IJSUTOI  AN0 S1 AT  iT
AR -IE}) S  OF Lt'E"I S
TO
Ho  W  L.   LYALNCEYY, of Alabama,
BY
HENRY J. RAYMONDS of New York.
THE NORTHERN STATES AN'D THE SLAVE TRiADE IN 1787.
N'W-YORa:, Nov. 23, 1860.    of Slavery. You atlelinipted this, in your speeches,
i-ion. W. L. YANCEY —Sir: I have read    first by sLhowing, as a matter of history, that
your reply of Nov. 9 to an editorial article in    the fraerres of the Constitution regarded the inthe TIMES of Oct. 27, in which you claim to have    crease of Slavery as desirable:or the country, and
corrected -what you style the " hostile and malig-    made specific providion for it in the Constitution
nant criticisms of two leading editors in the    itself; and, secondly, by showilg, as a matter of
Black Republican  cause,  viz.: Mr. THURLOW        statistics, that Slavery is a benefit to the States inl
WEED and Mr. H.ENRY J. RAYMON-D,"-upo011 your    which it exists, and to the North through its trade
speeches in the North during the recent Presiden-    with those States. Under the first head you astial canvass. As you have thus given the matter    serted that Afassachusets "took t;he lead," in the
a personal direction, you will excuse mle for giving    Convention that framed the Constit ltion, in "inyou a personal answer..sisting" that; the Slave-trade should not be proLet me say, in the first place, that you have no    hihited until 1808, anid afterwards i:n placing this
right to characterize those criticisms as either    clause beyond the reach of a:mendment. I hat
"hostile or malignant." They are perfectly fair    characterized this assertion as a perversion of tie
and legitimate comments upon public speeches on    facts of history; —and your letter of Nov. 9 is an
public topics. Of all men, you should be the last    attempt to vindlicate your assertion against his
to reproach your political opponents at the North    criticism. It is not enough for you to show that
with discourtesy. You spoke in nearly all our Trin-    Massachussetts assrn tcd to these measures. No
cipal cities, to large audiences, two-thirdls of whom    orie disputes or doubts that fact,-nor did we sneed
had not the slightest sympathy with your views, or    a tnissionary from  Alabama to inform  us of it.
the least respect for tihe object you sought to ac-    Your assertion wsas much broader, and its object
complish. But you were heard with the most re-    was very different. You represented that- Massaspectful attention. In no instance -was there the    citisetts, as the head of the Northern Jolonies,
slightest indication of personal disrespect;-in no' insisted" on continuing the Slave-trade for twencase were you interrupted, or even questioned on    ty years loingel, for the specific purposef f" widenany point. You were heard everywhere with just    ing the basis of Slavery," and "increasing the
as much deference and courtesy, as if every word    number of slaves," —while Virginia, as the head
you uttered had accorded fully with the opinions    of the Southern Colonies, resisted the attempt;
and sentiments of those you addressed. If you will    And you made this representation for the purpose
contrast this reception with that which would    of basing upon it the appeal to the people of the
have greeted any one of your opponents, who    North, that, as their fathers had thus clearly deshould attempt to address the people of your own   clared their approval of Slavery, and provided for
section on the samie subject, you will find no    its increase,-and had forced this increase upon
ground for claiming superiority over us in the mat-   the South,-it was unjust for them, their descendter of courtesy.                                   ants, to denounce and restrict it no-w.
The object of your visit to the North was to vin-  Now, I did say that this line of argimretar shlowed
dicate the claim put forth by Southern politicians,    that you were either very imperfectly irformiued in
of the right to increase and extend the institution    the history of the country, or very rec-lenis and




unscrupulous in the statement of facts. The first    slaves," and widen " the basis of Slavery." If you
horn of the dilemma I abandon. Your quotationfs    had quoted them, they would have furnished
from the Madison Papers, —and the sagacious man-   the explanation of the sentences you quote froi
ner in which you have -weeded out from  the pas-    New-England men.  They would have shown
sages relating to this question everything which    that not a single man from Massachusetts, or any
makes against your position, shows that you are    other Northern colony, said one solitary syllable
not "imperfectly informed" on this subject. Nor   in favor of Slavery or of continuing the Slaveis it quite fair to say that you are "' reckless and    trade; —and that their only motive for assenting to
unscrupulous" in your statements. Those moods   it at all was the fear that without such assent the
imply a certain degree of indiffereince as to the    Formation of the Union would be impossible. And
truth or falsehood of statements made; while you    to induce them still further to yield their hostility
are exceedingly careful first to make a statement   to it, the Southern delegation held out hopes that,
which is exactly the opposite of the truth, and then    if the matter were left open, the Southern States
to make it plausible by scrupulously falsifying the    themselves might prohibit the traffic. Mr. PINCKpublic records by which it is to be tested. That I    NEY said, "If the Southern States are left alone,
have full warrant for this serious charge, I shall   they will probably of themselves stop importaprove by appending to this letter the full debate on    tions:'"-and again, " If the States be left at liberty
that clause of the Constitution which relates to the    on this subject, South Carolina may, perhaps, by
prohibition of the Slave-trale,  on which you base    degrees do, of herself, what is wished, as Virginia
your statement, and friom which you have pre-    and Maryland have already done." Mr. BALDWIN
tended inL your letter to quote evidence of its truth.   said of Georgia, —" If left to herself she may probYou accuse me of having given " garbled extracts",   ably put a stop to the evil."  It was by such alterfirom that debate. in order to show at whose door   nate threats and promises that the Northern delethat charge justly lies, I copy your letter, including    gates were induced to assent to the compromise
the debate as you have professed to quote it.      proposed by the Committee to -which the subject
Now, you will see from this record, what you    was recommitted,-namely that the trade should
very'well knew  before, that neither Massachu-    not be prohibited before 1800, —and also to the
setts, nor any other Northern State, "insisted" that    amendment offered by Mr. PICKuNEY, of South
the Slave-trade should not'be prohibited by Con-    Carolina, making it 1808.
gress until 1808; that on the contrary, they de-     It is impossible to suppose that you were ignomanded that the General Government should have    rant of these facts,-or that you could possibly
power to prohibit it at once; and that they yielded    have mistaken the motive of this action of the
their consent to its continuance for twenty years,    Northern delegates.
only to threats of secession on the part of South    You quote from  Ruulrs KING the remark that
Carolina and Georgia, and for the purpose of    "the subject should be considered in a political
securing the adhesion  of those States to the    light only," and draw the inference that he and his
Union.  Mr'. PINCKNEY  in  that  debate - de-   State, as well as Connecticut, were indifferent to
clared, "South  Carolina  can  never receive    its moral aspects, which Virginia urged so warmly.
the plan if it prohibits the Slave-trade."  Gen.    You say:
PINCmNarj  said  he  "should  consider the re-      "The prohibition was warmly supported on moral
action of the cla~use as arn  exclmesior  o~f $onth    grounds by Virgilnlia,-anrd Connecticut immediately
etefon of the clause as an exclusioa of South *pronounced,  Let every State imuport what it pleases.'
Carolinaefrom the Union." Mr. BALDWIN, of Geor-    -while Massachusetts ably seconded Cornnecticut
gi, said, "Georgia was decided on this point,"   that it was' to be consideredia a political light only."'
ant that "it might be understood in what light      This is a very adroit arrangement of words, true
she would view an attempt to abridge one of her   in themselves, but so arranged as to convey a very
favorite prerogatives." M2ir. WILLIAMSON, of North    gross and palpable falsehood. You represent ConCarolsna, "thought the Southern  Steates could not    necticut as following' the moral protest of Virginia
be mesbers l the Union if the clause should be    by the exclamation,'" let every State import what
rejected." Mr. RU'TLEDGE said, "if the Convention.   it pleases," as if protesting against that moral view
thinks that North Carolina, South Carolina and    of the case,-whereas Mr. ELLSWORTRH used those
Georgia will ever ac.ree to the plan, unless their    words after Mr. RUTLEDGE, of South Carolina, had
right to import slaves be untozuched, the expecta-    declared that " religion and humanity had nothing
tjon is vain." These quotations are all from the    to do with this question," and that " the true quesdebate on this proposition. These delararations    tion is whether the Southern States shall or shall
were made by leading Southern men, and were the    not be parties to the Union;"-and he added, as a
turning points of the action of the Convention upon    salvo to his own mind, "the morality or wisdom
that clause. Yet, you have not quoted a single one    of Slavery are considerations'belonging to the
of them in your citations from that debate. Why    States themselves." Mr. KING's remark was not
not?  Because they would have rendered it im-    made until the next day, and then related to what
possible:;or you to attribute this action of the Con-   had been said of the refusal of South Carolina and
venfitn; Ain  of the Northern States, to the motive    Georgia to join the Union, instead of anything that
you had assignedlnamely, a desire to continue the    had been said on behalf of Connecticut. If you
Slave-trade, in order to "' increase the number of   had any desire to submit Mr. KING'S sentiments on




this'wh oe subject, why did you not quote what he    Government increased in proport'ion, and are at the
said upon it on the 8th of August, when the ques-    same time to have their exports and their slaves exempt from  all contribution.s for the public service.
tion of representation was under debate.              Let it not be said that direct taxation is to be propor" Mr. KING had hoped that some accommodation    tioned to representation. It is idle to suppose that
would have taken place on this subject; that at least   the General Government can stretch its hand directa time would have been limited for the importation of   ly into the pockets of the people, scattered over so
slaves. He never could agree to let them. be imported    vast a country. They cart only o It through the rnewithout limitation, and then be represented in the    iti m  of exports, imports   excles.   or what
National Legislature. Indeed, hle could so little per-   then, are all the sacrifices to be made? He swould
suede himnself of th2e  rectitude of such a practice, that    ooner submit himsel to a taxoe payingfor all the nehe was not sure he could assent to it under any circum-    greesin te Ulsited States, than saddle posterity with
sioes  ite Constitution.
stances."  [Madison.Papers, III., 1,262.]
You quote  Gov. MORRIS, of Pennsylvania, as           Does that look like makling this a 6subject of
proposing to recommit the clause for the purpose    trade " merely?  Does that look like "insisting 
of making a bargain between the North and South    on a continuance of the Slave-trade for twenty
-anid sneeringly say it was made a " subject of    years?
trade, and not of moral speculation."  Let me           But I have said quite enough to show the utter
commend to any to whom  you may have given    falsity of your assertion that Massachusetts, as the
such an impression  of his views, the following    head of the Northern Colonies, "i nsisted, that the
speech made by him on the same subject and on    Slave-trade should not be prohibited by Congress
the same occasion:                                    until 1808," in order to' increase the number of
Frome the Madison Papers, Vol. IlL., page 1,263.  slaves, and to widen the basis of Slavery."  A
Mr. GouvERNEUR MoRros  moved to insert "free"    few words now upon the other branch of this asbefore the word " inhabitants."  Much, he said, would    sertion, namely, that it was done against the wish
depend on this point. lie never would concur in upholding domestic Slavery. It was a nelarious institution.    of Virginia, as the representative of the Southern
it was the curse of Heaven on the States where it    Colonies, and thus forced upon them.
F.revailed. Compare the free regions of the Middle
as, wherevaled.   Comarethe  fe regions of the  Middle  It is true, and is greatly to her honor, that Virginia
states, where a rich and noble cultivation marxs the
prosperity and happiness of the people, with the mis-    did resist the continuance of the Slave-trade.  She
ery and poverty which overspread the barren waste    had prohibited that traffic for herself, and urged its
of Virginia, Maryland, and the other States having
slaves. Travel through the whole continent, and you    prohibition for all the States. But she did not do
behold the prospect continually varying with the ap-    this as " the head of the Southern Clonies;" she
pearance and disappearance of Slavery. The moment    was not acting on their behalf, nor 
you leave the Ea~tern Estates, and enter Igew-~York,
you leaveinc   a~stern blaes, and enter New-V ork,    was not acting on their behalf, lor had she their
she effects of the institution become visible. Passing    support. On the contrary, she was denounced, and
through the Jerseys anid entering Pennsylvania, every    her motives for it assailed then, as they have been
criterion of superior improvement witnesses the
change.  Proceect sottlhwaraly, and every step you    since. "(As to Virginia," says Gen. PiNcr.Y.T-,
take, through the great regions of slaves, presents a    "she will gain by stopping the importation. Her
desert increasing with the increasing proportion of
these wretched. beings.'Upon what principle is it that    slaves will rise in value, and she has more than
the slaves shall be computed in the representation?    she wants."  This is very much  in the vein of
Are they omen l Then make them citizens sod let    South Carolina comments upon Virginia now.  t_
them  vote. Are they property? Why, then, is no
other propelrty inclulded?  The houses in this city   is quite in the spirit of your remarks at Montgom(Philadcelpnia) are worth more than all the wretched    ery, in 1858, when you advocated the  reopening of
blaves.who cover the rice swamps of Soluti Carolina.
The admission of slaves into the representation, when    the Slave-trade, and denounced the " old fogies"
fairly explained, [comes to this: that the inhabitant    of Virginia-JasERSO N-, IADnISON   arnd othersof Georgia and. South Carolina who goes to the
of  eorgia  and Suh  ttolina  who goe  to i  who  "held  opinions on this subject which are
Coast ort Africa, anrd in defiance of the most
sacred laws of liumanity, tears away his fellow-crea-    not now considered sound."
tures from their dearest connections, and damnis lthem  How the other Southern Colonies regarded the
to a most cruel bondage, shall have more votes hi a
government institutect for protection of the rights of    proposition to prohibit  the Slave-trade ha: been
mankind than the citizen of Pennsylvania or New-    made apparent already. Maryland  and Virginia
Jersey, who views with a laudable horror so nefarious a    had abolished the trafic. Delaware had nose to
practice. He would add that domestic Slavery is the
most prominlent feature in the aristocratic counten-    abolish. The only other Southern Colonies were
ance of the proposed Constitution. The vassalage of    North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia: and
the poor has ever been the favorite offspring of aristocracy. And what is the proposed compensation to   they distinctly refused to join the Union, if Conthe Northern States for a sacrifice of every principle    gress were clothed with power to prohibit the
of right, of every impnulse of hlimanilty? t h ey ase t) Slave-trade. And it was that threat which induced
bind themselves to march their militia for the defence of
the Southern States;for their defence against these very    Massachusetts and the other Northern Colonies to
slaves of whom they complain. They mnust supply ves   assent to the compromise proposed by the Comsels and seamen in case of foreign attack. The Legislataure will have indefinite power to tax them by excises    mittee.
and duties on imports,both of which will fall heasvier on  So much for the manner in which this clause
them than on the Southern inhabitants; for the Boilea
teaused by a Northiern freeman will pay mnore tax.
tea used by a Nortlersi fr-eeman will pay mnoie tax    came into the Constitution. If historical records
than the whole consumption of the miserable slave,    prove anything, they prove that it was inserted on
which consists )f nothing more than his physical sub-    the demand of the principal Southern Colonies,
sistence and the rag that covers his nakedness. On the
other side, the Southern States are not to be restrain-    backed by a threat of secession if it were not
ed from importing fresh supplies of wretched Africans,    granted;-and that Massachusetts and the other
at once to increase the danger of attack and the diffi-    Northern  olonies conceded it solely and e'culty of defence; nay, they are to be encouraged to it,
by an assurance of having their votes in the National    sively for the sake of securing the adherence of




those Colonies to the Union. G an. PINRCeNEY, in    that the main obstacle which you encounter in
Convention, acknowledged "the liberal conduct"    your efforts to secure the reopening of the Slaveof the Eastern States on this occasion, and was    trade, lies in the fact that the fathers of the Repubwilling to return it by concessions on the subject    lic were opposed to it. I have before me a copy of
of commerce. You, on the contrary, attempt to    the speech made by you. in the Southern Commerdistort it into an. indorsement of Slavery and an    cial Colnvention, held in Montgomery, May, 1858,
approval of the Slave-trade. I submit to the pub-    on the subject of reopening the African Slavelic judgment whether you do not thus convict    trade; and in that speech I find you saying:
yourself of being utterly "unscrupulous " in the        "If it were not for the names of MADISON, RANuse of historical facts.                              DCieLPH, MJASON and others, whose names have been
quoted in order to frown down the presumption of a
Now  I might very well stop here, for what I    young man at this day  for pretending to understand.
have already said covers the ground of your letter.   this subject, I would even now throw the lance of de -
bate to any gentlemana to stand up here and maittain
It settles the question as to the part taken by the    that these laws were constitutional per se. I would to
Northern and. Southern Colonies respectively in    God every countryman of mine was disposed to judge
of the isseumes between the _North and South for himregard to the  Slave-trade, and  the  motives by    self tt th o miens of old fogydom could be utterwhich each. section was actuated. But as that    l.y wiped out.     * *  Will my friend (Mr. PRYOR)
was only an incidental point in your speech, per —   now say that Mr. JEFFERSON, in his political ethics on
Slavery, w as right? tie cannot say so. Mr. J.FFERmit me to refer to the other branch of your main    son thought it would weaken the South, and, thereargument, and the practical policy which it was    fore, he wvasfor the entire prohibition of the Slave-trade.
intended to sulpport.I The distinguished, venerable, practical and philosophical gentleman from Virginia (Mr. RUFFIN) knows
You have been engaged now for several years in   that Mr. J.fferson ewas wrong in hies ideas about Slavery.
the endeavor to secure the repeal of the laws of    I need riot expatiate on that subject because  tis a
fmatter of history known to everybody. If that was
Congress prohibiting theu Slave-trade, and to re-   the fact, llhere was among the framers of theC Consti.store the full freedom of that tratiic to the South-    rution, who were true to us in all the interests of the
ern States. At the South you are seeking to ac-    white man, a sentiment in relation to Slavary that is
erot entertained now.
codmplish that result-precisely as South Carolina       Mr. PaoR —That is true.
and Georgia sought the continuance of the trade         M. YANevY-That is all I asks Thfen I say that the
oldfogies rJ that day entertained opinions iv relation to
in the Federal Convention, by menaces of dis-    Slavery, which we of this day are unaninmously agreed
union. At the North you held a different lan-    seers nt soundo  *           If I could get this body to
divest themselves of the shackles that MADisoN, JEFguage. You asserted that the Fathers of the Re-    FERSON and.MlAsoN have thrown about them concernpublic-the framers of the Constitution —deeming    ing Slave)y, and could get them to understand that
an increase of Slavery desirable, provided for it by    South Carolina is against any, even the most lited,
prohibitionr of the Slave-trade, I should not fear their
keeping the Slave-trade open until 1808. I have    unbiased judgment."
shown how  utterly baseless-how  wanton a per-          So much for the historical part of the argument
version of historical fact-that statement is, so far    by which you endeavored to convince the people
as Massachusetts and the other Northern colonies    of -the North that Slavery ought to be increased.
were concerned. I could prove, by a similar array       Your next point was to prove by statistics that
of equally conclusive testimony, that the state-    Slavery is a great blessing to the country, because
ment is just as false, so far as it assigns a motive    it had made the South much richer than Free Lato the action of the other co:l.onies and to the lead-    bor had made the North. And your argument was
ing statesmen of the whole country. You, proba-    this:-The wealth of any country is measured by
bly, are not ignorant of the fact that on the 20th of    its exports, —that is, by the sewplaus of its products
October, 1774, the Continental Colgress passed a    after its own wants have been supplied out of
preamble and resolutions solemnly pledging them-    them. Now the South exports annually of her
selves, "under the sacred ties of virtue, honor and.    products to the amount of g200,000,000, while the
love of our country,"                                North exports of hers only a little over $100,000,"'That weswill neither import noer'ptchase any Slave    000. Thereore, the South, which depends upon
imported afjer the first day of Decemtber next; —ft'ter    Slave Labor, is nearly twice as rich as the North,
wzhichie tinm e e ilt holly iscontinue the Slav-trade,   i  relies upon Free Labor      ithout entering
and wiil neither be cotncerned in it ourselves, nor wille   reies upon                      t  entering
hire our vessels nor sell over comn-todities or nmaaz'ufacc-    upon  any  detailed  examination  of this point,
tures to lthose w/ho are! concernaed int it."        (although the more closely it is examined the more
This was the tone and temper of the people at    clearly will its sophisty appear,) it is enough to
the outset of our -.ational career. It was the poli-   say that the fallacy lies in your skill.ful ma-nipulacy which the framers of the Conistitution desired to   tion of the word expo'rts. The exports of the North
adopt. It was the same sentiment which prompted      do really and truly  measure the  su?'plus  proMAsoN and MORRIs and RUFrUS KING and LUTnHE.R    ducts of the North; but the South exports her
MARTIN to denounce Slavery as a curse to the coun-    whole crsop. She does not consume any of her
try,and to insist that the Gesneral Government should    cotton at home, —or at least not enough to affect
have power to check its growth by prohibiting its   the argument: she exports the whole of it. Yet
increase and stopping the Slave-trade at once and    all tihe supplies which she draws from the Northforever. But it is unnecessary to quote their de-    her cotton. goods, her manufactured woolens, her
clarations or enter upon any further historical in-    plantation tools, her teas, silks and imported luxuquiry on this subject. You have yourself conceded    ties, a very large proportion of her bacon, her beef




