The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1920-03-24

NMtNl NittthtNA i"NtfNa itl ttN w NoA Aft-
dies and put negroes in their places.
The slave trade during that period
was endorsed by patriots, crowned
heads, and Christians. New England
founded most Of her early wealth If
her people in the slave trade.
Now ] viii try to show these young
people that the South was not re-
sponsible for the institution Of slav-
cry; and, so far as it led to the great
war, not responsible for the shedding
of blood and spending of treasure and
desolation and ruin which overlook
her, nor was she responsible for the
Inauguration Of the war.
The American colonies were under
English rule nutiG the Declaration of
independence in 1776. Slavery had
been fastened on them by Great
Britain and the nations of the world,
while they while they were helpless.
The record is plain, that both Virgin
ia and South Carolina earnestly pro-
tested against their introduction, and
passed laws to prohibit and restrict
the trade. In 1850, South Carolina
protested, and placed a duty on the
introduction Of slaves, and she was
over-ruled by the king and parliament
of Great Britain; Virginia passed
twenty-three acts and sent over 100
petitions to royal authority against
the introduction Of slaves, and in each
instance was over-ruled by the king
and parliament of Great Britain.
This was done often, until the several
millions of negroes were forced upon
the colonies. SO we see that slavery
was forced npon all of England's col
onies prior to the war of the Revolu-
ton, and slavery was inherited from
other nations, the most civilized ma
tions of the world at the time, and at
a period in their development when
the colonies were helpless and unable
to resist.
AT the beginning Of the Revolution
ar war, every one of the northern
states, including New England, recog-
nized slavery, and protected the slave
owner, and slaves were bought and
sold in them. This was the case when
the constitution of 1887 was formed,
except that Massachusetts, freed her
slaves soon after the war. The con-
stitution of the nted States (17S7)
sanctioned, recognized, and protected
slavery. and provided for it in rep
resentation, in congress, in taxation,
and in immigration, and restoration
of fugitive slaves in several articles
and sections. 1t was sanctioned also
in state constitutions. The eonstitu-
tion actually extended the slave trade
twenty years after its adoption, and
the states Of Massachusetts, Connec-
ticut, and New Hampshire voted to
extend it for longer period, to enjoy
the profits of the slave trade, in
which so many of their people were
1engaged. Senator Lodge, of Massa-
chusetts, in 1875, said:
1--WE all know, the world knows,
that our independence could not have
been achieved, our union could not
have been maintained, our constitu-
ton could not have been established,
without the adoption of those COM
promises which recognized its con-
tinued existence, and left it to the
responsibility of the states of which
it was grievous inheritance; and
from that day forward, the methods
of dealing with it, of disposing of it,
and of extinguishing it, became more
and more a problem full of terrible
perplexity, and seemingly incapable
of human solution"