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Ascendency Of The Slave Power

Ascendency Of The Slave Power image
Parent Issue
Day
28
Month
July
Year
1841
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The following most excellent speech in,dcato more of the statesman than any thing we have seen from the political press. Ii is discriminating, manly, and instructive. It was delivered at the anniversary of the Massachusetts Abolition Society. Maine Advocate of Freedom. Mr. Leavitt, editor of the Emancipator, .offered the following resolution: "Resolved, That the afcendency of the slave power in the councilá of this nation, obtained through the ill-adviscil concessions of the Federal Constitution, and 8trengthened by a long series of usurpations on the one hand, and of aurrenders ontheother, is unjust, dangerous to the Union, and incompatible with the preservationof freegovernmentjand g the principie canse of the pulitical and financial evils tindor which wo groan; and :hat the only hope of relief is in an united determination of the friends of freedom, to employ all wise and lawful means fur the extinction of slavery itseif.11lhenrst point in ihe resoluiion is ihe fuctof the ascendency of the slave power ja the General Government, h coutrols all the nationul appointmenls. No man ]ms or can be elecled President, but a slaveholder, or a man fully npproved by 4he slaveholders. Slavdiolders or their ools have commonly been Vice Presidents and Presidents of the Señale, thus securing the casting vote inthatbody. Since IS2 none but a slaveholder has been Speaker of the House. A majority of the Supreme Court are trom the sláve States. Every onc of the Cubinet is eilher a shiveholder or a devoted supporter of the slavepower. it oonirolsthe riatjonal diplomacy. for six years ihe chief business of our minister at London, was to urge the British government to pay for certain ship- wrecked slaves set at liberty by the old Habeas Corpus; and at length ihe sum oí L25,000 was gained for the slaveholders, a suin just about equal to the expense of the mission; and this while the boundary qtiestion and other important matters were chiefly overlooked. We have now six foreign embassies engaged ín looking after Ihe tobáceo planters. Slavery conlrolstbc legislation oí Cungress. No act has been passed, no cnurse of legislation adopted, but with the consent of the slave power. And no demand of the slaveholdcrs has been8uccessfuily reeisiecl,however injurious it might be to other interest?, contiary to the Constitution, hostile to the principies of liberty and justice, or derogatory to the national honor. Slavery holds the nation as a subj igated kingdom, and allows the government to exercise its functions only in strict subserviency to the will of the dominant power. 2. This ascendency has been gained through the iJl adviseri conccssions of the Constitution, and strengthened by a long series of usurpations anil submissions disgraceful to the nation. Let it be borne in mind that all the concessions to Blavery werepurely gratuitous. Slavery had no claims to beconsidered. It was not an interest of ihe nation, it added nothin tothe national wcalth, the national strenth, or the national honor, but is a mere da niege tothem all, and is in no scnso entitled to be regarded as an interest, but as an enemy. For these cdncessions the slave holders rendered no equivalent. They piessed their claims not by argument or by persuasión, but by and the Constitution pacitied ihem, as a man would pacify a highway robber, vyhp, wilh a pistolat his breast 'demanda dis purso, and at lengih by a "conjpromW' takes up with half the amuunt. Uur fathers never would have yielded as they did, Imt for lite belief then generally etiicrtained, that slavery would be of ternporary duration, and that the future tendancy would all be in favor of libeny. Tlie result does honor tolheirgood feelmg, r;ther than their wisflom. They overlooked -the moral a.vioms, that the tolerance of sin leads to corruplion, and that U3urpaiion ever grows by 8ubmission and 13 never satisfied. 3. That these concessions are wholly unjust in their operation, as between the two sections of the country, may be seen from a slight examination of one of them.THE FEDERAL KATIO, By the Constitution, ihe slaveholrfim Wales are allowed to be represented lu Jhree-fifihs of the number oftheir slaves i nis is an unjust law, because slaves are not m law persons, they do not possess the prerogatives, nor bear the responsibiiities of persons, nor contribute as persons to tlie common wealth and slrength.and there lore have no right to be considered as per sons in the apporlionment of political power. Representaties represent only peoPle, fkeemen. The South has 3 1-8 millonsot people and 100 represcntaüves, nNorth7millionsand 142 representares. The South is only entitled to 75 representaties, and by recurring to the nstory of the country, it will be found'nat iheso 25 representa tives of slaves ave m fact determined nearly every imPortant question of the government.