and other provisions-all these are paid for out of    C arolinra may, perhaps, by degrees, do of herself what
the proceeds oi her cotton crop,-and  generally in    is wished, as Virginia and Maryland have already
advance.  She sends that crop to market burdened           Adjourned.
with the debt incurred for these supplies.  Before                      WEDNESDAY,.&UG. 22.
she can claim that crop as exports,-that is, as the        rn, ioeventioen-Article 7, Section 4, was resumed.
surs-plus of her products over her own consump.            Mr. SHaERaAN, of Connecticut, was for leaving the
tion,-she must deduct that debt.  Now you go on          clause as it stands. Hle disapproved of the Slavetrade; yet as tile States were now possessed of the
to state in these very speeches, that these domestic    light to import slaves, as the public good did not repurchases made at the North, to supply the wants   q(isr e it to be taiken from them, and as it was expedient
of the Southern States, amount to nearly two hun-    to have as few ohiections as possible to the  oposed
scheme of government, h.e thought it best to leave the
dred millions of dollars every year.  Deduct that    matter as we find it. He observed. that the abolition.
amnount from the exports of the South,-andi then    foh Slavery seemedto be going on in the U-nited States,
land that the good sense of tiue several States would
see how much you will have left, as the measure          probahly by degrees' complete it. He urged on the
of the wealth of the Southern States.                    Convention the necessity of dispatching its business,
But I shall not extend this letter, likely at best to  nate.. in tle avlgise  of ia-Thil isereal trhants   The
hated in the avarice  of British merchants. The
be much too long, by any further comments upon           British Government constantly checked the attempts
this point. I send you with it the report of a speech    of Virginia to put a stop to t. The p esent question
concerns not the impoerting  States alone, but the.whole
made by me during the canvass, at Rochester, in           Usnion. The evil of haying slaves -was experienced
which I have treated it somewhat more fully.             during the late war. Had slaves been treated as they
this branch of the subject, therefore, I    might have been by tie enemy, they would  have
Leaving this branch of the subject, therefore, i    proved dangerous instluruments ii. ttleir hands. But
propose to say something of the DISUNIO'N MoVE-    their folly dealt by the slaves as it did. by the tories.
MENT now in progress, of which I consider you, to    -le mentionecl the dangerous insu-rections of toe
sl aves in Greece and. Sicily; and the instrutcmtiosla greater degree thanr any other man now living,    given by CROanVELL to the Commiss1ioners sent to Virthe author and the head.. As I desire to treat it    ginia, to amlm the servanls anl slaves in case other
somewhat fully,-more  so than the limits left me         neaens of obtli sing its seibnissiri shoul ocl pii Mlarysland and Virginia, lie said, had already prohibited the
in this communication will permit, —I shall make         importation of slaves expressly. No3rtS Carolina had
it the subject of' a second lett~er,-                     done the sanle in substa-nce.  All this would be in
-vain, if South Carolina and Georgia be at'liberty to
-o-                                 import. Tie Westerrn people ase a lready calling out
for slaves for their new lands, ardcl will fill. that country.
The Debate in thle Consvention of 1 _78   on t;he         with slaves, if they can be got through South Carolina
oPiiitlosn    of. li  Slave-TrPad e  and Georgia. Slavery discourages arts and manufacP-'ohibitiort of the  la,ve-.T.rttde. 
tures.'I'ne poor despise labor when performed by.From the Madison Paoers, Yol. IIT,, pp. 13f8, et seq.  slaves. They prevent thl emigration of whites, who
really enrich and strengthen the country. They proTUESnDAY, Aug. 21.      duce the most pernicious effescts on manners. Every
Mr. L. MARTIN, of Maryland, proposed to vary           master of slaves is born a petty tyrant.''hey b)ring
article 7, section 4, so as to allow a prohibition or ttx    the judgment of Heaven on a colltry. As i:arioss
cannot be rewarder or punishe(4. i:n. the next wworld,
on the importation of slaves. In the first place, as five   -they must be in this. By an inevitable chainl oI causes
slaves are to be counted as three freemen, in the ap-    and. effects, Ps o-vidence punishes national sins b1y:raportionment of Representatives, such. a clause would.   tional calamities..le iarnentecld that some of our
leave an encouragement to this traffic. In the second    Eastern brethllen  hadl, from a lust of ga.in, ernba.ked
place, slaves weakened one part of the Union, which      in this nefario-us trafic. As to thlle Sta.tes being il Posthe other parts were bound to protect; the privilege     sessiol. of the right to irllolt, this was th.e case witli
of inmporting them  was, therefore, unreasonable.    many other rigll;s, properly to be give:e up. He held
And, in. the ttird place, it was inconsistent with lhe    it essenltial i  every point of view, that; the General
principles of the Revolution, ancd dishonorable to the   Goverlnment sh.ou.lti have poser ito.'revelnt the "nAmerican character, to have such a feature in the        crease of Slavery.
Constitution.                                              Mr. EILLSWRTH,  of Connecticut, as hie had. never
Mr. RUTLEDGE, Of South Carolina, did not see how       owned. a slave, could not jludlge of tle eliects of
the importation of slaves could be encouraged by this    Sla-very on chlaracter. He sail, lhotwever, that if it ias
section. He was not apprehensive of insurrection,    to be co:nsidered in a moroal light, we olugiht to go furand would readily exempt the other States from the    ther asnd free those already in the cos-imtry. As slaves
obligation to protect time Southern against them. Re-    also multiply so fast in. Vir ginia andl Mairyland tihat it
ligion and humanity had nothing to do with this ques.-   is cheaper to raise than import th.erv,:whilst in t;lime
tion. Interest alone is the governing principle with    sickly rice swamps foreign supplies are necessary. if
nations  The true question at present is, whether tile    we go no furthier than is 1ri ged, -we shall be'onjust toSouzthern  States shall or shall znot be parties to the    wards South Carolisan and Georgia.   -Let us not inters
fsUnion. If the Northern States consult their interest,   -mmedicle. As popul.ation Increases poor dlabo)rer s will tbe
thevy will not oppose the increase of slaves, which      so plenlty as to render slaves usel.e.ss..s'lavery, in tiJime,
will increase the commodlities of -which they will be-    quill not be a spectk in our counetry. PIrovislon is already
come the carriers,                                       nliade in. Cosnnecticut for abolisiling it, and the abliri
Mr. ELLSWORTH, of Connecticut, was for leaving the    tion has already taken place ini Massachusetts. As to
clause as it stalns.:Let every State import what it   Itle Clanger of insurrection firom  foreignl inlthlence,
pleases.'The morality or wisdom of Slavery are co:r-    that will become a motive of kind treatimtent of the
siderations belonpging to the States themselves. What    slaves.
enoriches a part, eniches thle whole, and the States are   Ms. PINCumNEt, of South Car.lolila —If Slaverv be
the best judges of their partictular interest. The old.    wirong, it is j ustified by thme example of all the.wvorld.
Confederatiosi had not meddled with this point, and he    I-e cited the case of Greece, Romle and. the other andid not see any greater necessity for bringing it wvithiin.    cient States-the sanction given. by Frarice, Holla.lnd
the policy of the new one.                               and other mioderin States. In all ayges one-h:lf of
Mr. PINCENEY, of South Caro]ina-S'outh Carolina    mankind hadl been slaves. If the Southern States were
can never receive the plan i if it psohbits the Slave-tradle.    let alone, tley ziltl probtbly of thesmseles.Ctop senposisa
In every proposed extension of the powers of Con-    tioles,  lie woula, himself, as a citizenr of Soutl-l Cagress, that State has expressly and watchfully except-    olina, vote for it. An attempt I;o take asway the right,
ed that of meddling with the importation of negroes.    as proposed, still prodsuce seriouis objections to the Con^
If the States be left at liberty on this subject, South    stitution, which he wished to see adopted.




Gen. PINCrNEY., of South Carolina, declared. it to      strained by the opinions here given, that they zwill thembe his firm opinion that if himself and all his colleagues    selves cease to import slaves.
were to sign the Constitution and use their personal        Gen. PINCKNEY, of South Carolina, thought himself
influence, it would be of no avail towards outaininrig    bound to declare candidly, that he did not think South
the assent of their constituents. South Carolina ant    Carolina -would stop her importations of slaves in any
Georgia cannot do without slaves. As to Virginia, sie     short time; but only stop them  occasionally, as she
wil gain by stopping the importations. Her slaves    now does. He moved to commit the clause that
will rise in value, and she has more than she wants.    slaves might be made liable to an equal tax with other
It would be unequal to require Souta Carolina and.    imports, which lie thought right, and which would reGeorgia to confederate on such unequal terms. HIe         move one difficulty that had been started.
said tle royal. assent before the Revolution, had never     Mr. RUTLEDGEa, of Sbuth Carolina-If the Conyenbeen refused to South Carolina, as to Virginia. Hlie    lion thinks that North Carolina, South Carolina and
contended that the importation of slaves would be for     Georgia will ever agree to the plan, unless their right
the interestof the wiole Untion. The more slaves the    to import slaves be untouched, the expectatzon is vain,
more produce to employ tie carrying trade; the more       The people of those States -will never be such fools as
consumption also, and the more of this, the more rev-    to give uip so important an interest. He was strenuenue for the common treasury. He admitted it to be        ous against striking out the section, and seconded the
reasonable that slaves should be dutied lilre other ira-    motion of Gen. PINCKcEY for a commitment.
ports; hut should consider a rejection of the clause as     Mr. GOUvERNEUu  M.onRis, of Pennsylvania, wished
nil exclusion of South Carolina from the Union.           the whole subject to be committed, including  the
iMr. BALDWiN, of Georgia, liad conceived national    clause relating to taxes on exports and to a navigation
objects alone to be before the Convention;not such        act. These things may fobrm  a bargain among the
as, like the present, were of a local nature. Georgia     Northero arid Southern Slates.
was decided on this point. That Slate has a lwiays hitl-    Mr. BUTLERa, of Georgia, declared that he never
nito supposed a General Government to be the pursuit    would agree to the power of taxing exports.
of the central States, who wished to have a vortex for      Er. SHERAN, of Coinecticut, said it was better to
everything; that her distance -would preclude ter    let the Southern States import slaves than to part with
from  equal advantage; and that she could not pru-    thm,  tey  ae  hat a sie ua non. He was opdently purchlase it byyielding national powers.-  rorin   posed to a tax on slaves imported, as making the matthis it might be understood in what light shle wouilM   tee worse because it implied they were property.  He
view an attempt to abridge one of her ftavorite prerog-    acknowledged that if the power of prohibiting the
atives. If left to herself sihe may probablyput a stop to    importatios should be given to the General Governthe exit. As one greoumad feir this ccnjectuie, hn toolk  moent, it would be exercised. Hie thought it would be
notice of the sect of - which. Ihe said was a respectable    its duty to exercise the power.
class of people, who carried their ethics beyond the        Mr. REnD, of Delaware, was for the commitment,
mere equality of men, extending their Iumanity to the     provided thi  clause concerning  taxes on  exports
claims of the whole animal creation.                      Ssould also be committed.
Mr. WILSON, of Pennsylvania, observed that if South       Mr. SaERMAN, of Connecticut, observed that that
Carolina and Georgia were themselves disposed to get    clause had osen agmeed ho, and therefore could not be
rid of the importation of slaves in a short tilme, as hadh    committed.
been suggested, they would never refuse to unite be-        Mr. RXNDOLPH, of Virginia, was for committing, in
ncatie thin importation might be prohibiuterU  As thie    order that soime middle ground might, if possible, be
section now stands, all articles imported  aine to be    found.  He could never agree to the clause as it
taxed. Slaves alone are exenmpt. This is in fact a        stand"s. tIe woutld sooner risk the Constitution.  He
bounty on that article.                                   dwelt on the dilemma to which the Convention was
Mr. GsaRRY, of Massacihusitts, thoughot sone had        exposed. By agreeing to the clause, it would revolt
niothing to do with the conduct of the States as to    the Quakers, the Methodists, and many others in the
shaves, but oughlt to btie carjut nCot to give any sirtiou  IStates having no slaves. On the  other hand, two
to it.:States might be lost to the Union. Let us, then, lie
Mr. DICXINSON, of Delawalre, considered it as Mod-    said, try the chance of a committent.
missible, on every principle of honor and safety, that        n the question  for committing the remaining part
ite importation of slaves should be auithorized to the    of sections 4 and 5 of article 7: Connecticut, New.
States by thi CIons9titoution. lThe truite qurstioi,,    Jersey, Marylanid, Virginia, North  Carolina, South
tvwhether the snational happiness  wouldt be promoted or    Carolina, Georgia —Aye 7; New-Hanmpshire, Pennsylivmpeded by the importation; and this ought to be left to  vania, Delaware —No, 3; Massachusetts,  absent.
lithe National Governmnent, not to thie States particl-      [The vwhole subject was thus recommitted for
larWy interested.  If Englanrd. and F/ranice permit
laly  intested.    t  Englad    mi fance  petil   the purpose of coming to some compromise.]
Slavery, slaves are, at the samie time, excltuded frosi
both these kingdoinis. Greece and Rome  weree niaci              Fronm Mtadison Papers, Vol. III., p. 1,415.
unhappy by their slaves. He could not believe that                                            FaXnrA, Aug. 24.
the Sounhern States would. refuse to confederate on          Gov. LTVINCsSTON, of New=Jersey, from the Cuommitthe account apprehiended; especially as she powver    tee of Eleven, delivered the following report:
was not likely to be immediately exircised  by thie           St' rike out so much of the 4th section as was referred
General GovernmentL                                       to the Committee, and insert,,' The migration or imporMr. WfsciAnfON, of Northi Carolina, stated the law      Ittion ofisuch persons as thi  several States now existof North  Carolina oiL thei subject, to wit: that it dic    ing shall thinklr  proper to admit, shall not, be prohibited
not directly prohibit the importation of slaves. It iii-    by the Eregsi-.tnture prior to the year 1800,"
posed a duty off'5 on each slave imported from A f-i-                       P,9rom page.1,427.
ca; CIO1 on each fron elsewhiere; ahlid ~50 on each iSATURDAY, Aug. 25.
from a State licensing manuimission.  ne Ihoight the        The Report of the Comumittee of Eleven being
Southern States could not be members of the Union,   I taken up,
if the  clause should be rejected; and I that it was:       Gen. PINCKNEYe, of South Carolina, moved to strike
wrong to force anything down inot absolutely necessa-    out the words, "the year eighteen hundred,t as the
ry, anmd whichi any State must disagree to,.              year limiting the importation of slaves, and to insert
il/r. KINs, of Masisachusetts, thoughlt tihe subject    the words, "the year eighteen hundred and eigmht."
should be considered in a political light only. If two      Mr. G0 aHAs,  of' Massachuseits,  seconded the moStates will not agree to the Constitutiosm, as stated oon   lion.
one side, lie could affirm  with equal belief, on the       Mr. MxADIsoN, of Virginia —Twenty years will proother, thiat great and equal opposition would be expe-    duce all the mischief that can be apprehended from
rienced fron. the other States. He remarkied on the    the liberty toimport slaves.  So long a term  will be
exemption. of slaves from dluty, whilst every other irt-  more dishonorable to the A oerican character, than to
port was subjected to it, as an inequality that could    say nothing about it in the Constitution.
miot fail to strike the commercial sagacity of the North-   On the motion, which passed in  the affirmative,
ern and Middle States,                                    New-Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, MaryMr. LANGDON, of New-Hampshire, was strenuousfor    land, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia-Aye,
giving the power to the General  Government. He could'I; New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia —,not, with a good conscience, leaveit with the States, who  No, 4.
could then go ot  e with the trea.Jc, without being re-     Mir. Gov tuerrru., Moeess, of Pennsylvania, was for




making the clause read at once, "the importation of  posterity perfect good faith in securing the title to that
slaves into Norti Carolina, South  Carolina and          property?"' P No!"  Yes!!"
Georgia shall not be prohibited, &c."  This, he said,      The editor of the Times asserts that " these statewould be most fair, and would avoid the ambiguity by     ments show that the disunion orator is either very imwhich, under the power with regard to naturalization,    perfectly read in 1he history of our country, or very
the liberty reserved to the States might be defeated.    reckless and unserupulous iln the statement of facts."
He wished it to be known, also, that this part oJ the    The whole tenor and spirit of the article can be best
Constitution weas a compliance iwith those States. If    shown by the following extract:
the change of language, however, should be objected' It is true, as he alleges, that Virginia was opposed
to by the members from  those States, he should not    to the contliuance of the Slave-trade, acid we are
urge it.                                                 sorry to say -that this is the only truth contaitied in the
Col. M.ASON, of Virginia, was not against using the    statemnent."
term " slaves," but against naming North Carolina,         The editor then proceeds to give garbled extracts
South Carolina and Georgia, lest it shoutld give orfece    from the debates in. the Federal Convention, and adds
to the people of those States.                          Ahis owI weak attempts at argument to sustain his
Mr. SHERMaN, of Connecticut, lilted a description      sweeping assertion. As the point made by me is olne
better than the term proposed, which hadl been dle-    of some importance in the present aspect of political
cliIted by the old Congress, and -were not pleasing to    affairs, I ask the use of your almost universally read
some people.                                             columns to spread my reply before the public. AnMr. CLYMER, of Pennsylvania, concurred with Mi'r       alyze my statements and they -will be found to consist
SHERMAN.                                                 of the lolowicng points:
Mr. WILLIABISON, of North Carolina, said that both       1. Tlie Slave-trade existed when the Declaration of
in opinion and practice, he was against Slavery, but    Intclependence -was made.
thought it more in favor of humanity, from a view  of      2. Virginia desired to have that trade suppressed.
all circumstances, to let in South Carolina and Georgia    3. "Massachusetts and other States wished it to be
on those terms than to exclude them.firomz the UtLiosl.  carried on,"
Mr. GovERNEUR MORRIS, of Pennsylvaria, -withdrew         4. No change was to be made in the Slave-trade prohis motion.                                              -vision in the Constitution prior to the year 1808.
Mr. DieiasoN wvished the clause to be confined to       These are the only matters stated as facts, and the
the States, which hadt  ot themcselves prohihited the    truth. of each arid all, excepting that nuibel  tvo,
importation of slaves, and for that purpose moved to
gamend the clause, so as to read: 4Th    mottoi          is unqualitiedly denied by the editor of the lNE  -YoRt
of slaves into such of the States as shalt permit the     Ta            editor of Ste Ti     to e juaged of by tl
same, shall not be prohibited by the Legistature ofthe    dacity of the editor of the Timcs to be judged of by thet
same, shall not be prohibiteel by thle Legislature  ofthe  public  scstelligece  as Ic the hrst statemesci nade by
United States until the year 1808" —which was dise-      se c elc as        e  befoe e   li s " Debatem s mc the
~D-rme;                                 but a.sI I-e're before   re the to  Debates  in the
agreed to sient con.                                     Fedls-al Convention," from  which he has made his
The first part, of the report was then agreed                                      r       to the 3d volume of
amended, as follows: " The mrigration or iirportaitionih wll be foun
of such persons as the several  States now  existing     Ms SarcscA p'S Iof Cocceecticut)  staleent-"bAse the
Mr. SUER rAN's (of Connecticut) statedment-o.As tele
shall  tick proper to ai dmnit, shall not be prohibited by
Shall thinlr proper to athe yaard  1. M.tates are no w possessed of the right to import slaves,
the Legislature prior to the year 1808."
as tei public good  (id not require it to be taken  tro
New-Hamrpshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ala-    fs lep i             di
ports mshrMaschsttCnncicl,    a         them, &c, he thought it best to leave the matter as we
ryland, North anarolina,  South Carolina, Georgia- b     fine d cit." I  sustaining my  position, numbered three
Aye, 7; New-Jersey, Pennsylvacia, Delaware, Vie-         ccatl four, I shall cite not merely what was said by cerginta-INgo, L4.           _talin delegates from some of tice States, but also what
porceted slaves from Afrcc -irginia     wished to record as its wilt and derisioic.
MIR. YANCEY AND HIS 1ACCUSERS.                    By reference to iladisons's  Papers, vol. 2, p. 1,22f,
the draft of a constitution will be found as reported
From the it ew- York (Sunday) Ierald, N2ov. 18.      by the Committee of Detail. It did not provide for a
h0loa'0raeinv, Ala., Nov. 9, 1860.    prohibitioni or tax on the irmportation of slaves. Oal
trae the hEditord if he Hperoalt d:,his a debate  sprang up. I quote fromn that debate the
Since my return  home my attention has be              vi     flending elegaes
called to ac editrial artice in the NwYo   is,  Mr. L. MlAnRTI, of Maryland, proposed to vary asticanld Ot.    aded a eitori   article in t he NEwYtoa TofFac, t ce 7, section 4, so as to allow a prohibition or tax on
ofn Oct. 27, headed, "Mr. ~YANEY On Matters of Fa ct    the icanorattio  of slaves. (Voil. 3, p. 1,388,)
-The North and the Slave-trade."  The article pur-         Mr. ELLsswo sT, of Coonnecticut, was for leaving the
piorts to be a reply to assertions made in my speeches    clause as ittands. Let every State import what it
in New-P ork anud Boston.'l'heir substance  will be    pleases. The morality or wisdom rof Slavery are confound in the following quotations from those speeches.    siderations belonging to the States themselves, (Vol.
In my speech in New-York I said:                         3, p. 1,380.
"Our forefathers were not only slave   lersbutr. HERN, f Conecticut ws for leavig the
ported slaves from Africa.  Virginia wished to sup-      clause as it stands. ('Vol. 3, p. 1,390.)
press the trade, but Massachusets  and other States  I   Col. MAsoN, of Virginia-e lamented tha.t some of
wished it to be carried on.  [Laughter.]  Massach-    our Eastern brethren  had, frori a lust of gain, Ecn
sels andthose  other  States insisted that the Slave-pomta  lght of  *:* 
wseats a~ndlose olber Stlates  nsicssled that the S   lave-    barked in this nefarious traffic. He held it essential,
trade should not be prohibited by aiy act of Congress,    it every point of view, that the General Government
and resisted all attempts to prohibit it until the act of    shsould have the power to  prevent the increase of
Congress of 1808 was passed; fobr, by an article of the    Sloaern   (3d voi., p. 1,3 0-1.)
Constitution, which  was beyond the reach of Con-    Slavry. (3d ol., p. 1,30-1.
was provide  by our fore-  l. ELLmswORTH, of Connecticut —He said, however,
gressional amendment, it was provided. by our fore-    that if it was to be considered in a moral light, we
fathers that no change should be made in the Slave- o- ht to go wfurther,  and fee  those a lready i   th9e
trade until the year  1808. aow did th at   s             ountrv. As slaves also multiply so fast in Virginia
with the modern theorists  as to    existence of an    ad  aryland that it is cheaper to raise than import
irrepressible coisflict?"  [applause.]                  thern, whilst in the sickly rice swamps foreign supIn my speech at Boston, I said:                         )lies are necessary, if we go further than is urged,we
"Well, then, your fathers, in demanding that the    shall be unjust towards South Carolina and Georgia.
Slave-trade, which existed when the Declaration of    Let us not interseddle. (3d vol., p. 1,391.)
Independence was made, should be continued; in de-         Mr. KiNi, of Massachusets, thought the subject
manding that the institution of Slavery, which existed    should be considered in a political light only. * -  *
when the Constitutiom  was formed, should have a         tHe remarked on the exemption of slaves from  duty,
wider basis; in demanding that slaves should be in-    whilst every other import was subjected to it, as an
creased in number; in demanding that they should    inequality that could not fail to strike the commercial
have the privilege of trading in them, of buying them_    sagacity of the Northern and Middle States. (3d vol.,
and selling them to our people-I ask you now candid-    p. 1,394.)
ly, did they not,in demanding all this, demand of their    Mr. GOUVENEUR MoRRIS, of Pennsylvania, wishea




