Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-04-05
s,arerr am the rerrltorle..

slavery In the Terr1tOEAoS'
1t is the habit of professional and practiced
Unionists to trest the question of slavery IN the
" Territories as mere abstraction, and to declare,
in very emphatic terms that it is the issue gotten
up BY dsunionists to arouse the prejudices of the
Southern people, when there is no practical advsn-
- taQe TO slavery attained by it. Thus, Mr. SUMMERS,
in speech recently delivered before the Virginia
20 b Convention, said
Again. What interest, compared with ours, have
the cotton States in the Territorial question: DO
they furnish any population for the settlement OF
the Territories? Is there man from South Caro-
lima, Georgia, Louisiana Mississippi or Alabama,
. who would leave the fertile fields of the South to
migrate with his negroes into Arizona or New Mex
ico9
The question here propounded by Mr.. SUMMERS
may very properly be answered, he desires,
and YET it does not prove the point he endeavors
to make.
If it be admitted that the citizens of South Caro-
lna Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama
have no inclination to leave their fertile fields
and emigrate to the Territories of the
United States, it Does by no means, prove
that they have no interest in the Terri
tOriaI question. What the citizens of these States
desired and what they had right to demand, under
common Constitution, was that their soil might
be left for the white Inhabitants to enjoy it and re-
side in it, without being crowded with surplus
ssvepopulatiOn, without in fact, being driven outOt
itthemsevss by the increase Of negroes, and forced
10 seek the territories as G home. Sappese either
of those States were debsrred the privilege Of send
ing their surplus negro population to the Territories
and new States. Suppose Virgins, in which Mr..
SUMMERS utters these sentiments. we're compelled
TO keep her surplus slave population at home and
forbidden to remove them them from her borders,
we wish TO know, if it would not, in short time,
force thousands Of her citizens to leave their
-
it is precisely this condition of things, against
which South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana Missis-
sippi and Alabama contending, and which they
are determined shall not be attained. And it is pre-
esely this condition of things that the Black Repub-
hcans of the North have been long struggling to
stain They are determined that the surplus ne
grees of the old slRveholding States shall not be
carried to the Territories and the white popu-
lation of those States shall be forced to leave their
homes and emigrate to the wilderness. They are in
favor of the negroes remaining increasing and
taking possession of the old States while their mass
shall be forced to leave aud try their fortunes
N the States, thus ultimately forcing the abOli
ton of slavery by crOwdng and hemming it in.
We surprised that any man but an Addition
list should argue in this and particularly
that Virgnian, who lives in a State, in which it
is SO VIGOROUSLY necessary to find outlet for its
surplus slave population, should be betrayed into
such line Of argument.
Yet our surprise is some what lessened, II the
following sentiment attributed to him by the New
York Tribune and represented 10 have been uttered
by him in 1882, is not misstated:
"The evils Of this system cannot be enumerated.
1t were unnecessary to attempt it. They glare
upon US at every step. When the owner looks to
his wasted estate, he knows and cells them"
Mr. SUMMERS was here speaking of slavery, and
he really believed that the estates of VirgniAns
are 'wssted" by this system, it is not surprising
shat his ideas on the subject not entirely
sistsnt, though he may entertain different
opinions But If his ideas of 1882 were correct
wsuld not be better to these slaves, which
wasted the estates Of their owners to the new and
fertile territories of the west, where they never
charged with any such taste?
1t has been favorite policy with the anti-sl&ve-
ry party of the North to prevent the emigration of
the Shareholders with their slaves to the Ter,
ritOries, that they might thereby crush out the in
stlruton by the multiplication of its numbers in the
old States. They well know that-confned- must
become Improbable, Just as any other species Of
labor viii be- If the free lsborers of Massachusetts,
were prevented from emigrating, they would
become an incubus upon the State. Labor must
nave room to expand, that it may avoid crushing
competition 80 it is with slave labor. Hence the
policy OF the sag acioBs leaders of the Black Repub
slave labor, as to prevent its extension CHAs SUN
SER forcibly expressed this idea when he said:
Frustrated, exposed, and permanently expelled
from llgotten power, the Olgarchy will soon cease
90 exist as political combination. Its final doom
may be postponed, but it is certain. Lsnguishing
itmay live yet longer but it will surely die Yes
fsllow-eitizens, surely, 1t will diewhen disappoint
edin its purposes-driuen back ssahin the States. and
constrained 1oiain these Lnis-t can no longer rule
the Republic plantation of slaves at home +; can
no longer the Territories with its iveheadsd
device TO compel labor without wages can no long
er fasten upon the Constitution an Interpretation
which makes merchandise of men, and gives a dis
graceful immunity to the brokers of human flesh
and the butcher of human hearts and when it can
no longer give flesh and blood, grosns and sghs the
tears of mothers and the cries of children, into tbs
cement of q barbarons political power! Surely
then in its retreat, smartiDg under the indignation
of an aroused people and the concurring Judgment
of the civilized world, must DIET may Be, az
poisoned rat dies Of rage in its hole"
Meanwhile all good Omens are ours. The work
cannot STOP Quickened by the triumph now at
hand-with Republican President in power
State after State quitting the condition OF Terri
tory and spurning slavery viii be welcomed INTO
plural unit and joining hands together ara be-
Soaea belt of fire qiTt about The Stare States, 'cih;H
sohich slavay must diei or, happier STILL joining
hands, they will become to the slave States zone
ofFreedom radiant like the ancient Cestus of Beau
~, with transforming power"
This speech delivered at the Cooper Institute,
New York. July IL, 1850, develops the whole policy
sod those in the South, who, like Mr.. SUMMERS, sur
render up the Territories the North, are the best
and truest allies of Black epublicsn policy in tie
Southern States.
PoR GoyERxoR.-A correspondent from Wilson