| OCR Text |
Show 292 OPINIONS OF MADISON, JJJ;FFEH~ON, ETO. SLates, iL will be but another exerci:e of LhaL power to declare that all shall be free." Again, in a leHcr to General Lnfayetic, dated November 4Lh, 1823, he uses Lhc foll owing strik ing lano-uage : 11 On the eel ipse of federal ism with tt.', nlLhough not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri qnc Lion, under the fnl e front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view of produ cin g a geographi cal division of parties, which might insure them the next President. ~rho peoplo of the North went blindfold in to the snare, followed their lenders for a whil e with a zeal trnly moral and landablc, until they became sen. ible that they were injuring instead of aidin g the real in tere. Ls of the laves ; that they had been n, eel merely as tools for r lectionceri ng· pnrposcR; and thnt t rick of hypocrisy th en fell as quickly as it had been got 11 p., Gene'ral ( afterwar·ds P re8idrnt) l la?Tison to P1·esident Jl forwoe.-lt.J·tract of a Letter· dated No'rth Bend, Jane 16, ] 23. ll In relation to the :Missouri qn c. t ion, I am, and Lave been for many yean;, so much opposed to slavery, that I will never li ve in a Stale wl1 ere it exists. But I believe that the Constitution ha g iven no power to the General Government to interfere in this muLLe r, and that to have slaves or no slaves, depends upon the will of Lhe people in each State alone. "Resides the constitut ional obj ection, I nm persuaded that the obviou. tcnclency of such in tc rfer nccs on the part of the Stat ·s which have no Rlaves with the property of thei L· fplJow citizens of the other , i ~ to pnHl uco a state of di.·cord and jralonsy that will, in the etHl, prove fata l to the Un ion. I believe in no ot h<'r State are RitCh wild nnd dangerous s ntimcuts ente rtained 0 11 thi.' subj ect as iu Ohi o, nncl I claim the m 'rit of being the only person of any political standing in the SLate who publicly oppo. e them." CilAPrrBR IX. FUOI1'IVE SLAVJ~ S-Oltl>JNAN UJ~ OF 17 ~ 7-TrrE OON TJ'I'U· TlON-AOT Oll' 17U3. (.From B enton's Thir-ty Yea1·s.) IT is of record proof that the anti-slavery clause in the Ordinance of 1787, conlcl not be passed until the fug itive slave recovery clatve was aclrl cd to it. That nnti-slu.v<'ry clause, first prepared in the Congress of the ConfedcmLion by Mr. J e[erson, in 17 84, was rejected, and remained rejected for th ree years, until 1787; when, receiv ing the ndditional clause for the recovery of fugiti ves, it was unanimously passed. 1'his is clear proof that the first cln.nsc, that prohib iti ng slavery in the N orLhwest rrcrri tory, could not be obtained without the second, authorizing 1lte recovery of slaves who should take refuge in that terri tory. It was a compromise between the slave Stales and the free Lates, un animously agreed upon by both parties, and fonnded on a valuable consideration, one preventing the Rpread of slavery over a vast extent of coun try, the othc1· retaining the right of property in the slaves which might Hoe to it. Simultaneously with the adoption of th is az·Licle in the Ordin ances, in 17 87, was the fo rmation of the Constitu tion of the United States, both formed at the same time in nei o-hhoring cities, and (it may be said) by the same men. ~rhe Congress sat in New York, the Fcclcrul Convention in Philadelphia ; and while the most active members of both were members of each, as Madison and llamil ton, yet, by constant interchange of opinion, tho members of both bodies may bo assumed to have worked (293) |