the'whole subject to be corinitiled, includli:g  the       Mir. GiERRY, of Massachusetts, movedi to reconsider
clause orn imniports. These thiags may forrn a. bargain   article 19, viz.:    On applicatiton of two-thirds of the
among the Southern andi Northern States, (3d vol.,    States in this Union for an amendment of this.Conp. 1,395.)                                                 stitution, the Legislature of the United States shall
The matter was coinmitted. The Commrnitlee mLade        call a Coniventionr for that ptJrpose." i-e said: " Tworeport in substance as the section now stands in the      thirds may obtain a Conrention, a majority of which
Constitution, excepting ithatl the Committee reported     can bind the Urnion to inllovations th1at may subvert
in favor of the year 18(10.                               -ttls Stiate Conslitutions altogethllel."
Gen.t PmNCaNi:Y, of South Carolina, moved to substi-      0n Mr. GERa)y's motion, Massachusetts, Connectituce 1808.for 1800. (3d vol., p. 1,427.)                  cut, Peoisylvania and six other States voted Aye. (3d
Mr. GOReIAaI, oI Massacluse I(,s, seconded the motion.    vol., p. 1,103-4-5.)
Mr. MADISOr, of Virginia-T'wernty years will pro-E,  Of -out1
ditee all tihe irlichitef ttatt c;an be appr-ehendedl Iroxt  It being reconsidered,  Mr. RuTaBDOR, of South
the liberty to iipoJht stlaved.                            Carolina, said "he siever col(Jed agree to give a power
Ont the  noton,by which passed oil the adirmative,      by whic  thle articles relating to slaves might be
lNvsv-IEaetpshire, Coss!i.eCtir;tit, Mla~ssaclstusetis  antL    altered by the States not interested ii that property,
th~ree ol-tler Statles, Aye. New-Jersey, Peninsylvaltia,  and prejudliced against it."  in. order to obviate that
Delaware and Virgii;ta, No. (3d vol., p. 1,427.)           oblction, tese  orids were acled to tlhle wIhcpbosition
ThIe irst part of the report was then stgreed SV  S         Provided that rto ttendreast which xnay be ila.de'riei     a f oirst ws: f thh e trep rt wras then aoreeds t( ado  prior to the year 180(8 shall in any mtanner aiffct the
ar~rtiell(                  -                   ad led, as folws:  Ille mrigrati~on or import st',    fourth and fifth sections of the,eventh article."  On
of siuch persoils ias tlhe severtal States now existig    louhis, wandich pat sed  in the affirmative, the voarte  stood
shall thlilrh  Trotelr to adtmit shall not be prohlibited  lii  wttith gas.en  i the siffimative, thevolestood
prior t   t roheye   tr   adi.ne-ithamhnot btre  aprosibitea   tIhus-Massachtusetts, Connecticut,New-Jersey, Pelr..prior to the~ year  1808. iNew-flampshire,    Massaehuisetis, Connct:cticut, MVarylansd, North Carolina, South    sylvia, Masylaid, Virgtia, North. Carolina,  South
Carolina,  Georgia-Aye.  Delaw'are-No.  NewCarolina, Georgia, Aye —7.  New-Jersey, Pennsyl-            arolia.,    eo     -e         el         o.     ewvania, Delaware, Virginia, No-4. (3d vol., pp. 1,428      -ampshiee, di-vled.
anld. 1,429.)                                              lThese extracts and votes prove my fourth proposlThe above extracts of opinions of leading Northern      tion or statement, and that alter Massachusetts had
Delegates, and the above-cited votes of Massatchu-        seconded and voted for the section to extendl the time
setts, Conlnecticut, stand other Sltates, prove mnay state-    for irmportation of slaves, she also called for the reiellt nt:sbered. 3. [11; prove.s t(hast the propositiorl fo(r  consideration of the article upol the rmode of atmend"prohibitiott" of the "imrporlationt of staves" caie II   ing thle Constitution, a.nd voted fio the clause that no
frott M1aryland, and was warmly su.pported,-olt uvcnrat    amenlment to be rnade shoulat   affclct in aty way the
graounds, by Virginia, and l;lit Couiuect:icui;t illnlrle-  Slave-t1acde guaranty. I hlave nothilg more to ado_.
diately- proiouilcend:   Let evet y Stfate import -wut it    ItHavinig [tow  corrected the hostile alld  rialignatit
pleasess;" while Massacchusetts a.bly secolnded ion-    c:rilticisnms of two leading editors in the Black Rex)eclicut, that it wais " to be considtered in a politicsl    piblican calse, viz.:  imr. TnuRLow WEED and MR.
light only," a-nd at on:tce suggestedt the exemrltiOtn of    HENRY J. 1RAiON-D-the first in rsy speech at Rocllesirrtpor:ted slaves:rulno dOutWy, however "' sltrulk the coos-    ter, anrd the last;il this letter, I leave the  whole subjec, t
mercial sagacity" of thle North. He rttade it a. subject    of those speechles to the judgmrent of anl irttelligent
or tradte, tot for rtloral specualatious. Trho;se extrticts  public. I may be perlmittd -to observe, however,
andt -votes also prove -tha-t wb-t the Cornsittee m1e-    ithat I have tnot had,att oppori ttlityy of ctorrecting the
ported the year 1800 as t:he pe.riotl withlin which. thne  reports whllic  -were iaihe of thele; alid thelie tire ertrade shouldc not be prohibited, Massachusetts promplt-    rors of style aond statelneeltt in tle repgirts which I
iv seconded  andt acted with Stoutth. Carolitra int a sut —    slioald itave been glatl to have cotrrected.
essstuL effort -to extelrd. the time for tie imilportatioi of  Could those papers -which lhave copied the TiEsn' at -
slaves from Africa to the year 1808.                      litle do me the justice to publish mny reply, I sltould
I now turnl to the coitsidcration of the hctut'ih stale-  be grattiied by that act otf courtesy, while, at the same
mnent made by ine, amnd I c msntin ie extracts from  thle    time, the cause of truth. -w-ould be sulbserved.
debates in the Federal Conventior,:                             Your obedient servant),   WV L. YANCEY.
THE iOTIV'ES AND OBJECTS OF TiE DISUNION M0VEMiENiT.
Niwv-mYoaa-, Nov. 26, 1860.     commitlnents of the other Cotton States will impel
In a lortmer letter I corrected. the rnisreprese:tta-   ttlelmi, not only to imitate her example, but to come
tions,historical andstatistical,by which you esdeav-    to her aidc, in resisting atsy armed attempt of the
ored to convince ithe people olf the Northern States     Federal Governmentt to support the Constitution
that they ought to permit the indefinite tinc-rcasc  of'   and mraintain. the integrity of the Union.
Slavc'ry. I propose now  to considier the bearing          I am constrained  by the evidence of events to
of that argumenst lupon t he preseent Disunion mnove-    cortfess that your efforts have been crowned with a
nuent.                                                   startling degree of success.  Altlhough. the final
You are urging the State of Alabama to secede          step has not yet been taken by any State, public'
from  the Union, —or, if she will not take the lead      sentiment in three or four of them seerns quite prein secession, to join atny ot;her State that may do      pared to take it.  The machinery which you organso, What you adcvise her to hdo, you think every    ized. some years since for the purpose of "firing
slaveholding State should do also,-but you are    the Southern heart, instructing the Southern mind,
unwilling to trust the decisionr of the question to      ancd giving courage to each other," has done its
the voice of all those States, assembled. in Conven-'work far more effectually than even you could;ion and acting together, —-or evenl  to  the calm       have  anticipated;-and that "Proper Moment,"
judgment asid  consenting action of the  Cotton          when, as you declared in your letter of June 15,
States alone. You  insist that sonie  one State          1858, you could "by one orgaxized concerted acshall withdraw from the Union by herself, trusting       tion, prccipitate the Cotton States into a revoluthat the community of interest, the pride and the    hon," seems in very truth to have arrived. Gladly




as I would shut my eyes to so unwelcome a fact,   theories'were intended to support. I feel justified,
I cannot doubt that an overwhelming majority of    therefore, in regarding you as the best representathe people of South Carolina are prepared for se-    tive of the disunion movement, and in seeking the
cession,-and that after the blow  has once been     causes of that movement, in your opinions and
struck there is much reason to believe that a ma-    declarations.
jority of the people in Georgia, Alabama and Mis-      What, then, are your reasons for urging a dissosissippi will rally, in arms if necessary, to her sup-    loution of the Union?
port.;ELECTION OF A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT.
What is likely to be the result of such a move-     If I were to ask every Disunionist in the South
ment, I may perhaps consider before I close this    this question, nine-tenths of them  would probably
correspondence. At present my purpose is rather    reply, the election of LINCOLN and the triumph of
to examine its motives.                             the Republican party. But you know  that in and
The great mass of the people in the Cotton grow-    of itself this constitutes 1o justification whatever.
ing States are imbued with the general conviction    You claim that Secession is strictly a constitutional
that -their separation from the Union is desirable:    proceeding. But certainly it is not more so than
-and the same thing is true, though to a much    the election of a President in strict compliance
less extent, of the people in the other Slaveholding  with every form and every requirement of the ConStates. If we were to ask them what are the rea-    stitution. You say he has been elected by a secsons for such a conviction,-what are the precise    tional vote. Admit the fact;-that does not make
wrongs which they have suffered under the Union,    it one whit the less Constitutional. The Constituand what the advantages they expect to secure for    tion knows nothing of sections in. the Union,themselves by leaving it,-we should receive very    either as elements of power or as the olaimants of
different answers from  different States. The too-    rights. It recognizes only States and People, —and
tives which influence Disunionists in Alabama and    it assigns to each their just proportion of power n
South Carolina, are not the motives which influence    the election of a President, as in every other funcDisunionists in Maryland and Virginia. All would -   tion of government. The States have an equality
agree that their common institution-Slavery-is    in the Electoral college to the extent of two votes
in some way menaced by the Government as it    each: —anid then each  State has an additional
now exists, and especially as it will exist after it    weight in proportion to its population. This propasses into the hands of the Republican Party;-     vision, which the Constitution deemed sufficient to
but they would differ as to the shape which its per-    secure the individual States from  injustice, has
ils assume. In order to ascertain the real motive    been fully complied with. The election of LINCOLN
of disunion, therefore, we must go to those few      involves not the slightest departure from the Conleading minds with whom, like all great move-    stitution in  any particular. If secession were
ments, it had its origin. Less than two years be-    equally Constitutional, your right to secede would
fore the Declaration of Independence was issued,     be beyond question.
WASSHINGTON expressed the sentiment of the great       But he is elected by the Republican Party-and
body of the people when he declared that the Col-    by a minority of the popular vote, through the dionies had no thought or desire to sever their con-    visions of his opponents.  True-but Republicans
nection with the mother country. But SAsMUEL         are people; a Constitutional majority, composed.ADAMS,  and JAMES OTIS, and JOHN ADAMS, and         wholly of Republicans, is not one whit the less a
PATRICK I-ENaY, knew live years before, that in-    Constitutional majority of the people than if it
dependence was the real object, and would be the    were composed ni part of others: and a Constitucrowning  consummation of the current popular    tional majority-not an absolute, numerical maprotests against English rule.                      jority —is all that is required for the election of a
The disunion movement has been set on foot by    President.' It is a maxim of law, moreover, as well
aI comparatively  small number of men in the         as of common sense, applicable to public as well as
Southern States.;  M/r. CALHOUN planted the seeds    to private controversies, that no man shall take adof it, in the intellects and the ambition of the most    vantage of his own wrong: and those who are now
prominent and influential of the rising statesmen    Disunionists in the South, with you at their head,
of the South. His doctrines found nio lodgment    are directly responsible for that rupture of the Dein the popular   amiid. Hlis argumlents were too ab-    mocratic Party which aided, if it did not cause, the
stract for general appreciation, and the idea of dis-    election of LINCOLN.
union was never popular out of South Carolina,         These, you will say, are technical reasons against
during his lifetime. Since his death the apostles    secession. True, and they are only assigned in
of his creed have'been urtiring in its propaga-    answer to technical reasons in its favor. If you
tion;-and no one man has been more zealous    stand upon the Constitution, and assert your right
than yourself in this work. You have been, more-    under it to secede in case of its violation, I am free
over, somewhat bolder and more fiank in the ap-    to show that no such violation has taken place, and
plication of his theories to the practical policy of    that you have, therefore, no such right.
the country,-you have been more willing than           Nor can you find any pretext for secession in th
many of those who were working with you, to    character of the man thus elected. If you have
avow  and advocate the measures which those    made yourself at all familiar with it-as you are
B




10
bound to do before making it the ground of objec-    justice and equal rights. You mistake the North
tion-you must know that the Union contains no    in supposing that the election of LINCOLN indipurer, no more upright, no more patriotic citizen;    cates any disposition on the part of the people to
no man more just and fair-minded, more certain to    countenance any infraction of Southern rights.
discharge the duties of his office with scrupulous    They elected him  because they did not believe he
regard to the rights of all, than Mr. LINCOLN. But    had the slightest sympathy with any such pureven if this were not so, I understand you to have    pose,-and because they knew that the public welexpressly waived this as a reason for secession, in    fare imperatively demanded a change in the spirit
your speech at Montgomery in 1858, where I find       and tone of the Federal Councils. And if the Reyou saying:                                           publican Administration should tolerate the least'" If I understand riy distinguished fiend from Vir-   invasion of Southern rights, the very firsdt elecginia, (MIr. PayoR,)  the election. of a Black Re-    tions would deprive it of the support of every conpublican Presid ent w'.ould be ai issue for disunion.    siderable Northern State.
I understand my leiarned colleague (Mr. HILLAID)
to say that upon that issue he would be ready to dis-   If, therefore, you had no stronger reason than
solve the'Union.  I say- with all deference to my col-   the election of a Republican President, I am sure
leagues here,that no more iofeerior iss ue could be tendered
to tlhe S'oth  p^'asiCb'we Shoellf dissolve the Union    you would not urge the secession of the Southern
than the loss of an election.  If in the contest of 1860    States.
for the Presideney, S.aExaI  should receive the legal         SURR;ENIDER O' FIJGITIV:E SLAVES.
number of votes necessary to elect him  according to
the forms of the Constitution anrl laws, gei!tierien say  The refusal to surrender fugitive slaves,-and
that then will be the time, to dissolve the'U ion. ff especially the enactment by several   ther
that is made the cause of disunion, I say to them that 
I -will go with them:, but I will feel that I am going in    States of Personal Liberty bills, with the apparent
theL woake of en z tlor ssee, that there was aw aaiiner! intent to prevent their recovery, is much more
over rue that is not of the kind I would wish.
When I am aslked to raise the flag of revolution    generally assigned as a reason for Disunion. But
against an election under the fotms  of law and the    this cannot be your motive, nor that of the Gulf
Conistitution, Il am asked to do an unconstitutional
Consttutiol, r  n asked to t do C n uonstitution as it  w   exi States whose action will dissol've the Union, if it
thiin,,g, accoirding to the Constitution as it anow exists.
I an askced to pult rmyse7f in the position of a rebel, of' a    is dissolved at all;-for they- suffer scarcely any
traitor; in a position wherei, if the Government should       inconveiieece ficon  this source. Out of
succeed and put down the revolutioi, I and myfriends
tcon e bearrai.ne be./re th.e Supreme Coue t of the Urzitd  I the eleven hundred slaves who escape from the
States, and there be see/enced to be hangedjo br violatilog      South annually, I presume that all the Cotton
thte~ Coastsitatiorn and loauws oJnmy coinStry."      States together do not lose fifty. Virginia, MaryThe fact, therefore, that a Republican President    land and iKentucky are the States upon whom this
has been elected calnnot be your reasons for dis-    wrong and this loss fall; yet they are Union
union. As a symptom  and precursor of other    States. They have so little  sympathy with the
events it might have niore weight. If there were    secession movement that you will not trust youranry substantial reason  for supposing that Mr.    self in Convention with them,-and the DisuniotnLiNCOLN would aid or counteltanlce any infraction    ists of' South  Carolina  insultingly  repel all
of Southern rights, any trespass upon Southern in-    advice or counsel from  theti  on this subject.
terests, any attempt to disturb the public peace in    You must be aware, moreover, that the Suthe SouLtherln States, you would be quite right iii    preme  Court has  released  the  States  from
putting the South in an attitude of defence, and of    all obligation to  return  fugitive slaves by- depreparation for resistalce, to any extent'which the    volving that duty  upon the  Federal Governinjustice,  when it should come, might require.    ment;-that the law of 1850, in fulfillment of that
But it is scarcely becoming a great and brave    duty, by its defective provision for proofs of idenpeople, to act upon a mere apprehension of dangers    tity, subjects free citizens of Northern States to
that may never arrive; and in this case you have    the danger of being carried  into Slavery, as has
every assurance which  lir. LIscosLN's  declared      happened once at least since its enactment;-annd
sentiments and which the necessities of his posi-   that the professed object of these Personal Liberty
tion can give, that no trespass upon Southern rights    bills has been to protect free citizens ifroi that
will be permitted which he has the power to pre-    peril, and not to prevent the return of actual. fugi-,
vent.                                                tives. The injustice which they may work to the
You fear that, whatever his personal opin-    owners of fugitive slaves, is not greater than the
ions and purposes mtay be, he will be governed by    injustice which may arise to free nmen from  the
the requirements of his party. But you have seen    harsh and unguarded execution  of the Fugitive
enough of public life to know that seeking power    Slave law.
against a party in possession is one thing, and         I am not disposed, however, to enter upon any'wielding it under all the responsibilities which it    vindication of the general policy of these bills. I
involves, is quite another. The Republican Party    have always opposed them as at war in their spirit,'will now have far more interest than any other in    with the constitutional obligation to  surrender
preventing renewals of the John Brown raid,-in    fugitive slaves, and as calculated needlessly to expunishing every movement against the peace of a    asperate the people of the Southern States. Their
Soluthern State,-in enforcing the'laws, suppressing   enactment has been usually duie to  the  race of
everything like resistance to their execution,' and    rival partisans for local popularity. It has been
securing that public tranquillity which rests upon    part of the machinery of our political contests;




and as a matter of practical importance I presume    aware or Virginia and thus do all in her power to
I am quite right in saying, that all the Personal    convert them  into free States. The South never
Liberty bills that have been passed in all the       can colonize the territories with slaves, until she
States, have never released half-a-dozen fugitives   can be at liberty to increase her supply by imporfrom the service from which they had escaped. I    tation from abroad.
am quite sure that none of the Southern States         There was a time when the question of Slavery
would dream of secession on account of the actual    in the  Territories was the paramount political
injury they sustain from  these Personal Liberty    question of the day. I think that time has passed;.
bills, in the loss of their fugitive slaves; for if that    and that it can never come up again, as a practical
were the motive of secession it would not be most    question, until after the African Slave-trade has
powerful where the injury is the least. In that    been reopened.  The Gulf States will send no
case, Kentucky, and not South Carolina, woald        slaves to Kansas or New- nexico so long as they
take the lead in the movement of Disunion.           command such enormous prices at home;-nor
You say the passage of these bills is insulting to  will Virginia or Kentucky send slaves thither, so
the South-an  outrage upon her rights and a          long as their prices rule three times as high in the
mockery of her sufferings. I do not deny it. I    markets at their doors.  Slaveholders who emiadmit that there has been a great deal too much      grate into new regions first sell their slaves, and
that is offensive to Southern feeling in the action  thus take their property with them in the shape of
of the North upon this subject. But has all the in-    cash. As you clearly expressed it in your Montsult been upon one side in this matter? H'ave the    gomery speech:
Constitutional rights of Northern men-their right      "Stlaves are too valuable to be risked in a contest
to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"-  wzith.Free-Soil-domin any ofoournew Terfitories. The
consequence is that this species of property is kept
always been respected in the South?  I merely    in the Sta tes which protect it, aad where there is a,
suggest this point as worthy your consideration, if    demand for it."
you propose to dissolve the Union because you          Practically, therefore, we shall hear nothing
have been insulted. We have quite as much            more of the Territorial question until the greater
ground of complaint on this score as you have.    question which lies behind it, and gives it all its
Neither section has been blameless. Both have    importance, shall have been decided. And this, I
steps to retrace and reforms to practice; and I    think, is the general conviction of the reflecting
think you will find the North quite ready to meet    portion of the people olf the North, even among
the South at least half way in this matter.          the Republican Party.  ll[r. SEWARD,  you  will YeT-IE TERRITORIAL QUESTION.                 merhber, in one of his campaign speeches, said he
But you claim the right to carry Slavery into the  considered it settled that there would be no further
Territories, and that position, you say, is denied   extension of Slavery into the Territories until the
by the Republican Party. The assertion of the ri'-ht    African Slave-trade should be restored: and it canis one thing,-and its exercise is quite another. I    not have escaped  your observation that the.Repubthink I run no risk of contradiction when I say,    lican Convention at Chicago held la.nguage on this
that the present holders of slaves in the Southern   point very different fiom that used at Philadelphia
States care nothing about the exercise of the right    in 1856. As things now stand, I be;lieve the Nor;th
asserted on their behalf. They do not wish to go     would lose nothing whatever by leaving the whole
to the Territories themselves,-still less to take    subject of extending Slavery into the'Territories
their slaves with them. There are no territories     entirely untouched; —ad. in lthe absence of aynow  belonging to the Union into whjch slaves    further causes of irritation. from the South, I think
could be carried without a prodigious sacrifice of    it not at all unlikely that the North woluld consent
their value. What slave-owner in Alabama will   that the question should be decided by the course
take slaves worth  from  $1,000 to $1,500 there    of events and the natural influences of climate
into Kansas or New-Mexico, where they are not    and emigration. If I held any official position, or
worth, either for sale or for hire, one-half of that    any post -which would involve any party in the
amount,-to say nothing of the risk of losing         responsibility for these opinions, I might not hazthem? Mr. GAULDr.N, of Georgia, was quite right    ard such ail expression of them. But I give it as
when he told the Charleston Convention that the      my own judgment, based upon the grounds I leave
South had no slaves to send into the territories,-   already mentioned.
she had not enough to  supply the demand for           But suppose this to be true. Suppose the incomlabor at home. She needs on her own plantations    ing Administration should decide to leave this
all the slave-labor she can possibly command,-    whole matter precisely where it stands at present,
and any attempt to send slaves into the territories  making no attempt to prohibit by law the extenwould only diminish her product of cotton, weaken    sion of Slavery into the Territories, conceding that
her domestic strength and add  nothing to her    the inhabitants may, when they come to form a.
wealth elsewhere. Nor are the political consider.    State Constitution, and not before, admit or exations which the question involves likely to change  clude Slavery in their own discretion, and agreeing
her action. For if.she should send slaves into any    to admit the State into the Union in either case:territory in order to make it a slave territory, she    would the South accept that as a final adjustment
must draw additional supplies from Maryland, Del-    of the differences between the two sections?




