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raw "flortb Carolina potoftful (n intellectual, tooral anb ptjnf ifat rcjinu.rcf tije tano ot out fire ant) Ijomt cC our aflcttion;." 4 V.: RALEIGII, WEDNESDAY, FEBRXJAHY 6. 1Q50. HON. T. L.CLINGMAN'S SPEECH On the Territorial Question, delivered in I the House Representative, Jan. 22, I 1850. Mr. CLING. VI AN desired to know whether he understood that the gentle man from Virginia Mr. Bayly desired to occupy the floor? Mr. BAYLY said ho did not. Mr. CLIN OMAN then addressed the CommiHc as follows: Mr. QLINCMAN said, that the commit tee was well aware that he had, on yes- i .- . I . i: .1 teruay, luuinaieu a purpose u uiscuss mo questions involved in the propositions rela ting to the Mexiean territory. That sub ject was regarded by the whole country as one of such immelie importance that he offered no apology for debating it To prevent misconception, (said he,) I. say in advance that I have great confidence in the judgment, integrity and' patriotism of the President I further admit fully the right ot the citizens of each State to settle for themselves all such domestic questions as that referred to in the message. But who are the people entitled so to decide, as well as the time and manner of Admission ' and boundary of New States, are in them selves" cn'icsiions lor the.iudeuicnt drt-mi- case.. ...The; territory of Louisiana, our first foreign' acquisition, was retained nearly ten years in that condition before she was al lowed to form a State. constitution. In the cawr of Texa-i.heT: people being compos ed almost entirely 'of citizens' of the Uni ted States, and. having had a State govern ment of their own for ten years she was admitted at once as a State into the Union. In the prp(CTTWM'RjrTtBnstdiMtwH' of the greatest iinporUncc connected direct TyTinunulxectly with our action on this subject. While adverting to them as fully as the time limited by Our rules will admit, t aR tne attention ot me nonsc. W ith reference to this matter, 1 was pla ced at a disadvantage before the country by a publication made some time since. It is generally known that there was on the Saturday evening before the time for the assembling -of-":tlie-fIoustSi':-'-prcJimiS'fy''' meeting or caucus of the Whig members. The proceedings of such meetings have usually been kept private. Contrary, how ever, to the former usage in this respect some individual present furnished to bne of the New York papers what purported to be a report of the proceedings. This report being in some respects au thentic, wag copied in'.o other papers. The writer gave very fully the speeches of these (jersuira wnose views oiuciucu wiiu ins own; but, though lie made a reference to my position, he did not think proper to set out what I did say so as to make -' that position at all understood. It will be re membered by those present on that occas- urn, tuui, Hi tun very (luini.-i ui iiy riMiiariti., I stated that I had that morning had a full and free conference with lb gentleman from Georgia, Mr Toombs, who had mo ved the resolution; that there was, in re lation to the whole subject embraced in it, as well as with' reference to the mode of ac ' (Ion proper to he adopted "by the' South, an entire agreement between that gentle man and myself. In fact, that there was i not as far as I knew, any difference of o i pinion between us, except as to the expe diency of making the issue at that time, and that I thought it preferable to await "legis lative action and stand on the defensive pure ly. This, among o'.her reasons then given, induced me to request the withdrawal of the resolution. It is proper that I should sav that in my interview that morning wiih the gentle man from Georgia, and with his colleague, Mr. Stephens, I gave my reasons at l.ngih, founded chiefly on my rccentobservation of the state of public sentiment in the North, we believing that a collision was inevitable, and that the sooner it came on the better for all parties; but that to enable us to make our demonstration in the most imposing and successful mode, it would be better to await the organization of the House. I expressed the fear that if we moved with out the concurrence at the outset of a ma joriiy of the Southern member, we might place ourselves at a disadvantage ore ZlSZV T l'reven our uniting he wholV oouth ,uch , courM of actio ." mi. oe found expedient to adopt ' LrUKing over the whole ground, how ever, I am not at all dissatisfied , with the course whieh things took. There has been no such division at the South as would be at all likely to impair efficient action hereafter.- From the tone of the Southern press as well at from other indications, it is ob-1 vious that the South will, at an early day, be sufficiently united to insure the sue-i cess of whatever measures it may be nc- j f esary to adopt to protect ourselves from ! flic aggression menaced by the North. As to .jhe election of a Speaker, in the present condition of the House and the country, I have never considered ft of ihi i slightest Tnoinent ld either ponUcal par ty, or to either section of the Union. A Speaker without a majority of the House would be of no advantago to the adminis tration, nor could any mere arrangement of committee materially affect now the action . on the slave question.. those, Mr. Chairman, who have ob wed myeourse W that 1 have not sought to produce agita tion on this ubjecf. Six years ago, when I first look a seat on this floor, believing that the famous twenty first rule had been gotten up merely as a fancy matter, which was productive only of ill feeling and ir ritation . between different sections, I both voted and spoke against it,' and was then regarded as responsible to a great extent for its defeat. 