The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1860-10-03


and equally designed for happiness, the
Christion religion teaches us to believe, and
the political creed Of Americans fully coin
cdes with that position. From
persuasion that equal liberty was origin
ally the portion, and is still the birthright of
| oil men, and Influenced by the strong ties Of
humanity and the principles Of the Consti-
tuition, your memoriaists conceive them
selves bound to use all justifable endeavors
to loosen the bonds of slavery and promote
general enjoyment of the blessings Of free
| dom.o
Those are the sentiments of FRANKLIN, the
wisest man in America.
GEORGE WAsHINaroS, in letter TO LaFay-
cite, in 1888, tells him that be would be hap
by to join him in efforts to promote scheme
Of emancipation. And in letter to Mercer
in 1888, he says:
81 never mean, unless some particular cir
cumstanoes compel me to it, 90 possess an
other slave by purchase, il being among my
| first wishes 70 see some plan adopted by
which slavery in this country may be abol-
ished by law"
In his will WAsHISoToN emancipated oil
his slaves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON wrote letter in 1856
to DIR. Price, an eminent Abolitionst of Lon.
don, in which be gives this testimony in re-
gard to public sentiment in the greater por-
sion Of the States:
"Northward of the Chesapeake you may
find here and there an opponent Of your doc
trine, as you may find here and there a rob-
Der and murderer, but in no great number"
Col. MASON, of Virginia, when the clause
hibiting the Importation of slaves was be-
fore the Virginia Convention OF 1883, said
"Siavery discourages arts and manufac-
turers. The poor despise labor where per-
formed by slaves. They prevent the emil
grafton of whites, who really enrich and
strengthen a country. They produce the
most pornicious effect on manners. Every
master of slaves is born q petty tyrant.-
They bring the Judgment Of Heaven on
country
JuDGE lREDELL, on similar occasion, in
the North Carolina Convention, said:
"When the entire abolition Of slavery
takes place, 1t will be event which must
be pleasing TO every generous mind and every
friend of human nature.''
WILLIAM PNcKsEY made powerful speech
in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1889
in favor Of emancipation, in which he de-
nounced the systom of bondage as niquitous
and disgraceful to Maryland, and said:
81 have no hope that the stream OF gen.
eral liberty will forever flow unpolluted
through the miro Of partial bondage, or that
81 49, l. L.. - A ~.
others, will not in time become base enough
TO let others lord il over them. Ii they re-
sist, it will be struggle Of pride and sell
fsbness, not of principle"
What need of further references7 The
condemnation of slavery according to Jeffer-
son, as above quoted, was almost universal
in the North as early as 1855; and many of
the best men OF the South condemned it and
were anxious TO be rid Of ii. The sentiment
was so strong at the formation of the Con.
stitution of the United States that, when Ed
mund Randolph, Roger Sherman and James
Madison severally moved to amend different
clauses by striking out "slave'' or ''servi-
tude," all concurred in the reason assigned
by Madison, who ''thought it wrong to admit
in the Constitution the idea shat there could
be property in man."
Yet, 10 the face of this last fact, and OF all
the testimony we have here adduced, Judge
fancy says that the African race was re-
garded by oil white men at the period of the
ton OF the Constitution, and for century
| before,
"As so far inferior, that they had no rights
which the white man was bound to respect !;
and that the negro might justly and lawfully
be reduced to slavery for his benefit. This
| opinion was fixed and universal in the civil
lied portion of the white race. Ii was re-
garded as an axiom in morals as we'll as in
politics, which no one thought of disputing,
or supposed open to dispute.o
And upon such version of history as that,
the bred Scott Court decided that the Dec
laration of the United States did not embrace
negroes in the phrases s'all men" and s'man.
kind" and therefore bred Scott had no
right to bring q suit to test his right or that
OF bis children to personal liberty, and that
slavery exists throughout ell the Terri
tories of the United States by virture OF
the Constitution OF the United States. And
Douglas, squatter like, jumps to the further
conclusion that the authors of the Declare
ton only meant British subjects (of fair
complexion) in America, and that nobody
else, on the broad face of the earth, was
endowed with rights to life and liberty by
their Creator. Ii is not the first time in the
history of the world that unjust judges and
ambitious politicians have perverted history
and sought to degrade the reputation of their
ancestors to the base level of their own grow
| cling instincts