American Eloquence, Volume II. (of 4) by Various

V >> Various >> American Eloquence, Volume II. (of 4)

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

After a struggle of some months, the Kansas-Nebraska bill became law.
The Missouri compromise was abrogated, and the question of the extension
of slavery to the territories was adrift again, never to be got rid of
except through the abolition of slavery itself by war. The demands of
the South had now come fully abreast with the proposal of Douglas:
that slavery should have permission to enter all the Territories, if
it could. The opponents of the extension of slavery, at first under the
name of "Anti-Nebraska men," then of the Republican party, carried the
elections for representatives in Congress in 1854-'55, and narrowly
missed carrying the Presidential election of 1856. The percentage
of Democratic losses in the congressional districts of the North was
sufficient to leave Douglas with hardly any supporters in Congress from
his own section. The Democratic party was converted at once into a
solid South, with a northern attachment of popular votes which was not
sufficient to control very many Congressmen or electoral votes.

Immigration into Kansas was organized at once by leading men of the two
sections, with the common design of securing a majority of the voters of
the territory and applying "popular sovereignty" for or against slavery.
The first sudden inroad of Missouri intruders was successful in securing
a pro-slavery legislature and laws; but within two years the stream
of free-State immigration had become so powerful,in spite of murder,
outrage, and open civil war, that it was very evident that Kansas was
to be a free-State. Its expiring territorial legislature endeavored
to outwit its constituents by applying for admission as a slave State,
under the Lecompton constitution; but the Douglas Democrats could not
support the attempt, and it was defeated. Kansas, however, remained a
territory until 1861.

The cruelties of this Kansas episode could not but be reflected in the
feelings of the two sections and in Congress. In the former it showed
too plainly that the divergence of the two sections, indicated in
Calhoun's speech of 1850, had widened to an absolute separation in
thought, feeling, and purpose. In the latter the debates assumed a
virulence which is illustrated by the speeches on the Sumner assault.
The current of events had at least carried the sections far enough apart
to give striking distance; and the excuse for action was supplied by the
Dred Scott decision in 1857.

Dred Scott, a Missouri slave, claiming to be a free man under the
Missouri compromise of 1820, had sued his master, and the case had
reached the Supreme Court. A majority of the justices agreed in
dismissing the suit; but, as nearly every justice filed an opinion, and
as nearly every opinion disagreed with the other opinions on one or
more points, it is not easy to see what else is covered by the decision.
Nevertheless, the opinion of the Chief justice, Roger B. Taney,
attracted general attention by the strength of its argument and the
character of its views. It asserted, in brief, that no slave could
become a citizen of the United States, even by enfranchisement or State
law; that the prohibition of slavery by the Missouri compromise of 1820
was unconstitutional and void; that the Constitution recognized property
in slaves, and was framed for the protection of property; that Congress
had no rights or duties in the territories but such as were granted or
imposed by the Constitution; and that, therefore, Congress was bound
not merely not to forbid slavery, but to actively protect slavery in
the Territories. This was just the ground which had always been held by
Calhoun, though the South had not supported him in it. Now the South,
rejecting Douglas and his "popular sovereignty," was united in its
devotion to the decision of the Supreme Court, and called upon the North
to yield unhesitating obedience to that body which Webster in 1830 had
styled the ultimate arbiter of constitutional questions. This, it was
evident, could never be. No respectable authority at the North pretended
to uphold the keystone of Taney's argument, that slaves were regarded as
property by the Constitution. On the contrary, it was agreed everywhere
by those whose opinions were looked to with respect, that slaves were
regarded by the Constitution as "persons held to service or labor" under
the laws of the State alone; and that the laws of the State could not
give such persons a fictitious legal character outside of the State's
jurisdiction. Even the Douglas Democrats, who expressed a willingness to
yield to the Supreme Court's decision, did not profess to uphold Taney's
share in it.

As the Presidential election of 1860 drew near, the evidences of
separation became more manifest. The absorption of northern Democrats
into the Republican party increased until Douglas, in 1858, narrowly
escaped defeat in his contest with Lincoln for a re-election to the
Senate from Illinois. In 1860 the Republicans nominated Lincoln for
the Presidency on a platform demanding prohibition of slavery in
the Territories. The southern delegates seceded from the Democratic
convention, and nominated Breckenridge, on a platform demanding
congressional protection of slavery in the Territories. The remainder of
the Democratic convention nominated Douglas, with a declaration of its
willingness to submit to the decision of the Supreme Court on questions
of constitutional law. The remnants of the former Whig and American
parties, under the name of the Constitutional Union party, nominated
Bell without any declaration of principles. Lincoln received a majority
of the electoral votes, and became President. His popular vote was a
plurality.