1 then stated, during the discussion, that it without cause we kept up a state of hostility between the North and the South, until a practical question a rose like that presented when Missouri was admitted, (for then I saw the Texas annexation in the In tore,) "the greatest pos sible mischief might ensue." I went on al so, in the course of my argument, to say that slavery could not be abolished in this District without a dissolution of the Union, Two years since, when it had become cer tain that we were at the close of the then existing war to obtain territory, I endea vored to place the question on grounds where the North might meet us; conced ing, for the sake of argument that the Go vernment had complete jurisdiction over the territory. I endeavored to show, that while it might be justified in dividing the territory, it could not exclude us from the whole without a palpable violation of the Constittrfton. l-$m KbrrfVi'-ufZhmvwr; produce the slightest effect upon the action of any one gentleman of my ownpjrty from the North. On this mtfetf the Hottscthcyi regularly voted that the .North should have slilution ol the United Mates, Which sanc the whole of the territory, anil went apsinrt tiotis slavery in several of. its . provisions. aiiy compromise. I regret to be compelled 1 1 need not argue here. Taking, however, to say, that instead of showing themselves in any respect conservative, as I used to consider them, the northern Whig mem hers -proved themselves, on this, the great q ueslip'n, e m i nen lly des t ru c I i ve. To nose mteMea-frant BiWorlh" who aided us in an attcnfpt to settle meiies tion in somo manner not disgraceful or de structive to us, I tender my thanks. " In standing by the rights of the South they havo shown themselves friends of the Con stitution and ot the Union. Sir, the force ami extent of the present anti-slrvcrv movement of the North is not ii'n JcrslooJ by the South! Until 'wiAiii the last few months I had supposed that even if California and New Mexico should come in as free States, the agitation would sub side so as to produce no further action. A few months' travel in the interior of the North has changed Liny, opinion. Such is now the condition of public sentiment there. that the making of the Mexican territory all free, in any mode, would be regarded as ah anti-slavery triumph, and would accele rate the general movement against us. It is not difficult to perceive how that slate of public sentiinenl has been produced there. The old abolition societies have done a good deal to poison the popular mind. By cir culating an immense number of iiiflamn tfify'pamp'hfe falsehood and calumny against the South, its institutions, and its men, because tl ere was no contradiction in that quarter, they had created a high degree of prejudice a gainst us. As soon as it became probable that there would be ' an acquisition of lerrjjto-, ryVtfie question at once- became a great practical one, and the politicians immediately took the matter in hand. With a view at once of strengthening their position, they seized upon all this matter winch the abo lition societies (whose aid both parties court ed in the struggle) had furnished from time to time,and diffused and strengthened it as much a? possible, and thereby created an immense amount of hostility to southern institutions. Every thing there contributes to this move ment; candidates are brought out by the caucus system, and if they fail to take that sectional ground which is deemed strong est there, they are at once discarded. The mode of nominating candidates as well as of conducting the canvass, is destructive of anything like independence in the repre sentative. They do not as gentlemen of ten do in the South and Yes take ground against the popular clamor, and sustain themselves by direct appeals to the intelli gence and reson of their constituents. Al most ,e whole of the northern press co operated in the movement ' With the ex ception of the New York Herald, (which, with its large circulation, published matter on both sides,) and a few other liberal pa pers, everything favorable to the South has been carefully excluded from tne northern papers, By these combined efforts a de ma of fi-elinir and nreiudico haa been gotten, up against the South,' which is most intense in an tne inicnor. I was surprised last winter to hear a northern Senator say, that in the town in which he lived it would excite great aston ishment if it were known that a northern lady would, at the time of the meeting of the two Houses, walked np to the Capitol with a Southern Senator; that they had been taught to consider southerners generally as being so coarse and ruffianly in manner that a lady would not trust herself in such a presence." "yli 'iiiAoi " ir, does not present too strong a picture of the condition of sentiment in portion of the interior of the northern country. How far gentlemen on this floor are to be influenced in their ac tion by such a state of opinion, I leave them to decide. 