The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-03-28

tive US aConstiIul,. Tree. and we will love it
5 US all IN inc s:n capacous enough to receiv,
ori'e us lis and we will revere it. Civ,
: Us u. all as tanner that is broad enough to GOV
! 'be - nation Of brothers, and we will hon
er - But if you offer US broken Constitu
t;on-one that can only shield Northern PEG
pie and Northern property-we will spuTR II
Ii you offer us Union so contracted that on
ly half OF the States can stand up as equals
we will reject it; and if you offer us ban
ner that covers your people and your proper
", and leaves ours to the perils of piracy anC
plumber, We will trample it under our feet
We came into this Union as equals, and W,
will remain in it as equals. We demand
equal laws and equal justice. We demand
the protection of the Constitution for our
selves, our lives, and our property. Wherev
er we may be- we demand that the nationa
| flag wherever it may wave, on the land or OF
the seas, shall give shelter and security to on
property and ourselves"
The Senator from Illinois Mr. Douglas
the other day asserted, in the boldest anG
most emphatic manner, that in the passage o
the Kansas Nebraska bill there was a unitee
agreement on the Democratic side to abide
through all time to come by his fayorite the
marks made by myself on the very nigh
when that bill was passed. On that memora.
BILE 18th of May, 1854, after ten O'Clock al
night, used this language:
1T now lacks only ten minutes of ii O'Clock
OF course | do not intend at this late hour, to
detain the Senate with any further remarks
on this bill nor do design to offer any amend
ments but | do not mean that the bill shall
pass without my saying to the Senate and to
the country that there are two amendments
which intended to have proposed, if the Sem
ate had not already indicated, in distinct terms,
that it is resolved to pass the bill in its pre-
sent form. | am not going to run counter to
/ tie 8 HtifneRt of the Senate but when have
a clear and distinct opinion upon any subject,
| am willing to express that opinion before
the world and having clear conviction up
on my mind that there are at least two de-
fects in this bill, wish, before the vote is TAX
en-, to point them out. | am unwilling that
it may stand on record, for me or againsNane
| through all time, that thought there were
defects. The first is in the fourteenth section
of the bill. After speaking of the Missouri
| compromise, it says:
Which, being inconsistent with the prin-
ciples of non Intervention by Congress with
III NlIG DGdlCo as re-
cognized by the legislation of 1850, common
~ called the compromise measures, is hereby
declared imperative and void
81 intended to move to strike out the words
which relate to the compromise measures of
1850, from the word with, in line twenty
three, to the word is in line twenty-six.
and insert the Constitution of the United
States ) so as to make it read (which, being
inconsistent with the Constitution of the Uni.
ted States, is hereby declared imperative and
void | would much rather stand Nv the
Constitution than by the compromise. Ineed
not say that never have been for that COM
promise, am not for it now, and never expect
to be for it. have been for the Constitution,
am for it now, and ever expect to be for it.
acquiesce in the compromise ofl85O. lust as
veal did IN the compromise of 1920, without
approving it."
With what propriety, then, can it be said
that | agreed to the doctrine of non-interyen-
ton as laid down in the compromise of 1850.
IN the Kansas Nebraska bill, or anywhere
else Sir, | am at loss to determine.
These two points | never have waived. l
never considered at any time, in any place,
or under any circumstances, that the people of a
Territory had ri ght to exclude slavery. |
never yielded the point which insist on to-
day, that Congress is bound to interpose eve
rywliere, upon the sea and upon the land, for
the protection ofmy property and the proper
ty OF my section, of my State, of my people,
to the same extent that it interposes for the
protection of other peoples property
The Senator from New York, Mr. Sew
ard, IN his very elaborate speech the other
day, as other Senators had done beforr. under
took to show that slavery was not only de-
trimental to the best interests of the master
but great wrong to the slaye-to the black
man. | take issue with those propositions
and without undertaking to elaborate the
points necessarily involved, l declare again.
