Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-03-24
SALEM, CoLUMBIANA COUNTY OHIO, SATURDAY, MARCH


there were as many as nine hundred slaves, and
at all times the dominion of the master was man.
tnined
The fact is that the people Of the Territory Of
Illinois, when it Territory, were almost all
from the southern States particularly from Ken.
lucky and Tennessee. The southern end Of the
State the only part MT first se,tlcd-that part
called Esyrt-because ii is the land Of letters and
Of plenty Civilization and learning all originated
in Egypt. The Northern part Of the State, where
the political friends Of my colleague now prepon-
dcrate, was then in the possession Of the Indians,
and 50 were Northern Indiana aud Northern Chic;
and Yankee could not get to Illinois at al uhess
he passed down through Virginia dbd over into
Tennessee and through Kentucky. Tae Gonse
queuce was that ninety-nine out Of hundred Of
the settlers were from the slave States
They carried the old fumy servants with
them and kept hem. They were told, Here is an
ordinance Of Congress passed against your hold
ing them They said, What has Cungress to do
with our domestic institutions Congress had bet
ter mind its own business and let US alone We
know What want better than Congress = and
hence they passed this law to bring them in and
make them in ientured. Under THAI they estaJ
lished slavery and held slaves as long as they
wanted them. When they assembled to make the
constitution Of Illinois in 1918 for admission into
the Uaiuu, nearly every delegate to the Convention
brought his negro along with him to black his
bOots, play the ii idle wait upon him. and take
care OF his room. They had jolly time there
they dancing people, frolicsome people peo-
l,o A. IL
habits Slaves were Just as thick there as black
berries.
But they said Experience proves that it is not
going to be profitable n this climate" There
SI' s1tuJlsI a5JIt IL. Every one OF
them was nursed by It, His mother and bis ia Ii
held satbs. They had no scruples about it being
right, but they said, We cannot make any money
by it, aud, as our State runs away off North, up
to those eternal SHOWS, perhaps we shall gain pop
uaton faster it we stop slavery and invite in the
Northern population ! aud, as matter of politi-
cal policy State policy, they Prohibited slavery
themselves. How did ttey prohibit it ? Not by
emancipation. setting at liberty the slaves then in
the State for believe that has never been done
by any legislative body in America, and | doubt
whether any will ever arrogate to itself the
! right TO dvest property already there but they
provided that all slaves then in tho State should
remain slaves for lie that all indentured appren;
tees should fulfil the terms Of their indenures.
Ninety.nine years was about long enough, reck-
on, for grown persons, at least.
All persons or slave parents after certain time,
to be free at a certain age, aud all born af-
ter certain other period were 10 be free at their
;r,b It nF roir nm
Hence. l now repeat, that long the ordi-
nance Of l7e7, passed by Congress. said Illinois
should not have slavery, she did have it; and the
very frst dPy that people arrived at that condi
tun that they could do they pleased, to wit,
when they became State, they adopted system
Of grS, ual emaucI patton 1; bu! still slavery contiu-
ued in the State, the census Of 1920, the census
of 1890, and the census of 1910 show, until the
new constitution Of 1917, when nearly all those
old slaves had died out, aud probably there were
nut half duz,n alive. That was the way slavery
was introduced and expired in lllihois Whatev-
or qubbles there may be about legal construction,
legal rights these are the facts.
Look into die Territorial legislation and you
will find as rigorous code for the protection of
slave property as in any State; code prescribing
the control OF the master, providing that il q ne
gro slave should leave his masters farm without
leave, in the night time, he should be punished by
many stripes, and if he committed such an Of
fence he should receive SO many stripes, and 50
on as rigorous code MS ever existed ia any
Southern State Of this Uni,n. Not only that but
after the State came into the Union, the State OF
Illinois re-enacted that code. ard continued it ny
to the time that slavery died GU. under the opera
tiun of the State constitution.
dislike, sir, to have controversy with my col
league about historical facts. suppose the SEN
Of the United State has particular interest
in the early history OF Illinois, but it has become
obligatory me to vinIcate my statement to that
extent.