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Page 35
But we must view things as they are. Slavery does exist in the
United States. It did exist in the States before the adoption of this
Constitution, and at that time. Let us, therefore, consider for a
moment what was the state of sentiment, North and South, in regard
to slavery,--in regard to slavery, at the time this Constitution was
adopted. A remarkable change has taken place since; but what did the
wise and great men of all parts of the country think of slavery then? In
what estimation did they hold it at the time when this Constitution was
adopted? It will be found, sir, if we will carry ourselves by historical
research back to that day, and ascertain men's opinions by authentic
records still existing among us, that there was no diversity of opinion
between the North and the South upon the subject of slavery. It will be
found that both parts of the country held it equally an evil, a moral
and political evil. It will not be found that, either at the North or
at the South, there was much, though there was some, invective against
slavery as inhuman and cruel. The great ground of objection to it was
political; that it weakened the social fabric; that, taking the place
of free labor, society became less strong and labor less productive;
and therefore we find from all the eminent men of the time the clearest
expression of their opinion that slavery is an evil. They ascribed its
existence here, not without truth, and not without some acerbity of
temper and force of language, to the injurious policy of the mother
country, who, to favor the navigator, had entailed these evils upon the
colonies. * * * You observe, sir, that the term slave, or slavery, is
not used in the Constitution. The Constitution does not require that
"fugitive slaves" shall be delivered up. It requires that persons held
to service in one State, and escaping into another, shall be delivered
up. Mr. Madison opposed the introduction of the term slave, or slavery,
into the Constitution; for he said, that he did not wish to see it
recognized by the Constitution of the United States of America that
there could be property in men. * * *
Here we may pause. There was, if not an entire unanimity, a general
concurrence of sentiment running through the whole community, and
especially entertained by the eminent men of all parts of the country.
But soon a change began, at the North and the South, and a difference
of opinion showed itself; the North growing much more warm and strong
against slavery, and the South growing much more warm and strong in its
support. Sir, there is no generation of mankind whose opinions are not
subject to be influenced by what appear to them to be their present
emergent and exigent interests. I impute to the South no particularly
selfish view in the change which has come over her. I impute to her
certainly no dishonest view. All that has happened has been natural.
It has followed those causes which always influence the human mind and
operate upon it. What, then, have been the causes which have created so
new a feeling in favor of slavery in the South, which have changed the
whole nomenclature of the South on that subject, so that, from being
thought and described in the terms I have mentioned and will not repeat,
it has now become an institution, a cherished institution, in that
quarter; no evil, no scourge, but a great religious, social, and moral
blessing, as I think I have heard it latterly spoken of? I suppose this,
sir, is owing to the rapid growth and sudden extension of the cotton
plantations of the South. So far as any motive consistent with honor,
justice, and general judgment could act, it was the cotton interest
that gave a new desire to promote slavery, to spread it, and to use its
labor.
I again say that this change was produced by causes which must always
produce like effects. The whole interest of the South became connected,
more or less, with the extension of slavery. If we look back to the
history of the commerce of this country in the early years of this
government, what were our exports? Cotton was hardly, or but to a very
limited extent, known. In 1791 the first parcel of cotton of the growth
of the United States was exported, and amounted only to 19,200 pounds.
It has gone on increasing rapidly, until the whole crop may now,
perhaps, in a season of great product and high prices, amount to a
hundred millions of dollars. In the years I have mentioned, there was
more of wax, more of indigo, more of rice, more of almost every article
of export from the South, than of cotton. When Mr. Jay negotiated the
treaty of 1794 with England, it is evident from the Twelfth Article of
the Treaty, which was suspended by the Senate, that he did not know that
cotton was exported at all from the United States.
* * * * *
Sir, there is not so remarkable a chapter in our history of political
events, political parties, and political men as is afforded by this
admission of a new slave-holding territory, so vast that a bird cannot
fly over it in a week. New England, as I have said, with some of her
own votes, supported this measure. Three-fourths of the votes of
liberty-loving Connecticut were given for it in the other house, and one
half here. There was one vote for it from Maine but, I am happy to say,
not the vote of the honorable member who addressed the Senate the day
before yesterday, and who was then a Representative from Maine in the
House of Representatives; but there was one vote from Maine, ay, and
there was one vote for it from Massachusetts, given by a gentleman then
representing, and now living in, the district in which the prevalence of
Free Soil sentiment for a couple of years or so has defeated the choice
of any member to represent it in Congress. Sir, that body of Northern
and Eastern men who gave those votes at that time are now seen taking
upon themselves, in the nomenclature of politics, the appellation of
the Northern Democracy. They undertook to wield the destinies of this
empire, if I may give that name to a Republic, and their policy was,
and they persisted in it, to bring into this country and under this
government all the territory they could. They did it, in the case of
Texas, under pledges, absolute pledges, to the slave interest, and they
afterwards lent their aid in bringing in these new conquests, to take
their chance for slavery or freedom. My honorable friend from Georgia,
in March, 1847, moved the Senate to declare that the war ought not to
be prosecuted for the conquest of territory, or for the dismemberment of
Mexico. The whole of the Northern Democracy voted against it. He did not
get a vote from them. It suited the patriotic and elevated sentiments of
the Northern Democracy to bring in a world from among the mountains and
valleys of California and New Mexico, or any other part of Mexico, and
then quarrel about it; to bring it in, and then endeavor to put upon
it the saving grace of the Wilmot Proviso. There were two eminent and
highly respectable gentlemen from the North and East, then leading
gentlemen in the Senate (I refer, and I do so with entire respect, for
I entertain for both of those gentlemen, in general, high regard, to Mr.
Dix of New York and Mr. Niles of Connecticut), who both voted for the
admission of Texas. They would not have that vote any other way than as
it stood; and they would have it as it did stand. I speak of the
vote upon the annexation of Texas. Those two gentlemen would have the
resolution of annexation just as it is, without amendment; and they
voted for it just as it is, and their eyes were all open to its true
character. The honorable member from South Carolina who addressed us
the other day was then Secretary of State. His correspondence with Mr.
Murphy, the Charge d'Affaires of the United States in Texas, had been
published. That correspondence was all before those gentlemen, and the
Secretary had the boldness and candor to avow in that correspondence,
that the great object sought by the annexation of Texas was to
strengthen the slave interest of the South. Why, sir, he said so in so
many words.
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