Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-01


had been written certain compromises
on the slavery question, namely: that
the African slave trade be permitted to
continue for 20 years; that three
fifths of the slaves should be counted
in the apportionment of members of
Congress; and that fugitive slaves
should be returned to their owners.
These concessions or adjustments
were made at that time that the 10
States might be able to form "a more
perfect union" as 1t was then contend
ed, but instead of resulting in a more
perfect union, they were the primal
cause OF dis-union as we shall find.
Previous to these adjustments in the
Constitution. the Congress of the old
Confederation had dedicated the entire
Northwest territory to freedom, the
old Commonwealth of Virginia having
surrendered her title to all that coun-
try north of the Ohio and east of the
Mississippi, and by the ordinance of
1887, slavery was promptly prohibited
therein. This is a fact of history
that we should remember. We should
also remember that all territory south
of the Ohio at that time, belonged to
the Southern States, and whenever
any portion of it was coded to the gem
eral government, a stipulation was
exacted that slavery should not be
prohibited therein, hence we see that
the Ohio river was the divisional line;
north of it's restless current freedom
was decreed for all time to come,
south of it slavery firmly intrenched,
and as an eminent writer has said,
the slavery question had therefore
been compromised the common terri
tory partitioned, and the Republic half
slave, half free, sent forth on its mis-
SION
The 10 original States aggregated
100000 square miles of territory. The
Mississippi river was our western
limit and our southern border was the
31st parallel of latitude. In 1903, by
the stroke of pen and the payment of
S15,000,000 we obtained that great
Louisiana country, out of which we
have builded the States of Louisiana,
Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Ne
braska, Minnesota west of the Mis-
sissippi, Colorado north of the Arkan-
sas, the Indian Territory, the Da-
kotas, Wyoming and Montana.
In 1919 Florida was ceded to us, and
in 1916 Texas was annexed. BY the
right of discovery and occupation to-
gether with the treaty Of 1916, we OBJ
tanned the oregon country. and by the
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in !S4s,
we acquired all of that country west
of Texas. so that at the beginning of
the Rebellion the United States
stretched from the Dominion of Cam
ada on the north, to Mexico on the
south, and east and west from the At
lantic to the Pacific. containing
3,501,409 square miles of territory, and
l want you to remember as a matter
of comparison, that France and Spain,
England and Wales, together with
Germany and Australia have an area
of only 971,8 square miles of terri
tory or about one-fourth of what we
possess.
When Louisiana sought admission
into the Union as a State. in 1911,
there was heard the first mutterings
Of the storm that fifty years later
burst upon the country in all the fury
of Civil War. drenching the South
land in blood, and billowing its fair
fields with a million graves, but in
1912, Louisiana was admitted as a
slave state. Six years later Missouri
applied for admission as slave state,
and at once violent agitation arose
and continued until the compromise
of 1920.
In December 1919, the District of
Maine asked for admission into the
Union, and on the same day the dele
gate from Missouri asked for the ad
mission of that territory as a slave
state.
1t was found impossible thereafter
to consider the admission of these
states separately. Members of Con-
gress from the South would not con-
sent to admit Maine unless Missouri
should be permitted to come into the
Union as a slave state, and members
from the North were as strenuous in
their opposition to admitting Missouri.
except with an anti-slavery resolution.
Finally in 1920 the Maine and Mis-
souri, bill was passed in a new draft
which contained the famous provision
known in history as the Missouri Com
promise, which forever prohibited
slavery north of $3.50, in all the terri
tory acquired by the Louisiana pur-
chase.
For the next 80 years the question
of slavery was more or less absorbed
by questions of territorial expansion,
but the South never lost sight of it.
The original states We're divided with
seven free and six slave. From that
time it was the Southern policy to ad-
nit states in pairs, one slave, the
other free, and so accurate were the
adjustments that when the next Is
states had been admitted IA were free
states, and IA slave.
In 1850 further compromises on the
question of slavery were made and
were said by Henry Clay their cham
pion to be IAN amicable arrangement
of all questions in controversy be-
tween the free and slave states grow
ing out of the subject of slavery" 1t
was believed that the question of
slavery had been settled for a long
time to come, but the South, ever
watchful and looking to the future
saw that the institution was being
hedged in by the admission into the
Union of free states from new terri
tory and on the 30th day Of May, 1854,
go years ago today, the compromise of
1920 was repealed. No previous dis
A.