Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-01-06

g w hen, in the progress of events, the inhab.
itants Of any Territory shall have reached the
number required to form State, they will
then proceed, in q regular manner, and in the
exercise of the rights Of popular sovereignty
to form constitution preparatory to admissiOu
into the Union After this has been done, to
EN- ploy the language of the Kansas and Ne.
braska act, they "shall be received into the
Union with or without slavery, asathe.y con.
stitution may prescribe at the time Of their
admission" This sound principle has hap.
PLY been recognized, in some form or other,
by an almost unanimous vote of both Houses
of the last Congress. sL a-
TIE SLAVE TRADE. ss ysGsa
All lawful means at my command have been
employed, an d shall continue to be employed
to execute the laws against the African slave
trade. After most careful and rigorous
examine ton of our coasts, and thorough
investigation of the subject, we have not been
able to discover that any slaves have been
imported into the United States, except the
cargo by the Wanderer, numbering between
three and four hundred. Those engaged in
this unlawful enterprise have been vigorously
prosecuted, but not with rs rnuch success as
their crimes have deserved. A number Of
them are still under prosecution.
Our history proves that the fathers OF the
Republic, in advance of all other nations,
condemned the African slave trade. 1t was,
notwithstanding, deemed expedient by the
trainers Of the constitution to deprive Congress
Of the power to prohibit "the migration or
mpouxtronu sucA persons as any Of the
States now existing shall think proper to
admit prior to the year one thousand eight
hundred and eight" MI
:. 1t will bo seen that this restriction on the
power OF Congress was confined to such States
only as might think proper to admit the i'm
portation OF slaves. Itdid not extend to other
States, or to the trade carried on abroad.
Accordingly, we find that, so early as the 22d
Of March, 1874, Congress passed an act i'm
posing Sc we're penalties and punshments upon
citizens and residents of the United States who
should engage in this trade between foreign
nations, The provisions of this act were
extended and enlorced by the act Of 10th May,
1900.
Again: the States themselves had clear
right to waive the constitutional privilege in
tended for their benefit, and to prohibit by
their own laws, this trade at any time they
thought proper previous to 1858. Several Of
them exercised this right before that period,
and among them some containing the greatest
number of slaves. This gave to Congress the
immediate power to act in regard to all such
States, because they themselves had removed
the constitutional barrier Congress accord
ingly passed an act, on 2Sth February, 1903,
"to prevent the importation of certain persons
into certain States where, by the laws thereof,
their admission is prohibited" In this man.
ner, the importation of African slaves into the
United States was, to a greatextent, prohibited
some years in advance of 1903.
AS the year 1903 approached, Congress
determined not to suffer thi trade to exist
even for single day after the, had the power
to abolish it. On the I'd of Mach, 1897, they
passed an act, to take effect "f,om and after
the 1st day of January, 180S,' prohibiting
the importation of African slavss into the
United States. This was followed by subse-
quent acts of a similar character, o which l
need not specially refer. Such we're the
principles, and such. the practices of cur ances-
tors, more. than fifty years ago, in :egard to
the African slave trade.
1t did not occur to the revered patrols who
had been delegates to the convention, and
afterwards became members of Congress, that
in passing these laws they had violated the
Constitution which they had framed With so
much care and deliberation. They supposed
that to prohibit Congress, in express terms,
from exercising specified power before an
| appointed day, necessarily involved the right
to exercise this power after that day had
arrived.
If this were not the case, the trainers of the
Constitution had expended much labor in vain.
Had they imagined that Congsess would pos
sess no power to prohibit the trade, either
before or after 1903, they would not have
taken SO much care to protect the States
against the exercise of this power before that
period. Nay, more, they would not have
attached suchvast importance to this provis-
ion as to have excluded it from the possibility
of future repeal or amendment to which other
portions of the Constitution were exposed. 1t
would, then have been wholly unnecessary
to engraft on the fifth article OF the Constitu-
ton, prescribing the mode of its own future
amendment the proviso, shat no amendment
which maybe made prior to the year 1908
shall in any manner affect" the provision in
the Constitution securing to the States the
right to admit the importation of African
slaves previous to that period.
+ According to the adverse construction, the
clause itself, on which SO much care and dis
cussion had been employed by the members
of the convention, was an absolute nuliIty
from the beginning, and all that has since
been done under it a mere usurpation.
T. 1t was well and wise to confer this power
4 on Congress, because, had it been left to
the States, its Efficient exercise would have
been impossible. In that event any one
State could have efectualy continued the
trade not only for itself but for all the other
slave States, though never SO much against
their will. And why? Because African
slaves, when oLce brought within the limits
of any one State, sin accord dance with it,
laws, cannot practically be excluded from
any other State where slavery exists. And
even if all.the States had separately passed
laws prohibiting the importation Of slaves
these laws would have failed Of effect for
want Of naval force to capture the slaveri
and to guard the coasts. Such = force M
y State can employ in time Of peace without
the con .ent Of Congress. ~ Z.
These acts Of Congress, it is believed
\ have with very rare and Insignificant gexcep
ltions, accomplished their purpose. &, For I
period Of more than half century there haI
been no perceptible addition TO the number
!, Of our domestic. slaves. During this periot
their advancement in civilization has ia
surpassed that of any other portion Of ii
African race. The light and the blessing
Of Christianity have been extended to them
md both their moral and physical condi
Zion has been greatly improved. - =
Reopen! the trade, and it would be Difficult
, TO determine whether the effect. would b
J more dsleterious to the interests Of til
! master Of on those Of the native born slave
! Of the evils to the master, the one most t
! be dreaded woald be the introduction 20
: wild, heathen and ignorant barbarian
among the sober, orderly and quiet slaves
!. whose ancestors have been on the soil fo
several generations. This might tend 7
!, barbarize, demoralize and e4asperate th
: whole mass, and produce the most deplors
; BILE consequences. .ssi Dlsssap9
! The effect upon the existing slave would
: if possible, be still more deplorable. A
!, present be is treated with kindneas an