12
Would. you,-and those who are acting with you. in         How far the practical application of this princithe disunion movement?                                 pie would. affect the general subject of property, the
I think you would reply: "Yes, if you will con-    purpose of this correspondence does not lead me,
cede it as a matter of Right, of principle, with        nor do its limits permit me, to inquire.  It would
whatever logical consequences that principle mn.ay      evidently put the -whole matter of property under
involve. But if it is offered on grounds of expe-    the contsrol of any one State,-and each State would
diency alone-as a practical solution of an embar-       be sovereign qseoad hoc, not only over its own
rassing question-lVo."  What the South contends         affairs, but over the affairs of all the other States.
for is the principle that her slaves are property in    That the principle would involve the restoration of
the view of the Constitution-to be held, treated,       the foreign trade in slaves, if any State should
and in all respects regarded by the Federal Govern-     choose to enter upon it, you will. not deny, nor have
ment, as property, and nothing else, precisely like     I the slightest doubt. Indeed, in your Montgomery
horses, cattle, and other movable chattels.  It is    speech you  took precisely this ground, and dethe absolute indefeasible Right itselli and not the     nounced  the  laws of Congress prohibiting the
exercise of the right, which the South would de-        Slave-trade as unconstitutional, because they demand as the price of her remaining in the Union.    nied and destroyed thi.s principle of the Equality of
STATE EQUALITY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE.                 the States.  You say:
Now, why do you mak.e this distinction?  Why           "The  laws prohibiting  the foreign Slave-trade,
are in violation  of the spirit of the Constitutioin,
wouldyou  refuse the privilege of carrying  slaves       anid aie unjust and an insslt to the South, and
into the Territories, unless you could secure at the    ought to be repealed. * *  *  What rig'hit has this
same time the absolute right to do so?  Because         bOueeumenttO discenieoste against one of the,Statee i
tihe Unioun that has equal rights in the Union? Where
the former would be valueless without the latter,       will you. find the right in'the Constitution.? Nowhele.
Because you have no slaves to take into the Territo-    Will iiy -friend from Virginia (Mr. PRvoYi) find in aiiy
clause of the Constitution a.ny enactment against the
ries, —and you need the right, —and the principle on    Slave-trade? No, he will not find it there. What will
which it rests, in order to get them, and thus ren-    he find in that Constitution? He will find simply
der the concession itself of any practical value.    tis:'Congress shall enact no law  prohibiting the
migration or importation of such persons as arny of
In other words, you require the restoration of the      the States may see fit to admit before the year 1808.'
African Slave-trade, in order to extendl Slavery        What do you call that? Why that is one ot the Constitiitsonal guarantees of the Slave-trade.
into the Territories.  The recognition of the princi-    titn. 1807tio     a law  was enacted making it a   isdeple you contend for will give you both: —while the      meanor to import a slave from  abroad. Now I askl
bare concession of the extension itself will. seciir e   eveiy sensible man in this Convention, was not the.
stateute a violaston e  thle spirit of the Constitution?
you neither.                                             What was the spirit of the Constitution? It was that
The principle you asses t is the absollte equalsl;tly  African Slavery -within ouil dominions was legal, and(
of the States in regarrd to the ti nosre eJf pro~ -,    thaft we stood upon an equealtboting silh all the rest of
of teth States negrd oth            e                                    efeence to lthis species ot property.
— tlat each State shall be allowed to mnake its          And what became of our equalitvy  hen the law  was
own laws concerning psopeltly,-th f ow. si?  of         passed that sait, you of the South shall not import noeoof nhen  esh   of  groes yrom  Africa, though yoo u of the North may inmpeersons or of thrings, o-and thast any rlighlt of    port jacklasses from  Malita? What becani-e i' outr
properztly which any  State miay s-ee fit tlhis  to    equalitgy then? A blow  was struck against it, whlein
create, s7hall he recognized  b1/ the Federsali Go             vernment passed a law discmriminating againist
createshllrcogzedteeral Gow                the slave labor of the South.                 i iT law
ernment as absoluete and inde/easisble.                 struck eut the equality of the South. If so, it follows  a
This is what you. understand by the Equlality         plaiily, as th-t twi and two snake Soils, tSat th 
is a.nzLiconstitzletional lar.
of the States. You will. concede, I think, that I         Is thaere any gentlemn   bier prepa ed to mainitain
do not state the claim  too biroadly. Any restric-    that we are not equal iin the Ulion accorling to ihe
tion of it,-anything less than is included in it, de-   stand hisa  5rn   If soa  Sthe I sal  be icane to nlalle;
feats the purpose for which it is put forward. But      and in favor of the constitutionality of these elnactsuppose it to be conceded. It follows, of course,      ments.        If it is sight to buy slaves in. Vigiuiia,
in what consists the wrong of bu.ying slaves in Cuba,
that any person may do what he pleases with his         Brazil or upon the coast of Afiica??
property. He may hold it, —or buy asd sell it,-           II; is a law tllat discrim7ninates against Southe7rn 1)ropwherever the jurisdiction o s the Constituntion  exi peity  no suchI dsiscariiaion is right. It is a law
whereverthe jurisdiction of' the Constitution ex  tha. discriminates against Southern labori  no sach
tends, and the Federal Government'is bound to          discrimnination can. be made and our' equality! inl the
protect him in so doing.  Whatever I may do with         Unsiosu be yet recogzized. I therefore i.vole the puilciple of Free t- ade here, the principle of State-ri.ghts,
broadcloth, you may dowith a negro slave, —-any-        the principle of strict construction, and the great, fsunwhere within the jurisdiction of the Federal Con-    ldanzental principle      of or right auzd equality  ilv th7.i
stitution,-if that Constitution, as you contend,         Uri.on, antL c onsequently of our sight to erasue fho,
our statute-bolok every evidence of our inequality,
puts the two upon the same footing. All the property    that has been Dilt there by the dominant and anstaiounof all the States,- whatever -mny Slate chooses to    istic class that has fel upon our very life-blood."
make property by her local laws, —becomes prop-            I might greally multiply these extracts,-but I
erty in the eye of the Federal. Constitutionl, and      have given enough to show what you mean by the
consequently becomes the subject of Commerce,-          principle of State Equality, and for what puroposes
domestic, or foreign, at the will of its owner,-sub-    you demand the recognition of your absolute rioght
ject only to such uniform laws as may be adopted        to take your slaves, as your property, into the Terfor all property, in the regulation of commerce, be-    ritories.  I do not suppose that the great mass of
tween the States or with foreign nations,               the Southern people hold these views of the prin.



ciple, or join in demanding its recognition, with    every community the great mass of the people
any such purpose.  Neither did they dream in    look for gu;idance, and by whom they are guided,
1850 that the enactment of the Compromise meas-    whether they know it or not,-ought to have foreures contained a principle which would involve     seen this result and made up their minds long ago
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. But when    to act with the laws of Nature, rather than against
they were told in 1854 that it did, they united in    them,-to yield to the spirit of the age, the tendenclaiming the benefit of all the consequences of that    eies of civilization and Christianity, instead of reprinciple, just as loudly as if they had been pro-    sisting them,-to make allies instead of enemies
vided for at the outset.  A man may have no        of those great moral principles which are proving too
thought of seizing his neighbor's farm;-but show  powerful for the mightiest monarchies of the earth,
him that he has color of title, and. he will speedily    and before which it is idle to hope that despotism
commence proceedings for its recovery.  You       can make a permanent stand upon this continent.
and your associates in the organization and con.    The Fathers of our Republic did so. They framed
duct of this movement know,very well that, if you    the Constitution upon such a basis, and in the becan establish the principle to-day, you can claim    lief that it would be administered in such a
all the consequences that may flow from it to-nolr-    spirit. They gave the Government they creatrow.                                               ed power over the Slave-trade, —not doubting
CAxuES OF THE DISUNION FEELINiG.            that, after a few years, that power would be
And this brings me to what I regard as the real    exercised  with  the  general.  assent  of  all
motive of the disunion movement. That motive    the States and that all would feel, as they felt,
has taken. precise and definite form, probably, in    the necessity of providing for the gradual disapthe minds of a comparatively small nuiriber of those    pearance of Slavery itself. And for a series of
who are most active in the movement itself. The    years the event justified this expectation. The
great mass of those who sympathize with it and    prohibition of the Slave-trade in 1807, recomgive it their aid, are governed by the vague but    mended by JEFFERSON, was enacted with the
powerful feeling that the South, as a section, hav-    unanimous consent of all the States North and
ing peculiar institutions and. peculiar necessities,    South,-and down to 1830 there was a constant
is gradually pgrowing  politically  weaker and    and hopeful tendency towards emancipation in
weaker in the"i Union;-that the North is rapidly    nearly  all  the  Slaveholding  States.   But
gaining a preponderance in the Federal Councils;    since that time the leading intellects of the
and that there is no hope that the South can ever    South have  turned  back  the whole  current
regain the ascendency, or even a political equality,    of Southern sentiment upon this subject. In your
under the Constitution and within the Union. The    own words, " an entirely new idea has sprung up,
election  of  LIN'OLN  is  regarded  as con-    and is now universal in the South, upon the great
clusive  proof' that Northern  supremacy is a    question of Slavery, in its operation upon mankind
fixed fact; and it is on this account that it has so    and labor."  Mr. CALiHOUN taught the South that
concentrated  and intensified  the  resentment    Slavery was, and must always be, the sole basis of
of  the  Southern  States.   No   community    its prosperity,-and that the leading aim. of the
ever sinks downa  willingly into a position  of    South must be to fortify, to increase, and to make
inferiority. Its instinct is to struggle against it,   it perpetual. You and others have inherited his
and the struggle will be violent in proportion to the    opinions, and devoted. yourselves to their propagamagnitude of the evils which inferiority is believed    tion. And in due process of time you have come
to involve. All the sectional excitements and po- i into direct collision on this subject with the spirit
litical paroxysms of the last twenty years, have    and the letter of the Constitution which our Fathbeen but the strenuous resistance of the South to    ers framed; and you now  find that you cannot
what she has felt to be the inevitable tendency of    reach thl.e object at which you ai.m,without destroyevents. The annexation of Texas,-the claim to    ing that Constitution, and. breaking up the Union
California,-the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,    which. it created.
-the fight for Kansas, —the fillibustering in Cen-  The people of the South sympathize with the
tral America,-the clamor'for Cuba, have been    disunion movement from a keen sense of the
only the straws at which the slaveholding section    growing superiority of the North.  How  that
has clutched, in the hope to saae itself from being    superiority can be overcome within the Union they
engulfed in the rising tide of Northern power. To    do not perceive,-nor have they any definite idea
them. it was not the steady and silent rising of a    of any policy by which it can be contested, after
peaceful sea. Its roar came to their ears upon the    the South shall have seceded. You, on the con.
stormy blasts of Anti-Slavery fanaticism, —and    trary, have very definite ideas on both points.
sounded to them  like the knell of destiny,-the   You trace the growing inequality of the two
precursor of deg-adation and ruin to their homes    sections, in  material development and. consesand their hopes.                                  quent political power, to the discrimination  of
I do not wonder at this alarm. I cannot blame    the.Federal Government against the South in
it, or deny that it has its origin in just and patrio-    regard to the stpply of labor,-which  is in
tic sentiments. I do think. that the leading intel-    every community the great element of growth
lects of the Southern States —those to whom as in    and of wealth. The North  is permitted to increase




14
indefinitely its supply of labor by immigration,-by  I therefore these laws will never be reealed.'   You
inviting labor from  abroad,-while the South is    are therefore for secession. But it would not be
forbidden to seek a similar increase by importa-    safe to t-rust the issue, either before or after that
tions of the peculiar kind  of labor on which,    event, to the general action of all the Slaveholding
most  unwisely,  it  has  come  entirely  to          States,-for several of therm  are known to be
rely. When the price of labor rises in the North      utterly   hostile to  it.  As you  declared  at
it invites and secures an additional supply from.    Montgomery, it is the interest of Virginia to
abroad.;-and when the supply is excessive, it    have negroes scarce, because they will command
overflows into the new  Territories, and, planting    a high price,-while it is for the interest of Georthere new  and free States, swells the political    gia, South Carolina, and..Alabama   to have them.
power of the North. At the South the enactments:numerous, in order to have them cheap. Youiproof Congress have arrested this natural operation of    pose, therefore, to exclude the Frontier States from
the law of supply and demand. When the price          all consultation upon this subject, —and from all.
of labor rises at the  South, there  is no such.    agency in the formation of the new Confederacy
resource for increasing the supply;-there is no       which you propose to establish. "' Virginia and
way of lowering the price, and of securing a sur-    the other Frontier States," says the Charleston
plus to send into the new Territories. And this is    Mercury, the organ and mouthpiece of your party,
the reason, in your opinion, why the South falls      "may as well at once understand their position with
behind the North in material development and in    the Cotton States.  The Southern States will dispolitical power. These laws forbidding the Slave-     regard their counsel. They intend to secede from.
trade operate upon the South precisely as laws for-    the Union, and conrstruct a Union amorng thembidding emigration would. operate upon the North.     selves, and will be glad to find Virginia and other.And the remedy you propose, is to be sought in       Border States in counsel with them  after this
the ree2al of those laws —in permitting every State        great revolution."  And other journals in the disto import such labor as it requires. Then, as you     union interest, deprecate the discussion. of the
say:                                                  Slave-trade issue as certain to divide public senti"The whole matter will be left to thie operation of:ment, and weaken, if not destroy, the entire secesthe law of supply and demand, precisely as the rrlule,    sion movement.
the horse, th Corns atnd the cotton' ide orne govei ned  At present it is your policy to accumulate argunow, and I insist that there should be no more discriMs
ination by law ag'ainst the Slave-tralde than agli.nst the  men.ts for disunion, rather than to sift and define
Nutnmeg-ttralde of';ew-Eingland..Let it be governed by    them. You can command far more support for
th.e laiw of supply and demand alone. If we do not
want the n.egroes then we do not harve them; it e     that measure by declaiming on the growing power
(-o -want them, then we can get them. I thiink this    and preponderance of the North, and the steadily
ouglht to be governed by that riule."
wan.ing influence of the South in the  federal
This, then, is your ground of discontent with tlie    councils, than by tracing them to their cause and
Federal Government,-that  it p;revents the in-    fixing public' attention upon the remedy- you procrease of Slavery.  And I believe it to be at the        pose to apply. But the time will come when
root of the disunion feeling now  so prevalent in    specific measures mlust be proposed,-and then
the cotton-growing States.  Probably not one in    foremost a mong them will. be the restoration of the
ten of the mass of the Southern people,-pe-rhaps      African Slave-trade.
not one in five of those wh.o are to-day in favor of I   I think you are quite right in believing that the
secession, -would declare themselves inr favor of    Federal Government -will never consent to the Tereopening the Slave-trade.  Nor is it your policy     opening of that traffic. The North will never con —
to press the subject upon their atteintion, or even   cede that point,-nor lay the foundation for its
to allow it to be made a topic of discussion, wvlile'    concession, —directl.y or indirectly, under any cirthe issue of secession is pending.  You have          cumstances, nor for any consideration which you.
made up your mind. that your object cannot be at-    canl ofibr as an equivalent. They willmeet you on
tained within the Union.  "I do not expect,' you      this issue upon any iieldyou may select. They
said at Montgomery, "that the North, which has    will accept the hazard of Disunion a thousand
the majority, will ever vote for the measur e,-       times, rather than that as Its alternative.




IIio
SECESSION UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AND IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT WAR.
N lEwYoRa, Dec. 10, 1860.    our civilization,-a clog upon the refinement and
You  will see  from  mny  last letter that    Christian culture of the community into which
I have no faith  in the  validity  or sincerity    they are thrust.
of the  reasons  assigned  for a  secession  of        This subject, therefore, is to be kept out of
the  Southern  States.  The  motive  for that    sight until disunion shall have been accomplished.
movement is neither the failure of the North         The great mass of the people in the Slaveholding'
to surrender fugitive slaves, nor the enactment of    States are to be moved by other considerations,
Personal Liberty bills, nor the practical inability  Their pride, their local jealousies, their fears, have
of Southern slaveholders to take their slaves into    been practiced upon by way of preparation for the,
the Territories of the United States. If you could   " proper moment," when they are to be precipitathave full and sufficient guarantees upon every one   ed into revolution. Once out of the Union, their
of these points you would be'just as  zealous,    destinies will be in the hands of the boldest and the
though not perhaps so sanguine, an advocate of se-    strongest of their leaders. The Gulf States are first
cession as you are now. What you and your asso-    to organize the new  Government,-and determine
ciate conspirators seek is the restoration of the    the fundamental basis on which it shall rest. AbAfrican Slave-trade. To use your own words,    solute free trade in " negroes from  Africa as in
a' We of Alabama want slaves to be cheap — we       mules from  AMalta," will be the corner-stone of
want to buy, not to sell them. It is a Virginia idea    this new temple. Each State will be permitted to
that slaves ought to be high. [ Virginia wants    trade in whatever it may prefer,-to import ne$1,500 each for her negroes:-we  want to get    groes or nutmegs, at its own discretion. And the
thern cheaper."  " CHEAP N GROES i' is the grand    Frontier States will be offered this alternative,consummation at which you aim, —the mighty mo-    either to join the new Confederacy upon these
tive -which rouses you. to the task of destroying a    ters,-to join the North, with the certainty of
Government which was formed to " secure the          being compelled to emancipate their slaves, or to
blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity."    stand between the two, and receive the blows and
You will not understand me as implying that    the buffetings of both.
this is the motive of all whom vou have enlisted in    It is by- no means impossible that this ingenious,
the secession movement. If it were, you would    double conspiracy, against the' Union and the fronnot persist so vehemently in excluding all but the    tier Slave States, may meet with at least a partial
Cotton States from  your counsels. You would    and temporary success.  But even if you shouldl
have admitted Virginia and Tennessee and Ken-    establish an independent Confederation or consolitucky to a share in the conduct of your conspiracy.    dation of the Cotton States, can you suppose ibr a
If this were an movement in tlhe interest of all the    mlomernt that you would be permitted by the civilSlaveholding States, it would have been decided in    ized nations of the'world to reopen the African
a general convention of themi all. But you know      Slave-trade afnd efface the brand which all Christvery well that inl such a convention it would be im-    erdomn has combined to fix upon it? All the great
possible to conceal your real -motive,-and that its    Powers of the earth have entered into treaties, or
exposure would be fatal to the scheme. Vihginia    have made laws, by which that trade is declared to
is now, as she has been from  the earliest mo-    be piracy, and have pledged their united strength for
ment of her  independent  existence, opposed    its extinction. Do you expect them to abrogate these
to the Slave-trade: —South  Carolina, therefore,    treaties at the demand of your Southern Confederagives  her  formal notice  that  her aid[ is    cy? Do you expect thern to relax their vigilance
not desired, and that her advice will not be    in enforcing them?  By what inducements would
heeded, in the movement of secession. Ken-    you bring  about such a result?  Part of your
tucky, Tennessee, Maryland-all  the'Frontier    scheme is to extend your conquests into Mexico
States would set their faces like a flint against ro-    and Central America,-to add control of the Ca-.
opening the African Slave-trade. They are to have    ribbean Sea to your supremacy over the Gulf,-to.
no voice, therefore, in the decision of the question:    bring Cuba into your Southern Union. Are these
it is only after the Revolution shall have been ac-    designs likely to meet the views and enlist the
complished that they will be "permitted" to join    sympathies of either England or France? You rely
your new  Confederacy. Even in South Carolina        perhaps, on the favor with which the Apprenticeyou deprecate a discussion of the subject.  For    ship system has been regarded by France,and the inyou know that the more intelligent and consider-    dications that it may be tolerated even by England.
ate portion of the people, even in the Gulf States,    But you must rememnber that these measures are
are opposed to this cardinal feature of your policy.    resorted to only for the supply of their own necessiThey believe, as we do, that we have negroes    ties, not for the building up of rival States, and that
enough on this Continent already. They know         the principle has been insisted on by both nations,
that whatever may be their relations to society, —    as indispensable, that the emigration shall be volwhether slave or free,-they are a draw-back upon    untary,-that the service stipulated shall be foi: -,




term of years and be paid for, and that the most    When a State, therefore, declares itself out of the'
perfect security shall be given for a full compli-  Union, the Federal Government has no right to
ance with these conditions, and for discharging     coerce it into remaining. It has no power to make
and returning the laborers at the expiration of the  war on a State. The President of the United
stipulated terin. Even in this formit is by no means    States holds this opinion-that is, he comies as near
certain that England. and France will enter upon    holding it as he does to holdingi any opinion on
the system. But would such  a system  answer    this subject.
your purposes?'You want slaves-not appren-         Now, I do not propose to discuss the question
-tices-slaves for life,-who shall be property, not    whether the Constitution is or is not a " compersons,-ilncapable of consent or stipulation of    pact." That may be an important point to settle,
any kind,-who shall have no rights wlhich -white    but it seems to me quite inmlaterial to the present
men will be bound to -espect, —with whom no bar-    issue. For even if it is a compact, and nothing
gain is binding,,:arod whose children and children's    niore, I can see no reason why one of the thirtychildren, shall thus be mere property, absolutely    two parties to it should. have the right to break it
and to the remotest generation. Anything short of    at discretion. A compact implies a mutual obligathis, any limitationls or conditions upon the traffic,    tion. It is binding upon all who become parties to
would hitroduce into the system of Slavery as it    it. It is so alike in private and in public transacnow exists among you, elements fatal to its con-    tions. If two men form  a partnership, unlimited
tinuance. You must be strangely insensible to    in its term, that partnership can only be dissolved
the moral sentiment of the age,-to the ideas which  by mutual'consent, or by appeal to a common arbiare steadily advancing to supremacy  over the       ter. In the lowest form  of private compacts, no
Christian world,-if you expect ever to gain the     one party to a bargain has the right to repudiate it
assent of any civilized nation on the face of the   at pleasure, —to absolve himself from  the obligaearth to such a scheme.                             lions and responsibilities which it involves, and reThe first result of successful secession would    sume the position which he held before he entered
be to increase immensely the vigor and. vigilance    into  it.  Nor  can  States  or nations  claim
of the great naval Powers in suppressing the Slave-    ~ any exemption from this law of common morals.
trade. Nothing has paralyzed those efforts hither-    Nothling is more firmly established in the laws of'to half so much as the unwillingness of our Fed-    nations and the usages of the world than the prineral Government to offei-d the South by any special    ciple.that a deliberate:repudiation of t reaty obligazeal in this direction. It has been made, to some   lions is a just cause of war. Even if the Union,
extent, an American question, and has been coln-    then, be only a treaty,-a compact between the
plicated by consideratiolls of naval rights and of    States, —it is nevertheless binding upon them all.
national honor. Our ref sal to concede a mutual    Each one is bouxd. to abide by all its engagements,
right of search, and the hesitation of England to   -to discharge faithfully the obligaliotns into which
enforce upon Spain the fulfillment of her treaty    it has entered.
stipulations, lest she should become involved in a   You may say they are -sovereign,  and, therefore,
war -which might end in the transfer of Cuba to the  sole masters of their own acts, —judges of'their
United States, have done more than all otherscauses    own obligations,-and subject to 1lo coemnon and
combined to prevent or embarrass the suppression    controlling tribunal. Even i'i they were so once,
of the Slave-trade. Both these obstacles would    they ceased to be so when they parted with a porbe removed by secession. The.North will have no    tion of their sovereignty and agreed to accept a
motive for further hesitation.  The mutual right of    common arbiter. No nation can be so absolutely
search will be conceded. The Slave-trade, if pros-    sovereign as not to be bound by its own obligations.
ecuted at all, will be prosecu;ecd just as piracy is,  Suppose we take the opposite position, —that
— under the ban and outlawry of the world. The    any Slate has a right to secede at will: where will
moral sentiment of this coun:try will be released    it land us? If one State may secede another may.
from the shackles which the Constitution, and the   Suppose all resolve upon secession': What becomes
Union with the slaveholding South have imposed      of the Federal Government? What becomes of its
upOn it, and the Slave-trade will lose the only    obligations,-of its debts,-its common property,shadow of toleration it has hitherto enjoyed.       of its engagements entered into with foreign PowEven if you secede, therefore, and establish      ers? What becomaes of its flag, its army, its navy?
your new Slave Empire, you xwill be no nearer the    All these things, you say, are to be matters of future
object you seek than you are at present.            arrangement.  But that does not settle the quesTHEi QUES'riON OF S:ECESSIsON..          tion of legality. If secession is a matter of constiAnd now let us considenr this subject of seces-    tutional right,-then there must -be some constitusion. What is it? On what basis does it rest?    tional provision, direct or inferential, for the emer —
Under what form, and by what meals, do you         gencies which grow out of it.  All these obligaropose to achieve it?.                           tions are to be annulled; —but then, you say, they
In the first place, you claim that Secession is a    rmay be renewed if the thirty-two parties to the old
constitutional right-that this Confederacy behig the  compact see fit to renew them.  But what if they
result of a compact between sovereign States, each  do not?  What would foreign creditors of the
State has a right to withdraw from it at pleasure.    United States say to such a schene? What would.




