The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1860-03-15

to be settled and dismissed at once, is,
on the contrary, worldwide and en-
during subject of political considera-
ton and civil administration. Men,
states, and nations entertain it, not vol
UNFAIRLY, but because the progress of
society continually brings it into their
way. They divide upon it, not pre-
versely, but because owing to differ
ences of constitution, condition, or cir
cumstances. they cannot agree.
The fathers of the Republic encoun-
tered it. They even adjusted it so that
it might have given us much less than
our present disquiet, had not circum-
stances afterwards occurred, which
they, wise as they were, had not clear
ly toreseen. Although they had inher-
tied, yet they generally condemned the
practice of Slavery, and hoped for its
discontinuance. They expressed this
when they asserted in the Declaration
of Independence, as fundamental
principle of American society, that all
men are created equal, and have inalie-
nable rights to life, liberty, and the pur-
suit or happiness. Each State, how
ever, reserved to itself the exclusive
political power over the subject Of
Slavery, within its own borders. New
ertheless, it unavoidably presented it.
self in their consultations on a bond of
Federal Union. The new Government
was to be representative one. Slaves
were capital in some States, in other
capital had no investments in labor.
Should those slaves be represented as
capital or as persons, taxed as capital or
as persons, or should they not be repre-
sented or taxed at all The fathers
disagreed, debated long, and compro-
missed at last Each State, they deter
mined, should have two Senators in
Congress. Three-ffths of the slaves
shall be elsewhere represented and
be taxed as persons. What should
be done if the slave should escape into
a labor State T? Should that State con-
fess him to be chattel and restore him
as such, or might it regard him as a
person, and harbor and protect him as a
man? They compromised again, and
decided that no person held to labor or
service in one State by the laws there
of, escaping into another, shall by any
law or regulation of that State, be dis
charged from such labor or service, bnt
shall be delivered up on claim to the
person to whom such labor or service
shall be due. -
Free laborers would immigrate, and
slaves might be imported into the
States. The fathers agreed that Con
gress may establish uniform laws OF
naturalization, and pyohibit the impor-
tation of persons after 1908. Commu-
mites in the South West, detached from
the Southern States, were growing up
in the practice of slavery, to be capital
States. New States would soon grow
up in the North est, while as yet
capital stood aloof, and labor had not
lifted the axe to begin there its endless
but benifcent task. The fathers au
thorized Congress to make all needfnl
rules and regulations concerning the
management and disposition of the
public lands, and to admit new States
So the Constitution, while it does not
disturb or affect the system of capital
in slaves, existing in any State under
its own laws, does, at the same time
recognize every human being wher
within any exclusive sphere of Fede
raj jurisdiction, not as capital but as 6
person. G $500
What was the action of the fathers
in Congress? They admitted the new
States of the South h-West as capital
States, because it was practically i'm
possible to do otherwise, and by the
Ordinance of 1887, confirmed in 1889
they provided for the organization ant
admission Of only the labor States il
the North West. They directed fugi
tives from service to be restored, no
as chattles, but as persons. They
awar1ed naturalization to immigran
free laborors, and they prohibited tn,
trade in African labor. This disposi
ton of the whole subject was in bar
mony with the condition of society
and, in the main, with the spirit of th'
Eage. The seven Northern States con
Itentedly became labor States by thei
own acts. The six Southern States
with equal tranquility, and by thei
own determination, remained capita
States.
The circumstances which the father
did not clearly .foresee were two, name
Ily: the reinvigoration of Slavery con
sequent on the increased consumption
Of cotton, and the extension of the M
tional domain across the Mississippi
and these occurred before 1920. Th'
State of Louisiana, formed on slave
!; holding French settlement, within tn
newly acquired Louisianian Territory
had then already been admitted int,
J the Union. There yet remained, how
lever, a vast region which included All
ftkansas and Missouri, together with tn
then unoccupied and even unname,
Kansas and Nebraska. Arkansas,
slaveholding community, was nearl
ready to apply, and Missouri, anothe
, such Territory, was actually applying
. for admission into the Federal Union
The existing Capital States seconds
, these applications, and claimed tha
, the whole -Louisianian Territory wa
rightfully opened to Slavery, and
: the organizati IN of future Slave State!
The Labor States maintained that Cor
: gress had supreme Legislative powe
within the domain, and could an
$ ought to exclude Slavery there. TIL
, question thus opened was one whic
related not at all to Slavery in the e,