universal equality, they provided that
two-thirds of the States might amend the Con-
stitution.
Itremains to say on this. point only one word
to guard against misrepresentation If these
States are again to become universally slave.
holding, donot pretend to say with what VIC.
lations of the Constitution that end shall be
accomplished. On the other hand while I do
confidently believe and hope that my country
wlIlyet become a land of universal freedom. 7
do not ezPect that 1t toiGl be naGGe so otheraotse
than through the action of the several States.
cooperating Nth the Federal Goaernn,ent. and
all acting IN strict conformity qoith their re-
The strife and contentious concerning slavery.
which gently disposed persons habitnally dep.
recate, is nothing more than the ripening Of
the conflict which the Fathers Themselves MT