Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-03-16
synopsis of the speech of Hon.
VIM. III. Seward,

In Offering this brief and necessarily very
inadequate synopsis Of Mr.. Stewards great
speech, We hope not to forestall or supplant
the careful reading of the original. Every
intelligent citizen, whether Democrat or a
Republican, should receive or procure copy
of it, and make himself familiar with the
reasons and the groundwork of our political
faith, embodied in form so concise, lucid
and compact, that it almost defes the power
Of Observation-Disclosures JOURNAL
Mr.. SEWARD presented the memorial of the
Legislature of Kansas, praying for admission
into the Union, and said
The admission of Kansas into the Union,
without further delay, seems to me equally
necessary, just and wise. In recorded debates,
| have already anticipated the arguments for
this conclusion.
THE SLAVERY QUESTION. ,-.
In coming forward among the political
astrologers, it shall be an error OF Judgment,
and not of disposition, if my Interpretation of
the feverish dreams which are disturbing the
country shall tend to foment, rather than to
allay, the national excitement.
1t will be an overlooking source of shame,
as well as of sorrow, if we, thirty millions
Europeans by extraction, Americans by birth
or discipline, and Christians in faith, and
meaning to be such in practice-cannot so
combine prudence with humanity, in our
conduct concerning the one disturbing subject
OF Slavery, as not only to preserve our
unequalled institutions of Freedom, but also
to enjoy their benefits with contentment and
harmony.
Wherever a guiltess slave exists, be he
Caucasian, American, Malay, or African, he
is the subject of two distinct and opposite
ideas one that he is wrongly, the other that
he is rightly a slave. An economical question,
also, early arises out of the subject of Slavery.
So soon as a State feels the impulses of com
merce, or enterprise, or ambition, its citizens
begin to study the effects of these systems of
capital and labor respectively on its intelli-
gence, its virtue, its tranquility, its integrity
or unity, its defense, its prosperity, it's liberty,
its happiness, its ACKNOWLEDGMENT, and its
fame. In other words, the great question
arises, whether Slavery is moral, social and
political good, or a moral, social and political
evil. The fathers of the Republic encountered
this question. They even adjusted it so that
it might have given US much less than our
present dsquiet, had not circumstances after,
ward occurred which they, wise as they were,
had not clearly foreseen. Although they had
inherited, yet they generally condemned the
practice of Slavery, and hoped for its dscon.
tinuance. Nevertheless, it unavoidably pre-.
sented itself again in their consultations on
bond of Federal Union. The new Government
was to be representative one. Slaves were
capital iii some States, in others capital had
no investments in labor. Should those slaves
be represented as capital or as persons, OF
should they not be represented or taxed at all :
The fathers disagreed, debated long, and
compromised at last. Mr. Seward showed
at some length the nature and extent of these
compromises
| 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 when within any exclusive sphere OF
Federal jurisdiction, not as capital but as a
person. (Here Mr.. Seward entered upon an
able calculation of the action of the fathers in
Congress upon this question, in its application
to new territory, ana in relation to the
importation of slaves.)
The question of 1920 was identically the
question of 1860, so far as principle, and even
the field Of its application, was concerned.
Every element of the controversy now present
entered it then; its effects, present and future
the Constitutional authority of Congress the
claims Of the States, and of their citizens tie
nature of the Federal Unon--whether it is a
compact between the States, or an independent
Government; the springs of its powers, and
the ligatures upon their exercise. All these
were discussed with zeal and ability which
have never been surpassed. The Missouri
debate disclosed truths Of great moment for
Interior use:
| First: That it is easy to combine the
capital States in defense of even external
interests, while it is hard to unite the labor
States in common policy.
| Second: That the labor States have a
natural loyalty to the Union, while the capital
States have natural facility for alarming that
| loyalty by threatening Disunion.
Third: That the capital States do not
practically distinguish between legitimate and
| constitutional resistance to the extension of
Slavery in the common Territories of the
Union, and unconstitutional aggressions
against Slavery established by local laws in
| the capital States.
THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL PARTIES.
The early political parties were organized
without reference to Slavery. But since 1920,
European questions have left us practically
unconcerned. There has been great increase
OF invention, mining, manufacture and cult
walton. Steam on land and on water has quick
ened commerce. The press and the telegraph
have attained prodigious activity ,and thesocial
intercourse between the States and their
citizens has been immeasurably increased :;
and, consequently, their mutual relations
affecting Slavery have been, for many years,
subjects of earnest and often excited discus.
sion. The Wing party, being generally an
opposition party, practiced some forbearance
toward the interest of labor. The Democratic
party, not without demonstrations of dissent,
was generally found sustaining the policy of
capital. A Democratic Congress brought
Texas into the Union, STIMULATING practically
for its future reorganization into four slave
States. Mexico was incensed. War ensued.
The labor States asked that the Mexican law
of liberty, which covered the Territories
brought in by the treaty of peace, might
remain and be confirmed. The Democratic
party refused. The Missouri debate of 1920
required now, under circumstances of heat
and excitement, in relation to these conquests
The defenders of labor took alarm lest the
number of new capital States might become so
great to enable that class of States to dictate
the whole policy of the Government; and, in
case of constitutional resistance, then to form
new slaveholding confederacy around the
Gulf of Mexico. By this time, the capital
States seemed to have become fixed in
determination that the Federal Government,
and even the labor States should recognize
their slaves, though outside of the slave States
and within the Territories fthe United States, |
as property of which the master could not be
in any way or by any authority Invested; and
the labor States, having become now more
essentially Democratic than ever before, by
the great development of free labor, more
firmly than ever insisted on the constitutional
doctrine that slaves voluntarily carried by
their masters into the common Territories, or
into labor States, are persons, men. a-
Under the al1sniciOuS influences of Whio