as did in reply to the Senator from Wiscon-
son, alr. Doolittie, that, in my opinion, sla-
very is great moral, social, and political
blessing blessing to the slave, and blessing
to the master. The evidence on which affirm
tnat it is no hardship to the black man, is found
IN this that four million of the negro race in
the slaveholding States Of this Union are to-
day in a better condition. morally, socially,
and regliioasy, than four alailieas of Che same
raee anywhere on thc faco of Gods habftable
globe. | submit that proposition to the hon
orable Senator and if there be four millions
negroes on our continents so happy, so con-
tented, so well provided for, so moral, so reI-
gious, and occupying so high social position
as the four millions Of southern slaves. tell me
where they are to be found. If they are to
be found neither in their native land nor in
foreign chimes, then how do you assume that
they have been debased in their servile con-
dition How do you prove that slavery has
degraded them, if they are better off than their
race anywhere else?
Rut cir bava ,nada M .o,,,o -..-
statistics to show that the black man in a
state OF slavery is more prosperous, and ply
sically more vigorous, and multiplies his spe-
cies in agreater ratio than he does in any 9TH
er condition. l find in looking into national
s at sites that from 1910 10 1921 take 1910
because that was Immediately after the slave
trade was aboIished-the slaves ofthe United
States increased twenty nine per cent the |
free blacks twenty-seven per cent. q omit |
fractiOns) From 1920 to 1880 the slave in |
crease was thirty per cent, and the free black |
thirty four per cent, 1t will be recoIlected |
that that was a season when the spirit of |
was abroad when MARYLAND |
was on the very eve of emancipating her |
slaves; when Delaware virtually abolished |
slavery, retaining it only in name when the |
southern slayeholding States generally were
inclined to emancipate their slaves but even |
under this state ofthings, the free black popula-
ton only gained four per cent. over the slave
population. From 1880 to 1910 the slaves
twenty-three per cent, and the free |
blacks twenty per cent. From 1910 to 1850
what do we find While abolition has been
rampant all over the North while the under
ground railroad has been doing most active
md energetic business /; but while the South
srn people, no longer yielding to former feel
ng in favor Of emancipation have been hol-
ling their negroes in bondage absolutely re-
using to do what they had done for ten or
twenty years before, emancipate them in large
numbers this being the state of the case,
y hat do we find from 1910 to 1850? That
he slaves increased twenty-eight per cent,
md the free blacks but twelve per cent.
l have also made up some statistics as to
he relative increase of free blacks in the slave
States and in the free States. From 1910 to
$50, their increase in the slave States was
wenty-four per cent, and in the free States,
t was thirty-three per cent. from 1880 to
$40, in the slave States, it was eighteen, and
n the free States, twenty-lo per cent. from
$40 to 1850, it was, in the slave States, ten
er cent, and in the free States, fourteen per
ent. 1t must be constantly borne in mind
hat thefts, escapes, and voluntary emancipa-
ion gave the North great advantage, while /,
he South increased only from natural causes.
deduce, Mr.. President, from these figures,
his conclusion : that the negro, not only in !
he n-slaveholding States, but in the slave
folding States, multiplies his species more ,
apidly in state Of slavery than he does in a | 1
tate of freedom that the ratio of increase is {
reater ina state of slavery than in state of I
reedom. To that extent, then, am justified .
4 deducing that other conclusions at which
arrived long since, and enunciated the other i
ay that, as a sphysical being, and in every I
ossible aspect in which he can be regarded, {
e is more prosperous in state of slavery
nan in any other condition.
The Senator from Illinois, on the other side of
lie Chamber, Mr.. Trumbull. told US the
her day that slavery was great wrong to !
Ne negro, inasmuch as it violated his inalien- 9
Die rights as man; that the negro, like the
bite man, in the language of the Declaration !
Independence, was created equal, born free
nd entitled to certain inalienabe rights and =
nong these were life, liberty, and the pur- 7
nit of happiness. The Senator afterwards u
ualified his statement by admitting that cases 9
AL and h