foreign nations say to such a mode of disposing of    she pleases, —and pass as rnany nullification laws
the engagements and undertakings into which they    as her statute-book.s will hold; but she cannot inmhave entered with the Republic?                  pair in the slightest degree the duty of every indiTHE GOVERNMENT DEALS WITH INDIVIDUALS, XND        vidual within her borders to obey the laws of ConNOT wsITH STATES.                   gress. It is the duty of the President of the UniBut it seems to me that this question has been    ted States to " take care that the laws be faithfully
involved in a great deal of needless confusion, by    executed.;" and, as Mr. BuCHA-NAN very justly rethe use of the term  secession.  "Words are    marks in his Message,  "no human power can rethings," and in this instance, as in many others,   lease him from the performance of that duty."
the adroit substitution of one word for another has    THE STATES HAVE]. NO POWER TO aR LEASE THEIR
created an issue entirely foreign to the case. The    CITIZENS FsaOM THE UUTYC OF OBEDIENCE.
Federal Government is under no necessity of dis-    The only-question which can arie, therefore, in
cussing the question of secession. The only point    this matter of secession is, whether the Federal
it has to decide is the right and the duty of ce/orec-    Government will permit citizens of South Caroiag obedience to its own laws.                    lina or Alabama, or any other State, to refuse obeThe Constitution gives Congress power to make    dience to the laws of Congress on the plea that
certain laws for the people of the United States.    they have been released from such obedience by
It is the duty of every citizen of the United States    the action of that State. So far as the matter of
to obey those laws, provided they are constitu-    right is concerned, the question scarcely requires
tional, and to refer that point to tribunals created  an answer.  Unless we have made up our minds
for the purpose of deciding it. Has the Federal    to abandon our national existence altogether, we
Government the right and the power to enforce    have no choice in the premises. For if the princisuch obedience upon its citizens?  No one can    pie is once conceded that a State may nul'lify the
doubt it. You do not deny it. The Government    action of the Federal Government, and release ts
has vused the Army and the Navy to enforce the    citizens from the duty of obedience to Federal law,
Fugitive Slave law in Massachusetts, and you have    neither South Carolina nor the Slave States will
never denied or questioned the constitutionality of    be left alone in the exercise of that right. Every
that proceeding. It has precisely the same right    Northern and Western State will at once enact
to use the Army and the Navy to enforce upon a    Personal Liberty bills of the most stringent charcitizen of South Carolina the payment of duties    acter. New-York has a hundred fold more to gain
which Congress may impose upon the importation    by releasing her citizens from the payment of Feds
of mierchandize abroad. The Sitare has nothing to    eral duties on imports than any Southern State.
do with the matter. The law does not take effect    But you urge that ours is a voluntary Governupon the State; the Constitution does not even re-    ment,-andt  must depend on the voluntary assent
cognize the existence of the State, in connection    of its people, and not on force, for its preservation.
with the duty of obedience to the laws of Congress,    Properly understood, this is perfectly true,-but its
except to forbid its effictiee interference. The    practical importance depends on the manner of its
only way in which the State can be brought into    application. If a constitutional majority of the
the case at all, is by claiming the right to release    people become dissatisfied with the Government,
its citizens from the duty of obedience to the Fede-    or with its Administration, they have a right to
ral law. Congress says that the citizen of South    change it. If any considerable portion of the peoCarolina shall pay duties upon all merchandise he    pie become dissatisfied, they have a right to demay import into Charleston. The State of South    rnand amendments. If they consider themselves
Carolina assumes that she has a Constitutional    aggrieved or oppressed, they may seek redress in
right to release him firom  that obligation-and to    the Courts of law. And back of all these rights is
say that he may import that merchandise without    the right of Revolution, for which no provision can
paying duties. The only question that can arise is    ever be made-which, indeed, can never be recoghas South Carolina any such right? Let the Con-    nized in any Constitution or form of Government,
stitution itself reply:                           because it is simply the right of appealing to force
"This Constitution and the laws of the United    against a Government -which is found to be hopeStates, whirch shall be made in pursuance thereof;   lessly oppressive. But our Government is not a
and all treaties made, or which shall be made, undrler
the authority of the United States, shall be the su-    voluntary government in any such sense as that
preme law of the land, and the judges in every State   individual citizens are left to their voluntary choice
shRll be bound thereby, AYTHEINC IN TAE CONSTITUTION  whether to obey the laws or not,-or that commuol LAWS OF ANY STATE TO so CONTRAT NOTWSTHSTANDING."                                             nities, large or small, organized or unorganized,'This is the whole case. There is no question of    have a constitutional right to repudiate the obligacoercing  a  State-or  of  "making  war"    tions of the Constitution.  Such a government
on a  State. The  laws  of  Congress  are    would be no government at all. It would have
not made for States-but for individuals. All that    none of the functions, none of the powers, none
is required of the States is that they shall not re-    of the stability which are inseparable from the
lease their citizens from  the duty of obedience. i   very idea of government. All government implies
Indeed, they cannot do so. South Carolina may    force,-the right of coercion. And the consent on
declare herself out of the Union twice a year, if    which our Government rests is the voluntary conC




sent of the people that force may be used, if neces-    executing those laws by  State legislation, is
sary, to constrain obedience to law.               merely a nullity.  Alabama, Georgia and South
I concede fully that as the laws depend for    Carolina, may pass  as many laws  as they
their vitality and practical validity upon the co-    please forbidding their citizens to  pay duties
operation of the governed, they should never out-   to the Federal Government, to obey process of
rage the principles, the interests or the sentiments    Federal Courts, or to regard the Federal law proof the people among whom  they are to be en-    hibiting the Slave-trade. Every one of them will be
forced. A disregard of this principle, might, under    null and void. Must the Federal Government, then,
aggravated circumstances, and in default of a!l    you may ask, "make war"  on Alabama or South
other redress, julstify revolution, —a local protest    Carolina for enacting such laws? Not at all,in arms against the execution of the obnoxious    simply because it is needless, the laws being themlaw. It is by overlooking entirely this principle    selves a nullity, and because, moreover, the Federal
that the Fugitive Slave law  has been rendered at    Government has nothing to do with States as such.
once. so odious and so inoperative. A law  of    It has no right to say what bills they shall pass
Congress guaranteeing  freedom  of speech on    and what they shall not. It deals with individSlavery to a Northern Abolitionist, in the heart of    uals,-and requires them to obey its laws. If they
a Sla'veholding State, though it might be strictly    refuse, it may compel obedience. If the State inconstitutional, would be not only ineffective, but    terposes, and resists such attempted compulsion,would rouse the most bitter hostility of the com-    then the State " makes war" upon  the Federal
munity whose safety it would seriously endanger.    Government,, —not a war that can be recognized as
But you -will urge that this doctrine converts the    such by independent Powers,-because it is not a
Federal Government into a consolidated despot-    war between such Powers,-but a war of rebelism. Not so,-for this Federal sovereignty ex-    lion,-a war of revolution. And the only question
tends only to those matters -which are expressly    that remains is, whether the Federal Governmient
delegated to it. It is restricted by the Constitu-    has a right to put down rebellion,-to suppress irtion which creates it and prescribes the scope of    surrection against its authority. And that quesits activity. But up to the limit of those restric-    tion seems to me equivalent to asking whether it is
tions the sovereignty of the Federal Government is    a Government at all, or only a sham,-a pretence
just as complete as is that of the States over all    of Government, without any of its real powers or
the matters which are reserved. You say this    faculties.
sovereignty was delegated by the States them-        I have no doubt, therefore, that the Federal Gorselve, and may, therefore, be resumed. On the    ernment has the right, under the Constitution, to
contrary, even if that were true, the fact that it    do what you would style 6"compelling a State to
-was delegated proves that it cannot be resumed.    remain in the Union,"-that is, to corpel every
Its derivation cannot alter its character or impair    citizen within the jurisdiction of the United States
its force. If the States gave it, they parted with    to obey the laws of Congress. Nor have I the
what they gave,and they cannlot recall the gift. They    slightest hesitation in saying that it is its duty to
clothed the Federal Government with power to    do so,-and that any President, Senator, or MIemmake laws, on certain subjects, which should be    ber of Congress who refuses to aid, in doing so, vioof binding obligation upon the individual inhabi-   lates his oath of office, and makes himself an
tants of the United States-and with the right to    aider and abettor of treason and rebellion. As to
enforce obedience to those laws by the armed    the mode and time of compulsion,-the means of
power of the country, if that should be necessary.    bringing stress to bear upon rebellions communiSo far were they from reserving to themselves as    ties, and the measure of force to be used,-these
States the right of releasing their citizens from the    are very different questions, to be decided on other
duty of obedience, that they required all their    grounds and by the wise discretion of the Federal
State officers, Gov-ernors, legislators and judlges,    Government. That Government may deem it most
to take a solemn oath that they would enforce    expedient, because most likely to prove effective,
those laws, and they stipulated moreover that noth-    to postpone all resort to force to the latest possiing in the Constitution or laws of any State should    ble moment,-to abstain from all apoearance of
derogate in any degree from the absolute suprem-    coercion,-and to trust to the moral compulsion of
acy of the laws of Congress. Those laws, accord-    time, of reflection and experience, rather than a
Ing to the 1" compact," even if the Constitution be    hasty resort to material power. Btt it cannot surnothing more, are to be the " supreme law  of the    render the right.  It cannot acknowledge  the
land, anything in the Constitution or laws of any    power of any State to release its citizens from the
State to the contrary notwithstanding."            duty of obedience to the Constitution and the laws
Any claim,-therefore, on the part of a State of a    of the United States. Such an acknowledgment
constitutional right to release its citizens from the    would be simply an overthrow of the Constitution.
duty of obeying the laws of Congress, made in          IMPOSSIBILITY OF PEACEABLE SECESSION.
pursuance of the Constitution, is simply preposter-  South Carolina is on the eve of " withdrawing
ous and absurd.             -                      from the Union,"-as she phrases it, —that is, of
Any exercise of such an asserted right-any at-    enacting State laws releasing her citizens from the
tempt to prevent the Federal Government from       duty of obeying the laws of Congress, organizing




herself into an independent sovereignty and pre-    mediate secession of all the othner States it-teom any
paring to resist, by force of arms, any attempt of    confederacy in which she might have a place, But
the present Government to enforce obedience to its    tlhis cannot be done. Nor can we ignore the fact
laws upon her citizens. Her first attempt,-as it    that she does not intend to go out alone. We are
will be her first necessity,-will be to obtain a re-    asked to permit her witlhdrawal merely as prelimcognition of her indevendence from the Federal    inary to that of all the Cotton, possibly of all the
Government. Have you the slightest idea that she   Slaveholding, States.
will succeed? The President has no power to          What we have to decide, therefore, when we are
grant such a recognition. Congress has no power    asked to recognize the independence of South Carunder the Constitution to grant it. Where is such  olina, is, whether we will consent to the disruprecognition to come from?  Clearly it can only    tion of our Union for the sake of creating a
come from the people of the United States,-meet-    Southern Confed.eracy,-or rather a Military Desng in Convention as they met in 1787 for the       potism, resting possibly on Democratic forms like
purpose of dissolving one Confederacy and sub-    that of France, (for that is the shape your new
stituting another in  its place.  We must go       government would  probably take,) upon  our
through  precisely  the  same  process  as  our    Southern border. You and your confederates in
Fathers did when they abrogated the old Con-    disunion seem to think we would. You must base
federation, and created the " more perfect Union,"    such a sentiment upon a serious over-estimate ot
which during the seventy years of. its existence   our disinterestedness and good nature, or upon an
has given us more peace, prosperity and national    equally serious under-estimate of our intelligence
greatness than have ever been achieved by any      and good sense.
other nation on the face of the earth. We are now               DISUN.ION MIEANS WAR.
called upon to destroy that Union. Why? Be-          I put aside for the present all considerations concause it has failed to " provide for the common de-    nected wAith the character of your proposed GGVfence, promote the general welfare, and secure the                                            basis
blessings of liberty to ourselves and. our pos-    of  its existence, and the interest of Slavery the
terity?" No: but because it has not failed.  BeParamount aim of its policy. Setting aside the
cause it does not permit the continuance of the
Aacause st ddoes not permst the contsnuance    of the  certainties of constant contentions and wars beAfrican Slave-~trade:-becau'se it does not recog-    tween two great nations thus widely separated in
nize slaves as "property," —to  be guaranteed to
nize slaves as  property,"-to be guaranteed to    principle, in feeling and pIurpose, and by- no matetheir owners wherever its jurisdiction may ex-    rial barriers to keep them apart,-look at the positend:-because its tendencies are not towards
tion in which we should be placing ourselves with
strengtheniag  Slavery. and making  it -pepet-   reference to the future. We should be surrenderual and permanent in the Federal Government,   ing to  a foreign and a hostile power more than
but  rather  the  other  way.  TYou  cannot    half of the Atlantic seaboard, —the whole Gulf, —
expect  the  People  of  the  United  States    the mouth of the Mississippi, with its access to
to consent to abolish the Union and repeal the    the open sea, and its drainage of the conumerce of
Constitution for such reasons as these. And yet    the mighty West,-ali the feasible Railroad routes
that is what they must do, if they recognize       to the Pacific —-   cance of          accessions
dependenc of South Carolina.  to the Pacific,-all chance of further accessions
Ifdependece of Saourthn Crolinacould. bdat nfrom  Mexico, Central America or the  West
If South Carolina could. be dealt with singly in    India islands, —and  all prospect of  ever exthis matter, —if she could be released alone from  tending our growth and national rievelopment in
the Union. without conceding principles which    the only  direction  in  which such  extension
would release every State fromr its allegiance, abol-    will ever be possible  We Tshould be limiting ourish the Constitution, and blot out the Republic    selves to that narrow belt of the continent which
from its place among the nations, there would bld be   douid be bounded by the B:ritish Colonies on the
very little difficulty in adjusting the matter. She    north, the Slave Empire on the soiuth, and the
would go out of the Union with the unanimous    Rocky Mountains on the west.  Have you seen
consent of the other States. One of her own wri    anyindications which  encourage the hope of so
ters, in the Soutzhern Quarterly Review, has as-    magnificent a self-sacrifice on the part of our
serted that a majority of her inhabitants were To-    people? What is there ii. our past history to lead
ries ill the Revolution, and were opposed to inde-    you to consider us thus reckless of national
pendence.  Their descendants have inherited their    grow!:h land national grandeur? Is it the millions
political sentiments. South. Carolina has never had    we have expended in the pulchase of Florida, and
a particle of sympathy with the fundamental prin-    Louisiana, and Texas?  Is it, the tundreds of  ilciples which lie at the basis of our Republican in-    lions  we  expended  in  a war with Mexico
stitutions. From the very outset she has been at    for the  conquest of Texas  and  California?
war with the dominant ideas of the Confederacy.    Is it the seven millions we paid, for the MesShe has done more to embroil the country in con-    silla Valley  and  the  acquisition  of  feasitroversy, to disturb the public peace and sow the    ible Railroad routes to the Pacific Ocean?  We
seeds of disloyalty and strife than all the other    have a few men among us, dreamers rather than
States. And if theie were any warrant in the    statesmen, who would cast all these climsideyations
Constitution for secession I should favor the im-    aside and accept anly degree of national humilia



tion in order to rid their consciences of what they    dependent State, witzlout a war. Any such recogregard as their " responsibility for the sin of    nition by an Administration, as a mere legislative
Slavery." But they are -very few  and very pow-    act, would be treason to the Constitution, and
erless. Nine-tenths of our people in the Northern  would justify a revolution. It can only be done
and Northwestern States would wage a war longer    through an amendment of the Constitution-by a
than the war of Independence before they will as-    formal dissolution of the nation, and the creation
sent  to  any  such. surrender of their aspi-    of another upon its ruins. To that the people, who
rations and their hopes. There is no nation in    constitute the nation, will never consent. You
the world so ambitious of growth and of power,-    must win your independence, if you win it at all,
so thoroughly pervaded with the spirit of conquest,   just as every other rnationhas done-by the Sword.
-so filled with dreams of enlarged dominion, as
NO AID FROM FOREIGN POWERS.
ours. In New-England these impulses have lost
But you count upon the assistance of foreign
something of their~ natural force under the influsPowers,-especially of France and England. This
ences of culture and the peaceful arts. But in the
seems to me the wildest dream that ever misled
Centre and the West, this thirst for national power
the minds of desperate or over-sanguine conspirastill rages unrestrained.
tors. How has Louts NAPOLEON kept his ImpeTo this consideration are to be added others of    rial throne,-but by taking his people into alliance
still greater weight with other classes of our com-by epresenting in his person andpolicy
munity.  Your Southlern Empirle, resting upon    their sentiments, their ideas, their passion especialSlavery as its basis, must be conformed more and    ly for making themselves the champions of freemore to the spirit and the forms which Slavery re-    dom in other lands? The French idea of liberty is
quires. A standing  army - ill be your first neces-    freedom to make others free. The Italian war was
sity, and the rigor with which your slave popula-    popular because it was a war to liberate the ention are kept in subjection, must increase efrom    slaved Italians. The first indication of a possible
year to year. You will have less and less of ed-    desertiob of that cause, and an alliance with the
ucation,-more  and more  of  brute  force, —       Princes who had oppressed them, shook the Imand  your slaves will sink  lower and  low-    perial throne. How long would he hold that throne
er in the  scale of creation with  every  suc-    if he were to wage a war in support of Austria,
ceeding  year. You know  enough of Northern    eithe  in Italy or in Hungary?  Now, any intercharacter to estimate the effect which this would    ference of France on your behalf would be an inhave upon the minds of the conscientious portion    erference on behalf of Slavery. Ant these same
of our Northern people,  and how  thoroughly it    considerations are still stronger when applied to
would alienate them  from their new  neighbors.    England. The people of England are fanatical in
You could not count upon their forbearance or    their ihatred of negro Slavery. And no AMinistry
their sympathy in the slightest degree. Every lit-   that should give the slightest hint of favor to a
tie misunderstanding that might arise would swell    movement for Slavery in any form could hold its
the hostility of the two peoples. and b:ring them  pl:ace a week
into inevitable and deadly collision                 Nor can you presume at all upon the hatred of
Even, therefore, if at the outset the impulses of    free institutions which prevails among the Governour people should prompt an assent to your seces-    ments of Europe. That hatred does not pervade
sion, it could not be permanent. Just now the    the people, nor can it, therefore, to any considerafeeling of the North seems to be in favor of l.etting    ble extent, influence the action of the Governments,
you go.  This is the first prompting  of the    especially of England and France, where the popgenuine  kindness  that pervades the  popular    ular will las controlling weight. England's domiheart, —an  indisposition  to do injury to any    nant purpose just now, moreover, is to secure the
section,-a  hope that  both  miay go  along    alliance of the United States, in preparation for the
peacefully   and  prosperously  without  colli-    great struggle between flee and absolute Govern..
sion or strife of any klminde. But a very little oe-    maents, which she thinks is impending. Besides
flection will showv the futility of such expectations.    all this, the great interest of both England and
The thing is imposstible. The only condition of our    France, so far as this country is concerned, is
remiraining at peace is that we remain  one. Dis-    conunere.  Whatever promotes their trade with
union means War,-a wal of conquest,-a war of    us brings themt all the advantage they can ever exsubjugation on the one side or the other. You    pect to rea) from their relations with us. And
may sayit would be hopeless to attempt to subju-    whatever promotes our prosperity and our ability
gate the South. Possibly; —but this is a point    to sell and buy, builds up that trade. Neither of
which nations never take for granted in advlance.    these countries has the slightest interest in our
it is not the conviction of the masses of our people.    disunion, or in any dififrences which shall retard
They believe the South to be comparatively weak,    our growth.  They may deprecate the imitation of
and this belief, whether just or not, will do all its    our exanmple in their own countries.  They may
mischief by leading to the beginning of war. What    declainm against us, and point out our weaknesses
the end will be the future alone could show.       and faults to prevent their own people from introSouth Carolina musta not expect, therefore, to be    ducing univeysal suffr age, the vote by ballot, and anrecognized by the Federal Governmeant as an in-    nual Parliasellnts. Bult they have no wish for our




21
downfall, as they have no interest in it. Neither    rely upon such a hope to sustain you through the
of them  could sustain any heavier blow than    dread ordeal of revolution, you are destined to a
the destruction of our commerce would involve.    rude disenchantment. You can no more prevent
Nor will either of them recognize the indepen-    either England or the North from  procuring your
dence of any seceding Southern State until that in-    Cotton, if you find leisure from  war to raise.it,
dependence shall have become an established fact,   than you can prevent water from  running to the
by the recognition of our own Government, or by    sea. The laws which regulate the currents of
such demonstration of its ability to maintain it by    trade are just as fixed and unchangeable as the
force of arms as shall leave no room for doubt.   laws which governmatter. We may not underPrecisely the same course will be pursued in this    stand them so thoroughly, but we know enough of
case as was pursued in that of Texas,-and as is   them to know that we can no more withstand or
pursued in every case under similar circumnstances.    change their operation than we can that of the
Any attempt on the part of any foreign Power to    laws of gravity. Of what avail were the Berlin
aid in the rebellion of a Southern State, would be    and Milan decrees, though backed by a million
an aot of open and flagrant hostility to the Gov-    men in arms?  Upon whom fell the weight of the
ernment of the United States, and would be re-    old embargo which you are threatening to renew?
sented as such. Whatever might be the disposi-     You may make as many laws as you please,tion of our Government towards secession, we    you can never prevent your cotton from finding its
should never permit a foreign Power to interfere    way to the market where it commands the highest
in a matter so purely of domestic concern.        price,-and if you could, your own people would
If you enter upon this matter of secession, you    be the first to perish under the operation. For why
must enter upon it alone. You will have no help    do you raise cotton but to sell it? You can neither
from any foreign Power-neither troops, nor ships,    eat it, nor drink it,-nor feed your slaves with it,nor arms. You cannot borrow money anywhere,    nor wear it until you have sent it abroad or to the
because you have nothing whatever to pledge for    North to be manufactured.  Even now you buy
its security.  You have neither credit nor the    from the North every year a hundred and fifty milmeans of gaining credit abroad. The only one of   lions of dollars worth of food and utensils of labor
the slaveholding States which has ever tried the    and other necessaries of life-which you must
faith of foreign creditors to any extent, has, by    have, and which you cannot get unless you pay for
her shameless repudiation-her steady breach of   them with your only great produict,-your sole refaith-branded the whole section to which she be-   liance,-the cotton which you raise. You could
longs with the ineffaceable marks of disgrace and    distress England if you could withhold your cotdistrust;-and the example of Mississippi will be    ton-but it would be at the cost of starvation and
a perpetual warning to every capitalist in Europe    ruin at home. The manufacture of cotton is but
against lending a dollar to any Southern State.    one branch of British industry: but the selling of
You cannot call upon your own people for sup-    cotton  is the only reliance of the Southern
plies, for their sole wealth consists in negroes and    States. Blot that  out, and  you  blot  ou1t,
lands, which, in case of war, will fall to a tithe of   the  prosperity  and  even  the  existence  of
their present value. Nor can you conceal from     Southern  industry. You  not only  ruin  the
yourselves any more than from the rest of the    planter, and  drive his slaves to  starvation
world the dreadful danger you would incur,    or insurrection,-but you kill the business of every
of an insurrection of slaves from  one end    Southern Railroad, the traffic of every Southern
of the South to the other, the moment they shall   river, the labor of every Southern City. In such
see you engaged in a war against States which    a contest of physical and financial endurance,
are seeking, as you have taught them to believe,    which would hold out longest, England or the
to effect their emancipation. All these accumulat-    Southern States? Which would repent soonest,
ed horrors you must face alone,-relying upon    the English mill-owner or the Southern planter?
your own resources. without a word or a thought
your own resources,  ithout a wod or a thought  You expect to invite the ships of the world to
of sympathy from any nation on earth, —under the    your ports by making them flee. This is your
frown of all Christendom,-with the settled coih-    main reliance for ruining the commerce ofthe North
viction in the breasts of half your own people that    and turning its wealtl into your own channels,
you are fighting against every impulse of h'mniani-ber, in the firs
You must reinember, in the first place, that you can
ty, every tendency of the Christian civilization of
(I.~~.             < ~~~~~have rio free-trade until you have achieved your
the ag~e which. shall. witness thlis strange, this   independence. But waiving that obstacle for the
horrible contention!                              moment, you must know  that such a policy on
THE COTTON ARG5UMENT.                 your part would be met, whenever it should beYou rely on COTTON to save you from  all this.    come necessary to meet it at all, by a correspond"The world must have our Cotton," you say.    ing policy on ours. Charleston, Baltimore, Savan"England must have it or her looms will stop-    nabh and New-Orleans could not be free ports many
her workmen will be thrown out of employment -    months before Boston, New-York and Philadelriots, starvation and civil war will desolate her    phia would be fiee ports also. With the advanrealm. She will open our ports, if the Federal    tages we should have at the outset,-our enorGovernment shall persist in closing them." If you    mous mercantile marine our trained and hardy




