Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-07-13

such as it was, agreed with the colleges. The
church, too, added its powerful voice; and
here, amid the diversites of religious faith,
we hail the unity of spirit which animated all.
Quakers, Methodists Presbyterans, and Con-
gregationalists, seem almost to have We'd with
each other in this pious testimony
The constitution was adopted, but the word
slave" was not allowed to poute its text ;
and this was in declared difference to the pre-
vailing opinion, which regarded slavery as
temporary, destined soon to pass away. All
looked forward to this glad day, which seemed
to be almost at hand. In harmony with this
existing expectation, slavery was prohibited in
! all the existing territories of the Union, so
that when Washington as first president OF
| the United States, at his Inauguration here in
| New York, took his first oath to support the
constitution, the flag OF the republic nowhere
on the land within the jurisdiction Of congress,
covered a single slave. Little then did the
| fathers dream that the evil which they regard
ed with shame, and which they exerted them
| selves to prohibit, would elevate its obscene
crest as it now does, and faunt its pretensions
| before the world. Little did they dream that
the constitution, from which they had careful
ly excluded the very word, would, in defiance
| of reason and common sense, be held to pro-
tect the hinq, so exceptionally that it could
not be reached by congressional prohibition,
even within congressional jurisdiction. Little
did they dream that the text, which they left
so pure and heathful, would, through corrupt
| interpretation, be swollen into such a hideous
| EIephantiaSiS.
Two circumstances, civilizing in themselves
have exercised an unexpected influence for
slavery; first, the abolition of the slave trade,
which, by taking away the supply, has in
creased the value of slaves and secondly, the
increased cultivation of cotton stimulated by
the invention of new machinery. The last has
been of especial influence. Indeed, it is hard
ly too much to say, that out of this slender
cotton fibre have been formed the manacles of
the slave Thus, through sinister influences
and the wickedness of men is good made the
minister of wrong Next after Christopher
Columbus, who, by his sublime enterprise,
opened the pathway to the New World, Eli
Whitney, who discovered the cotton gin, has
-been indirectly and unconsciously chief agent
in the bondage of the African race on the
North American continent and surely pro-
per gratitude for the advantages which we en-
Joy in such large store from these two discov-
cries must prompt us to increased activity tor
the welfare of those who, alas have been such
losers where we have been such gamers.
Fhis change of opinion, so disastrous in its
results, was gradual Though easily detected,
in its successive stages, by the careful inquirer,
it did not become manifest to the whole coun-,
try till 1920, when it burst forth in the Missou-
ri question. Then, for the first time, slavery
openly showed itself violent, insolent, belliger,
ent. Freedom was checked but saved some
| thing by ompromise-called, at the moment
OF its adoption by Charles Pinckney of South
Carolina. "a triumph of the south" where, in
consideration of the admission of Missouri as
| a slave state-thus securing an additional pre-
| ponderance to the slave power-lt was stlpula-
ted that slavery should be prohibited in GER
! tain outlying territory, at the time trodden
| only by savages. Then came a luI during
which the change was still at work, until, CO.
tempOraneOus with the abolition OF slavery In
the British West Indies, the discussion was
lighted anew Meanwhile slaves had aug
mented in price, and slave masters had become
more decided in opinion. AT first in timid
Difference to the world they ventured on no
defense of slavery in the abstract; but at last,
boIder grown under the lead OF Mr.. Calhoun,
they threw aside all reserve, openly assalled
the opinions of the fathers, audaciously denied
the sefevident truths of the Declaration of
Independence, and by formal resolution assert
ed the new dogma of slavery in the territories.
This was in 1647. A letter from Mr. Cal
houn of that day, addressed to member of
the Alabama legislature, shows that there was
an element of policy i'll the exaggeration. His
A.
north, believing that delay was dangerous, as
the slave masters were relatively stronger,
both morally and politically, than they would
ever be again.
AT last the end has come Slavery is openly
pronounced at one time ''the black marble key
stone of our national arch :" at another time
''the corner stone of our republican edfice;
then it is vaunted as ''the highest type of civ
| iliZation - then as ga blessing to the master
as well as the slave;' and then again cas- en-.
nob.ing to the master if not to the slave" 1t
is only the first step which costs, and therefore
the authors of these opinions, so shocking to
the moral sense, do not hesitate at other opin-
ions equally shocking to the reason which pre-
| tend to find impossible sanctions for slavery in
the constitution. Listening to these exrava-
gances, who would not excaim with Ben
Jon~on in the play,
Grave father he's possest; again say
Possest. Nay, if there be possession
And obsession, he has both.
POLITICAL BEARINGS OF SLAVERY.
The actual number OF Shareholders was for
long time unknown, and on this account was
naturally exaggerated. 1t was often repre-
sented to be very great. On one occasion,
distinguished representative from Massachu-
sets, whose name will be ever cherished for
his devotion to human rights mean the late
floor of congress by member from Alabama,
who averred that the number of shareholders
was as many as three million. AT that time
there was no official document by which this
extravaganza could be corrected. But at last
We have it, The late census, taken in 1850,
shows the whole number of this peculiar class
embracing men, women, and children all
told, who are so unfortunate as to hold slaves
was only three hundred and forty-seven thou
sand and of this number, the large part are
small Shareholders, leaving only nnety-one
! thousand persons as the owners of the great
mass OF slaves and the substantial representa-.
tves of this class. And yet, this small oil
garchy, odious in origin, without any founda.
ton in that justice which is the essential basis
of every civilized association, stuck together
gether by confederacy in all the tiUe.headed
wrong of slavery, and constituting in itself a
Magnun Latrociniu8,, has, by the confession of
one OF It's own leaders, tor sixty years governed
the republic. 70 this end two things have
! concurred First, its associated wealth, being
| the asserted value of its human flesh consti-
tuting fiagitious capital of two thousand mil
lion OF dollars; and secondly, its peculiar rep
resentation in the house OF representatives,
where, under the three-titths rule of the consti-
tuition, ninety members actually hold their
seats by virtue in part Of this hagitious CAPT
tai. Thus are the slavemasters an enormous
corporation or Joint stock company, by the
side OF which the United States Bank, with
its petty thirty millions of capital, and without
any peculiar representation, is dwarted into
| insignifcance.
feel humbled when dwell on the amazing
| disproportion of offices usurped by this ogar.
| pl,x Il, -. IL