The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1861-01-11

to become anything but pests OF society,
would say that education Is better than ignor-
ance, good habits than bad, and that Reform
Schools are cheaper than Penitentiaries. i,
The affairs Of the State Prison have engaged
the attention Of the Legislature for several
years. II Is apparent, however, that no final
solution Of the questions which have been raised
in reference to them, has yet been found IL
will be for you TO consider whether any legis-
lation Is necessary to place them on footing
that will allay the uneasiness which has existed.
and continues to exist to some extent, In the
public mind In regard to them. The prison ex.
penses at Thomaston, unlike those OF most OF
the neighboring States, have for many years
been considerably In excess Of the earnings
The fact is explicable, think, upon the hy-
pothesis Of chronic and fundamental errors In
regard to the means Of conducting its opera
tions. From these errors, systems may have
grown up with the knowledge and sanction, for
many years. of the State government, which
the power ofno Warden could avail to over
throw. but however this may be, and whether
there are just causes for complaint or not, and
whether the faults, II any have existed, have
been In the system or in the officers, there can
be no doubt that the whole subject should un-
dergo q most rigid and searching eIamina-
ton.
In the performance Of the duty which may
deyolye upon you, Of districting the State for
Senator's and Representative in the Legislature,
and for Representatives In the Congress OF the
United States, for the next decade, II will be
scarcely necessary for me to observe that q de-
termination TO consult the requirements 0fcon-
yenience and justice in the formation OF the
districts, should be paramount TO all other con-
siderations. The suggestions ofd duty and true
policy in this regard are not antagonlstisal;
tor nothing is more certain than that the at
tempts heretofore made In this and other States,
to obtain q party advantage at the expense OF
fairness, have generally failed TO accomplish
the purpose intended, and not seldom re,lound-
ed to the injury of those who put them forth.
Whieour view is cheered by 50 many badges
Of property and signs ofhope, q cloud gathered
in the southern sky, Is casting its portenti0us
shadow over the land, occasioning uneasiness
in the public mind, disturbing the industrial
relations and financial operation Of the country
and menacng the general welfare. That twill
be dispelled, having cleared the atmosphere,
AMI removed many causes Of disease In the
body polite, thereby promoting life and health,
should not be doubted by those who will in
yestgate its origin and trace its progress from
the earliest beginnings to its present culmina-
tion.
The history Of the American people, Of their
opinions. purposes and aspirations anterior to
the Revolutionary war, the principles UNDER
lying the commencement and prosecution OF
that struggle, and which were supposed to
have been established by its success; the grand
and deathless truths ofthe Declaration Of lnde-
pendence, the Constitution with its aiiirmations,
omissions and exclusions, with Its luminous co.
temporaneous expositions; the original policy
Of the government; the opinion and labors OF
the fathers, Of Washington. franklin, Rush,
Henry, Adams, Jefferson aid Madison; the de-
cisions OF the Judicial tribunals OF the Slave
States down TO the recent period; the frequent
admissions In regard tO all these, In our own
times, and even in the late Presidential canvass,
by distinguished southern Statesmen,-proye |
beyond the reach Of cayil or doubt, that this
government could not have been established with
any view to the extension, or the advancement
Of the interests Of slavery, and that the system
Of African bondage, rs practiced in this coun-
try. was regarded by those who framed the
Constitution, as nm evil and not rs q good
That they neither desired nor expected its dit
fusion, but that they contemplated, and their
contemporaries provided for, its restriction.
looking to its ultimate extinction, Is apparent,
to make no other specifications, from the pro-
visions Of the Constitution authorizing the pro- |
hibition Of the Slave trade, and recognizing fu-
gitiyes from labor and service rs persons and
not as property, and therefore not reclalmable
by any process applicable to property from
the ordinance Of Jefferson, in 1854, and OF
Dame in 1887. and from the first Congress |
passed in 1871, affirming the latter.
These ideas In regard 10 the Constitution, to |
the policy OF the government, and to the char |
acter, rights and destiny Of slavery, prevailed
throughout the country during the lifetime of
those by whom our institutions were moulded.
Slavery was weakness, an impolicy, an evil
with all; with many. n sin. II was the child OF
municipal law, local, sectional, not national.-
q Ia G.ot hat ia ntt al /
clearer and more indisputable than any other |
in our history, 1t Is this. There Is the record.
II cannot be blotted out, II cannot be burnt out
Il remains for ever.
But the infrmities and necessities OF this sys-
TEN were such that Its prosperity, perhaps its
very existence, depended upon change Of
policy ana purpose among those upon whom II
was fixed. As slavery was In itself thriftless.
weak. self-destructiye, II required expansion,
and protection from without-and hence the
history Of its assumptions and claims for the
last forty years. In 1870, the slave power de-
manded the admission Of Missouri into the
UuiOn as Slave State. In 1880 II effected the |
removal OF the Indians from their homes in |
Alabama and Georgia. In 1880, having pre-
yiously acquired Texas, and large proportions |
Of Mexico, for the advantage Of slavery, II OBJ |
tained an abandonment by Congress Of the |
long approved principles Of the ordinance OF
's7, and II procured the passage ofa new fn- |
gitiye slave law abhorrcnt In some Of its proyis-
ions to every sense ofjustiee and every feeling
of humanity. But to all hese demands and
conquests the people of the free States, from |
their old and unextinguishable regard for |
their Southern brethren, from their love
of peace, and devotion TO the Union, sub
mitted. In 1884, il wrested from freedom and |
abrogation OF the Missouri compromise line,
opening the virgin fields ofthe vast and beauti-
ful regions Of Kansas ard Nebraska to the tor
ture Of involuntary labor.
In 1855 and o, IL inaugurated q reign OF vio-
lence and terror In Kansas, that the freemen Of
that unhappy territory might be awed. subdued
ani finally driven therefrom. II organized In
1857 and 3, q system Of force aud fraud, by |
which II hoped, with the sympathies and aid OF
the administration at Washington, TO bring |
Kansas into the Union as q slave State under |
the Lecompton Constitution, an instrument |
which embodied the declaration, In substance, |
that slavery was thing Of divine authority, |
above and beyond the power Of human laws to
impinge; and to all these machinations-yio-
lent, fraudulent, and revolutionary as they
werc-the people Of the North interposed only
the peaceful resistance OF the laws ana .he power
of the ballot. In 1860 II demanded OF the coun-
try an affirmation Of the right Of properly IN
man by virtue of the Constitution OF the United
States. and protection TO slave property IN the
erritories-demands which. II acceded TO.
would have made slavery legal and irremoyable
In every State Of the Union,-the one thing
sacred and national, above all others, under
the Constitution established, by the great men
cf the earlier age, In order that the blessings Of
liberty might be secured to them and their
descendants 80 long as their work chould en-
iure.
The men Of the free States, and Of the Slave
States, too, who had been unable 10 bring their
minds 10 believe that slavery was blessing IA
yored Of Heaven, and upheld by the organic
law. AS a national institution, but held without
addition or diminution. the doctrines illustrated
yb the fathers In their works and lives, per-
ceiyed that but one course remained for them 10
pursue, unless they could be false to all the
inyocations Of patriotism and 10 all the man.
da,cs of inexorable duty. They were equal 10
the emergency, and taking issue with the slave
holders In regard to the dangerous and revol.
utionary theories. assumptions and claims set
up and insisted upon by the latter, they enter
Il x-;,h .arnasfness and viOor into the can.