Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-04-03

rot fail TO show this depravity whenever they
have fair opportunity. But jealousy of ex-
ecutive power is high, practical virtue in
Republics and we shall find it hard to deny
the justice of the character Of free legislative
bodies, which Charles James Fox drew, when
he said that the British House of Commons, OF
which he was at the moment equally an orna-
ment and an idol. like every other popular
assembly, must be viewed as mass OF men
capable of too much attachment and too much
animosity, capable of being biased by weak
| and even wicked motives, and liable to be
governed by ministerial influence, by caprice,
and by corruption.
Mr. President, propose TO inquire. In the
first place. why the question before us Is at
tended by real or apparent dangers.
think our apprehensions are in part dueto
the intrinsic Importance OF the transaction
concerned. Whenever we add a new column
to the Federal colonnade. we need to lay its
foundations so firmly, to shape its shaft with
such just proportions, to poise it with such
exactness, and 10 adjust its connections with
the existing structure carefully, that in
stead of falling prematurely, and dragging
other and venerable columns with it to the
ground, it may stand erect forever. increasing
the grandeur and the stability of the whole
massive and imperial fabric. Still, the admis-
sion of new State is not necessarily or even
customarily attended by either embarrass-
ments or alarms. We have already admitted
eighteen new States without serious commo-
tions except in the cases of Missouri, Texas,
and California. We are even now admitting
| two others, Minnesota and Oregon; and these
transactions go on SO smoothly, that only
| close observers are aware that we are thus
| consolidating our dominion on the shores Of
Lake Superior, and almost at the gates OF the
| Arctic ocean.
1t is manifest that the apprehended diff
| culties in the present case have some relation
| to the dispute concerning Slavery, which is
raging within the Territory of Kansas. Yet
| it must be remembered that. nine of the new
States which have been admitted, expressly
established Slavery, or tolerated it, and nine
| of them forbade it. The excitement, there
| FORE is due to peculiar circumstances.
think there are three of them, namely:
First. That whereas. in the beginning. the
| ascendency of the slave States was absolute,
| it is now being reversed
Second That whereas heretofore, the Ma
| tional Government favored this change of bal
ance from the slave States to the free States, it
has now reversed this policy, and opposes the
change.
Third. That national intervention in the
Territories in favor of slave labor and slave
States is opposed to the natural, social, and
moral developments of the Republic.
1t seems almost unnecessary to demonstrate
the first of these propositions. In the begin
ming. there were twelve slave States, and only
one that was free. Now, six of those twelve
have become free and there are sixteen free
States to fifteen slave States. If the three
candidates now here, Kansas, Minnesota and
Oregon, shall be admitted as free States, then
there will be nineteen free States to fifteen
slave States. Originally, there were twenty
four Senators of slave States, and only two of
free State; now, there are thirty-two Sena-
tors of free States, and thirty of slave
States. In the first Constitutional Congress,
the slave States had ffty-seven Representa-
tives and the one free State had only eight;
now, the free States have one hundred and
forty-four Representatives, while the slave
States have only ninety. These changes have
happened in period during which the slave
States have almost uninterruptedly exercised
paramount influence i'll the Government, and
Notwithstanding the Constitution itself has
opposed well-known checks to the relative in
crease of representation of free States | as
sumo therefore, the truth of my first PROPOSE
ton.
| suggested, sir, a second circumstance,
namely: That whereas in the early age of the
Republic the National Government favored
this change vet it has since altogether revers-
ed that policy, and itnow opposes the change.
| do not claim that heretofore the National
Government always, or even habltually, in
tervened in the Territories in favor of the free
pondcrated While Slavery existed in all of
the States but one, at the beginning, yet it
was far SIS intense in the Northern than in
some of the Southern States. All of the for
mer contemplated an early emancipation.
The fathers seem not to have anticipated an
enlargement of the national territory. Con-
seQuently. they expected that all the new
States to be thereafter admitted would be or
ganiZed upon subdivisions OF the then exist
IN, Statac 1iviS of he 81
isting national domain. That domain lay
behind the thirt en- States, and stretched from
the Lakes to the Gulf, and was bounded west
ward by the Mississippi. 1t was naturally d.
vided hv the Ohio river, and the Northwest
Territory and the Southwest Territory were
organized on that division. 1t was foreseen,
even then, that the new States to be admitted
would ultimately oyerbalance the thirteen
original ones. They We're. however, mainly
to be yet planted and maturcd in the desert,
with the agency of human labor.
The fathers knew only of two kinds of labor,
the same which now exist among ourselves
namely, the labor of African slaves and the
labor of freemen. The former then predomi-
mated in this country, as it did throughout the
continent. A confessed deficiency of slave
labor could be supplied only by domestic in
crease and by continuance of the then exist
ing importation from Africa. The supply of
free labor depended on domestic increase and
n voluntary immigration from Europe. Settle
ments which had TINS early taken free
labor character or slavC-labor character
were already maturing in those parts of old
States which were to be ultimately detached
and formed into new States. When new
States of this class were organized. they were
admitted promptly, either as free States or
slave States, without objection. Thus Yer
mount. a free State, was admitted in 1871
Kentucky, a slave State, in 1892; and Tonnes
see, also a slave State, in 1896. Five new
States were contemplated to he erected in the
Northwest Territory. Practically il was un-
occupied and therefore open TO labor of either
kind The one kind or the other, in the alb
sence of any anticipated emulation, would
predominant, just as Congress should inter-
yene to favor it. Congress interviewed in favor
of free labor. This indeed, was an act Of the
Continental Congress, but il was confirmed by
the first Constitutional Congress. The fathers
simultaneously adopted three other measures
of less direct Intervention. First, they Initial
in l7S9 and completed in 1903, the absolute
suppression of the African slave trade. Sc
condly, they organized systems of foreign
commerce and navigation, which stimulated
voluntary immigration from Europe. Thirdly,
they established an easy, simple, and uniform
process of naturalization. The change of the
free States, which we are now witnessing, is
due chiefly to those four carly measures of ma
uonal Intervention IN favor OF Nee labor. IL
would have taken place much soon,r if the
borders of the Republic had remained uu-
changed. The purchase of Louisiana and the
acquisition of Florida, however. were transac-
tions resulting from high political necessities,
in disregard OF the question between free labor
and slave labor. In admitting the new State
of Louisiana, which was organic d on the
slave-iabor settlement of New Orleans, Con-
gress practiced the same neutrality which IL
had before exerciS, d in the States Of Kentucky
aud Tennessee. No serious dispute arose un-
Ill 1919, when Missouri. organized within the
former province of Louisiana. upon slave
labor settlement in ST. Louis. applied for adj
mission AZ a slave State, aud Arkansas was
nianifestly preparing la appear soon in the
same character. The baiance OF power be-
tween the slaye States and the tres, States was
already reduced Ia an equilibrium. aud the