The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-01-20

ton to other chimes of those products whose con-
sumption would give back to the soil the vital
ity extracted from 1.-THE system of Slave Labor
is compelled constantly to seek an enlargement
of its area 1t can thrive only by constant
accessions of new and virgin soil.
No laborsaving machinery, no amount Of ag-
ricultural science or skill, no reform in the
slave code, no change for the better in the
habits of the planters, could have saved the
British colonies from utter ruin under the sys-
tenn of slave culture. Without possibility of
expansion, it had ceased to be profitable, and
the planters had become overwhelmed with
debt. Our. Slavery is continental, not insu-
lar. Confined to its original limits, it would
ere this have ceased to exist or have under
gone an essential change of character. In ex-
pansion, in accessions of new Territory, it has
renewed its vitality, and maintained its rigorous
nature.
Is policy, necessary to its being, to be ar
rested by deceptive Compromises, or the lying
resolves of Party Conventions, in favor Of
Finalties, or lazy reliance on natural laws?
Slavery, here, is continental, not insutdr and
is determined to keep open the Continent to ITS
march. 1t finds Texas convenient, and an
nexes it; it believes part Of Mexico bit for ITS
peculiar culture, and conquers it, although
providentially that which it chiefly longed for
has eluded its grasp. 1t sees some advantages
in other portions, and proposes to buy them
with the surplus III the Treasury. The Mis-;
souri, Compromise is in the way of establish
ing Principle Of Governmental Policy, which
will give IMMUNITY to its schemes of acquisition
Southwardly, and it repeats it. In all this 1t
is true to its instincts, acts in obedience to the
Jaw of its being. 1t never takes its eye from
the object it aims at, never relaXes its purpose.
Meantime, our Conservative friends, who are
distressed whenever called upon to resist some
signally fragrant aggression of this Power, sup
pose it to be something out Of the way, very
extraordinary, inexplicable thing, and as soon
as the occasion passes fold their hands and
begin to talk in their sleep Of the blessings of
peace and harmony, and the mischiefs of agita-
ton, never awaking to the truth that the special
aggression that aroused them, was but one
development of a Policy which, inexorably
determined by the necessities of Slavery, looks
to universal empire.
3. The third reason is, that it is a source Of
political po'oer The white population oft free
States is twice as great as that of the slave
States they have fifty-nine more Representa-
tives in Congress; in the Electoral College, if
united, they could always elect the President.
=. i A =. 1 IL ~
ment in all its departments. They dictate the
creed of the so-called Democracy prescribe
tests of fitness for office, select the candidates
for Federal stations, determine the policy of
the Chief Executive, furnish the majority of
Judges on the Supreme Bench, choose the Pres
ident pro tenn of the Senate and the Speaker
of the House, construct the committees in both
branches, always securing the first places in
dignity and influence to Shareholders, and
make hostility to their pretensious cause of
political degradation
How happens it that these States, so inferior
to the free States in population, general intel
ligence, in science, literature, and the arts, in
wealth and resources, are politically pre-emi-
nent and alI-controlling? The answer is easy
Political Power in the slave States is concen-
trated in small class, identified with and rep
resenting a vast Moneyed Interest, valued at IF
teen hundred millions Of dollars-an Interest
without a rival, holding in absolute subsection
all minor interests, making them tributary to its
aggrandizement. In the free States, on the
contrary, the diversifcation of labor and enter
prise, the practical recognition of the equality
of all members of the community, and the in
dependent character of the relation sustained
by labor to capital, have given birth to numer-
GUS Interests, each possessing and welding a
certain amount of influence but acting as a
check upon the others. No one is paramount;
no one is strong enough to render the rest trib-
utary, or to combine them in a common move
ment for political ascendency.
The aggregate political power of the slave
States far dess than that of the free, yet being
concentrated in the single Interest of Slavery.
IS more than match for that Of the latter
divided as it is among numerous independent
Interests, checking aud counter-working one
another. Suppose the North and West one
vast workshop of manufacturing Industry
that the farmer and mechanic and small
tradesman had disappeared nine-tenths
of all the capital of those sections were owned
by some two hundred and fifty thousand EN-
poyers, and nearly all the labor under their
control, it is easy to see how overwhelming
would be the power of the free States in Con
gresS, on any question between them and the
South. The case supposed at the North actu-
ally exists at the South, merely substituting
Ptaafing for mant;tctming-wt this differ
ence, however, that the labor of the South is
absolutely owned 10y the capital, and all the
political power it represents absolutely wieleded
by the capitalists.
See, then, how naturally Slavery becomes
aggressive under this aspect. 1t begets dom
ineering spirit, habit of despotc, irrespons-
Die authority and intensifes the love of power
inherent in human nature. 1t relieves the
Planter from the necessity of labor, and, having
excluded the Interests of Free Labor System.
in the departments of which so much of the
enterprise and intellect of the North is expend
ed, it leaves him scarcely any resource for his
activities, but Politics. TO the art of managing
and governing free men, he devo es himself.
Politics Is his Profession. Slavery has furnish
ed him with fit training-and he finds in lis
existence the source of his power, in its neces
Sl'es the centre and circumference of his politi-
cal creed VIII he not cherish 1t as the apple
OF his eye and labor for It's growth and exten.
sion, rs the enhancement of his own superior
ity? Can you expect him to favor the extern
SION OF free territory, to regard with compla-