The august founders of our republic have not once named it in the constitution, as if they were unwilling that so foul a name should stain the purity of our escutcheon, as if it were a crime against humanity too execrable to be uttered. They looked forward to a period when it should cease and be forgotten, and made ample provision for its future annihilation. Their solemn declaration to the world, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," had otherwise been the worst of mockeries.
The words of the constitution, "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress, prior to the year 1808; but a tax may be imposed on such person not exceeding ten dollars for each person,"—clearly show, beyond the possibility of a cavil, that the right to legislate concerning slaves is vested in the general government, and that the convention was fearful that the attempt to exercise it might be made, before the southern states were prepared for any laws upon the subject. The Congress has, in fact, uniformly exercised this right in all its laws for the government of the new states and territories. It prohibited the importation of slaves and their migration into the northwestern territory. The states which ceded the territory south of the Ohio, and east of the Mississippi, were fully aware of this power of Congress; and they ceded it with certain stipulations in favour of the slave holder. Yet even over the states which were formed in this region, has Congress exercised its power, and secured to the slave the right of trial by jury and of the habeas corpus. All these laws were passed without exciting any suspicion that Congress was transcending its powers in thus clogging the constitutions of the new states. They were regarded as decent and becoming in a government founded in justice and freedom, "as extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty." That northwestern territory offered no inducement to the slave holder, or to a slave agriculture. Now, however, the case is altered. A province adapted to the cultivation of cotton and tobacco, and in obtaining which the government made no stipulations in favour of slavery, claims to be elevated to the rank of a state. It is a desirable situation for the planters, and holds out from its situation and fertility a golden prospect. They claim accordingly to be admitted there, with their slaves; and a clamour is raised because the people of the United States are unwilling further to extend slavery—to sacrifice the principles of our republic upon the altar of avarice.
The pretence—it scarcely deserves the name of argument—is, that such restriction would be unconstitutional, oppressive, and inexpedient.
It is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!—The refutation is a part of our history, and is written in the pages of our statute book. It is OPPRESSIVE! It would exclude the southern states from sharing in the benefits of these new settlements. Are not the lands open to all, and disposed of at public sale? They can only be made valuable, it is true, by incessant labour, under severe privations. But this the hardy yeomanry of the eastern and middle states are willing to endure for the sake of independence and an establishment for their families. We see them accordingly in the van of our empire, subduing the forest and filling the wilderness with the busy sounds of industry and contentment. Are the slave holders of the south a privileged order, that these labours would demean them? Are they oppressed by being placed on an equality with their brethren of the north, who leave behind them all the artificial distinctions and luxurious indulgences of society? Are not their arms and limbs as capable of labour, and their bodies of fatigue? Where then is the inequality and the oppression? A citizen of a slave holding state, at home, and under his state laws, may be a petty monarch; and he is apt to fancy that he derives the power from an inherent birth-right. But out of his state, and from under its laws, he is an individual unit, a mere citizen of the United States; and can claim no privilege which is not granted to every American, or which is opposed to the spirit and intent of the constitution. That constitution pays no respect to persons. It does not recognise the existence of slavery; and the petition to admit it in the new states, is a glaring mockery of its character.
It has been contended, that after the state was organized, the inhabitants might assemble in convention, and alter the constitution in this respect. Such an assertion betrays the grossest ignorance of the true principles of the Union. Our government is emphatically a compact, originally between the people; and since then, between Congress as their representative, and the new members. It is binding on both sides, and the terms of admission are, that Congress approves of the constitution which the state has formed. Its power of rejection, it is true, is limited to certain points. But upon those points that power is absolute; and amongst them, without a shadow of doubt, is slavery. The state which, having accepted of a limitation to its power in this respect, should presume to alter it, would set that power at defiance.
But the restriction is INEXPEDIENT! And what is the amount of inexpediency? Some thousands of dollars less to the public revenue—some hundreds of thousands less in the sale of public lands! Forbid it, Justice! forbid it, the Genius of the Constitution! that we should barter our free inheritance for a mess of pottage; that the countrymen of Washington should coolly calculate the profits of a desertion of principle. But not only is the restriction not inexpedient, it is called for by the clearest dictates of sound policy. We are now entering upon a region of almost boundless extent and fertility, destined at some future day to be the abode of millions of human beings. Upon the decision of the present question, in all probability, will it depend, whether that population will be a free and industrious race, or whether the great majority will be bound in the chains of slavery, stinting the growth and paralyzing the energies of the community.
If it be fairly decided that slavery shall not exist to the west of the Mississippi, we shall soon see the rich vallies of that territory occupied by industrious farmers, proving what is no doubt the fact, that freemen can cultivate the staple commodities of that country more advantageously than slaves. Let us for a moment contrast the opposite pictures which are here presented.
The privileged order of the southern states have, it is true, every temporal blessing they can desire, save that of security. But their hordes of slaves—a million of labourers, chained down to cheerless and incessant toil, shrouded in utter intellectual darkness, cut off from all that ennobles and adorns existence, stationary amidst the general march of improvement, and sold and driven about like herds of cattle;—is there not in this picture, retouch it and soften it as you may, subject for bitter regret? and is there nothing to cheer the heart of the patriot in the reverse? A country studded with villages and farms; a smiling and contented population; intelligent, virtuous, and industrious, and the strength and the pride of the nation, and becoming in its turn the hive for fresh swarms of emigrants. This is no exaggerated or romantic representation. These opposite conditions exist in our country; and Congress have now to decide which of them shall give its features to the western valley of the Mississippi.
But it is from motives of humanity and security, say some, that we plead the extension of slavery. The evil will thus be diluted and lessened. Admirable politicians! profound economists! A poisonous plant has overgrown one of your fields, and you seek to extirpate it by spreading the seeds throughout your possessions! A concealed fire is smouldering in your house, and you would prevent its conflagration by scattering the embers upon your neighbours' dwellings!
It is not thus that slavery is to be mitigated or done away. Confine slavery within its present limits, and we may then hope to see it extinguished. We are young, and may outgrow it. There is a great body of active and enlightened philanthropy in the southern states; and it may yet devise means for its extinction. Build around it a circumvallation of freemen, and you render impotent its fearful threatenings. But give to it that principle of indefinite increase which our white population derives from the inexhaustible extent of our country, and you spread it over the face of the Union; you clothe it a hundred fold with terrors; you render it coeval with our empire.