1 - -r ..Tha xreai nrjnci northern movement rest, which is already adopted by northern politicians, and to t which thev all seem likely to be driven bv the force of the popular current there, if the question is unsettled till the next Con gressional election, taoHis; That the Gov ernment of the United States must do no-thing-to sanction slavery; that it must there fore exclude it from the Terilories; that it must abolish it in the District of Columbia, forts, and arsenals, and wherever it has ju risdiction. Spine, too, carrying the princi ple to its extent, insist that the coasting slave trade, and that between the States, should also be abolished, and that slave labor should not be tolerated in a public Office in the United States, such as customhouses,- post offices, and the like. As these things all obviously rest on the same general dogma, it is clear that the yielding of one or more points would not check,' but would merely accelerate, the general move-' ments to the end of the series. Before this end was reached they probably ap pend, as a corrollary, 'he principle that the President should not appoint a slaveholder to office. It is, sir, my deliberate judgment that in the present temper of the public mind at the North, it the territorial ques tion remains open till the next election, few if any gentlemen will get hero from the free States that are. not pledged to the full extent of rhr abolition platform." It"i, there- fweviouUf.- tlw'inU3retr-vif all of wfof settle this question at the present session. That the general principle above stated hnt war witrrthe Tho1e spirit oTthe Coh- a practical view ot tne matter in controver sy, look for a moment at the territorial question, the great issue in the strugjle: I will ilo northern gentlemen on this floor the justice to admit that they hai,argued 111 ciannmg tne wnoie 01 tne territory lor tree mg the whole ol the territory soil. Let me state, for a moment, the converse or opposite of their proposition. Suppose it were to-be claimed that no one should be allowed to go into this public territory, unless he carried one or more slaves with him, it might then be said, just as gentle men now tell us, that it. would be nerfWtlv fair, because it placod every man who might be inclined to go there on an equal footing, and might by means of having" thus a homogeneous population, advance the general interest. Northern men would at once, I suppose, object to this arrangement Then we should say - to them-- if- yim do not like this restriction, let -it be settled, then, that every citizen of the United States may go into the common"' territory 7 and carry-slaves or not, just as he pleases. This would seem to be a perfectly equita ble and fair arrangement. . Northern men, however, object to this, and say that they, are not willing to live in a territory where others own slaves. "Then we of the' South say to them, that we will cpnscjjtjg!, 'dm'iTc The" territory ',linunTKour'pMsession with slaves to a part of it, and allow them to go at will over the whole. Even to this ihey object, and insist that they will not allow us to occupy one foot of the ter ritory. Rememlwr, sir, that this very territory ,wa aequieed- by-.ottqiat,'aTd' that while the South, according to its pop ulation, would have been required .to furn ish only one-third of the troops, it in point of fact did furnish two-thirds of the men that made the conquest and the INortli deficient as it was comparatively in the struggle, now says that its conscience, or it cuniditv. ' 11 - I . will not permit us to have the smallest portion of that territory. Why, sir, this is the most impudent proposition that was ever maintained by any respectable body of men. Sir, I give the North foil credit for its feel ings in favor of liberty. I can well suppose that northern gentlemen would resist, in the most emphatic manner, the attempt to mane any man who is now tree a slave: but I regard them a too intelligent to believe that humanity, cither to the elavcor to the master, require that they should be pent op ithwin a territory which, altera time, will be insufficient for their subsistence, and where they must perish from want, or from the col lissions that would occur between the races. Nor can I suppose that they think it would be injurious to iNew Mexico and California for our people to go and actile among them. Prominent northern statesmen, both in this House and in the Senate, have described the population of those Territories, and have represented it a being but only inferior to those Indian tribe that we know most of, viz: the Cherokee and Choctaw, butssbeinj far below the Flat Heads, Black Feet ant Snake Indian. I cannot, therefore, sup pose that they really believe that those territories would be injured by having in fused into them such a state of society as produces such person as George Wash ington, John Marshall, and thousands of other of our great and virtuous men, living and dead, lour opposition to our right will be regarded a resting on the lust for P!ltiCi! P w?r PI y pur.poUliciant, or. .on the rapacity ol your people. The idea that the conquered, people should be permitted to give law to the con querors, i so preposterously absurd, that I do not intend to argue it Doubtless these people would be willing, not only to ex clude slaveholders, but all other Americans, if, by aimp ot, 4hey-were allowed to do so. I