The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-15

that had raised the negro from barbarism 10
Christianity and civilization, and when the gen
tleman from Indiana, Mr. HuGHEs, had eaugnt
the inspirstion and said, that although the Dooy
of the African might be toiling under the lasn,
" his soul was Free and could converse on the
sublimest principles of science and philosophy =
when faith had almost become sight-just then,
sir. out comes the Supreme Court with the decis-
ion that
A NEGRO HAS NO SOUL [Laughter.l
"Anges and ministers of grace defend usl" All
these treasures that were supposed to have been
laid ND "where neither moth nor rust doth cor
rupt, and where thieves do not break through nor
steal" have been invaded by the decision of the
Supreme Court, and scattered to the four winds of
heaven More than two centuries of prayers and
tears, of heroic selfsacri6ce and Christian devo-
tion of faith and hope, of temporal and spiritual
agony, have come to this I" lame and impotent
conclusion" (Laughter.] The moral dignity
of the grandest missionary enterprise OF this age
is annihilated. +..s
AS Northern man, stand here a disin-
terested spectator of these events. If do not
like the decision of the court, have higher
law. The negro himself can appeal to the court
Of heaven; but what refuge has the Southern
church, Renewed laughter.] None whatever.
This decision IL blow, direct and terrible, fall
ing with crushing violence upon our Southern
brethren. This Supreme Court with cruel and
relentless hostility, has prosecuted the Southern
church as the dragon of the Apocalypse pur-
sued the woman into the wilderness, seeking to
devour her offspring. Much laughter.
What motives could have impelled the court to
this act2 have no doubt patriotic motive. am
not here to impugn the motives Of any man, or OF
any set of men, much less Of the highest judicial
tribunal in this land. No doubt, sir, their motives
were patriotic for they had witnessed the devas-
tation of this terrible religious fanatchm through
the South. They had seen the ravages of this
disastrous missionary monomania, and they de-
termined that there must be end Of it and
how could they so effectually end it as by ami
hilating at once the object of its aims and aspi-
rations That sir, they have done.
Here then endeth the moral potper of the insti-
tuition of Slavery.
I come now to the consideration of the event
which just as surely has doomed to destruction
the political porer of that insttution-I mean the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise measure in
the passage of the Kansas Nebraska bill. That
act, sir, | will show to you-if it ever was COM
mitted by the slave power-to have been a suicidal
act. What need was there for repeating that
Compromise, or of admitting Slavery into Kansas
by iawe Was not the South sure enough of the
Territory as it was before2 / think-and this is
my honest conviction-that had it not been for
that act, Kansas would have been inevitably
slave State. We of the North had no particular
interest in that Territory. 1t was put down in
our Biographies as the great American desert.
We had not considered it of much Importance;
but we relied on the IaW to keep Slavery out OF
it. and to preserve it to Freedom. We of the
North have had too high an idea of the power of
the General Government and of lac, either for
Freedom or against Freedom. Sir, this General
Government has but little power over this ques-
ton. 1t is not motive poaoer. 1t is only reg
istry, an exponent of power. 1t is the log-book
of the ship of State, and not the steam engine
that propels the ship, or the wind that fills the
canvas. We would like to have the log-b
kept right, to show US our true position but we
do not now consider the Government as the mo-
tive power. The motive power of this nation, OF
all nations, ia the people in their homes and as
the people in their homes are is your character
and so is your progress. II the people in their
homes in Kansas had been Pro- Slavery what could
the North have opposed to it2 twas emigration,
and emigration only, that could have made Kansas
a State, either slave or free. The great law that
governs emigration is this: that emigration fol-
lows the parallels of latitude westward. Under
that law Kansas would have been settled entirely
by Pro-Slavery people, as was the southern part
of Indiana and the southern part of Illinois
We in the North, trusting in the protection of the
law, would have had no remedy. People in favor
of Slavery would have gone there, and if they
were compelled at first to adopt free Constitu-
ton in order to shape their institutions according
to any law concerning the Territory, they might
have soon reversed that position. In fact, the
decision of the Supreme Court has now made
any such thing unnecessary. They might have
formed just such Constitution as they pleased
Well, then, would thus, in all probability
have had Kansas slave State without the Kan
sas-Nebraska bill. But the passage of that bill
if Slavery had been probable before, seemed to the
majority of the people in the North to make it
almost inevitable. History warranted this fear
Judging from the case of Indiana, there seemed
to be no chance whatever for Freedom in Kansas
after the opportunity for Slavery to enter there
had been given. There was Missouri on the
confines of the Territory-and the most densely-
peopled portion Of Missouri, too. Freedom-lOv-
ing men, desiring to 60 to that Territory would
have had to travel hundreds and thousands OF
miles. The men who lived on the line of Kan
sas, as well as other Southern men who enter
tanned the same idea-though they did not ex-
press it then, for fear of losing the bill-antici-
pated that the passage of the bill would settle the
question for Slavery in Kansas forever. That
was the evidence of the early history of Indiana.
When that Territory was opened for settlement
few shareholders, perhaps dozen or a score
wen. over from Kentucky, and, contrary to the
wishes both of the President and Congress, con-
trary TO the ordinance of 1887, established Sla-
young Territory, that petitions, signed by many
of the inhabitants, praying Congress to suspend
the prohibition of Slavery, were presented TO
Congress, year after year, from 1903 to 1907
These few shareholders of the Territory of In
diana acquired such control over the inhabitants
of that Territory, because they were an organza-
ton, as Slavery is everywhere and at all times
an organization. 1t was a concentration of cap
ital, a concentration of influence, and a concen-
Of A.
free States, coming one by one, were unable to
resist and had it not been for the overwhelming
population which poured in from the North in
1907 and 1908, the prohibition of Slavery would
have been suspended. Had it not been for John
Randolph, it would have been suspended in 500 !;
and had it not been for Mr.. Franklin in the Sen
ate, it might have been suspended in 1907; and
both of these were Southern men.
Well, sir, | have said that shareholders are
| everywhere an organization. There is commu-
| nifty of interest," bond of feeling and of SYM
| pathy, which combines and concentrates all
efforts to defend Slavery where it is, and to ex-
tend 1t to places where it is not | will quote
from the last number of De Bo,c's Revietr every
where acknowledged to be good Southern author
ity. in an article defending the New England
Emigrant Aid Company, the writer says:
ave of the South have been practicing Or
ganized Emigration for a century, and hence
have outstripped the North in the acquisition
of land. The owner of hundred slaves, who,
| with his overseer, moves to the West, carries
out a selfsupporting, self-iusuring, well-organ-
| lied community. This is the sort of Organ
| lied Emigration which experience elbows suits
the South and the negro race, whilst Mr. Thay-
ers is equally well adapted to the whites"
Then, what fault can be found with our efforts to
organize Freedom by means of our emigrant aid
societies. that enable our citizens to go to the Terri
tory in companies of twenty, fifty one hundred, or
two hundred, to take possession of the West, and
to locate there the institutions under which they