Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-08-13
AIn..nn trnm HI,torx.


In Bancroft's history of the United States
the origin of negro slavery in Virginia is men,
toned as follows -
''ln the month of August of the year 1920,
just fourteen months after the first representa-
i've assembly of Virginia, four months before
the Plymouth colony landed in America, and
less than year before the concession Of a
written constitution, more than a century after
the last vestiges of hereditary slavery had
disappeared from English society and the En-
glish constitution, and six years after the COM
mons Of France had pettioned for the emanci-
patton of every serf in every felt, Dutch
nall-ot-war entered James river, and landed
twenty negroes for sale. Vol. l., p. l76.
And he adds For many years, the Dutch
were principally concerned in the slave trade
in the market of Virginia; the immediate de-
mand for laborers may, III part have blinded
the eyes OF the planters TO the ultimate evils
of slavery though the laws OF the colony, at
a very early period, discouraged its increase
by special tax upon female slaves. p. III.
Here is shown what may be done by means
of "non-intervention" and "squatter sovereign
ty." Slavery did not exist in England and it
should have been dealt with in Virginia as a
most villainous intruder. But the English
government did not interfere. Probably this
new and peculiar trade with the Dutch did not
Immediately get the attention of influential
persons in England. At any rate, the Virgin
ian "squatters" (dignifed history calls them
planters established slavery on this cont.
nent, before any other colony came into exist
ence here In the special tax on female slaves,
intended chiefly for revenue, We have speci-
men Of that "unfriendly legislation, of which
Senator Douglas makes mention in one or two
of his speeches; and in the irrepressible
growth of the baletul institution, from that
day to this, we may see what it can do against
distractions Of that kind, and also against the
sentiment of justice, when this sentiment is
left at the mercy of that ravenous wolf, uu-
scrupulous self-intelest Prompt and decisive
interference, on the part of the English gov
erment would have nipped the evil in the bud
and saved the colonies from the most disas.
trous curse that ever assaied their peace,-a
curse infinitely greater than any other ever
heard of or ever imagined, in the whole course
OF our history. But instead of that policy,
which would have crushed out the baleful
thing at once, it was left to mon intervention"
and ''squatter sovereignty" and the conse-
quence is slavery as we now have it in the re-
public.
Our republican fathers appear to have un
derstood this matter thoroughly. They knew
very well that slavery is an infinite curse to
all concerned in it but, they understood also
that the selfish side of human nature gives it
hospitality, and sometimes allows it to spread
into free communities, in defiance of all moral
and prudential considerations. Therefore they
adopted the policy of Intervention" to keep
it out OF the territories, and to confine
it within the limits where it was found,
when they framed the federal consttu-
ton, and organized the government. AT
that time, they framed the ordinance
of 1887, against the spread of slavery,
and applied it to every acre of our national
territory. That ordinance baffied the desper-
ate attempts of slavery to become an establish"
ed power north of the Ohio river, and gave us
that magnificent section of the Union, the free
northwest.
Nobody ever questioned the wisdom of this
policy of Intervention protect freedom in the
teIIitUTles, u1tIl slavery Hdu acquired Sucl
prodigious Influence in our politics as to as
sumo control of the federal government and
undertake to exterminate the principles that
gave it existence. Then arose the demand
for universal slavery propagandism, and for
such things as the repeal of the Missouri com.
promise, and the bred Scott decision Even
the old ordinance of 1877 would have been as.
sailed if the whole territory covered by it had
not already been formed into states. If this
piratical crusade against the old policy of the
fathers, had been as powerful in 1916 as it was
in 1868, slavery would, doubtless, exist now in
Indiana and Illinois, as securely as in Mary
land and Virginia Intervention kept it out,
although it struggled desperately for entrance.
"Nonintervention" would have let it in. There
is no blindness like that which fails to see that
the non-interventon policy was devised to aid
and abet slavery propagandism Every vote
it controls is vote to strengthen the slave
power, and every plea made in support of it
is a treason against the welfare of the republic