The Jeffersonian Democrat. [volume] (Chardon, Ohio) 1854-1865, 1860-03-16

ta UT ae persons, tHxeu as capital or as por.
sons, or sho oud they not be represented or
taxed Mt ALI The fathers disagreed, de.
bated long, and compromised at last. Each
State, they doterninud. shall have two
Senators in Congress. Three .fifths of the
slaves shall be elsewhere represented and
be taxed as persons. What should be done
If tho slave should escape into a labor State;
Should that State confess him to be chat
tel and restore him as such. or might 1t ro.
gard him as porsnn. and harbor and pro.
tee, him as q man They compromised
again aud decided that no person hold to
labor or service in ono State by tho laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall by any
law or regulation of that State, be dis.
charged from such labor or service, but shall
be delivered up on claim to tho person to
whom such labor or service shall DO due
Free lahoreis would immigrare, and slay es
might DO imported into tho States Tho
fathers agreed that Congress may establish
uniform laws of naturalization. and it might
prohibit the importation of persons after
1908. Communities in tho Southwest, de-
tached' from the Southern States, were
growing up in the practice of slavery, to be
capital States. Now States would soon
grow up in tho Northwest. while as yot cap
ital stood aloof. aud labor had not lifted the
axe to begin lhere its endless but beneficent
task. The fathers authorized Congress to
make all needful rules and regulations con.
cerning tho arrangements and disp postion of
the public lands, aud to admit new States.
So the Constitution, while il does not dis
turb CT 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 capi.
tai but us person.
What was the action of tho fathers in Con-
gress They admitted the now States of
the Southwest as capital States, because it
was practically impossible to do otherwise,
aud by the ordinance Of 1887, confirmed in
1889. they provided for tho organization
and admission Of only labor States in tho
Northwest. They directed fugtives from
service to bo restored, notas chattcls, but as
persons. They awarded naturalization to
immigrant FREQ lsborers. ami they prohibited
the trade in African labor This disposition
of tho whole subject was in harmony with
tho condition Of society, and, in the main,
with the spirit of the age. Tho sovon North
ern States contentcdly became labor States
by thoir own acts. The six Southern States,
with equal tranquility and by their own
determination, remained capital States.
Tho circumstances which tho fathers did
not clearly foresce were two, namely the
refrigeration Of slavery, consequent on
tho increased consumption of cotton, and
the extension Of the national domain across
the Mississippi, and tbtso occurred before
1920. The State of Louisiana, formed on a
slavoholdiEg French settlement, within the
newly acquired LOuisianian Territory, had
then already been admitted into tho Union.
There yot remained, however, q vast region,
which included Arkansas and Missouri, to.
golber with the then unoccupicd, and even
unnamed Kansas aud Nebraska. Arkansns,
u slaveholding community, was nearly ready
to apply, and Missouri, another such Terri.
tory. was actually applying for admission
into the Federal Union. The existing capi.
tai States seconded these applications, and
claimed that the whole Louisianian Terrific.
ry was rghtfully open to slavery, and to
tho organization of future slave States.
Tho labor States maintained that Congress
had supreme legislative power within the
domain, and could and ought to exclude
slavery there. The question thus opened
was ono which related not at all to slavery
10 tho existing capital States. II was pure
y and simply a national question whether
tho common interest of tho whole Republic
required that Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas,
AMI Nebraska, should become capital States.
with oil tho evils and dangers of slavery, or
be labor States, with all the security, bene-
fi;s, and blessings of freedom. On the do.
cision was suspended the question, as was
thoug ht, whether ultimately the interior OF
this new continent should bo an asylum for
the oppressed and the exile, coming yeaS
after year, and ago after ago, voluntarily
from every othcr civilized land, as we'll as
for the children of misfortune in our own,
or whether, through the renewal of tho AT.
rican slave trade. those magnificent and
luxuriaDt regions should bo surrendered to
The control of capital. wringing out tho fruit
of tho earth through the impOvorishing toll
of negro slaves. That question of 1920 was
identrcally the question of 1860. so far as
principle. and oven the field OF its applica-
tion was concerned. Every element of the
controversy now present entered il then ;
tho fightfulnoss or tho wrongfulness of sla.
very; It's effects, present and future the
constitutional authority of Congress the
claims of the States and Of their citizens |;
the nature of thu Federal Union, whether
II is compact between the Sratos, or an
independent Government; tho springs of
its powers, and the ligatures upon thoir ex.
ercisc. Ali these were discussed with zeal
aud ability which havo never boon surpassed
History tells us, know not how truly, that
the Union reeled under the vehemence Of
that great debate. Patriotism took counsel
from prudence, and enforced settlement
which has proved to be not final ono and
which, as is now seen. practically left open
all the great political issues which were in.
volved. Missouri and Arkansas we're ad-
mittod as capital States, while labor obtained,
as u reservation. the abridged. hut yot com.
prehensivc field of Kansas and Nebraska.
Now, when tho present conditions OF the
various parts Of the LouiSianian Territory
are observed. and we see that capital retains
undisputed possession OF what il then OBJ.
tained, while labor is convulsng the country
with so hard and so prolonged p struggle to
regain the lost equivalent which was thcn
guaranteed to il under circumstances of so
great solcmnity. We NAV vel! desire not to
DO undoceivod il the Missouri compromise
was indeed unnecessarily accepted by tho
froe States. influenced by exaggeraiions Of
the dangers of disunion. The Missouri do
bat" disclosed truths of great moment for
ulterioT use:
list. That it is easy to combine the CAPT.
tai states in dctoncc of even extcrnal inter.
estS, while il is hard TO unto the labor
states in commoo policy.
"a. That the labor States have natural
loyalty to tho Union, while the capital
states nave natural facility for alarming