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Page 6
As the Presidential election of 1860 drew near, the evidences of
separation became more manifest. The absorption of northern Democrats
into the Republican party increased until Douglas, in 1858, narrowly
escaped defeat in his contest with Lincoln for a re-election to the
Senate from Illinois. In 1860 the Republicans nominated Lincoln for
the Presidency on a platform demanding prohibition of slavery in
the Territories. The southern delegates seceded from the Democratic
convention, and nominated Breckenridge, on a platform demanding
congressional protection of slavery in the Territories. The remainder of
the Democratic convention nominated Douglas, with a declaration of its
willingness to submit to the decision of the Supreme Court on questions
of constitutional law. The remnants of the former Whig and American
parties, under the name of the Constitutional Union party, nominated
Bell without any declaration of principles. Lincoln received a majority
of the electoral votes, and became President. His popular vote was a
plurality.
Seward's address on the "Irrepressible Conflict," which closes this
volume, is representative of the division between the two sections, as
it stood just before the actual shock of conflict. Labor systems are
delicate things; and that which the South had adopted, of enslaving the
laboring class, was one whose influence could not help being universal
and aggressive. Every form of energy and prosperity which tended to
advance a citizen into the class of representative rulers tended also to
make him a slave owner, and to shackle his official policy and purposes
with considerations inseparable from his heavy personal interests. Men
might divide on other questions at the South; but on this question of
slavery the action of the individual had to follow the decisions of a
majority which, by the influence of ambitious aspirants for the lead,
was continually becoming more aggressive. In constitutional countries,
defections to the minority are a steady check upon an aggressive
majority; but the southern majority was a steam engine without a safety
valve.
In this sense Seward and Lincoln, in 1858, were correct; the labor
system of the South was not only a menace to the whole country, but one
which could neither decrease nor stand still. It was intolerable by
the laws of its being; and it could be got rid of only by allowing
a peaceable secession, or by abolishing it through war. The material
prosperity which has followed the adoption of the latter alternative,
apart from the moral aspects of the case, is enough to show that the
South has gained more than all that slavery lost.
[Illustration: Rufus King]
RUFUS KING,
OF NEW YORK. (BORN 1755, DIED 1827.)
ON THE MISSOURI BILL--UNITED STATES SENATE,
FEBRUARY 11 AND 14, 1820.
The Constitution declares "that Congress shall have power to dispose of,
and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and
other property of the United States." Under this power Congress have
passed laws for the survey and sale of the public lands; for the
division of the same into separate territories; and have ordained for
each of them a constitution, a plan of temporary government, whereby
the civil and political rights of the inhabitants are regulated, and the
rights of conscience and other natural rights are protected.
The power to make all needful regulations, includes the power to
determine what regulations are needful; and if a regulation prohibiting
slavery within any territory of the United States be, as it has been,
deemed needful, Congress possess the power to make the same, and,
moreover, to pass all laws necessary to carry this power into execution.
The territory of Missouri is a portion of Louisiana, which was purchased
of France, and belongs to the United States in full dominion; in the
language of the Constitution, Missouri is their territory or property,
and is subject like other territories of the United States, to the
regulations and temporary government, which has been, or shall be
prescribed by Congress. The clause of the Constitution which grants this
power to Congress, is so comprehensive and unambiguous, and its purpose
so manifest, that commentary will not render the power, or the object of
its establishment, more explicit or plain.
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