The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1860-03-09

question arises, whether slavery is Il moral,
social, and political good, or moral, social,
and political evil This is the slavery ques-
ton at home. But therc is mutual bond
of unity and brotherhood between man and
man throughout t.ste world Nations exam
Inc freely the political systems of each other,
and OF all preceding times, and accordingly
as they approve or disapprove of the two sys-
tens of capital and labor respectively, they
sanction and prosecute, or condemn and pro-
hibit commerce in men. Thus. in one way
or in another, the slavery question which 50
many amongst Us, who are more willing to rule
than patient in studying the conditions OF
society. think is merely accidental or un-
necessary question that might and ought to
be settled and dismissed at once, is, ON the
contrary, a worldwide and enduring subject
OF political consideration and civil admins
tr:ion. Men, States, and nations entertain
it, not voluntarily, but beeaus0the progress
Of society continually brings il into their
way. They divide upon it, not peryersely,
but because, owing TO differences of constitu-
ton, condition, or circumstances, they can
not agree.
WHAT OUR FATHERS THOUGHT AND DID.
The fathers Of the Republic encountcrcdit.
They even adjusted it so that il might have
given us much less than onr present disquict,
had not circumstances afterwards occurred
which they, wise rs they were, had not clear
ly foreseen. Although they had inherited,
yet they generally condemned the practice of
slavery and hoped for its discontinuancc.-
They expressed this when they asserted in
the Declaration Oflndependcncc, rs Il tunda-
mental principle Of American society, that
all men are created equal, and have inalien-
able rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. Each State, however, reserved
to itself exclusive political power over the
subject OF slavery within its own bOrders.-
Nevertheless, it unavoidably presented itself
in their consultations ON n bond OF Federal
Union. The new Government was to b. u
representative one. Slaves were capital in
some States, in Others capital had no invest.
ments in labor. Should thOsa slaves be rep
resented as capital or rs persons, taxed 9s
capital or as persons, or should tbcy not be
represented or taxed at all? The fathers
disagreed, debated long, and compromised at
last. Each State, they determined, shall
have two Senators in Congress. Three iiths
of the slaves shall he elsewhere represented
and be taxed as persons. What should be
doLe If the slave should escape into labor
State? Should that State confess him to be
chattcl and restore him us such, or might
it regard him az person, and harbOr and
protect him as 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 discharg-
cd from such labor or service, but shall be
delivered up on claim to the person to whom
such labor or service shall be due.
Free laborers would immisrate, and slaves
might be imported into the States. The
fathers agreed that Congress may establish
uniform laws Of naturalization, and it might
prohibit importation of persons after lSOS.
Communities in the Southwest, detachcd
from the Southern States, were growing up
in the practice of slavery, to bccapitll States.
New States would soon grow up in the
Northwest, while as yet capital stood aloof,
and labor had not lifted the ax to begin there
its endless hut bene6ccnt task. The fathers
authorized Congress to mac all nccdiul
rules and regulations concerning the arrange
mcnt and disposition OF the public lands,
and to admit new States. SO the ConStitu-
ton. while II does not disturb or affect the
system of capital in slaves, existing in any
State under its own laws, does, nc the same
time, recognize every human being when
within any exclusive sphere of Federal juris-
diction, not as capital but as a person.
WHAT THEY DID IN CONGRESS.
What was the action of the fathers in
| A. Iii fl,.,, Sfnt nj
tho Southwest as capital States, because 1t
was practically impossible to do otherwise,
and by the ordinance of 1857, confirmed in
1889, they provided for the organization and
admission OF only labor States in the North
west. They directed fugitivcs from service
TO he restored not as chattels, but rs persons.
They awarded naturalization to immigrant
free labOrers. and they prohibited the trade
in African labor. This disposition Of the
whole subject was in harmony with the con-
dition of society, and, in the main, with the
spirit Of the age. The seven Northern States
cOntentedly became labor States by their own
acts. The six Southern States with equal
tranquility and by their own determination
remained capital States.
WHAT THEY DID NOT roREsEE.
Tho circumstances which the fathers did
not clearly iOresec weru two, namely: the
rcinyigoation of slavery consequent on the
increased consumption of cotton, and the ex-
tension Of the national domain across the
Mississippi, and these occurred before 1920.
The State of Louisiana formed on u slavehold-
| ing French settlement, within the newly ac-
auircd Louisianian Territory, had then nj.
ready been admitted into the Union. There
vet remained, however, q vast region which
included Arkansas and Missouri, together
with the then unOccupied and even unnam-
cd Kansas and Nebraska. Arkansas, a
slayeholding community, was nearly ready
to apply, and Missouri, another such Terri
tory, was actually applying for admission in
to the Federal Union. The existing capital
States seconded these applications, and claim
ed that the whole louisianian Territory was
rightiully open to slavery, ard to the organi-
zation OF future slave States. The labor
States maintained that Congress had supreme
legislative power within the domain, and
could and ought 10 exclude slavery there.
The question thus opened was one which re-
lated not ut all to slavery in the existing
casital States. IL was purely and simply
national question whether the common in
teres. of the whole Republic required that
Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska,
should become capital States, with all the
evils and dangers of slavery, or be labor
States, with all the security, benefits and
blessings Of freedom. On the decision was
suspended the question, rs was thought,
whether ultimately the interior Of this new
continent should be an asylum for the op-
prcsseu and tho exile, coming year after year
anu ags M'e5 age, voluntarily from every