sailors, our  skill  in ship-building,  and. our    domestic difficulties you would encounter in your
capital already invested  in  commerce,  can.    enterprlise,-your differences as to the form  of
you  doubt  the  result  of  such   an  une-    governmlent to be established;-the clashing of inqual race?  You  rely on the manufactories of    terests between the several sections of your own
New-England and Pennsylvania to prevent such a       Confederacy;-the heavy direct taxation by which,
result. And even so sensible a man as Mr. STrPILENS  under a free trade policy, all the expenses of your
predicts universal anarchy at the North as the ef-    Government must be met; —the fundamental and
fect of disunion. He has much to learn of the:fatal question on what kinds of property and in
-temper and spirit of the North if he asnticipates any  what proportions that tax should be levied;-your
such result. Undoubtedly great interests in both     exposure to the hostility of the whole civilized
these sections would suffer serious injury from the  world., and the impossibility of your raising a Navy
adoption of a frlee-trade policy; but other interests    wherewith to m.eet it;-all these and- many other
would gain just as much, and the versatility of our    practical difficulties, which would obstruct your
people is so great that; they would very speedily    progress at every step, may safely be dismissed in.
adapt themselves to the changed necessities of    the present discussion, with this bare reference to
the case. If New-York were a free port her corn-    them.
merce would be doubled in ten years. In spite of       These, then, are the reasons which lead me to beeverything the South could. do,-in spite of tariffs,    lieve that you -will not succeed. in your enterprise of
attempted prohibitions and bounties upon com- i  destrlying this Union. and erecting a new Slaveholdmerce, the North, through her manufactures, or    ing ani-d Slave-trading Empire on its ruins. I have
her commerce, would supply, as she does now, I  still to consider the Duty of th.e North and the true
every plantation  in every Soutllhern State with     Policy of the South in the political crisis which
every article of iixury wlhich would be needed       you. have brought upon the country. But that
froml abroad.                                        I must reserve for a concluding letter.
I pass over in this place all considerations of the
I V.
THE PRE0ISE N ATUR E OF THE PENDING ISSUE-THE DUTY OF THE
NORTH AND T1FE T'RU1TE POLICY OF THE SLAV.EHOLDING STATES.
NrTaw-Yone, Tuesday, Dee. 25, 1860.    they believed it, but because they had objects of
Honi. Wr. L. YANC1,Y- Sir,- In my last letterl    political or personal. ambition which could not be
[ gave you my reasons folr regard cling Secession as    -accomplished without it. They have done their
simply Revolution, and for believing that it can     work thoroughly-  and effectually.  The whole
neither be peacefill. nor successfil'. I propose     Soult;herl  mind is pervaded with this  baseless
now to state my understanding of the nature of'    belief.   On. every- planltation, —by  every  firethe contest, and ny'reasons for hoping that it will    side,-in  every n.egro hut, the general. talk is
inot be couprommised nor postponed, —but finally    of coming emancipation. LINCOLN and the Resettled, by whatever process and throughl whale-ver    publicans are talked about at the South. as if they
tribulations may be necessary.                       were a horde of black and bloodthirsty savages, —
I do rnot mean to  say that I am. opposed 1,o   eager to feast on Southern sorrows, and. to plun-ge
measures of conci.iation in the present crisis. I    Southern society into anarchy and insurrection.
am not. I regard  the present excitement at the    ~Y.ou have closed the gates of the South against all
South as aitificial-or, at least, as feverish and un-    efforts to correct these false impressions. No journatural.  It has been. produced by temporary         hal that protests against them is permitted. to circustirmulants, itrld urnfits the Southern people fromn  late among the mass of the Southern people. No
making  and meetingl the  real issue  or1  its    man who knows their falsehood. and their danger
merits. You cra.d your confederates have filled      dare lift his voice to remonstrate.  The delusion,
t.he  Sou-thern  Im;lld i waith  tlhe  moast periloens  l fa3taL as it is false, is hugged to the Southern bosom
misrepreselltations concerning tlhe Republican Pa r-    as if it were the anchor of their hopes, and the only
ty. You have taught them. to regard it as an Abo-    ground of their salvation.
lition Party,-anci have assured them  thait its adl    The result of all this is an inflammation of the
vent to power would be the signal for a violent    public mind, which renders al.l chance of rational
crusade against tho rights of t;lhe Southern States    treatlnent for the morent hopeless. The first
and the peace of Southern society. The past five     thing to be done is to allay that inflammation,-to
years have been devoted, with the utmost zeal and    bring the South into a sane and healthy mood,-to
assiduity, by all the leading politicians of the South,    prevent her, if possible, from  inflicting upon herto the inculcation of this fearful falsehood. Men     elf some rash and insane blow while tlre access
of all parties there have joirred in it,-iot because     of the feverl is on, and thus obtain time and op



portunity for a more sensible and radical treat-    of that great Union -which it created, and give perment of the case. And for this purpose I am will-    mament direction to its growth and government.
ing to resort to any emollients that may be useful.    And they embodied in that Constitution just such
But, as the Republican Party has no power, as yet,    practical provisions concerning Slavery as their
to act in the premises,-as its foes, your confed-    opinions prompted, and as the end aimed at reerates, are still entrenched in the citadel of Fed-    quired. The first and most conspicuous feature
eral power, all we can do is to use the language     of that policy, was to leave to the several States
of conciliation and make verbal protest again it the  all jurisdiction over the subject, as being purely
fundamental falsehood which is working all this    one of local authority,-ignoring it entirely as a
wrong.                                               rnatter of Federal responsibility. The second step
But this is only a temporary and preliminary-      was to provide for two exigencies which -might
process. It leaves the real difference unadjusted;   arise from  its disappearance in some States, and
and this the interest of the whole country forbids.    its continued existence in others,-namely the sup-'We have reached a point in our political history    pression of insurrections, and the return of fugiwhen the welfare of both North and South re-    tives. And its third was to clothe the General
quires that we should understand distinctly the      Government with power to prevent the increase of
basis on which our Government rests- the spirit    Slavery by prohibiting the importation of slaves
which is to guide its administration,-the relations  after 1808. No person who is entirely disinterested
it is to hold to the institution of Slavery. The     and candid in this matter, can read the Constitution
election of Mr. LINCOLN marks an era in the po-    and the history of its formation, withoutlperceiving
litical history of the country,-and his Administra-    that this is its general scope and drift. Nor will
tion is to decide the issue and bring the conflict to  he doubt for a moment that the universal expecta-a close.                                            tion of that day was, that under this policy SlaveE NTIMME1ITS AND POLICY OFTHE R5H FAJISERS OF TvHE   ry would gradually die out, —that one State after
CONSTITUTION CONC0iR.NIiNG b-LAVxRY.           another would take steps to abolish it, and to subNo unprejudiced person can study the histor~y~ oLf    stitute free labor in its place, —and that thus in the
the formation of the Constitution of the United      course of time it would cease to exist in the whole
States without perceiving, that the founders of the  country. This purpose was repeatedly declared in
Republic had certain clear opinions concerning       Convention and elsewhere  and no one raisedhis
Slavery, and, in spite of its inherent difficulties and  voice against it. Not even South Carolina nor
embarrassments, a distinct and definite policy in    Georgia, the States which had the largest interest
regard to it. Those opinions were expressed more    in Slavery, even expressed a wish that it should be
or less fully in their public debates, and in their    made pepetual -and still less did they demand that
private correspondence, to which in part he  ape     the Fedeial Government should guarantee its perof time has given us access; and their policy was   manee.e Not a voice was raised against the policy
embodied in the Constitution itself.                 of ultimcte extition which was openly avowed,
There is neither doubt nor controversy on the       ed  which the Constittion.  was so framed as to
point, that the Fathers of the Republic regarded      rlcouiage    and favor.  The utmost  of their claim
Slaveri as an evil, —-as retarding both the material.    was that'within their own limits it should be left
and the moral progress of the Society which          solely and exclusively to their own control. And
tole-rated  it,  as  an  element of w-eahlsness    that claim was conceded to the fullest extent.
to particular States, and of opprobrium  to the        This policy thus embodied in the Constitution
whnole country. They didnot consider slaveholding    was accepted by the whole country with alacrity
to be a sin, —nor did they regard a slave-owner as ne-    anid the active measures of the Government were
cessarily less moral, less Christian,or less estimable  all framed -with a view to carry it into full effect.
than other men. They did not favor immediate eman -    Through all the successive Administrations of the
cipation, because they knew thaL such a step would   next quarter of a century the tendency was in the
be fatal to the negroes themselves, and highly dan-    same direction,-and with such occasional excep
gerous to the whole fabric of society. But with    ti-ons as circumstances rendered unavoidable, its
scarcely an exception,-they all desired that some    action was towards emancipation. The ordinance
policy might be adopted lo)okling towards its nltzi-    of 1787, reenacted by Congress at the very outset
inate extinction. These were their sentimeints on    of its career, prohibited Slavery from the Norththe general subject. The action of Conventions       west Territory. The repeated requests of Indiana
and of Legislatures,  the speeches of statesmen,    to be relieved from this prohibition were refused.
the correspondence of public taen of every grade,    In the act organizing the Louisiana Territory, there
and. of every section at that early day, abound in   newly acquired by purchase from France, specific
evidence of this fact,-which is as clearly and as    provisions were made forbidding the introduction
fully established as any fact of history can possibly  of slaves except from  other States, and then only
be.                                                  natives thereof. In 1807 Congress exercised its
With these opinions they caine to form a Con-      power, which had been restrained by the Constitustitution for the future Republic, —" not for a day  tion until that time, and under heavy penalties probut for all time," —one which should not mterely     hibited the importation of slaves from abroad. Not
provide for immediate exigencies, but lay the basihs  a voice was raised in Congress against the act.




24
Even the members from Georgia and Carolina con-    cotton, slave labor became more and more profitacurred in its  wisdom   and  policy, —and  the       ble, alnd the States in which  cotton grew  beonly question that was raised related to the penal-    came more and more averse to emancipation. Evties for its violation, and to the manner of disposing  ery step away from  that original policy of the
of the Africans who might be brought to the country  country led to a corresponding anxiety on the subin defiance of law. Pari passe with this action      ject in the North. Still the general tendency was
of the General Government for the prevention of    towards emancipation.  By  slower and slower
the increase of Slavery, was that of the State       steps, and against increased hostilities, but steadGovernments to promote its abolition.  3Massa-    ily, nevertheless, —the movement made its way
chusetts, Vermont and Ohio had already prohibited    Southward. As late as in 1832 the State of Virits existence within their limits, and six other     ginia discussed the subject, and her ablest men
States had passed laws providing for gradual and     boldly and. fearlessly pressed upon the people the
prospective emancipation. Abolition Societies ex-    evils, —material, moral and social, wh.ichb were in.isted in most of the States, and delegates from the  separable from the institution, and urged the absoSouth attended regularly at the annual meeting       lute necessity of its removal.  Our present Minisheld in Philadelphia. The same  general senti-    ter in France,.Mr. FAULKNEi, used language in
mrent which had existed at the formation of the      that Convention in denunciation of Slavery, for
Constitution, continued  to  pervade  the whole      which you will find no parallel now, except in the
country. Even Mr. EARLY, the member of Con-    heated harangues of the Abolitionists of the presgress from Georgia, whose views on the subject    ent day. "The idea of a gSradlaG   emaelncaiption
were, perhaps, more ultra than  those  of any        and removal of the slaves from  this Commonother member, said, in the debate on prohibiting     wealth," said he, "is coeval with the declar.ation of
the Slave-trade, that, although a large lmajority of    your own independence from the British yoke."
the people in the Southern States did not consider slaveholding as a critme, many deprecated it    THE N:EW  THEORY OF SLAVE PRIPTRTY IN  THIs
as a political evil,-and that " reflecting men ap-                     coNsTrITUrIoi.
prehend incalculable  evils from  it at sonmeit-       Down to this period whatever di.tferences exture day."  Anld MLI.   i o[:LA D, Of North Caro-    isted on the subject of Slavery, there was but one
lina, in thle sanle debate, said     i that   Slavery was  opinion as to its relations under the Constitution
gcnerally considered a political evil, and that n    to the Federal. Government. Mr. Ca.TLHOTUN     introthat point of view nearly-  all were  diisposed to stop  duced a new theory or, the subject. tHe brought
the trade for the future."                           forward the docl;rine that the Constitution recogThis was the sentiment of the'whole country, atid   nized slaves as property, that, indeed, slasves
it continued to an.imate and guide its action. The   were the only property  which  was expressly
Federal Governmnelrt had gnlle as far as it had any   recognized and guaranteedc by' t;he Consilitution, —
constitutional power to go in the matter,and the rest    and that the slaveholder must therefore be prowas left to the wise discretiont of the State Govern-    tected in its enjoymnent by time power of the Federal
merits, whose control of the subject was conceded    Gorerlnilent, wherever he might go within its jlristo be full and exclusive.  And the whole country     diction and -under its authority-. Upon this pir:cirested peacefully under this state of things. There  pie he must not only have liberty to take his
was nothing like fanaticism. in either section, or    slaves into any Territory of the United- States, b:lt
among the partisans  of either side. Very- many      niust be enabled to hold themn there as slaves, by
men had. very stlrong convictions of hostility- to   virtue of the Constitution, in spite of any law of
Slavery on mortal grounds, htut they did not bring   Congress or of the Territories which should atthose hostilities to the political discussions of the  tempt to forbid it. And that is the principle  for
subject. And on the other bhaud very serious dis-    which you are contending  to-lay.  At the outset
trust of the fiee negroes was growing up in those    ithadvery few  supporters. No political party-,
Southernl States whhe-e the siaves were  most nu-    either at theheNorth or South, took ground in its
merous-., a-nd in some of them it was found neces-    favor. The Democratic Party everywhere scouted.
sary to  fix such checks on  emancipation  as    it. The people in every section of the country reshould afford some security for the good behavior    pudiated it with indignation. In spite of the proof those who should be set free. As early as in      gress it had made in the minds of Southern poli1796 North Carolina had:torbidden  emancipation     ticians, —-everi so lately as last Spring, the Demloexcept for meritorious services. Ini 1800 South      cratic Party of the Union suffered itself to be
Carolina had required the consent of a justice of    severed,-dispersed in Convention, and defeated at
the peace and of five disinterested frteeholders to    the polls, rather than give it their assent.
the emancigation of any slave; and even Virginia       Here is the "irrepressible conflict."  It is beanrd Kentucky seriously restrainied the liberty of    tween the Constitution as our Fathers made it,
free negroes within their respective limits.         and the new Constitution which you are seeking
It is not necessary to trace in detail the progress    to put in its place. You are not content with that
of the change which came over the sentiment of    instrument as it stands, unless you can engraft
the Southern States on this subject. Owing pri-    upon it the snew  principle,-utterly unknown to
marily, without doubt, to the increased culture of    its framers, or rather distinctly and intentionally




excluded from it by them,-that, namely, of abso-    persons as any of the States now existing may thinko
lute and indefeasible property in slaves.           proper to admit."  Now this applies just as strongHitherto you have been contending that this    ly to the migration or importation of Germans or
principle is actually embodied in the present Con-    of Irishmen as of negroes. There is nothing in the
stitution. We ask you where?  Point to the sec-    language used by which you could determine
tion which contains it. You say it is in that sec-    which was meant. Yet you would scarcely pretion which provides for their representation in    tend that Germans or Irishmen "imported" under
Congress. But does the fact that they are repre-    that permission became thereby property; yet the
sented make them  property, —or imply that they     presumption in the lone case would be just as
are property? On the contrary, it implies that    strong as in the other.
they are not:-for, property is not represented any-  Finally, you cite the Fugitive Slave clause as conwhere in our Government. It is one of our boasts    elusive proof that slaves are property in the inthat this is a  Government of persons, and    tendment of the Constitution. That clause simply
not of property,-that it is in the hands of the     declares that " persons held to service or labor in
people,-that the representatives who make its    one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into
laws and wield its power, are the agents and rep-    another," shall be delivered up. They are called
resentatives of persons, and not of property. If this    persons; in what word or phrase do you find the
clause, then, constitutes an exception to this gen-    implication that they are regarded as property?
eral rule, you must show it by something in its lan-    Does the fact that they are " held to service or laguage, or by something in the circumstances of the    bor " make them  property? Certainly not,-for
case which leaves no room for doubt. But the lan-    apprentices, minors, and day-laborers are held to
guage of the clause is directly in the teeth of your    service or labor,-and yet they do not thereby beclaim. The representation  specified is that of    come property. Does the fact that they are to be
"6 three-fifths of all other persons,"-besides those  " delivered up" make the   property? Certainly
mentioned in the previous portion of the sentence.    not,-for fugitives from justice are also, by a preThe fact that they are described. as persons is at    ceding clause, to be delivered up-and yet nobody
least presumptive evidence that they are not    pretends that this fact makes them property.
regarded  by  the  Constitution  as property;         Now these are all the clauses of the Constitution
and  there  is nothing  in  the  circumstances    in which slaves are referred to in any way, —and
of  the   case  to  overthrow   that presump-    there is nothing in any one of them which gives the
tion. You may say your locallaw regards them as    least countenance to your clain. They are repreproperty,-and  the Federal Constitution  must.       ented as persons and not as property; they were
therefore, regard them in the'same light. Not at    imported as persons, and not as property; they are
all;-your local law cannot control the intent of    to be delivered up, when they escape, as persons,
the Constitution, for if it could, all you would have    and not as property.
to do in order to change the Constitution would be  THE R EAL ISSUE AND TIEs NECESSIvTY OF DECIDING
to change your local law. You may say that                                 iv.
though entering into the representation  of the       The real question at issue between the North
country they have no vote,-no voice, no will in    and South, (using these terms as convenient deits Government,-and that this fact affords a fair    signations of the two opposing parties,) turns upon
implication that they are represented as property.    this point-which involves all others —are slaves
Not at all; for on such a basis your women and    property, in the meaning and intendment of the
children,-who have no vote and are neverthless    Constitution? Do they stand in the viezo, and undet
represented,-would be property also. But they    the provisions, of that instrument, on the same
are taxed, you say, and. therefore they are prop-    footing as other property? You answer Yes- we
erty. No;-they are not taxed, but are only made    answer No. And you are threatening to dissolve
a means of determining the ratio of taxation.    the Union unless we will also answer Yes. Nay-,
Taxation by the Constitution, although paid by    more,-you are already endeavoring to dissolve it,
property, falls upon property not according to its    because we persist in answering No!
amount, but according to population;-and when        This is the question which I think should be
three-fifths of the'slaves are counted, therefore, as a    finally settled now. I thinkl the whole country is of
basis of taxation, it is only to determine the taxable  the same opinion.  Undoubtedly there are a great
population and not at all to fix the amount of tax-    many persons in both sections who deprecate
able property.                                      joining issue upon it. They prefer that it should
I can find nothing whatever in this clause, there-    be evaded or compromised.  Some of them dread
fore, which gives any show  of justice to your    the disturbance-the  damage to business-the
claim.  alienation of feelingso the possible perils and deYou refer me next to that clause which permits    v stations of war to which a final settlement of
the importation of slaves until 1808, —as proving    the question may give rise. Others underrate its
that they were regarded as subjects of commerce,    mimportance, and see no reason why the great curand. therefore as property. The language used    rent of our national prosperity should!h interdoes lnot sustain the assumption:  The permission    ruptled, sn order to settle  an abstract point ofi congranted is for "the migration or importation of such    stitutional interpretation.  But I think th?. geat




body of the reflecting portion of the people regard,   up that still unconquered Malakoff'of Liberty. But
it in a different light. They know  that the issue    now you have brought your batteries to the cenis one of principle,-that it takes hold on the fun-    tral tower, and we are summoned to surrender.
damental conditions of the national life,-and that    That question does not admit of compromise.  It
until it is distinctly and decisively settled, by a    must be settled. The flag of Liberty must still
final and   authoritative  judgment, in  which    float from the ramparts of the Constitution, or you
the whole  country shall come to acquiesce,    must take it down. This is the "irrepressible
we  can  have  no  hope  of  peace  anid  no    conflict."  We do not make it, —hor invite it;chance of escape from these constant and disturb-    but if you insist upon it, we shall not shrink frol
ing agitations. If the difference were trifling in   its issues.
its nature, or temporary in its effect, there would    WHAT IS SLAVERY IN THE (iNSTITUTION?
be no such necessity. It might then be compro-       But this, you say, is making ~ar upon Slavery;
aised. But it is vital. Its decision stamps the    -this discards and ignores all the Constitutional
character of our Government, and gives a direction    guarantees of Slavery:-this is an open declarato its policy which it must keep to the end of ite   tion of hostility to the institutions of the Southern
existence. If your demands be complied with,    States. Not at all. You are putting an interpreSlavery becomes one of the essential, ineradicable   tation upon it growing out of your own theories
elements of our national life —just as vital and as    based upon your own  assumptions-not warrantpermanent in it as the principle of Republicanism,    ed by the fact. We are perfectly willing to take
as freedom of speech, trial by jury, or freedom of   the Constitution as it stands,-to leave Slavery
-religious worship. Your aim is, in the sharp, clear upon the basis which it provides for it, and to fulphrase of the day, to nationalize Slaver'y-{-o     fill every obligation, express or implied, which it
make it a national instead of a local institution-  imposes. And in determining what those obliganot necessarily for the purpose of carrying slaves    tions are, we look first for a Constitgtional defiinto every part of the country, but to make the su —   nition of Slavey,-as the treatment of the subject
preme law of every part slave law. You demand    must depend upon its nature: and we find that
that Slavery shall no longer stand as an excep-    definition, in just such clear and precise terms as
tional institution, ignored by the General Governtional  institution, ignored by the General Govern-    the Constitution always employs, in the following
ment, fr-owned upon by civilization, and under the    clause
ban of Christendom-but that it shall take its fixed 
"i No person held to service or labor in one State, uitn
place as only one form. of the eternal institution of    der the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in
Property; that, as the law of Real Estate, and the    consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dislaw of Chattel Property, are recognized. as fixed    charged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or
and enduring parts of the great code of the world,   labor may be due."
so the Law of Slave Property shall have its place,   We regard this as t.e defili;ion which the Conequally stable and equally honorable, wherever the    stitution gives to  the word slave,-or, which
flag, of the United States, and the power which    amounts to the same thing, as the phrase which
that flag symbolizes and represents, can compel its   the framers of the Constitution employed as, in
recognition.                                       their judgment, synonymous with that word. And
Now this is not a point to be comnpromised.  It   it establishes these points:
never has been compromised, nor will it ever be-     1. A slave is a PERSON.
because it is, in its nature, incapable of compro-   2. The characteristic feature of his condition9
mise.  Our country must be one thing or the    that wlich distinguishes him  from other persons,
other. Our Constitution must either thus recog-   is that he is " held to service or labor," not by connize Slavery, or it must not. All our compromises    tract, but by law.
hitherto, numerous and important as they have        3. This legal holding to service or labor is in a
been, have evaded this great central point of the    State,-and " under the laws thereof;"-that is,whole subject. They have all turned on questions    the condition of a slave is created and maintained
of temporary  and local expediency; —whether    only by the law of the locality or State in which he
Slavery should exist in this place or in that; —by    is " held,"-not by any law common to all localities,
what forms and by whose agency fugitive slaves    or all States.
ihould be recaptured; into which sectional scale     4. Under ordinary circumstances, and in the
the political weight of this or that new State    absence  of any  provision  to  the  contrary,
should be thrown; whether we should make this    whenever the  slave  should  leave that State
orjthat addition to our national Territory, even at   in which, and  "under the law" of which lie
the risk of increasing the area of Slavery.  All   is "'held,"he  might be discharged fiom  his
these issues have arisen and have been settled on    "service" in, and by the law of, the new locality
the basis of compromise.  But none of them  in-   into which he should enter. The Constitution
volved the great point at which nevertheless all   provides, therefore, that he shall not be thus disof them aimed.  They were the approaches to the    charged on two conditions, —(1) that this new
citadel,-.-tentative demonstrations towards  con-    locality be another State, and (2) that hle has  "esqutring:the Constitution;-butl; every one of them  caped " into it.
might Av.le   been -yiealdel  without actually- givin~g  There is the " Slave-code " of the Constitution,




