The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1861-05-07

In addition to the long continued and deep seat
ed resentment felt by the Southern States at the
persistent abuse of the powers they had delegated
to Congress, for the purpose of enriching the man
ufacturing and shipping classes of the North at
the expense of the South, there has existed tor
nearly half century another subject of discord,
involving interest of such transcendent magnitude
as at all times to create the apprehension in the
minds Of many devoted lovers of the Union, that
It's permaEence was impossible.
When the several States delegated certain pow
crs to the United States Congress, large portion
of the laborng population consisted of African
slaves imported into the colonies by the mother
country In twelve out Of the thirteen States, ne
gro slavery existed and the RI ht of property in
slaves was protected by law. This property was
recognized in the Constitution, and provision Was
made against its loss by the escape of the slave
The increase in the number of slaves by the fur
Their importation from Africa also secured by
a clause forbiddng Congress to prohibit the slave
trade anterior to Il certain date, and in no clause
can there be found any delegation of power to the
Congress authorzin: it in any manner to legislate
to the prejudice, detriment or encouragement of
owners If that species of property, or excluding 1t
from the protection of the government.
The climate and soil of the Northern States
soon proved unpropitious to the continuance OF
slave labor, whilst the reverse was the case at the
South Under the unrestricted intercourse between
the two sections, the Northern States consulted
their interest by selling their slaves to the
South and prohibiting slavery within their limits.
The South were willing purchasers of property
suitable to their wants; and paid the price Of the
acquisition without harbOring suspicion that their
quiet possession to he disturbed by those who
were inhibited not only by want Of constitutional
authority, but by good faith vendors, from dis
quoting title emanating from themselves.
As soon. however, as the Northern States that
prohibited African slavery within their limits had
reached number sufficient to give their represen-
tativcs controlling voice in the Congress, per-
sistent and organized system of hostile measures
against the rights of the owners of slaves in the
Southern States inaugurated, and gradually
extended. y continuous series Of measures
devised and prosecuted for the purpose of render
ing insecure the tenure of property in slaves
fanatical organizations, supplied with money by
voluntary subscriptions, ass,duously engaged
in exciting amongst the slaves spirit of discomfort
and revolt means were furnished for their escape
from their owners, and agents secretly employed
to entce them to abscOnd the constitutional
provision for their rendition to their owners was
first cvaded, then openly denounced as violation
OF conscientious obligation and reliS ious duty
men were taught that it was merit to eiude, DIS
obey and violently oppose the execution of the laws
enacted to secure the performance of the promise
contained in the constitutional compact owners
of slaves were mobbed, and even murdered in
open day, solely for applying to magistrate for
the arrest of fugitive slave; the doSmas Of these
voluntary organizations obtained control of
the legislatures Of many of the Northern States,
and laws were passed providing for punishment by
runous fines and long continued imprisonment in
jail and penteniaries, of citizens of the Southern
States who should dare to ask aid of the officers of
the law for recovery of their property.
Embroidered bV success the theatre of apita
ton and aggression against the clearly expressed
constitutional rights of the Southern States was
transferred to the Congress Senators and Repre-
sentatives were sent to the Common Councils OF
the nation, whose chief title to this distinction
consisted in the display of spirit of ultra fanat
csm, and whose business was, not "tO promote the
general welfare or ensure domestic tranquility"
but to awaken the bttercst hatred against the
citizens of sister States by violent denunciaton of
their institutions the transaction of public affairs
was impcded by repeated efforts to usurp powers
not delegated by the Constitution for the purpose
of impaillng the security of property in slaves and
reducing those States which held slaves to a con-
dition of inferiorty
Finally great party was organized for the pur
pose of obtaining the administration of the gov
ernmcnt with the avowcd object of using its
power for the total exclusion Of the slave States
from all participation in the benefits of the public
donna II, acquired by all the States in common,
whether BY conquest OF purchase surrounding
them entirely by States in which slavery should
be prohibited !; of thus rendering the property in
slaves Insecure to be com paratively worth
less, aud thereby annih;lating in effect property
worth thousands of millions of dollars This par
ty, thus organized, succeeded in the month of
November last in the election of it's candidate
70. the Presidency of the United States
In the meantime uD1er the mild and genial
climate of the Southern States, and the increasing
care and attention for the wcll-being and comfort
of the laborug class, dictated alike by interest and
humanity, the African slaves had augmented in
number from about 900 900, at the date of the
adoption of the constitutional compact, to upwards
of 1 900, 600 In moral and social condition they
have been elevated from brutal savages into docile
Intelligent and civilized agricultural laborers and
supplied not only with bodily comforts, but with
careful religious instruction.
Under the supervision of superior race, their
labor had been directed as not only to allow u
gradual aud marked amelioration of their own
condition. but to convert hundreds of thousands of
square miles of the wilderness into cultivated lands
COVERED with a prosperous people; towns and
cities had sprun2 into existence, md had rapidly
increased in wealth and population under the
social system of the South the white population of
from about ,25O GOO at the date of the adoption
of the Constitution, to more than S.5OOO00 in
1860, and the productions of the South in cotton
rice, sugar and tobacco, for the development and
continuance of which the labor of American slaves
was, and is, Indispensable, had swollen TO an
amount which formed nearly three fourths of the