Seward's address on the "Irrepressible Conflict," which closes this
volume, is representative of the division between the two sections, as
it stood just before the actual shock of conflict. Labor systems are
delicate things; and that which the South had adopted, of enslaving the
laboring class, was one whose influence could not help being universal
and aggressive. Every form of energy and prosperity which tended to
advance a citizen into the class of representative rulers tended also to
make him a slave owner, and to shackle his official policy and purposes
with considerations inseparable from his heavy personal interests. Men
might divide on other questions at the South; but on this question of
slavery the action of the individual had to follow the decisions of a
majority which, by the influence of ambitious aspirants for the lead,
was continually becoming more aggressive. In constitutional countries,
defections to the minority are a steady check upon an aggressive
majority; but the southern majority was a steam engine without a safety
valve.

In this sense Seward and Lincoln, in 1858, were correct; the labor
system of the South was not only a menace to the whole country, but one
which could neither decrease nor stand still. It was intolerable by
the laws of its being; and it could be got rid of only by allowing
a peaceable secession, or by abolishing it through war. The material
prosperity which has followed the adoption of the latter alternative,
apart from the moral aspects of the case, is enough to show that the
South has gained more than all that slavery lost.

[Illustration: Rufus King]

RUFUS KING,

OF NEW YORK. (BORN 1755, DIED 1827.)

ON THE MISSOURI BILL--UNITED STATES SENATE,

FEBRUARY 11 AND 14, 1820.

The Constitution declares "that Congress shall have power to dispose of,
and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and
other property of the United States." Under this power Congress have
passed laws for the survey and sale of the public lands; for the
division of the same into separate territories; and have ordained for
each of them a constitution, a plan of temporary government, whereby
the civil and political rights of the inhabitants are regulated, and the
rights of conscience and other natural rights are protected.

The power to make all needful regulations, includes the power to
determine what regulations are needful; and if a regulation prohibiting
slavery within any territory of the United States be, as it has been,
deemed needful, Congress possess the power to make the same, and,
moreover, to pass all laws necessary to carry this power into execution.

The territory of Missouri is a portion of Louisiana, which was purchased
of France, and belongs to the United States in full dominion; in the
language of the Constitution, Missouri is their territory or property,
and is subject like other territories of the United States, to the
regulations and temporary government, which has been, or shall be
prescribed by Congress. The clause of the Constitution which grants this
power to Congress, is so comprehensive and unambiguous, and its purpose
so manifest, that commentary will not render the power, or the object of
its establishment, more explicit or plain.

The Constitution further provides that "new States may be admitted
by Congress into this Union." As this power is conferred without
limitation, the time, terms, and circumstances of the admission of new
States, are referred to the discretion of Congress; which may admit new
States, but are not obliged to do so--of right no new State can demand
admission into the Union, unless such demand be founded upon some
previous engagement of the United States.

When admitted by Congress into the Union, whether by compact or
otherwise, the new State becomes entitled to the enjoyment of the same
rights, and bound to perform the like duties as the other States;
and its citizens will be entitled to all privileges and immunities of
citizens in the several States.

The citizens of each State possess rights, and owe duties that are
peculiar to, and arise out of the Constitution and laws of the several
States. These rights and duties differ from each other in the different
States, and among these differences none is so remarkable or important
as that which proceeds from the Constitution and laws of the several
States respecting slavery; the same being permitted in some States and
forbidden in others.

The question respecting slavery in the old thirteen States had been
decided and settled before the adoption of the Constitution, which
grants no power to Congress to interfere with, or to change what had
been so previously settled. The slave States, therefore, are free
to continue or to abolish slavery. Since the year 1808 Congress have
possessed power to prohibit and have prohibited the further migration
or importation of slaves into any of the old thirteen States, and at all
times, under the Constitution, have had power to prohibit such migration
or importation into any of the new States or territories of the United
States. The Constitution contains no express provision respecting
slavery in a new State that may be admitted into the Union; every
regulation upon this subject belongs to the power whose consent is
necessary to the formation and admission of new States into the Union.
Congress may, therefore, make it a condition of the admission of a new
State, that slavery shall be forever prohibited within the same. We may,
with the more confidence, pronounce this to be the true construction
of the Constitution, as it has been so amply confirmed by the past
decisions of Congress.

Although the articles of confederation were drawn up and approved by
the old Congress, in the year 1777, and soon afterwards were ratified by
some of the States, their complete ratification did not take place until
the year 1781. The States which possessed small and already settled
territory, withheld their ratification, in order to obtain from the
large States a cession to the United States of a portion of their vacant
territory. Without entering into the reasons on which this demand was
urged, it is well known that they had an influence on Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New York, and Virginia, which States ceded to the United
States their respective claims to the territory lying northwest of the
river Ohio. This cession was made on the express condition, that the
ceded territory should be sold for the common benefit of the United
States; that it should be laid out into States, and that the States
so laid out should form distinct republican States, and be admitted as
members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of sovereignty,
freedom, and independence as the other States. Of the four States which
made this cession, two permitted, and the other two prohibited slavery.