27
That is the basis on which Slavery rests, so far    the Constitution. You have found the present
as the Constitution of the United States is con-    Constitution, so far as your purposes are concerned,
cerned. If Slavery anywhere implies anything         a failure. Unless, therefore, it can be overthrown
more than this, it must be by virtue of some         by amendments, you are determined to overthrow
local law. If Slavery in Georgia or South Caro-    it byjorce.  I do not think you will succeed in
lina is  something  more  than  this, it must    either.
be  by  force  of some  law  of  Georgia  or                     THE DUTY OF THE NOlRIH.
South Carolina. This is all that the Federal           Now, what is to be done?  You have brought the
Constitution knows about a slave-the full ex-    issue to its present point. As a matter of necestent to which it goes in recognizing his slave-con-    sity and of policy, you seek to  throw  the whole
dlition. The language is perfectlyclear and unmis-    blame of the controversy upon the North. If we
takable, so far as its definition of Slavery, in its re-    had not resisted your claims, there would have
lations to the Federal Government, is concerned.    been no sectional contest. That is perfectly true;.In its positive provisions for "delivering up" the  and it is also true, that if you had not made these
fugitive slave, it becomes ambiguous. It leavesin    clahus, we should not have resisted them. But
doubt the points by what authority, and under    since you have made them, and since we do resist
what forms, the fugitive is to be "delivered up,'    them, te conflict must go on until one party or
them, the conflict must go on until one party or
whether by Federal authority orby State authority    the other ecedes, or is defeated. I see no possior -under the provisions of the commoIn law.
or under the provisions of the como   law.    ble way o avoiding this. But a great deal may, be
U'pon these points there is room for doubt, and    done towards creating a conciliatory disposition on
possibly a necessity for greater explicitness; but    both  sides-towards inducing  esch partytolay
that explicitness, if it be afforded, must conform to    aside something of its passion, something of its
the previous definition-not violate or overthrow     obstinate adhesion to its own views on minor matit                                                   ters, and to canvass the grounds of the controversy
TI'E InRREPRESSIBLE  cONFLICT.              in the light of principle, of the Constitution, of'
You are in the habit of charging the North with    the highest good of the whole country and of all its
having produced all the sectional discontent that    parts, —instead of the prejudices, thbe arrogance and
now prevails by departing from the Constitutibn.    the pride of any section.  ho far as my experience
I will not say that there is no truth in the allega-    and reading go, they teach me that very few cono
tion. Possibly we have, in some particulars, been    troversies between  communities  or ildividuals
less rigid in adhering to that instrument than we    have ever arisen, that did not rest anl fend on a
should have been. But none of these deviations    misunderstanding, —and that did not grow  into
on our part will compare with that great change      formidable proportions more from the introduction
which you demand in its essential elements and       into them of minor exasperations firom alien causes,
character. Nor have they caused your discontent.    than from any inherent impossibility of agreeing
As I have already shown in these letters, it is    on the precise point involved. I think it is so to
not our Personal Liberty bills, nor our failure to    some extent in the present case; and that tihe
surrender fugitives, nor the practical inability of    first duty of each section is first to adjust or
slaveholders to take their slaves into the Territo-    sweep away all nminor points of difference,ato
ries, that creates the difficulty.  That difficulty has    calm the fever of passion, to open wide the door
grown out of your determination to make a new        to a mutual knowledge of each other's real sentiConstitution. It is due primarily, and therefore     ments, wants and purposes,  and to bring to the
entirely, to your departure from the policy of the   council board a real wish to find the path of honor
Fathers of the Itepublic, as that policy was embodi-    and of safety for both. What, then, is the duty of
ed in the Constitution,-as it stands revealed in the    the North in tifs respect?
language of that instrument, and interpreted by the    Its first duty, in my judigment, is to muanifest its
opinions and sentiments of the men who made it.    desire to accommodate the rational and. conservaYou demand that principles shall be engrafted up-    tive men of the Sonth by whatever concessions
on it which they carefully and intentionally exclu-    and compromises their actual necessities may redad from it. As you stated in your Montgomery        quire, and which can be given without surrenderspeech" an entirely new idea has slyrung up in the    ing the vital principle which is involved. In regard
South" on the subject of Slavery,-and you de-    to the Fugitive Slave law, for example, the North
mand that this new idea shall be embodied in the     should unquestionably fulfill the obligation which
Constitution.  Hitherto, to be sure, you have    the Constitution imposes,-in its letter, where that
sought this end by construction,-by legislation,-    is possible, and in its spirit, wh.ere nothing more
by the language of party platforms,-by decrees of    can be accomplished. Every fugitive from service
the Supreme Court, rather than  by open and          should be delivered up; and where, from  viodirect  amendments.   But  now   you  insist    lence, or  any  other  cause  for which  the
upon the reconstruction of the Constitution itself,    North  or  any  portion  of  its  people  are
and the adoption into its language of to ideas and   clearly responsible, this endeavor is defeated, they
principles for which you contend.  The "irre-    should compensate the person to whom the service
pressible conflict" is, therefore, not between the   or labor of the fugitive was due, for the pecuniary
NXlorth and the South, —but between the South and    loss he may have sustained in consequence of that




default. You may say this is not a fulfillment of      So, also, should the North make full provision
the obligation: —that the Constitution requires the  for the suppression of negro insurrections in any
absolute surrender of the fugitive, at all hazards,-  Southern State. The Constitution imposes upon
and that any scheme of compensation is only an       the General Government the duty of suppressing
evasion. But you would not apply this unbending      insurrection, and no one doubts that servile insurrule to any other subject. All laws are to be        rections are included in the obligation. Undoubtobeyed literally, —but in case of their violation or  edly the duty rests in the first instance upon the
default, the law itself, as well as common sense,    State of enforcing its own laws, —but where its
accepts damages as the equivalent. The object of    power should prove inadequate, especially in presthe Fugitive  Slave elaw is to protect the slave-    ence of so formidable and horrible a form of danholder from loss on account of the escape of the     ger as a rebellion of slaves involves, it should reperson " owing him service or labor" into another    ceive the aid of the Federal arm. Southern writers
State — and it this object cannot be attained by the  are in the habit of speaking of Northern communiliteral delivery of the fugitive, compensation is all   ties as eager to plunge the South into the horrors
that remains. A  railroad company is bound to        of servile war, —as indifferent to the nameless deeds
transport its passengers in safety: it. contracts to  of butchery and outrage which such a war would
do so. Butif it breaks a passenger's leg, it responds    involve, and to the general ruin which it would
in damages, anid is held acquitted. Even if slaves    bring  in its train.  There could be no more
were properiy, this would be all you could claim     serious error. The great mass of the people of the
in law or in eq uity.                   North look upon such contingencies with the same
So in regard to invasions of the Southern States;    shuddering horror that moves the South. Their
the North is in duty bound to give such practical    sympathies are with their brethren of the same
guarantees as the case admits against them. The    race, and they would lend their aid promptly and
duty of the North on this point is very clearly and  cheerfully, if it should be needed, to defend them
emphatically set forth in the fourth article of the    from such catastrophes. If there are any misgivPlatform of the Republican Party adopted at Chi-   ings on the part of the South on this subject, which
cago, —in these terms:                              judicious action of the Federal Government could
A That the nmainitenance  inviolate of the rights of the allay, I have no doubt that the North would readily
States, and especialy the right of each State to order    assent. We have no interests to be served,-no reand control its own domestic institutions according to    sentments to be gratified, —no aims to be promoted
-its own judgmcent, aXsCLUSIVELY, is essential to that balance of power on  hichI the perfection and endurance of    by the forcible overthrow  of Southern society or
ourpoliticalfabric depends: —and we denounce the law-    the violent rupture of Southern institutions. On
less invasioni by armedforce of any State or Territoray,
no matter under whsat pretext, as amnong the  A F    the contrary, whatever helps the South helps us.
R-IMES."                                             Whatever builds up her prosperity builds up ours.
This is the doctrine of the Administration which   We share her success, her burdens and her shame.
comes into power on  the 4t;h of March next.    And we should never stand by and see her peace
It pledges the  Republicanl Party to  practical    assailed, and her existence threatened, by foreign
measures for the suppression of such invasions;    or domestic loes, without coming to her aid.
and I think it is the duty of that party to bring              THE TERRITORIASL QUESTION.
forward a law in Congress which shall make every       Now hare are three points which touch most
such attempt to overthrow the sovereign authority    nearly the interests and the safety of the slaveof any state, by armed invasion from any other    holding States,-especially of those which lie alonrg
State, a grave crime against the Federal Govern-    the Northern boider: —and on each of them I think
ment, and to punish it accordingly.  As the law      the North would readily agree to do what all must
now  stands, such invasions are offences only    concede to be substantially just and right.
against the States invaded. Jo30    BRowN and his      Another point of difference arises in regard to
associates were tried and executed under the laws    the Territories-into which men from both North
of'Virginia. The crime was primarily against that    and South may wish to emigrate. They are the
State, —but it ought also to have been a crime! property of the United States,-and the people of
against the Federal Government, which exists in    each State have an undivided, and pro rata an
part for the very purpose of promoting the general    equal, interest in -their ownership. It is clearly
tranquillity. I would not have Congress go so far    right that every citizen who goes into them should
as was proposed by Senator DOUGLAS last Winter,    stand there upon an equal legal footing with every
to punish any conspiracy in one State to entice      other citizen:-that whatever one may lawfully
away slaves from any other,-for this, besides en-    take into them  another may,-and that if one is
countering still more formidable objections, would    prohibited from  taking any special thing, every
involve an unwarrantable and dangerous extension     other citizen should be prohibited from taking the
of Federal power into the domestic concerns of the    same thing also. So long as this rule is observed,
individual States. But any armed invasion from       it would not seem  possible that any complaint
one State, for the pur'pose of overthrowing the      of inequalt  could be made,-for inequality of
laws and contesting the sovereignty of any other,    rights implies that some things are conceded
ought to be suppressed and punished by the Fed-    as rights to one class of persons and denied
eral authority.                                      to another class. Nothing of this sort obtains




in this case. A  Southern man can take into    versal form, and thus take it with you wherever
the Territories whatever a Northern man can,    you wish to go. You can sell your slaves and take
and when there, both stand on an equal footing.    with you the money, which as property is their
There is no difficulty in recognizing this perfect    equivalent.
equality of rights that obtains between the two, so  The whole difference in regard to the Territories
long as the question is thus limited to specific    thus turns on the point whether the absolute right
things:-it is only when some general term is used    of property in slaves is, or is not, recognized in
which includes many different things, that doubts    the Constitution. Indeed this is the entire scope,
and differences arise. Every one can see that the    — the real heart and marrow, of the whole controSouthern man may take into the Territories a    versy between the North and. South. And upon
horse, a half-eagle, a carriage or a cart, —and that    this point I see no possibility of compromise. I do
a Northern man may take precisely the same    not believe that, under any circumstances, the
things,-both thus standing upon precisely the    North will ever concede the right to take slaves
same  footing. But  when  you  ask if each        as property under the Constitution into the Terrimay take  his protperty with him, you employ    tories. I do not believe they will ever consent to
a   term   that  needs  defining:-and  when       engraft upon the Constitution a recognition of
you  analyze it you find  that  it  embod-    slave property which the framers of that instruies two separate ard distinct ideas,-first, the    ment carefully excluded from it. On this point I
thing itself, —and second, the legal relations of    think the great mass of the people of the Northern
that thing. Thus, if two men go to Kansas, each   States are immovable,-and in my judgment they
accompanied by a negro, —the first question that    could not be otherwise without running upon evils
arises on their arrival is, what is the relation of    of the most perilous magnitude. You are in the
each to the negro who is with him? One of the    habit of insisting upon this recognition as a mattwo asserts that hi; negro is his property,-be-    ter of small importance, —as intended merely to
cause the law of Alabama from which he cane    give you an equal right to the enjoyment of the
made him  so. The claim therefore, is that he    Territorial property of the common Union, and as
brings with him not only the negro,-but also the    so palpably just, that it can only be denied from a
local law of the State from which he comes, and on    motive of contempt for the Constitution and for
which he relies to establish their relations. The    your rights under it. But you know  that this is
man from Vermont can claim  no such right, be-    not so. You know very well that, if the Constltucause he has no such local law to bring. The in-    tion be so amended as to recognize this absolute,
equality of their condition, therefore, grows en-    indefeasible right of property in slaves, —these contirely out of the inequality in the laws of the States    sequences will follow:
from which they come; —and the real question is,   1. Any man may take a Slave into any Territory,
whether that inequality shall be transferred to the    and hold him and his posterity there as Slaves forTerritories, or whether both shall leave behind    ever,-and the Federal Government must protect
them their discordant State laws, and subnmit to    him in so doing.
the uniform and equal laws which the Sovereign      2. Any man may take a Slave into any State,
Authority, whatever it may be, may enact for the    and hold him and his posterity as Slaves there forgovernment of the Territories.                    ever, under the protection of the Federal GovernYou say your local law has vested in you an ab-    ment; for the Constitution provides in express
solute right of property ini your slaves,-and that    terms that no citizen shall be deprived of his proyou have the right, therefore, to take the creations    perty except by due process of law,-and this proof that law with you. But you would not apply    vision like all others in the' Constitution is to be the
the principle to any other form of property. A State    supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitulaw may give you a vested property right in a bank    tion or laws of any State to the contrary notwithcharter, a lottery, a railroad or a steamboat charter,    standing.
-but that right would be valid only within the       3. No slaveholding State will have any right to
geographical jurisdiction of that law. No law can  I provide by law for the emancipation of its slaves,
give rights beyond the boundaries of its own au-    without the consent of every owner, for that would
thority. You say the Constitution of the United    be a direct, unconstitutional interference with the
States recognizes that vested right, and thus gives    right of property.
it universality. Upon. that point we join issue.    4. Slaves being thus made property by the ConWe deny that therle is any such recognition,-and    stitutilon, must become the subjects of commerce,
the grounds of that denial I have already stated in    domestic and foreign, on the same footing as other
the preceding part of this letter. But you say    property, and subject only to the same regulations
this is depriving us of our property-,-or of the right    and restrictions as may be applied to all property
to take our property with us into the Territories.    alike. The laws of Congress, prohibiting the imNot at all. It only deprives you of the right to take    portation of slaves, —being inconsistent with this
your property in a particular, exceptional form-  Constitutional provision, become inoperative and
given to it solely by your local lavvw. You can    void.
convert it, while under the operation and protec-   To indicate these results of the' principle you
tion of that local law, into another, a larger, uni-    wi-h us to recognize is sufficient, withiout further




30
argument, to show why it can never be admitted    Take it as our Fathers made it.  They yielded
the Constitution, either by express amend-    much for the sake of the U nion, —but you have
ment or by legislation that will imply its existence.    no reason to believe that they would have yielded
And this is one of the reasons, perhaps the control-    more, even from that high motive.  No man then
ling one, why the people of the North will never    dared or desired to propose that property in slaves
consent to the extension of Slavery into the Terri-   should be recognized and stand on the same foottories as a matter of right.                      ing, in all federal and constitutional relations, as
I do not mean to say that they might not, under    any other species of property; —and if he had
the pressure of circumstances, and in presence of    made the demand you cannot believe it would
some great necessity, assent to some compromise    have been conceded.  The Union is less essential
on this subject, -which would leave some portion    now to our national greatness and prosperity than
of the Federal territory open to Slavery. But any    it was then. The people are stronger and have
such assent must rest wholly on grounds of expe-    more confidence in their strength, alid they will
diency, and not upon the claim of Constitutional    not concede now what would never have been
right.                                             conceded then.
It is a general impression at the South that the    THE NORTHERN DENUNCIATIONS OF SLAVERY-HOW
motive of the North in resisting the extension of     T1'HEY CAN BE SILENCED AND SUPPRESSED.
Slavery is a desire to " pen it up,"-to confine it  But there still remains one grievance against
within a small area, and let it there " sting itself    which you demand. security,-the denunciations of
to death,"-in other words, become so dangerous     Slavery in the Northern States. You complain
to society as to compel its abolition as a measure    that they are dangerous and offensive, —that theyof self-defence. Undoubtedly this is a motive with    violate the comity which should obtain between
many men,-but I do not believe it to be a control-    members of the same Union, and that they wound
ling motive with the North. I do not believe there    the pride and the self-respect#of the South. Arid
are five States in the Union a majority of whose    you inslst that they shall, be stopped. The Press,
people would vote for an immediate, unprepared    tih e Pulpit, the high  places of political power,
emancipation of the Southern Slaves, if that eman-    members of Congress and State Legislatures, Govr
cipation depended exclusively on their votes. And  ernors, lecturers, school books, poetry, history,
still less would they vote to compel that emancipa-    novels,-all forms of literature and of speech are
tion  by measures which must involve South-    regarded as offenders in this respect. All breathe
ern  white  society isn  -disaster  and  ruin.    a tone of hostility to Slavery incompatible with its
Our people do not seelk to restrict Slavery in    peaceful existence,  and destructive of-all friendly
order to  suffocate  it. Their hostility  to its    relations between the States.
practical extension rests on a regard for the wel-  The complaint finds some warrant in the facts
fare of the Territories,-an uvwillingness to in-    of the case. But if you seek a practical remedy
crease the political power of Slavery,-and a de-    you must look to the origin and the nature of the
termination to do nothing which shall make it per-    dihsease. Some few of your publicists are insane
petual and paramount in our Federal Councils.    enough to suppose that it can be cured by- legislaBut if the time should ever come when the South,    tive coercion. The result of the experimhent which
for its own safety, needs an outlet for its surplus    you made in 1835 upon the Right of Petition, —slave population, I do not believe the North would    one of the smallest features of the general tenoppose such migration into some Territorial region    dency, and one moreover which Coragress had unadapted to it. Indeed, most men at the North who    der its complete control, must show the folly of
reflect upon the subject at all, look to the gradual    such a hope, —even if all history and all philosodrifting of Slavery Southward,-both within and    phy were not eloquent against it. You would
without the present limits of the Union, as the    find  it  infinitely  easier to  reduce   every
only way in which it can ever be removed.         Northern  State  to  the  condition  of an abBut whenever this is done, it must be done sole-    ject  provincial dependency  of South  Caroly as a measure of expediency, and not as a matter    lina, than to expel this habit of free speech from the
of Constitutional right. Nor, inrimly Judgment, will    Northern mind. Menaces of displeasure, threats of
the People ever consent that the Federal Govern-    Disunion,  acts  of  retaliation,  simply  heap
ment shall protect slave property in any Terri-    fuel on the raging flames. You may exhort, retories regardless of the will of their inhabitants,-  monstrate and reason with us on the subject. You
or that any amendments shall be made to the Con-    may appeal to our sense of justice and of fairstitution changing the basis of Slavery, or substi-    dealing, and we will listen to the plea,-either actuting any new definition of the status of a slave.    quiescing in its equity or exposing its weakness.
In other words, I do not believe that threats of    You have it in your power to make the appeal
Disunion, attempts at Disrunion,'or even the corn-    availing,-and it lies in the direction of removingplete accomplishment of Disunion, would induce    the causcs and provocations of the hostile censures
the North to give Slavery any clearer recognitionx,    of which you complain. I do not mean by this
or ary high.e.r palace, in the Federal Constitution,    that you must abolish Slavery, though unquestionthan it'h& h.t present.'We ask you to abide by    ably while Slavery exists it will be denounced.
that Constitution.  WVe demand nothing more.    But if you would silence these hot and blistering




censures of the world, you must reform  the         violence does not even think it necessary to clothe
system, and relieve it of many of its present    itself in the forrms of law. It is not by legal trifeatures.                                           bunals, —not by ministers of Justice, not even
You do not seem to be at all aware of the char-    under pretence of legality, that these awful out.acter and tendencies of the Civil Society you are    rages on the spirit of liberty are perpetrated. In
building up in the Southern States. It is not the   all other lands despotism puts on the robes of legal
merefact of Slavery that constitutes its distin-    form. It clothes itself in the outward garb of
guishing feature,-but the kind of Slavery, and the    law, even when it perpetrates the worst outrages
influence it is exerting over the legislation, the    upon its spirit. But in the South it repudiates all
morals and manners, the thoughts and opinions of    restraint,-all form, —all respect for the opinions
Southern Society. When you read a few years    of the world. It stalks abroad like a hideous savago Mr. GLADSTONE'S revelations of the nature of    age,-scornful of civilization, obeying only the imthe Government of Naples,-how  all freedom of    pulse of its brutal nature, and lording it over
speech was suppressed, how men were imprisoned      courts and magistrates as imperiously as over
or exiled for uttering thoughts of liberty, or cen-    the meaner subjects of its rule. You say these
sures  of official  acts,-how   all  free  par-   lawless outrages are perpetrated only by the mob,
ticipation  in  public  affairs  was denied, and    the scum and ruffianismof the community. But
political activity rigidly restricted to the tools of    where are the orderly,-the respectable, the civthe tyranny that ruled, —how the forms of justice    ilized and law-abiding portion of your people?
were  abused  to  the  purposes  of  oppres-    Either they approve of these acts, or they submit
sion, and  all society was  subjected  to  the    to them  from  stern necessity, and because they
authority of force, aiming only at the absolute and    dare not oppose them. In either case the result is
perpetual supremacy of a single, selfish interest,   the same. They are silent and powerless. They
you had no difficulty in predicting the ruin of such    have no voice in the Government of their own soa system and the utter overthrow of the power on    ciety. And unless all history is false, nothing is
which it rested. You judge of the security of all    more certain, than that they will become victims of
foreign governments by the degree to which they    that savage Despotism which they are powerless
enlist the favor and friendly support of their sub-    to withstand,-against which they dare not even
jects. When the welfare of the masses is consult-    protest. Every year their danger becomes more
ed'and their rights respected,-wherever  the    imminent, because the causes which create it besupreme authority makes the people its allies and    come more potent. They have surrendered the
aids, the Government is safe, because it has dis-    authority which they, ought to wield with pruarmed those who are liable to become its enemies.    dence, with wisdom, and with due regard to the
But when the heavy hand of power is the only    tendencies and influences of the age, into the
weapon used,-when justice means simply the    hands of brutal, reckless force,-which ignores
welfare and the will of the dominant authority,    all -equity, scoffs at all moral influences and
you know perfectly well the fate which must over-   tramples like a beast upon everything that stanciA
take it. You can read the coming doom  of Aus-    in the way of its will.
tria in Venetia in the character of the sway she      One immediate practical result of this policy is,
has established there. You can see how idle it is   thatllthe great mass of your people perform  their
to ask that the people of Piedmont, enjoying free-    most important political duties, in utter ignorance
dom themselves, should not denounce and execrate    of the facts most essential to their just and intellithe despotism that crushes life and hope firom the    gent discharge. Take the recent Presidential canhearts of their immediate neighbors. What fatal    vass as an example. Mr. LINCOLN was a candidate
delusion blinds you to the same sad lesson, when    for the Presidency. You asserted throughout the
it glares at you from the pages of your own legis-    South, that he was in favor of the abolition of slavlation?                                            ery; —-that he regarded the negro as the equal of
TENDENCIE OF SOUTHERN CIVIL SOCIETY.           the white man, and was in favor of giving him
The worst tyranny of the worst Government    equal social and political rights;-that he and the
which ever existed is fairly paralleled in the cur-    party which supported himwere pledged  to open
rent history of the Southern States.  No man    and deadlyhostility against the South —and that
within your borders dare canvass fairly and pub-    his success would be the signal of your ruin. The
licly the wisdom  of the leading feature of your    truth of these assertions was the most important
own Society.  In this Republican Government,    point involved in the contest,-especially to the
where the people choose their rulers, no man dare    people of the Southern States. Did you allow it
to-day avow.openly in the Southern States that he    to be -freely and fairly canvassed?  Your local
voted for the man who has been elected Presi-   journals echoed  the assertion and closed their
denlt of the Republic. Freedom  of speech, free-    columns to anything that would discredit it. Your
dom  of opinion, freedom  of political action, are    postmastels,-or rather the Federal postmasters
more thoroughly  stifled  and extinguished  in    upon your soil,-refused to deliver journals that dethe South  than in Au.stria, or Russia, or the    nied and refuted it. You ignored or confiscated and
most absolute despotism on the face of the earth.    destroyed the public speeches of Mr. LINCOLN himAnd a still worse feature of the case is, that this    self, by which its truth or falsehood could have




