The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1860-03-13

hoped for its discontlnuancc. They ex.
pressed this when they asserted in the
Declaration of Independence, as funda.
mental principle of American society, that
all men are created equal, and have ina.
lienable rights to life. liberty, aud the pur-
suit Of happiness. Each State, however,
reserved to itself the exclusive political
power over the subject of Slavery, within
its own borders Nevertheless, it unavod.
ably presented itself in their consultations
on bond Of Federal Union. The new
Government was to be representative
one. Slaves were capital in some States,
in Others capital had no investments in Ia,
Dor. Should those slaves be represented as
capital or rs persons, taxed as capital or as
persons, or should thay not be represented
or taxed at alll Tho fathers disagreed,
debated long, and compromised at last.
Each State, they determined, should have
two Senators in Congress. Three tifths of
the slaves shall be elsewhere represented,
and be taxed as persons. What should be
done if the slave should escape into a labor
State2 Should the State confess him to
be chattlc, aud restore him as such, or
might it regard him as a person, and
harbor and protect him a4 a man?
They compromised again, and decided that
no person held to labor or service in one
State by the laws thereof, escaping into
another, shall by any law or regulation Of
that State, be discharged from such labor
OF service, but shall be delivered up on
claim TO the person to whom such labor or
service sha be due.
Free laborers would immigrate, and
slaves might be imported into the States.
The fathers agreed that Congress may e9-
tablish uniform laws of naturalization, and
it might prohibit tho importation of per.
sons after 1903. Communities in tho
South West, detached from the Southern
States, were growing up in the practice of
Slavery, to be capital States. New States
would soon grow up in the Northwest,
while AS vet capital stood aloof aud labor
had not lifted the AK to begin there its
endless but bcnrticent task. The fathers
authorized Congress to make all necdful
rules and regulations concerning the man.
agement and disposition of the public lands,
and to admit new States. SO the Cousti.
tuition, while it does not disturb or affect
the system of capital in slaves, existing ir
any State under its own laws, does, st the
Same time, recognize every human being
when within any exclusive sphere Of Fed
cral jurisdiction, not rs capital but as a
person.
What was the action of the fathers in
Congress2 They admitted the new States
of the Southwest as capital States, be-
cause it was practically impossible to DO
otherwise, and bv the Ordinance of 1877,
confirmed in 1880, they provided for the
organization and admission Of only labor
States in tho Northwest. They directed
fug,iyes from service to be restored, not as
chattles, but as persons. They awarded
naturalization to immigrant free laborcrs,
and they prohibited the trade in African
labor This disposition OF the whole sub.
jet was in harmony with the condition Of
society, and, in the main, with the spirit Of
the age. The seven Northern States con.
tendeIly became labor States by their own
acts. The six Southern States. with equal
tranquility, and by their own datemna
ton, remained capital States.
The circumstances which the fathers did
not clearly forcscc were two, namely: the
r'iuyigoration of Slavery consequent on
tho increased consumption Of cotton, and
the extension of the natl nal domain across
the Mississippi orl these occurred before
1920. The state Of Louisiana, formed on
"A sIayehoding French settlement, within
the newly acquired Loui,ianiau Tcrritory,
had then already been admitted into the
Union. There yet remained, however, a
vast region which included Arkansas and
Missouri, together with the then unoccu,
pied and even unnamed Kansas aud Ne.
braska. Arkansas sIaveholling commu-
nifty, was nearly ready to apply, and Mis-
souri, another such Territory, was actually
applying for admission into the Federal
Union. The existing Capital States sec.
ondcd these applications, and claimed that
tho whole Louisianian Territory was right
fully opcn to slavery, and to the organiza
tion of further Slave States. The Labor
States maintained that Congress had su.
premo legislative power within the domain,
and could and ought to exclude Slavery
there, The question thus opercd was ono
which related no, at al % Sla, cry in tho
existing Capital States. Ii was purely and
simply n national question whether the
common interest Of the whole Republic re-
quircd that Arkansas Missouri, Kansas and
Nebraska, SHOULD became Capital States
with all the evils and dangers Of Slavery
or be Labor States, with all the security,
benefit and blessings Of freedom. On the
decision was suspended the question, as was
thought whether ultimately the interior
Of this new continent should b. an asylum
for the oppressed and the exile, coming
year after year and age after age, volunta
rily from every other civilized land, as well
rs for the chiIdrca of misfortune in our
own, or whether through the renewal
Of the African slave trade, those magnif
cent and uyuriant regions should be sur
rendered to the control Of capital, wiring
ing ont the fruit Of the earth through the
impoverishing toll Of negro slaves.
That question Of 1920 was identcally
the question Of 1860, so far as principle,
and even the field of its application was
concerned. Every element Of the contro.
vcrsy now present entered into it then; the
rightfulncss or the wrongfulncss of Sllvery
It's effects, present and future; tho Cons i.
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