may remark further, that but for die anti-slavery agitation, our southern slaveholders would have carried their ne groes into the mines of California in such numbers, that I have no doubt but that the majority there would have made it a slave- holding State. We have been deprived of all chance of this by the northern move ments, and by the action of tins House, which has, by northern votes, repeatedly, from tithe to time, passed the Wilmot pro viso, so as in effect to exclude our institu tions without the actual passage of a law for that purpose. It is a mere farce, there fore, without giving our people time to go into the country, if ihey do so, to allow the individuals there, by a vote, to exclude a whole classef our citizens. This would imply that the territory belonged to the peo ple there exclusively, and not to all the pe.t ple iff the United States. ' Compared with this grent question, the abolition of slavery in the District of Co lumbia is of little relative moment. One effect however, of the anti slavery agitation here is worthy ot a passing notice. V ith in the last two years, since the matter has become serious, it has seemed not improb able that the seat of Government might be removed from the District. As this .would be extremely prejudicial to the interests so lar . changca in. .their Jepl1n2s.aii.ta .toJ willing 10 allow slavery to be abolished, yielding to the force of the pressure (rom the. North; besides, so many of tJiek slave are from time to time taken away by the abolitionis, 'an to satisfy them that such property" here ff almost WHrthlcss."1'" A great impresssion was made on them by the coming in lastyear of a northern ship, and Its carrying away seventy slaves atome. Seeing that thereM tid chance for totl gress to pass any adequate law for their froleclion, a most of the Stales have done. ..", , ,., ,,i, ,..,., m;. ;. CAtVIII iU .III. .IIWI f .,, VII.. -.,,, I, is most surprising that the people of the southern States should have borne, with o little complaint, the loss of their slaves incurred by. the action of the free Slates The Constitution of the United States provided for the delivery of all such .fu gitives and Congress pased an act to ear ry it into effect; but recently, most, if not ail of the northern States, have completely defeated their provisions, by forbidding any one ol their citizens to aid in the execu tion of the law, under the penalty of fine ami iw.ptkdnment.for aa long a Utrnr usually as five years. There is probably no one legal mind in any one of the free Stitcs which can tcg-trd these laws as constitu tional. For though the States are not bound to legislate affirmatively in support of the constitution of the United Slates, yet it is clear lual ti'ey . nave no ttgHf to pass law to obstruct the execution of - cons-' tiliiHial provisions. . Private citizen are not usually bound to be active in execution oflhff towt prevent the execution of any law, they are subject to indictment for- conspiracy in all countries where the common law doctrine prevail. If the several States could right fully legislate to defeat the action of Con- gresd, Uiey might thereby so,nlMly mrllify most of its taw. In this particular instance such has been the result; for though the master i allowed to go and get his negro, if he cm, yet in point of fact, it is well known that the free negroes, abolitionists. j and other disorderly person acting under ,he ountpnanee and authority of the State ...!! .L. laws, are able usually to overpower the master and revent his recapture. The extent of the loss to the South may be understood from the fact, that the num ber of runaway slaves now in the North is stated as bri-ig thirty thousand worth at present prices, little short of fiftr-rn millions of dollars. Suppose that amount of prop ty was taken sway fr,m the North by the Southern States acting against the Consti tution whatcomplaiht would there not be! what memorials, remonstrtinres, and legis lative resolutions would come down upon us! How would this Hall be filled with lobby members, coming hero to pros their claim upon Congress! Why, sir, muny of the border counties in the slaveholding State have been obliged to give up their slave almost entirely, It was stated in newspaper the other day, that a few coun ties named in Mafytand. had, b4he effort of the abolitionist within six month, upon computation, lest one hundred thousand dollar worth of slate. A genjlcman of-the highest standing, from Delaware, assured me the other day that that little Slate lost, each year, at least that valuejafsuch prop erty in the same way. A hundred thousand dollars is a heavy tax to be levied on a tingle congressional district by the aboli tionist. Suppose a proportional burden was in flicted on the northern Slate. How would Massachusetts bear the loss annually of one million one hundred thousand dollars, not only inflicted without law, but against an express proviwon-of tho-Con tftwtion! We may infer from the complaint (he had made of slight inconvenienc imposed on her by that regulation of South Caroli na which prevented ship-captain fiom carrying free negro servant to Charles ton. . ; . . This whole action on the part of the North 1i t not only in 1 violation of the Con stitution, but seems to be purely wanton. or originating in malice towards ihe South..' It i obviou that they do not want our slave among ' lliein; because they not only make no adeqUite provision for their com 'fort but, in fact in many of the States, have forbidden free negroes to come among them on pain of imprisonment, iie. i cannot be a desire to liberate slaves, be- cause they have never, to my knowledgcvKd as ii.vidious, unless by way of defence attempted to steal negroes Irom Uuha or Brazil. It is true, however, that having the right now to come among a both by land and water, they have greater advanta ges and immunities. For if they went into a foreign country, they would incur the risk of being shot or hanged, as robber and pirates usually are. " -Sir, if any evils have'grown out of the ett istence of slavery, they have not at least af-, fected the North. During the days of the lave tnde, which (as I formerly had oc casion to remark) was continued down to 1808 by New England votes in the con vention, tbf northern ship-owners realized large profits by purchasing negroes on the coast of A'frics at thirty or forty dollar per head, and selling them to southern planters for several hundred dollars. The bringing in of theso slave caused large tracts of the southern country, too unhealthy to-have--been- reerrd bjr-wrfita men; to-be price of colton has' thrrehy" heeif "bruughl down from fifty to ten and even five cent per pound, An immcnsa.iimount.of jap... ital and labor is employed profitably in -its manufactu e at the North. rfn Ep'ffuttMf,' also, not less than six hundred millic 11s of dollars is thus invested, and a vast popu lation exists by being employed in the manufacture. It is ascertained tliM at least flveTnillion of white perwHi, in Europe and this country, get their employment, are fed, and exist, on the manufacture of eottojt, atone." ' TTie 'cheap southern proJuction of the raw material not only ia the mean of thus giving suhsistence" to a great por tion of the population of this country and Europe, but is clothing the world at acheap rate. In addition to. cotton, rice, sugar, cof fee, tihacco, and various tropical produc tion are supplied at a cheap rate for north-4 em consnmpttonOn- the other hand, our slaves seldom come in competition with northern labor, and are good consumers of its productions While, the North has de rived these great advantage, tho negroe themselves have not been sufferers. Their (Hmd i lion not only compare, most. advan tagoously with that of the laboring popula tion of the world, bat is in advance of the position they have been able at any lime to occupy at homo. The researches of Gliddon and other antiquarians, show that four thous and years ago in Africa they were slaves, and a black a they now sre." Since then, in that country where they" were placed by Providence, and were from their peculiar they have exnisted only as savages 1 hey are there continually made slaves of by the men of more intelligent and enterpris ing race. Nor have they ever gotten out of the tropical part of Africa, except when they were carried as merchandise. It re- mim tn be- provdr heweyeM-tb world, that the negro any more than a burse, can permanently exist, in a slate of freedom, out of the tropical regions. Their decay si the North, as well as other circumstan ces which I have not lime to detail, are ad verse to the proposition. And yet, sir, the journals of the North, while-they deny that the French, anil the Germans, the most enlightened of the continental nations of Europe. ara- capable -of-freedom, stoutly maintain that the negro is, the negro who hasnevei any where when left to himself, gotten up to the respectable stale of barba rism which all the other races have attained not even excepting our Indian in Mexico and Peru. While the people ot the Northern State and the negroe have both benefitted, I am not prepared to admit that the South (if injured at all) has suffered a generally sup posed. The influx of foreign emigrants, and some other circumstances to which I will presently advert, have in some respects put the Not th greatly ahead. But if you deduct the foreign population which goes chiefly to the North the little we get not being equal to that portion of our own people who go to the northwestern States if you deduct this. 1 say, it will bo found that the white population of all the slaveholding S ates has increased faster than that of the free State. Owingto the comfoi table condi tion of our population, il there had been no emigration from abroad, the descendant of our portion of the American white fatiily would be more numerous than the northern. Nor1 i it trite, that we are the poorer: on the contrary, if we are to take the valuations of property in the different State as asses sed by the publie officers, it appear that the slaveholding State are much richer in proportion to their population than the free. Even if you exclude -.the-negroe a propprtT;and eountrn?m-hr thptm4 lation, it appear that the citizen 01 Virginia- the oldest of the slave States- are richer per head than the citizen of anyone of the free State. . It will also appear that the slaveholding State have vastly less pauperism and crime jhanulhfl . northern Sutc. Looking, therefore, at all these different eleihenui viz: greater ihctease of population, more wealth and less poverty and cri.ne, we have reason to regard our people a prosperous and happy. ' Sir, I have not, for want of time, gone) into detail on these point, but contented