The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-09-15


virtue of members, whose resistance
yielded to the Establishments and promi.
ises of the dispensers of official favors, in
forcing through Congress modified plan
by which the people of Kansas were ap.
preached with a bribe in one had, and
a penalty in the other-instant admission
as state, if they would consent to the
introduction of slavery; but continued
condition of territorial pupilage, should
spurD the offer, until officers appointed
BY their oppressors should certify that
they constituted population at least dou.
BILE that required in the case of Oregon,
in the hope that they would be fatigued
into submission. But, thanks to the in
domi.able spirit of the American People,!
the residents of Kansas have stood firm
in the vindication of their rights, and by
the cause of free labor, and needless Of
government prohibitions, have formed a
constitution in accordance with the known
will of the majority on this great ques.
ton. Of course, "the Democratic party"
as identified with the administration, in
accordanre with the policy of its chiefs,
and the dictation of Southern propagan-
dists, have resisted this action of the na
jority; and intimatious are now given
that the admission of Kansas shall still be
opposed and prevented as punishment
for the persistent devotion of her people
to Freedom. Shall not the voice of Penn
sylvania-the proud proof of the mighty
energies of the Industry of her freemen
in building up happy, powerful and in
telliRent Commonwealth--be beard in
thunder tones of rebuke Of that obstruc-
tive disposition and policy, which deny
the souDdness ofthose pripciples on which
her institutions are founded, and in effect
refused to the majority of the people the
right to frame their own Constitutions of
Government, unless they incorporate 10
it provision which shall establish slave.
ry permanently among theml-Will she
not vindicate the right of her own sons
to 60 in and possess these new territories,
aud establish there the dominion of Free
Labor which has wrought out her own
solid prosperity. and has established her
as the firm and unshaken Keystone of the
Federal Arch!
Not content with this effort to over.
throw the interests of free labor in Kan.
sas, southern propagandists of slavery
make still further acquisitions on the
yielding disposition of that class of poll
tcians in the North who have hitherto
lent themselves to the furtherance of their
demands. 1t is now seriously required
BY them that Congress shall intervene in
the Affairs of the Territories, should the
people there refuse by their legislation to
make special provisions in favor of slave
ry, by enactiug code for the protection
of that peculiar institution" and thus
coerce by federal power the m majority to
submit to its establishment and perpetu-
alton among them. These men insisted
that while Congress has the right to ex-
clude, it is its bounden duty to sustain
every effort to introduce slave labor into
the Territories, and We find the Admins
tration Democratic party" in Pennsyl-
vania, BY the resolutions of its State Con-
vention and the address ofits State Com.
uittee, fully agreeing to this doctrine,
and concediug the propriety and duty of
its practical enforcement by Congress-
This is the issue made and presented by
those who control the Democratic" po-
lities of the South, and concured in by
their allies in this great and free COM
monwealth. At the demand of this dec.
tatorial spirit, the Territories of the Union
are to become, in substance and in fact,
closed against the entrance OF the sons of
the people of Pennsylvania, who by the
labor Of their own hands, would subdue
them to the condition of cultivated and
prosperous States, and handed over to
the thriftless labor of negro slaves, which
blights whatever it touches, and reduces
soils of natural fertility to the condition
of barren wastes. Thus the great inner.
itance which we have received, and which
might be made the dwelling place of a
dense population. situated in the midst Of
plenty and constantly growing in its ca
pacity for production, it is to be swept
over by system of enforced labor, and
exhausted BY few tillages, then to be
thrown out in common and abandoned,
because it will no longer yield support
to its prodigal proprietcrs. This has
been the history of not few of the
Southern States, for the stately homes
of proud proprietors which once stood in
the midst of vast possessions are now
ruinous or razed to the foundation, and
even the churches of God lie waste, the
descendants of the dwellers and worship
ers being scattered far and wide, and the
exhausted lands, returned to the coDdi.
ton Of primitive forests, or lying fallow
and desolate in utter unfruitfulness.-
Such are the results of the system which
claims the superior and exclusive right
to the proprietorship of our Territories as
against the labor of American freem an,
which conquers the natural wilderness
improves upon the bouDties of Providence,
and from generation to generation in
creases the products of the soil-adds to
the natural wealth, and sustains popu.
lstion continually becoming more nu-