- ook at the hearing of this on partlar The State of Ohio has 037,877 free innabitants, and 19 representutives. Virg'ma has nearly 200,000 less, and 21 rep["entatives, when she is only eotitled to Tk isa sPecimen.ne repre8entation in the Senate was wginally equal, but is now greatly chanti ' e enate was divided between "e North and the South, (DeJeware then oeingreckoned with the North until 1819)1789,North 16 Sen., representing each 124,000 1820, North22 228 000 loOft South 22 125,000 1839, North26 269,000 South 2G 145 757 The admission of Louiaiann, 1812, 'and the gomg over of Deleware to slavery produced this tie, of which the Missouri comprormse was the first fruits- the full harvest of infamy and woe is vet to be rea peel. The electoral vote for President is cornposed of both these ratios, ar.d combines the injustice of both. Pennsylvania has 30 votes for President; the six states oí South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky, wnh a íree populalior. nearly 200,000 less, have öd votes. 1 heir number in proporlion to their free population, would be20, onehalf. Had the división of the States remained as u was when the Constitution was adppted, and had the increase in the proportionate number of the free and sIaveS:ates kept pace with the increase of free popuiaUon, the free States would now have 36 senators, instead of 26: and were a richtapportionment made, the electoral vote ttoulcl stand 178 Norih, to 101 South, instead of 1GS lo 12ö. The 45 electoral votes gratuitously conceded to slavery are enough to govern bil elections, by beingjudiciously employed in balancín" the pames oi ihe North, so as to keep them all in subserviency to ihe slave interest, whenever that comes in conipetitum with the interests of ihe country. The evil of this arrangement is furlher seen in the inequality of ihe sufirage.- The frue repubhean principie is, that power comes from the people, and evervcitizen offuli age und Tree frorn crime is cnlilled to voie, and ihat the voie of onc man is of the same valué wïih the vote of anolher. The cunstilulitms of all the free States eilherernbody this principie, or by changes are constanlly approxinating towards it. it is plain that the representalives of a selector privileged few can nevsympathisefully vvith those whoare amen able to the whole people oftheir respective districts.The 294 electora of President in 1836, rcpresented 1,517,477 votéis, or 51G5 each. The 108 Northern elector renresented 6334 each. The 12G Southern cnly 3130 each or less ihan halfiheir pohtical strength . New-Yoik, wiih 305334 voters, choose 42 electora. Ten of the sluve States, being all hut Tennessee, Ken tucky, and Arkansas, wilh only 308,334 voiers, chuoie 1)3 ek-ctors. New-Jorsey with 52,239 voters choose 8; Virainia, witli 52,629, choose 23.The Virginia members of Cougress represent, on un average, each 2554 slaveholders, each New-Jersey member repre resents 8873 freemen. The inequaliiy is still greatcr as we descend to' individual dislricls, for the State of Virginia bcin dislricted according to the Federal rútíb, allowing ihree-fiiihs for the slaves, It comes to pass thatsix of the present members received, togethe, less than six thousand votes; while the 6 membera from New Jersey received irom together upwards of26,000 votes. Two counties in NewYork wiih 49,000 voters, chonse 5 ropresentativcs. In Virginia, SOniembors, being all exccptS.ecnrod, represent 49,000 voters.Ohio, uiih 202,453 voters, has 21 electors; while Virginia; Nonh Carolina, Souttï Carolina, Alaba nm, and Mississippi, wiih 21 1J39 votéis, have 70 electors. Massacluisetts, wiih 74,584 votes, has 14 electors; North Carolina, and Alabama, with 74,000 votes, hnve 22 eleciors; and Virginia and Suuih Carolina, wiih 83,000 votes, have 34. In the distribution of the PÜrplus rcvinue, in 1837, theslave Siates managed to get the electoral ratio as the rule of apportionment. In consequence, six of Ihe slaveStates,Somh Carolina, Georgia, Alaabama, Miasissippj, Louisiana, and Kentucky, became entitlecl to $6,754,5S8 while Pennsylvania, wiih a population o nearly 200,000 more, had only 3,823,358 -New Jcrsy received $3,20 to each person, Georgia $4,80, South Carolina $5,27 Lotusianti gG and Massachusests two dollars AXD KJJÍETY TWO CÏ2NTS. n is easy to show that this elcmenl of our political nsiilutions is boih dangerous to the Union and incompatible with a free government The possesnon