The United States having in this manner become proprietors of
the extensive territory northwest of the river Ohio, although the
confederation contained no express provision upon the subject, Congress,
the only representatives of the United States, assumed as incident
to their office, the power to dispose of this territory; and for this
purpose, to divide the same into distinct States, to provide for the
temporary government of the inhabitants thereof, and for their ultimate
admission as new States into the Federal Union.

The ordinance for those purposes, which was passed by Congress in 1787,
contains certain articles, which are called "Articles of compact between
the original States and the people and States within the said territory,
for ever to remain unalterable, unless by common consent." The sixth
of those unalterable articles provides, "that there shall be neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory."

The Constitution of the United States supplies the defect that existed
in the articles of confederation, and has vested Congress, as has been
stated, with ample powers on this important subject. Accordingly,
the ordinance of 1787, passed by the old Congress, was ratified and
confirmed by an act of the new Congress during their first session under
the Constitution.

The State of Virginia, which ceded to the United States her claims to
this territory, consented by her delegates in the old Congress to this
ordinance--not only Virginia, but North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia, by the unanimous votes of their delegates in the old Congress,
approved of the ordinance of 1787, by which slavery is forever abolished
in the territory northwest of the river Ohio.

Without the votes of these States, the ordinance could not have passed;
and there is no recollection of an opposition from any of these States
to the act of confirmation, passed under the actual Constitution.
Slavery had long been established in these States--the evil was felt in
their institutions, laws, and habits, and could not easily or at once be
abolished. But these votes so honorable to these States, satisfactorily
demonstrate their unwillingness to permit the extension of slavery into
the new States which might be admitted by Congress into the Union.

The States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, on the northwest of the river
Ohio, have been admitted by Congress into the Union, on the condition
and conformably to the article of compact, contained in the ordinance
of 1787, and by which it is declared that there shall be neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States.

Although Congress possess the power of making the exclusion of slavery a
part or condition of the act admitting a new State into the Union, they
may, in special cases, and for sufficient reasons, forbear to exercise
this power. Thus Kentucky and Vermont were admitted as new States into
the Union, without making the abolition of slavery the condition of
their admission. In Vermont, slavery never existed; her laws excluding
the same. Kentucky was formed out of, and settled by, Virginia, and
the inhabitants of Kentucky, equally with those of Virginia, by
fair interpretation of the Constitution, were exempt from all such
interference of Congress, as might disturb or impair the security of
their property in slaves. The western territory of North Carolina and
Georgia, having been partially granted and settled under the authority
of these States, before the cession thereof to the United States, and
these States being original parties to the Constitution which recognizes
the existence of slavery, no measure restraining slavery could be
applied by Congress to this territory. But to remove all doubt on this
head, it was made a condition of the cession of this territory to the
United States, that the ordinance of 1787, except the sixth article
thereof, respecting slavery, should be applied to the same; and that
the sixth article should not be so applied. Accordingly, the States of
Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, comprehending the territory ceded
to the United States by North Carolina and Georgia, have been admitted
as new States into the Union, without a provision, by which slavery
shall be excluded from the same. According to this abstract of the
proceedings of Congress in the admission of new States into the Union,
of the eight new States within the original limits of the United States,
four have been admitted without an article excluding slavery; three have
been admitted on the condition that slavery should be excluded; and one
admitted without such condition. In the few first cases, Congress were
restrained from exercising the power to exclude slavery; in the next
three, they exercised this power; and in the last, it was unnecessary to
do so, slavery being excluded by the State Constitution.

The province of Louisiana, soon after its cession to the United States,
was divided into two territories, comprehending such parts thereof as
were contiguous to the river Mississippi, being the only parts of the
province that were inhabited. The foreign language, laws, customs,
and manners of the inhabitants, required the immediate and cautious
attention of Congress, which, instead of extending, in the first
instance, to these territories the ordinance of 1787, ordained special
regulations for the government of the same. These regulations were from
time to time revised and altered, as observation and experience showed
to be expedient, and as was deemed most likely to encourage and
promote those changes which would soonest qualify the inhabitants for
self-government and admission into the Union. When the United States
took possession of the province of Louisiana in 1804, it was estimated
to contain 50,000 white inhabitants, 40,000 slaves, and 2,000 free
persons of color.