32
been decisively tested. You admitted from abroad    forever in that position. This assumption repuno newspapers but those which echoed and re-    diates everything like rights in connection with the
affirmed the abominable slander, and you lynched    negro. He has no right to his wife or to his chilevery man at home who ventured to dispute it.   dren any more than to himself'. He has no right
The effect of all this may be illustrated by a single   to any degree of freedom, either in action, in
incident.                                         speech or in hope. He has no right to instruction,
I received a private letter' not many days ago    -to moral culture,-to the development of whatfrom an intelligent, upright, fair-minded and influ-    ever faculties he may possess, or even to physical
ential gentleman,-holding  high  public  sta-    support and comfort. Whatever he may enjoy of any
tion  in the  State  of Mississippi,-in  which    of these things, is the voluntary gift of his owner,he closed some remarks on the election by saying:    prompted either by his own interest, by his human.-" And when I say that I would regard death by    ity, or his' personal sense of obligation, not cona stroke of lightning to Mr. LINCOLN as just pun-    ceded at all as a matter of right on the part of the
ishment from  an offended Deity for his infamous    slave. And the tendency of this system in its
and unpatriotic avowals, especially those made on    practical workings is steadily towards greater and
a presentation of a pitcher by some free negroes    greater rigor. The arm of power becomes muscuto Gov. Chase, of Ohio, you may judge how less   lar and heavy by being used. The regulations for
just and temperate men feel." Now I have it on    slaves become more and more severe, as their seauthority which you would not question, that "Mir.    verity provokes open or sullen discontent. The
LINCOLN never saw Gov. Chase in his life; —that    privileges accorded to them become less and less.
he never attended a meeting of negroes, free or    State laws are becoming more and more common
slave, in his life; —and that he never saw a pitcher    prohibiting their emancipation. Masters who are
presented by anybody to anybody."  But the state-    indulgent become more and more objects of susment was published, originally, so, far as I know,    picion and hostility. They are felt to be out if
in  the  New-York   Herald,-and  circulated    place in the system,-incongluous with its spirit
throughout  the  South.  No  denial or cor-   and dangerous to its permanent existence. The
rection was allowed to follow it. What people or    grand point to be established in its theory and in
what nation can exercise the right of self-govern-   its practical working is, that the will of a white
ment with judgment or justice, when they are thus    man,-without any regard to the thing willed,shut up without defence to the power of systemat-    without regard to its justice, its right or wrong, its
ic falsehood? You fastened upon us the epithet of    humanity or barbarity, its necessity or its uselessBlack  Republicans;-you have  circulated the    ness,-the bare will of the white is to be, in all
falsehood that our candidate for Vice President    cases and under all contingencies, the absolute, sahas negro blood in his veins;-you might have as-    preme law for the negro, against which it is treaserted with the same impunity, that we were all   son to rebel, and resistance to which may be punnegroes,-for you would have found Northern    ished  with  whatever  tortures  the authority
journalists and politicians base enough to coun-   that makes the  law  may  see  fit  to  intenance the lie, and your domestic regulations    flict. This is the essence  of the  American
would have prevented its effectual contradiction    slave system as it exists in theory, and in law, in
among the masses of the people in the Soutitern    the Southern States. I do not say that there are
States. Do you believe that such a politilal sys-    no departures from that theory in practice. There
teem is consistent with safety?                  are departures fiom it, —not only in isolated cases,
cHBRiACTEL, ANDX TlErND~ENCY OFu Tm: SYSTEMN  OFi   but in whole communities, and in many entire
CHRATEA SLADTENDENCY OFTHESYO.F    States. But there are also States in which the
I have referred thus far solely to the tyranny ex-    practical workings of the system have already
ercised over the white portion of' Southern society    come closely up to its theory. And the tendency
as one of the causes which provoke the denuncia-   is steadily in that direction. The despotism over
tions of whinh- youn complain. I knolw very  well,   the whites, of which I have already spoken, is
however, that it grows out of, and is inseparable         to crush out all these exceptional cases
from-r, ethe system of government you have adopted    and to make American Slavery in practice and in
for your slaves. I have no wish to enter upon the    fact what it is in the theory on which it rests.
details of that system. My object is merely to      You must not understand me as implying that
designate its leading features, and I malke no eun-    the Federal Govermnent, or that we of the North,
meration, therefore, of the countless illustrations    have any right to interpose our power against this
of the system afforded in the every-day life of the    tendency in the slaveholding States. You are sovSouthern plantation. The whole system  rests on    ereign over your own domestic affairs, of which
the assumption that the negro is not a man,-that    this is one. But you are demanding the sanction
he is, if not absolutely a brute, at best a link be..   of the Federal Government for it all. You are
tween the human and the brute creation;-and_   seeking to graft upon the Constitution the principle
that his place in society is that of absolute subjec-    which lies at the bottom of it all,-out of which it
tion to the will not only of a master, but of an    all grows just as naturally as a. forest of oaks
owner;-and that all the arrangements of society    grows out of a single acorn,-namely, that a slave
must be such_ as will keep him and his descendants    i' proprc-ty and nol/hii r, else. And you are de



33.
nanding also that we of the North shall cease de-   than they had before? Can they hear you discuss
nouncing or censuring a system under which these    the great themes of liberty and labor-the stirring
-things are possible, —nay, under which, according    questions of peace and war-the issues of Tariffs
to your own excuse for them, they are necessary    and Homestead bills and Railroads, the importance
and inevitable. For this is your plea in their de-    of cotton and sugar and rice to the movements of
fence. Without them, you assert, Slavery is im-    the world, the relations of the races, the possibilipossible,-because no system less rigid, less exact-   ties and prospects of emancipation, the views and
ing, less despotic, could keep the slaves in sub-    sentiments of the different political parties upon
jection.                                          all these topics, and yet be in thought, in feeling
THE CERTAINTY THAT SUCH A SYSTEM MUST FAIL.   and in character precisely what they were before
Now if this plea is true, it affords the most con-   the campaign  commenced?  Do you  observe
elusive demonstration that the system is doomed    no difference in  the  spirit, the  intelligence
to speedy destruction-and the only question that    and  the  temper of those  slaves  who  live
remains is, whether that destruction shall come    in  large  towns  and  have  been  brought in
amid the nameless enormities of a wholesale    constant contact with all these influences, and those
slaughter, or in some less formidable shape. If    who live on the remote plantations of the back
you will separate yourself from  all connection    country, seeing and hearing of nothing but their
with it, and look upon it as you would upon any    daily task? And has it not occurred to you that
*other social problem or phenomenon in which you    the causes of this difference are operating steadily
had no personal concern or preconceived opinion,    and irresistibly upon the great masses of the peoI think you would have little difficulty in seeing,    pie, Slaves incloded, everywhere,-and that sooner
and little hesitation in saying, that such a system  or later they will transform them into something
in North America, and in this advanced age of    very different from what they find them?
civilization, could not possibly be made permanent.  In the policy of Repression and Force, which is
Upon some remote island in some distant sea-far    the policy to Which the South seems inclined to
removed from all contact with the sentiments,   commit its destiny, she is making precisely the misthe  movements, the  active  moral  and ma-   take which has ruined every Despotism on the face
terial  agencies  of  the   world,  a  weak    of the earth,-against which  History and Phitribe  of  ignorant  savages might be  thus    losophy alike  protest,-and  which  can  have
permanently  held  under  the  supreme will   but one result,-the  ruin and destruction of
of a dominant race. But under no other conditions    all concerned. You can see this in foreign sois it possible. The same powers, visible andinvisi-    cieties: why are you so utterly blind to it in your
ble, which have changed the face of other commu-    own? One after another the dominations that rest
nities, must have sway in the South. The rail-   on Power alone bleak through the thin and fragile
road, the telegraph, the steamboat, printing, public    crust, and disappear forever. To the careless eye
discussion, inventions-these are among the agen-    their foundation seems solid and seamless as the
cies which have given so great an impulse to the    ice that congeals and covers the lake. But steadily
principle of liberty all over the world within the    and silently decay works upon the under surface,
last half century. Tne general effect of them all is   and the gale of a night sweeps away the last vesto rouse the mind to action-to stinullate the moral   tige of what seemed adamant the day before.
energies and the self-asserting elements of charac-    What is to make the South an exception to
ter, in every community which they  pervade,   this universal  law'? Is it that  the  slaves
No man  can  live for  years  in full sight    are black? So were those of St. Domingo. Is
of a Railroad, and witness daily  the power   it that  black  blood  and  brain  have  no
which  its  operations indicate, without being    capacity to plan revolt? Even if this plea were
changed in some of the most essential elements of   true, the white blood mingling with the black
his character. It shames his weakness,-it widens    blood of the South is rapidly giving them leaders
the circle of his thoughts,-it gives dignity and    for every emergency.  It gives eyes and thought
a larger scope to his aspi ations and his aims. So    to the blind Polyphemus that seems to be lying
is it with all the great agencies of civilization.    helpless and prone. Is it that your power is too
Now you have all of these things in the Southern    compact, —your supremacy too thoroughly estabStates, and you must continue to have them. They    lished,-your measures of repression too vigorous
all symbolize power, freedom, the unchecked de-    and comprehensive to permit such a catastrophe?
velopment of human energy, and they all point to    Alas! so  thought the  King of  Naples,-so
loftier hopes and endeavors. Do you suppose that   thinks every despot down to the very hour that
your slaves can be shut out from these influences,    precipitates his doom.
or that they can be exposed to them  and remain     No power on earth is adequate to the permanent
the same tame beasts of burden which they were    suppression of the moral forces that sway the
at the outset? Take especially that great agency    world.  You may divert the force but you cannot
of Popular Education,the political discussions of the    suppress it.  And the course upon which the
day. Do you suppose your negroes go through such    South has entered, if steadily pursued, is just as
a campaign as the one just closed with no new ideas    certain to end in ruin, as fastening down the safety— no freshimpulses-no other hopes and longings    valve of a steam boiler is to end in an explosion.




34
It may not come in five, or in ten, or in fifty years:    sail, who have pushed the issue to its present
-but it is just as inevitable as Fate. You may not    extreme position. It is they who have silenced
live to be its victim, but your children will.    freedom  of speech-who frown on freedom  of
I am not in this predicting what I wish should    opinion-who trample on freedom of inquiry in
happen. Far from it. I am only stating the neces-   regard to Slavery.
sary result of an irresistible law. Nor am I claim-  And the first and paramount duty of every
ing any authority on the part of the Federal Gov-    Southern statesman,-every man of thought, of
ermnent to interfere with it. The Constitution has    culture and of courage in the Southern States is,
given control of it exclusively to your own States.   to emancipate Southern white society from  this
All that the Federal Government can do is to look    fatal thraldom. Men of this class must assert and
on-sadly and with a clear foresight of the certain is-   exercise the right of canvassing the subject of
sue-and when the catastrophe comes-interfere on    Slavery fully and freely as a matter of paramount
your behalf and for your protection. But you cannot    practical importance to themselves and their posexpect or ask us to look on in silence. You can-   terity. You know very well that there are thounot expect us to utter no warning, to put forth no    sands of men in the Southern States who have
remonstrance, to feel and express no indignation    grave and serious doubts, to use no stronger
at a blindness so obstinate and so fatal. If you    phrase, as to the wisdom  and good policy of
would silence the Pulpit and the Press of'the    making negro slavery the corner stone of Southern
North, you must disarm them. You must remove    society. There are many who desire a broader
the causes which justly provoke their denuncia-    foundation for the material prosperity of their
tions. I know no other way of attaining the ob-    section than the culture of Cotton, —and a higher
ject you seek. Possibly they ought to desist with-    moral rank among the nations than Slavery can
out these conditions. I doubt not you think they    give them. Why should they not discuss among
should, and deem it discourteous and hostile that   themselves these great questions of Social and
they will not. But the fact remains. Just so long    Political Economy? Why should they be silenced in
as you continue to affront the instinctive sense of   presence of the gravest questions that can engage
justice and humanity by a policy which imitates    the attention of statesmen and of States? Would
and transcends the worst illustrations of despot-   such freedom of inquiry be dangerous to the "inism the world has ever seen, just so long will you    stitution?" Then by that very fact the institution is
rouse the resentment, and incur the censure, not    already proved to be dangerous to the State.
only of the North, but of every nation of Christen-  But I am  not prepared to believe that the
dom. If it be your object, therefore, to secure im-    peril is so imminent as to make  discussion
munity from these didactic hostilities,-if you wish    dangerous in the  Southern  States.  On the
practically to escape, and silence these denuncia-    contrary, I believe it to  be the  only  safe
tions, and not merely to make out a case against    guard of Southern society. It is the only condithose who utter them,-eyou will at least canvass   tion of deliverance from the perils which hang over
the wisdom of changing the policy on which you    it. Let the strong independent minds of the South
have entered.
grapple with this subject as they grapple with evTHE TRUE POLICY OF THE SOUTH.             ery other. Let them look Slavery in the face,I do not say that you must abolish Slavery.   and canvass fully and fearlessly its true relations
That is a matter for your own people to decide.   to the welfare of Society and the growth and prosBut you must permit your own people to decide it,   perity of the Southern States. Do you fear such a
and to                      discuss it freely, in order to decide i wi ely.   discussion? That fear is equivalent to a surrender
I think I know enough of sentiment at the South    of the argument. Do you oppose it on the princito be aware that it is not the largest, the wealthi-   ple that Slavery is too sacred a thing to be
est, or the most important slaveholders, who have    thus canvassed  and  cross-examined?  It  is
initiated this new  policy of making Slavery per-   the only institution, then, human or divine, on the
petual and paramount in their social system, and    face of the earth, for which you would claim such
who are now pushing the attempt to its final issue.   immunity. Do you say it would b  playing into
Nor is it the best minds, the most sagacious states-   the hands of your enemies? It would disarm and
men, the wisest thinkers of the South who have    silence them. They wiould  lose all motive for
enlisted in it. It is rather the policy of the un-    meddling with subjects in whic  they had no direct
thinking masses,-the great body of non-slavehold-    concern, when they saw them freely and conscling whires, without property, without intelligence,   tiously canvassed by those whose personal, social
-with nothing but the bare fact of freedom  to    and political interests were all involved.
raise them above the slave, and who see no other    But such discussion you think would tend towway of maintaining that supremacy but by perpet-   ards Emancipation.  In certain sections of the
nating the negro Slavery on which it rests. It is    South, I presume it would,-and in others, I think
this class who have nothing to lose, led on by that   it would not. But even if it did, it could only be
large class of reckless politicians who have every-    by proving that Emancipation in some form and at
thing to gain by ministering to the dominant pas-   some time,-the prospect and the hope of ultimate
sion of their society, and by excessive zeal on be-    Emancipation,-would promote the highest and the
half of a system which no man is pemritted to as-    best interests of the Southern States, If it did not




35
prove that,-then it would tend to fortify Slavery   that reward should wait upon fidelity, as punishinstead of abolishing it. My own impression is    ment upon evasion and crime,-that his good works
that it would show the wisdom of modifying the    should pass to the credit at least of his posterity,
present system of American Slavery in certain im-    and that some one or more of his children should
portant respects,-taking into view the substantial   be lifted up towards freedom by his exertions on
interests of all concerned. I think it would es-   their behalf, in faithful service of their common
tablish  certain  facts  concerning  the  negro    master,-if such a system of methodized and justrace which  you  are in danger of forgetting,   ly  modulated  rewards  and  penalties could
and which you cannot forget or ignore with    be interwoven with the negro slavery of the
any more wisdom  than a builder can forget or    Southern States, I make no doubt that augmented
ignore the laws of gravity, or than an engineer can    peace and security would be its immediate reward,
forget the explosive nature of steam. It would    and that in twenty years the whole slaveholding
show that, however degraded, however ignorant,   country would rejoice in the prospect of a degree
however brutal he may be, the negro has in him    of prosperity and power of which hitherto it has
the seeds of humanity, and that, like all other    never dreamed. It is in that direction, and in that
pain and pleasure, physical and moral, like other    direction only, in my opinion, that safety for the
seeds, they will inevitably grow;-that he feels   slaveholding States can be found. They may tread
men; that he has a will,-a faculty of choice,-a    that path however slowly,-with whatever hesita
susceptibility to motive, like any other person, and    tions and misgivings, —against whatever reluctanin spite of all laws that declare him to be merely    cies of prejudice and pride may be inseparable from
property;-that he has emotions and affections,-   the circumstances of the case;-the world will
that he loves and hates,-that he hopes and fears,-  make allowance for all this,-and will cheer
that he yields to kindness and rebels inwardly    and aid the well-meant effort, however feeble
against cruelty,-just like other men, and not at    and halting  it may be. All the moral influall like other " chattels." And when these facts   ences of the age,-all the motives and promptings
should come to pervade the public mind, as sooner    of civilization and Christianity, all the laws of
or later they must if they are facts, unless that mind    social and civil science, will be working in your
is kept sealed against all access of them, they    behalf and no longer for your destruction.  Here
would lay the foundation for a policy on the sub-    are problems worthy your noblest statesmen.
ject of Slavery which would calm the public mind,    Here are fields where the most gifted and am.
and restore the old relations between the States    bitious intellects of your States may win salvation
and sections of the Union,-as nothing else can    for their country and renown for themselves. How
ever do.                                         much nobler would it be for such men as you have
There are one or two leading principles which    among you, to launch out, not rashly, but with
must be recognized in the practical working of    calm and courageous wisdom, upon this broad and
every Society, if that Society is to rest on any firm    inviting though stormy sea,-as yet untempted by
and sure foundation. One is, that every subject of   the most daring prow,-than to sit down in sullen
Government must feel that he is under the ctoi-    despair and hopeless inaction upon the grim and
trol and guardianship of LAwv,-that mere caprice    cheerless shore!
or whim, —the interest or the passion of another, is   FEDERAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE SOUTH.
not the highest authority for him in any of his re-  But again I must protest that I am speaking of
lations. Another is that Labor becomes valuable   things over which the Federal Government has no
in proportion as it becomes intelligent. And a    shadow of authority. I am only telling you what
third is that the  laborer must have some.   I believe to be the path of safety, of honor and of
thing  to  hope  for,  as  a  result of his   glory for the Southern States. It is for them and
labor,-or he will never put forth the best effort of   their statesmen to say whether they will tread it or
which he is capable. I am persuaded that the    not. Not one word have I uttered from any
Southern States would find it infinitely to their   other motive  than  a  profound   desire for
advantage to incorporate these principles into their   the promotion of your welfare. You will fling
slaveholding economy. I do not believe there is a    from you in scorn the proffered friendship-and
slave on any Southern plantation, who would not    shout execrations against us as you plunge onward,
become more valuable by becoming more intelli-   in all the reckless insolence of offended pride, into
gent. There is not one who would not be more   the great darkness that lies before you. You do
contented, if he could be surrounded by something    not know the great heart of the free North, if you
of the guarantees against wrong which are essen-    believe that it holds the honor and the welfare of
tial to all society,-if he could feel that he had some    the South in lower esteem than its own. You unplace in the domestic and social economy of the    derrate the justice of the North, if you believe it
world,-that his wife and children were his by law,    would trample on one of your rights. You underand that no man's passion or avarice was above    rate its magnanimity, if you fear it would not stand
the law which made them so. And if every slave,   by you in any extremity of danger, and wage war
thus shielded from wrong, were told that some-    upon your foes as fiercely and as gladly as if they
thing of added good should come to him or his    were its own. But you underrate also its courage
from increased devotion to his master's service,-    and its power, if you expect to coerce it, by men



36
aces or by blows, into disloyalty to the Constitution    Alabama, and Mississippi, and possibly half a dozen
which our Fathers made, or to the fundamental    more States, will imitate her example. You have
principles of Liberty on which its foundatiQns rest.   an ally in the faithless and disloyal man who deThe North asks but one thing at the hands of the    grades the high place which WASHINGTON and
South, —and that is that they shall no longer cling    JACKSON made equal in dignity to any throne upon
to the Constitution  of Mr. CALIHOUN-,in prefer-   the  earth. Whatr;ever  may  be  his motive,
ence to the Constitution of the United States. We    whether he be wicked or only weak, you will
ask them to abide by the principles and the policy  have all the aid he can give you,-full impunity to
of the Fathers of the Republic, as they read them  perfect your plots, and all the material strength he
in their speeches and their letters, and in the lan-    can place within your reach. And I am quite preguage and the spirit of the Constitution itself.    pared to see on the 4th of March, a solid phalanx
Let us return to the sentiments, the aspirations    of fifteen States,-not all, it may be, claiming to be
and the hopes of WASHINGTON, and JEFFERSON,    outside the Union then, but all consenting and ready
and MADISON and MASoN,-Southern men and   - to meet the incoming Administration of Mr. LIN-.laveholders all,-and adapt our policy and the de-    COLN with  a peremptory demand that SLAVES
velopment of our institutions, State and national,    SHALL BE DISTINCTLY AND UNEQUIVOCALLY RECOGto their high and justideals. Give us the slightest    NIZED AS PROPERTY BY THE CONSTITUTION OF THE
ground to hope for this,-and we will make haste    UNITED STATES-as the only condition on which
to purge ourselves of t all offence,-to  disarm    they will remain, or again become, members of the
every just censure you can urge against us, and to    American Union.
perform, with eager and scrupulous fidelity, every  And I have only to add that, in my judgment,
constitutional and fraternal obligation that de-   that demand will never be conceded. We shall
volves upon us.                                   stand then, as now, upon the Constitution which
our Fathers made. We shall not make a new one,
Our Government is approaching its final and deci-    nor shall we permit any human power to destroy
sive test. The party which represents the sentiments   the old one. Long before that day shall come the
— just, conserv.ative and free-of  the Northern    People of the Northern States will stand together
States, is soon to come into possession of the Execu-    as one man-forgetful of all past differences and
tive power of this Republic. Mr. LINCOLN, its chosen    party divisions-to preserve the American Union
representative, becomes President of the United    and crush any revolution which may menace it
States on the 4th of March. You may search the    with destruction. We seek no war,-we shall
country through, and you will find no more saga-    wage no war except in defence of the Constitution
cions intellect, no more loyal and patriotic heart,    and against its foes. But we have a country
no more sensitively and courageously just and    and  a Constitutional Government. We know
right-meaning man than he. His whole character    its  worth  to  us  and  to  mankind,  and
breathes the very spirit of our American life. His   in  case  of  necessity  we  are  ready  to
public career and his private history are alike    test its strength.  You must not misunderstand
lunstained by any act, or by any word of wrong to    oar hopes of peace, our wish for peace,-or our
any man or to any State. He knows no law for    readiness to makle concessions for its preservation.
his  Dublic  conduct  but  the   Constitution    Even if we were to concede everything you ask,
of  his  country,  and   he  recognizes  no    we should only postpone the conflict to a later
country  as his but  that  Union, one  and    day, and throw upon our children duties and reindivisible, which the Constitution creates. You    sponsibilities which belong to us. I think, thereare preparing to meet him as an enemy. You are    fore, that the controversy should be settled now,
withdrawingg all the States which you and your    and I have faith enough in the American people to
confederates can control, into a compact and a    believe that, in spite of difficulties and discouragehostile camp. Repudiating the Constitution,-re- meents, by wisdom and prudent forbearance, minpelling the supremacy of the Federal Government,    gled with justice and courage, on the part of their
-you propose to employ the intervening months    rulers, it will eventually be settled in conformity
before his adtvent in preparations to resist the con-    with the principles of the Constitution, and so as
stitutional authority which he will represent and    to promote the highest welfare of this great Rewield. South Carolina has already pitched her    public.      I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
alien tent and raised her hostile flag. Georgia, and                    HENRY J. RAYAMOND.