The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-25

ton of the political power necessary to pro-
tect an interest at once so vast and so liable
to assault
THE outbreak of the Missouri excitement,
though natural, was unexpected. The causes
which led to it had not been understood and
analysed. The older class of statesmen, who
had come down from the period
of the revolution, from the great
work of cementing the Union
and organizing the federal government, de-
plored the agitation and viewed the result
with the grayest apprehension. The com
promise by geographical line dividing the
slave States from the free was regarded by
this class of patriots as full of danger-a
constant menace to the peace ard pernetulty
of the Union. To Mr.. Jefferson, still living
in vigorous old age, the trouble sounded like
an alarm bell rung at midnight While the
measure was pending i'll Congress, he wrote
to member of the House of Representa-
tives that the Missouri question is the most
portentous one that has ever threatened the
Union. In the gloomiest hour of the revo-
lutionary war never had any Apprehension
equal to those which I feel from this source
Men on both sides of the controversy equally
realized its significance and dreaded its proba-
Bile results. They likene6 the partition of
the country by eograph:cal line unto the
ancient agreement between Abraham and
Lot where one should go to the right and
the other to the left, with the certainty of
becoming aliens and the possibility of be-
coming enemies.
1.-The Missouri question once settled, the
anti-slavery agitation subsidized as rapidly as
it had arisen. This was second surprise to
thinking men. The result can, however, be
readily explained. The Northern States felt
that they had absolutely secured for freedom
a large territory west and north of Missouri.
The Southern States believed that they had
an implied and honorable understanding
outside and beyond the explicit letter of the
law-that new States south of the Missouri
line could be admitted to slavery if they de
sired The great political parties then di-
vding the country accepted the result, and
for the next twenty years no agitation of the
slavery question appeared in political con-
vention, nor affected any considerable body
| of the people.
within that period, however. there grew
| up school of anti-slavery men lar more
| radical and progressive than those who had
| resisted the admission of Missouri as
slave State. They formed what was known
as the Abolition party, and they devoted
| themselves to the utter destruc-
ton of slavery by every instrumentality
| which they conld lawfully employ. They
began therefore, by demanding the abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia and
in all the national forts, arsenals and dock
| yards where, without question or cavil, the
| exclusive jurisdiction belonged to Congress;
they asked that Congress, under its constitu-
/ tional authority to regulate commerce be-
| tween the States, would prohibit the inter-
state slave trade and they prayed that our
ships sailing on the high seas should not be
| permitted by the government to carry slaves
as part of their cargo under the free flag of
the United States and outside the local juris
dicton that held them in bondage. They
| denied that a man should aid in executing
any law whose enforcement did violence to
| his conscience and trampled underfoot the
divine command. Hence, they would not
| assist in the surrender and the return of
fugitive slaves holding it to be their duty to
resist such violation of the natural rights of
man by every peaceable method and Justify
ing their resistance by the truths embodied
in the Declaration of Independence, and still
| more impressively by the precepts that were
taught in the New Testament.
I'm the early days of this. agitation the
| Abolitiorists were prescribed and perse-
cuted class, denounced with unsparing Sc
verify by both the great political parties,
condemned by many of the leading churches,
! libeled in the public press and maltreated by
| furious mobs. In no part of the country did
| they contribute more than a handful of the
| population, but they worked against every
| discouragement with a zeal and frmness
| that bespoke intensity of moral conviction.
| They were in large degree recruited from
| the Society of Friends, who brought to the
| support of the organization the same calm
| and consistent courage which had always
| distinguished them IN UNFOLDING before the
world their peculiar tenets of religious faith,
caring nothing for prejudice, meeting OPP
| probrum with silence, shaming the authors
of violence by meek non-resistance, relying
on moral agencies alone, appealing simply
| to the reason ana the conscience
of men. They arrested the at
tention of the nation by arraigning it be-
| fore the public attention of the world and
procaiming its responsibility to the judg-
ment of God. y y In the light of the
present day, when slavery no longer exists
| in the land when speech is absolutely free
| in and out of Congress, it is hard to believe
that during the presidency of Mr.. Van Bu-
rem, and under the speakership of Mr.. Polk,
the House of Representatives voted that
| every petition, memorial, resolution, propo-
sition or paper touching or relating in any
way or to any extent whatever to slavery or
the abolition thereof shall, on presentation,
| without any further action thereon be laid
upon the table without being debated, print
| ed or referred"
| The above extracts show sufficiently the
authors style and method. They are taken
from the Introductory chapters OF the work,
and give good idea of what the book will
| be when completed 1t is not unlikely that
his later chapters will be far more interest
| ing to politicians than the earlier pages from
which the above selections are made.
ALFONSO'S LATEST FLAME.