More than four-fifths of the whites, and all the slaves, except about
thirteen hundred, inhabited New Orleans and the adjacent territory; the
residue, consisting of less than ten thousand whites, and about thirteen
hundred slaves, were dispersed throughout the country now included in
the Arkansas and Missouri territories. The greater part of the thirteen
hundred slaves were in the Missouri territory, some of them having been
removed thither from the old French settlements on the east side of
the Mississippi, after the passing of the ordinance of 1787, by which
slavery in those settlements was abolished.

In 1812, the territory of New Orleans, to which the ordinance of
1787, with the exception of certain parts thereof, had been previously
extended, was permitted by Congress to form a Constitution and State
Government, and admitted as a new State into the Union, by the name
of Louisiana. The acts of Congress for these purposes, in addition to
sundry important provisions respecting rivers and public lands, which
are declared to be irrevocable unless by common consent, annex other
terms and conditions, whereby it is established, not only that the
Constitution of Louisiana should be republican, but that it should
contain the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty,
that it should secure to the citizens the trial by jury in all criminal
cases, and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus according to the
Constitution of the United States; and after its admission into the
Union, that the laws which Louisiana might pass, should be promulgated;
its records of every description preserved; and its judicial and
legislative proceedings conducted in the language in which the laws and
judicial proceedings of the United States are published and conducted.

* * * * *

Having annexed these new and extraordinary conditions to the act for the
admission of Louisiana into the Union, Congress may, if they shall deem
it expedient, annex the like conditions to the act for the admission of
Missouri; and, moreover, as in the case of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois,
provide by an article for that purpose, that slavery shall not exist
within the same.

Admitting this construction of the Constitution, it is alleged that the
power by which Congress excluded slavery from the States north-west of
the river Ohio, is suspended in respect to the States that may be formed
in the province of Louisiana. The article of the treaty referred to
declares: "That the inhabitants of the territory shall be incorporated
in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible;
according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the
enjoyment of all rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of
the United States; and in the meantime, they shall be maintained and
protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the
religion which they profess."

Although there is want of precision in the article, its scope and
meaning can not be misunderstood. It constitutes a stipulation by which
the United States engage that the inhabitants of Louisiana should be
formed into a State or States, and as soon as the provisions of the
Constitution permit, that they should be admitted as new States into the
Union on the footing of the other States; and before such admission, and
during their territorial government, that they should be maintained and
protected by Congress in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and
religion. The first clause of this stipulation will be executed by the
admission of Missouri as a new State into the Union, as such admission
will impart to the inhabitants of Missouri "all the rights, advantages,
and immunities" which citizens of the United States derive from the
Constitution thereof; these rights may be denominated Federal rights,
are uniform throughout the Union, and are common to all its citizens:
but the rights derived from the Constitution and laws of the States,
which may be denominated State rights, in many particulars differ
from each other. Thus, while the Federal rights of the citizens
of Massachusetts and Virginia are the same, their State rights are
dissimilar and different, slavery being forbidden in one, and permitted
in the other State. This difference arises out of the Constitutions
and laws of the two States, in the same manner as the difference in the
rights of the citizens of these States to vote for representatives
in Congress arises out of the State laws and Constitution. In
Massachusetts, every person of lawful age, and possessing property
of any sort, of the value of two hundred dollars, may vote for
representatives to Congress. In Virginia, no person can vote for
representatives to Congress, unless he be a freeholder. As the admission
of a new State into the Union confers upon its citizens only the rights
denominated Federal, and as these are common to the citizens of all the
States, as well of those in which slavery is prohibited, as of those
in which it is allowed, it follows that the prohibition of slavery in
Missouri will not impair the Federal rights of its citizens, and that
such prohibition is not sustained by the clause of the treaty which has
been cited.

As all nations do not permit slavery, the term property, in its common
and universal meaning, does not include or describe slaves. In treaties,
therefore, between nations, and especially in those of the United
States, whenever stipulations respecting slaves were to be made, the
word "negroes," or "slaves," have been employed, and the omission of
these words in this clause, increases the uncertainty whether, by the
term property, slaves were intended to be included. But admitting that
such was the intention of the parties, the stipulation is not only
temporary, but extends no further than to the property actually
possessed by the inhabitants of Missouri, when it was first occupied
by the United States. Property since acquired by them, and property
acquired or possessed by the new inhabitants of Missouri, has in each
case been acquired under the laws of the United States, and not during
and under the laws of the province of Louisiana. Should, therefore, the
future introduction of slaves into Missouri be forbidden, the feelings
of the citizens would soon become reconciled to their exclusion, and the
inconsiderable number of slaves owned by the inhabitants at the date
of the cession of Louisiana, would be emancipated or sent for sale into
States where slavery exists.

It is further objected, that the article of the act of admission into
the Union, by which slavery should be excluded from Missouri, would
be nugatory, as the new State in virtue of its sovereignty would be at
liberty to revoke its consent, and annul the article by which slavery is
excluded.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16