Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-01-10

oLttAbtgu ~ nbhhliNA ~ tiAl FtEy glthueb u lt8
liee--the right Of the majority Of the po0ple
Of the United States 10 control the Govern
ment being denied; and efforts are not want
ing to defeat.the great purpose Of the Govern
ment to extend and perpetuate the rights Of
freedom, by degrading the Union and the
Constitution into instruments for the propa-
CATION Of human slavery.
On the subject Of slavery, the people Of
this State occupy no equiyOcal position. They
reject the modern dogma that slavery is es-
sential to Republics, that such system must
fail without il, and that slavery must be ex-
tended and perpetuated, 10 extend and per-
petuate our form Of government; but in OPP
position TO II, they have deliberately declared
that, in their Judgment slavery Is o perni-
oious wrong, and that patriotism and human
ity unite in demanding their resistance to its
extension into any free territory now or that
may be owned by the United States. They
deny the binding authority Of the dictum Of
the Supreme Court of the United States, as
serting right Of property in one man over
another, as a Fundamental principle, and
making the Federal Constitution the instru-
ment of rendering it universal, as not limited
TO the reach Of the local power which created
the relation of master and slaVe but on the
y
be property in men was expressly excluded
from the Constitution, which contains no
such word az slave or slavery in any Of its
provisions, and which in every clause con-
strued, or that can be construed, as referring
to slavery, regards it as the creature Of State
legislation, and dependent wholly upon State
legislation for its existence and continuance.
They deny that the Constitution guarantees
10 tho 10 auahoIdfnm QFofao ourr nfba,. fhav,
their local rights, in connection with the in
stitution Of slavery, but such as it expressly
declnres: First, That the foreign slave trade
should not be abolished before 1908; Second,
That any law or regulation which any State
might establish in favor Of freedom should
not impair the legal remedy, supposed at the
time Of the adoption Of the Constitution to
exist by common law, for the reception, by
legal process, in such State, of fugitives from
labor or service escaping from other States :;
and, Third, That three-ffths Of all slaves
should be counted in settling the basis of rep
resentatien in the several States. Beyond
these the trainers of the Constitution intend
ed TO make no peculiar concessions to the
slaVeholding States, and these were made be-
cause they had Union Of the States to Gre
ate, and to their ardent aud generous minds
ton Of the States themselves, without Federal
interference, seemed not only certain, but
close at hand" The people of Ohio have fur
ther declared that, in their opinion, the peo-
pie Of a Territory have no power, under the
Constitution, or from any other legal source,
to establish slavery as one of their institu-
tions during their Territorial existence; that
the exercise of such power would be man
% h I'll
the citizen of the Territory, and utterly sub
versive of all true popular sovereignty, which
demands, as q primary essential condition,
the recognition of inalienable personal rights
They insist also that, coupled with the pow
er, it is the duty Of Congress to prohibit by
express enactment, the extension Of slavery
into any free territory of the United States
that the exercise of this power has been re-
peatedly approved by every department Of
the State and National Government, and to
the universal acceptance of the people, and
that its recognition as a fundamental prinoi-
pie, to be hereafter exercised whenever occa-
sion may be presented, is indispensable to
restore the simplicity and purity the Govern
meut and to carry out the great purposes of the
Constitution as declared in its preamble: "to
form more perfect union, to establish Justice
insure domestic tranquility, promote the gen
eral welfare and secure the blessings Of lib
erty to ourselves and our posterity."
Such are the judgments Of the people of
Ohio, repeatedly expressed on the subject Of
slavery, as q social and political question:
But they do not conceal from themselves, that
the practices of the Federal Government have
long been opposed to their convictions on the
subject. They know that it has been admin
Yhsn tn
purposes of the slavery eXtensionists of the
slaveholding States. The war TO extend the
boundary of slavery TO the Rio Grande-the
violation Of the Missouri Compact-th war
against Kansas, to extend slavery to the Pa
cifc, are all sacrifices Of the public opinion,
and the moral sense of the masses of the
country, by ambitious incumbents in the fed
eral administration, to that combination in
Slave States in phalanx to divide and con-
quer the Free, and SO continue their triumphs
in Presidential elections. This combination
has long been absolute in its mastery over
nominations, elections, administrations, and
even legislation, touching the maintenance
and expansion Of the institution of slavery,
to which it owes its political strength
What is the result2 Is the combination
satisfied Far from it, There is growing
power impaired by free institutions in the
ant-slavery States by their industrious
economy by their intellectual resources,
which gradually render abortive all the acts
of intrigue that pervert the organs Of the ma
tionsl will into instruments of a sectional oil
gsrchy. The selfish combination in vain
subOrns northern sspirsnts to its purposes,
rendering all the corrupt influence its cOnsol-
idated force can command, to seducs support
in the North, to carry the Chief Magistracy,
and threatening, in case Of defeat, the over
throw of the Union, to coeFce patriotism it
self to submit TO the miner, to avert the great
mischief In vain its leaden sceptre has
stunned and sWayed the national functions
ries-broken the conciliating compacts of
1920 and 1s50-and interpolated Slavery as
a part Of the nations Constitution. The
spontaneous vigor Of free labor overgroWs
and heals all the wounds inflicted by these
blows Of its enemies. Freedom is giant
which, while asleep, Lilliputions may bend to
the earth with innumeTable fne-spun cords,
but aroused, he breaks with ease the meshes,
and holds the pigmies in the hollow of his
hand. Kansas, Nebraska, California and
Oregon, show how Intellectual are the in
trigues Of self-seeking politicians to dwarf
the growth Of a free people. The prosperous
and populOus free-soil sends forth its children
over the inviting territories, and the resist
anee of barbarism is overwhelmed.
The politicians of the Oligarchy see this
with dismay, and seem to be meditating o
change Of their design, from that of seeking a
perpetustiOn of their control over the Union
by multiplying Slave States within it, to that
of abandoning ii, AID making vast acquisi-
tiOns Of territory beyond it, to I'll by new i'm
portations of Africans. This must result in
the subjectiOn Of the free lsbOring native
class of every complexion to q common con-
ditiOn Of slavery, By the glut following the
support the yoke reducing the price Of labor
to bare subsistence, A full supply of negro
strength will render the masters Of the do
main independent of tha noor whitaa holdinO