Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-05-19
WHOLE NUMBER 54S.

INhCCV VI Si"NOiJ hyOu buc ItObpbIlJl OF Ll0
slave States, instead Of applying to rs, Who
oppose tho system, all the unparIiamentary
bllingsgate which bad taste and a worse
temper can suggest. The disparity between
freedom and slavery is too uniform to be
accidental. l have only given few of
theiactual results"of slavery, which might be
"industriously paraded as clouds Of wit
nesses against the institution The census
statistics now being collected will show
more untavorably against slavery than those
OF 1850, aud every returning decade will
widen the gap between freedom and slavery.
The reason is too obvious to need argument
to show it. Slave labor is forced aud mere
hand labor, and has none CT the motives of
reward which stimulate free labor and the
consequence is, that slave labor does not
originate, and cannot bring to its aid. the
numoerless laborsaving inventions which
have contributed so much to the Industrial
enterprise and prosperity of the free States.
refer the gentleman from Alabama Mr..
CURRY to the Patent Office for Clouds of
witnesses against the institution" Slavery
is war of one class of the community
against the other, and slavehoIding States
| are constantly in a state of war, and are.
Their means are wasted in patrol suryeil
lance and overseerism. The history Of the
free aud slave States in this country shows
to my mind conclusively, what ethical wri.
ters have contended to be true, that Just
dealing, for States as well as for individuals.
is the best policy in the end 1t is time the
American people and politicians were be-
gining to understand, what DR.. Davy long
since asserted to be true, that iniuripg'
one class for the immediate benefit of an
other, is ultimately injurious to that to se-
cure prosperity to community, all inter-
ests must be consulted" Upon this point
l therefore conclude, upon reexamination
| OF the opinions and speculations of the early
fathers of the Republic, aud. ."from actual
results" they were right in pronouncing
| slavery an evil to be deplored and to be got
rid of as soon as practicable. The advo-
Gates of slavery, with a view to shield their
system from attack, and to add sanction TO
it in the popular mind, assume for it a con
stltutIonal recognition that, as system,
the Constitution gives it legal guarantee.
This Is mere assumption, and has no founda-
tion in fact. l deny that the Constitution,
upon any fair construction, regards slaves
as property bnt, on the contrary, it treats
them as persons allows them to be count
cd as basis of representations. The arti-
, Gle relating to fugitives from labor is some
times referred to as recognizing the proper
ty character of slaves but here again they
are regarded as persons, and not property.
1t is admitted that this clause relates to
minors and apprentices, as well as slaves
and will any one claim that children and
apprentices are treated as property, and are
declared to be property? They are, as
much as slaves are by this clause. The
Constitution found slavery existing in the
States by force of the laws thereof, and there
it left it; giving to no department of the
| General Government direct control over it
and there the Republican party, as a politi.
cal question, are willing to leave it. 1t is
admitted by all---at least l have not heard
it denied-that State can abolish slavery
whenever it may desire to do so but if the
Constitution Of the United States recogui.
zes slaves as property, how could State
legally abolish slaveryY The Constitution
would be superior to the State law and as
there seems to be no end to the assumptions
of slavery, this may be the next plank to be
spiked on to Democratic platform.
According to the gentleman from Alaba.
ma, slavery is superior to the Constitution
or law, and not dependent on either. His
position is: slavery exists in the States
where the owner dwells exists out of the
States exists in the Territories; exists every
where, until it comes within the limits Of
sovereignty, which prohibits it," Slavery,
then, according to this new dogma, like
our atmosphere, occupies all tho unoccupi-
cd space on the globe, and fully possesses
the attribute Of ubiquity. a
The gentleman gives US no authority but
his assertion, which suppose is the result
of bis reexamination Of the question. I
quote against it the records of the decisions
of every court of respectability in Christen.
dom since courts of law have been represent.
ed as holding the scale of justice. quote
against it the opinions of every elementary
law writer and every ethical writer of note
from the dawn of civilization to the present
time. And there | am willing to leave this
modern postulate of human bondage ex-
cept so far as it forms the predicate Of the
territorial policy of the Democratic party
The Republican party propose, TO the ex-
tent OF its constitutional power, to limit aud
restrict slavery, and thereby return TO the
policy of the fathers, which made freedom
the rule and slavery the exception. Tho
dictates OF humanity and the policy Of en-
; lightened craftsmanship alike urge the party
! forward. We have seen that the controls
ling element of the unexampled prosperity
of our country has been free labor, and we
have prospered in spite Of slavery, and not
in consequence of it. If the predieates of
slavery and the Democratic party be true
if the Constitution, Proprio uigOre, extends
slavery into the Territories, as claimed in
the Dred Scott case if slavery exists in
Kansas and other Territories by the same
rules that it does in the slaves States, as
asserted by President Buchanan, then sla-
very is the rule and freedom the exception
in this Government, aud there is nothing to
prevent its domination and control every
where in the Republic.
These positions, and the policy which II
logically leads to, would reverse the motive
power Of our civilization and progress, and
run our institutions rapidly back into the
dark ages.
u1,o loo1iro. ,xoI;tfoiona If lLo Dau.onrot