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Show 378 TilE AGITATION IN 184 7-50. claimed it as common property, and, in 1798, parsed the net now under review for its govcrumcnt. In that act sho neither claimed nor exerted any power to prohibit slavery in iL. .A.1H.l the question came dir ·ctly before Congres , tho ordinance of 1787 in terms was applied to this territory expressly ''excepting and ex<:luding the Ia t article of th~ ordinance," which is the artielc excluding slavery from the N orthwe ·t rrcrritory. This i a precedent directly in poi nt, anu is against the exercise of the power now claimed. In 1802, Georgia ceded her western lands, she protected ~lavery in her grant, and the Government complied with Lcr stipulations. In 1803 the Uuitcd States acquired Louisiana from France by purchase. There is no special reference to sln.vci'Y in the treaty; it was protected only under the general term of property. 'rllis acquisition was soou after tho treaty di videtl into two 'rcrri torics-the Orleans and the Louisiann. '.rcrritories-ovcr both of which governments were established. 'rhe law of slavery outaincd in the whole country at the Lime we acquired it. Congrc s prohibited the foreign and domestic slave trade in the e Territori es I but gave the protection of its laws to slave owners emi-grating thither with their slave.. Upon the admission of Louisiana into the Union, a new government was established by Congress over the rest of the country under the name of the Missouri Territory. 1,his act also attempted no exclusion; slaveholders emigrated to the couutry with their slaves, and were protected by their government. In 1819 Florida was acquired by pnrchnsc; its Ia ws recognized and protected slavery at the time of the acquisition. The United States extended the same recognition and protection. I have tLns briefly reviewed the whole territorial legislation of Congress from the beginning of the government uutil 1820, and it sustaius my proposition, that witbiu that THE AGl'l'A'l'ION IN 184 7-50. 379 . d there was no precedent where Congress had excr-p. e nod r attempted to cxer<.;.t se, nny pn.m ary co11s t'' t. l ILU 10na CIRC I 0 • • • 1 tb . t Prevent slaveholders from cmtgratwg, wtt 1 e1r power o ' . 1 d slave pt.o p crty , to n.ny l)Ortion . of th.e . public Jan( .s ; an that 't 1 d extended the protectiOn of tts laws and 1ts arms I ta · . '· pcr·so11s in all cases cxccr1t 111 the N orthwcst OVCI' sucu . ' I • ·t w11Terri ory, c1·e 1., was fettered a11d n'~t r:utt c<l by au or- ll • . gn.m·c 1a w established before the fonn :ll t11 11 of our present Constitution. Extract from a speech of llon. Chc~ter Butler, of Pennsylvania, in the llou·c of R cprcscutativ s, June , 1 50: Mr. Butler said-Sir, 1 mn t be permitted to express my dissent from each of these extravagant propositions. 1 do not believe, that, to holu slaves i::; to be in volved in moral guilt, in sin. 'ro believe thi ·, would ~Jc ~surrender of the w11 0 1e que .o.. tion , for no ln:w or constJitJtton shou• ld •b e p• cr-mitted to exist, creating or sustaining an unholy Jn stitutJOn. In roy judgment, slavery i not an unmitigat.ctl ~vil: nor is it an unalloyed good. Like most of the 111 ·lltutJOns of men, it contains a mixture of the in gredicJ.tts of' goo~ and evil. It bas its auvantagcs, its comforts, tis convemcnces and its bencflts, to both or the parties, who stand to each other in the relation of master and servant, as well the opposites of these chnrn.cteristics ; and, 1il~c other ~n stitutions of this world, it depends in its practiCal work1ng for good or for evil, not upon any abstract principle of right or wrong, freedom or bondage, but upon the character of those among whom it exists, and tbe manner .in which ~he power and the duties of the superiors arc exercised a.nd discharged. Theoretically, slavery may be wrong, a it is an invasion of an absolute ri,rht of the enslaved. The originn.l abstract b 1 . right of every human being, of every hnc and comp ex~~~' to personal liberty, is, I believe, deni cll hy no one. Io tlcpn'v e any human b 0.1 ng o f 'u-1. s• pc'r·s ·o ttal 11· berty ' exCCl)t for |
