The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1860-09-27

States. tor 1t Is OF no use TO cast respo1-
sibiiity on parties or administrations, or
Statesmen-exteud Slavery all around the
coast of the Gulf Of Mexico We have
seen them take Texas into the Union ind
arree that she shouid come in as Slave
State and have the right to multiply her
self into four more Slave States. We
have seen California and New Mexico
conquered by the people of the United
! States, with the deliberate consent, If not
Y purbose, that Slavery should oe extended
from the Mississippi river to the Pacific
OCEAN. You have seen the Constitution
of the United States, perverted by the
consent of the people until that Coustitu-
ton instead of being law of Freedom
and citadel of human tights, has come
to be pronounced by the affected judg
meht and willing consent of the higher
tribunal of the United States, yet enjoy
ing the confidence and support Of the peo-
pie, to be d toEAer aud bulwark Of human
Slavery, of African bondage, and you
have had now snnounced by the Govern
ment of the United States, which you
yourselves brought into power, that what
ever the Constitution of the United
States goes, it carries, not freedom with
the eagles of conquest; but hateful chains
and bondage. Applause. Ifthe prin.
ciple which you have thus permitted to
be established is true, then there is not
an arsenal within the United States, not
a military or naval school Of the Fedora,
Government, not f deral Jail, not dock
yaIe, and not ship that traverses the
ocean, bearing the American flag in any
part of the globe, where the law, the nor
NAL law, the law by which men are to be
held and tried and judged, is net a law
5y which every man whose ancestor was
a slave, is slave, and by which property
in slaves, not freedOm of man, ii the nor
NAL condition of society under the fede-
rsl system of government. ! can ouly
ask you to consider for a moment how
near you have come to losing everything
which you enjoy of this great interest OF
freedom The battle eliminated at last
on the fields of Kansas. How severe aud
how dreadful battle that has been, vol
eall know. 1t was great and desperate
effort of the aristocracy Of capital in Ia
Dor, to carry their system practically with
all its evils to the shores Of the Gulf Of
Il Mexico, and to cut off the Atlantic
i States from all communication with the
lsister States on the Pacific, aud SC to ex-
tend Slavery from the center both ways,
restoring it throughout the whole coun-
try. You will say that this was very
visionary attempt; but it was lar from
being visionary. 1t was possible: AID for
time seemed fearfuly proIuble-proba
\ bic for this reason, that the land must
/ have labor, and it must be either the la
Dor OF the freeman or the labor of slaves
Introduce slave labor in any way that you
can, ard free labor is repelied, and avoids
1t. Slave labor was introduced into this
country by the opening Of the African
I Slave trade, and when the territory of the
Unlted States, in the interior of the con
tiEsnt was open to Slavery with your
consent and mine, nothing then would
have renamed, but to reopen and restore
the African slave e-trade; for it is rrGhibi-
led only by law, and the same powers
that made the law could repeal and abro
gate it. The same power that abrogated
the Missouri Compromise in 1881, would,
if the effort to establish Siayers in Kan
tsas had peeu successful, have beeh, after
short time, bold enough, daring enough,
desperate enough, to have repealed the
prohibition of the African slave .trade-I
And, Indeed, that is yet possibility
now fer, disguise these issues now be-
fore the American people as they may be
disguised by the Democr tic party, yet it
is nevertheless perfectly true, that If 5Eor
4 forego your opposition and rcsistans !,
Slavery, il this popular resistance shdaE!
be withdrawn, or should, for any reason,
cease, then the African slave trade, which
at first Illegally renews itself alorg the
coasts of our Southern States, would grad.
ualy steal up the Mississippi until the
people, tired with a hopeless resistance,
should become Indifferent, and African
Slavery would once more become the dis
graceful trade of the American flag.
Now, all these evils would have hap.
pened, all this aba4donmept of the Con-
tnentof North America to Slavery would
have happened, and have been inevitable,
had resistance to it depended alone on
the people Of the thirteen original States.
We we're already overpowered th' re =
From one end of the A1lantic States to
the other, thee were, in 1850, scarcely /
three States which did bot declare that
they were willing that the people of the
new territories might have Slavery OF
Freedom, aud might come INTO the Union
as Slave States or as Free States, Just cx-
actly as they pleased.
When that had happened, what would
Ln,o e.II.mnA VIII thnt L. -.