of unjust and irresponsible power ahvays intoxicaies, and those who hold it become infuriated and extend their encroachments in an increased ratio, until they become intolerable anddrive the oppressed to revolution. Such is the history of the past. Such is the career now by the shive power in this country. lts gas, its post oilice restriclions, irs political intoleranee, its interference willi every political and financial interest, will, if not checked by constitutional means, drive the people of the north to a revolution, for vvhioh the responsibility will chkfly rest upon such northern statesmen as Adams, Van Buren, iVebster, Buchanan, &c, who vie with each other in eflórts to bind the north at the charrjot wheels of the slave power.As to finunce, it hus kept the national )olicy continually fíuctuating. VVhat the ndustrious, the frugal, the calculating reuire, isa settled policy; but slayery unseftles every thing. It first drives the pendultim to one extreme, and as soon as ihe real and lawful business of the country begins to get adapted, it drives it to ihe otler extreme. It is impossiblè thht slave labor should permanenily prosper undorthe same poücy. When the free States were growing rich by commerce, and ntroduceda prötective tariff, to fbrce tlio growih of tnunufaciuree. When the same resulls began to grow out of manufactures the slavo power, Calhoun and Clay, compromiscd away the tariíT. The same power deatroyed the old Bank of the United States, and established thenew: and when theygotail they wantod out of it and swelled up the local banks and the credit system until they had eponged up all the disposable capital and credit of the north, and then turned for direct trade and subtreasuryj and it would not be strange if in fiveyears, we should see tlie South again engaged for á high prötective lanffand a natiounl bank: never for the general good. butalwajsand soleiy for ihe goodofslavcry. It seems hardly necessary lo show, that slavery is the cause of our pecuniary embarrassments. It is the nature of planers as a body, not only to spend all their ncome, bul to be alwaysin debt as deeply as they can got trusted. The flush of mo. ney and the vast extention of crodit, wiih the astonishing facilitics for distant business afïbrded by tho U. S. B. produced astate oi" things which naturally resulted in an overwhelming indebteclnésá at the South. The equalization of exchanges led merchants and manufactures nio the delusion thata 'philosopher's stone' had been iliscovered, by which -souihern (rade was rendered as regular and secure as that of the free and debt paying States while ihe enonnous profits on banking, arising frorn the Iriskness of the d rriestic slave trude ir. 1833 - 36,divtrted the surplus oí nor I her n capitulists to the South. The trustees of the General assembly of the Presbyterian church sold theirnonhern capital,and vestd the funds of the church in ttoiífc at Grand Gulf aud Vicksburgli. These are a iew ofthechannels by which the accumulations of half a ceniury in the free States were drained into the soulh west, and feil nol into the Gulf of Mexico, but into the bottomlesa gulf of the hopeless and remediless indebtedness of the slaveholder. And as slavery always works at its highest pressure, and is incapable eilher of increasing its products, or lesseniug its expenditures to meet the revu!sions always incidental tohnman affaire, it follows thai the revulsions al tho South is final, and the vast amount of southern debt fiaal lyand toUilly The only ground of hope fornorthern industry is, to let t all go, and begin anew, and thua by diligence and frugality again tu fill up the void of lost capital,- and above all avoid the gulf of "southern trade."0. It follows that ihe remcdy s resistiince- notto stand still and leave iho evil tucure itself. When did unjust power humble itself?- Not eompíaint and submission. We must have action. "Slavery mu4 be put down." We must céfcnbme all ihe efforts of ail the true friehds of lawful lib eriy, to use all wise and la w lul measures for its overthrow. We must have men in office who will dare to look slavery in the face. Slavery is the common enemy of the public peace and the public prosperi ty- the enemy of the consiimtion and the Union. And it is a matter of (Jeep humil ialion, thnt both the candidales for the high oflice of President for this nation are found not by the testimony of two witness es, to the same overt aci," but by thcir own vaunting confession in open' court, pubücly adhering to the common enemy, and pledged lo aid and comfort to the .extent of hia demands. 'J'he time must come when the grand inquest of the pecple will sec to this matter, and act accor ding to truth aad justice in the spirit of the