myself with the statement of those general view which every candid inquirer will, I am satified, find to be true. I do not seek make comparison that might be regard- against habitual attacks on us; butljregaril it as right to say ' on this occasion, that whether considered with reference to the physical comfort of the people or a high stat of public and private moral, elevated sense of honor, and of all, generous emo tions, I have no reason to believe that a -higher state of eivilizallonr-eiiher now ex its elsewhere, or ha existed at any time uv - the past than is presented by the southern Stales of tho Union. When we look to foreign countries, these views are confirmed and sustained. Bra zil, with a population of two slaves to nne freeman, is tho most prosperous of the) South American States, and the only one hich has sstable political system. Cnba is greatly in advance of the other "West India islands, though St Domingo and Ja-' maica once equaled her before the emanr cipalion of their slaves. Beside the ex pense ot maintaining her government t ly fourteen million. This t greater- sum for her population than two hundred mil lion, wo ul.dbefor.t!io United State.- Could our people, in 'tddition to the) 3-;. iiense of our . fcute . g ovetmetiv py 1 ii - times as much as the Federal Government ' has ever yet raised by impost and taxes! That Cut' a should be able to bear this bur-. den and still prosper, ievidence of the high-" prmluetivsnoM ot th system, - ' In spite, however, of these great facts,. -whiohoiiglrt4trvfee-all - iTTtpartial-'tnihdr,5"'-w thi?ouTeTrtthr North Hiii been constantly aggressive- on- tht - quesitotr. Thr - ordi-- na nee or 1787, adopted cotemporaneously with tho Constitution, made the territory north of the Ohio free, and left that Souih of the river slaveholdingv. giving the North more than half of all the existing territory, When" L6uii8hf was'"icuuTreilF slavery ct uld legally exidt in every part of it The State 01 Missouri having formed a republi cairconatjtution. proposed- 1ft comiinto. th i Union, but the North resisted her applica tion. Through her constitution recogni zing slavery was precisely like those of a majority of ih old Stately ; yerthey, 'agirtl all constitutional principle, because they had the power 1rr one branch of Congress,"" obstinately refused her admission, until it ' was provided bjr act of Congress that no other slave State should exist north of 30" aiV. .By lhat means, afterleaving the South only territory fur a single State (Arkansas,) ihey acquired enough in extent to . make ten or fifteen large Slates Now, encour- '; judby-iheirfwinar.cucaess.aml-vhaviflg- becomoreIallvely stronger, they claim the whole of the territory! Should we give way, what ia to be the result! Calfornia, Oregon, New Mexico, Dcscret and Minnesota, will come into thr . ITni.it. tn Inaa ,Unn a Mw ai.ln- it... IN orm (Clear majority ol ten or htteen vote in the Senate. 1'ho census of the coming year will, under the new apportionment, give them nearly two to one in this Mouse. With Immense controlling majorities in botft - branches, will they not at once by act of Congress abolish slavery in the Slate! Mr Adam, who in hi day, controlled northern opinion 00 this question, said that there were twenty provisions ot the Constitution which, undercertain circumstanoes, would give Con grcsslhe power. Would not this majority find - the power, a easily a they have done in ihoir State legislatures, where they have complete away, to nullify, the provision of the Constitution for the protection of fugitive lave! Have not prominent northern pol iticians of the ... highest position anil the greatest iuflueuce, whose name are well known to all gentlemen on thia floor already declared that there is nothing in the Consii tionoflhe United State which, obstructs or ought to obstruct the abolition of slavery, by Congress, in the States! Supposing, how ever, this should not occur in twenty years or less, without new acquisition of territo ry they would get the power, by the com." ing in of new free Slates, to amend the Constitution for that purpose. But I have no doubt, sir, that other acquisitions of ter ritory will be made. "Probably, after tho next Presidential election we shall get that part of Mexico which lies along the Gulf, as far a Vera Cruz; and from which, though -well suited to the profitable employment of. slave labor, we should be excluded, never theless, by the adoption of the principle that slavery should no be extended in arc. Conceding, however, that I am wrong in both those supposition, and that Congress would neither violate the Corilstltutlon nor annul it thus: what are wo to expect! Sla very ia to be kept, they say, where ft now is; and we are to be surrounded with free StateSi These State not only prohibit the- introduction of slave but also of free ne groes into their borders. Of course the whole negro population is to bo hereafter confined to the territory of the present fif teen slave States. That population in twenty -live years - will amount to even or eight millions and. in fifty-yeat to .fiflcen , jhilltoMTrilowever dense' the population might become tho negroes will hot bo gotten away, but the wealthier portion 'of th H
The North-Carolina Star (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Feb. 6, 1850, edition 1
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