SUPPLEMENT TO THE LEWISBTJKG CHKONICLE. Aggressions and Usurpations or THE SLAVE POWER. DECLARATION OF FSIWCIPLEB AKD PURPOSES OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. ADDRESS OP THE REPUBLICAN CON VENTION, at Pittsbiro, Feb. 22, 185B. TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. Having met in Convention attheOity of Pittsburg, in the State of Pennsylvania, ihia 22d day of reb ruary, 1956, as the representatives of the people in various sections of the Onion, to consult upon the political evils by which the country is menaced, and the political action by which those ei iis may Le averted, we address to you this Declaration of our Principles and of the purposes which we seek to promote. We declare, in the first place, our fixed and un alterable devotion to the Constitution of the United States to the ends for which it was uetablished, and to the means which it provided for their attainment. We accept the solemn protestation of the People ot tbe United States, that they ordained it "in order to form a more perfect Union, eftablish justice, ensure dsEt-stic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity." We be lieve that the powers which it confers upon the Gov ernment of the United States are ample for the ac complishment of these objects; and that if these pow ers are exercised in the spirit of the Constitution itself, they cannot lead to-any other result. We re spect those great rights which the Constitution de clares to be inviolable Freedom of Speech and of the Press, the free exercise ot Beligious Belief, and the right of the People peaceably to assemble and to pe tition the Government for a Redress of Grievances. We would preserve those great safeguards of civil freedom, the habeas courts, the right of trial by jury, and the right of personal liberty, unless deprived thereof for crime by due process of law. We declare our purpose to obey, in all things, the requirements ot ih Constitution and of all laws enacted in pursuance thereof. We cherish a profound reverence lor the wise and patriotic men by whom it was framed, and a lively sense of the blessings it has conferred upon our country and upon mankind throughout tne worm, in every crisis of difficulty and of danger we shall invoke its spirit and proclaim the supremacy of its authority. In the next place, we declare our ardent and un shaken attachment to this Union of American States, which the Constitution created and has thus far pre served. We revere it as the purchase of the blood uf our forefathers, as the condition of our national re nown, and as the guardian and guaranty of that liberty which the Constitution was designed to secure. We will defend and protect it against all its enemies. We will recognize no geographical divisions, no local interests, no narrow or sectional prejudices, in our en deavors to preserve the union of these States against foreign aggression and domestic strife. What we claim for ourselves, we claim for all. The rights, privilege and liberties which we demand as our in heritance, we concede as their inheritance to all the citizens of this Republic. Holding these opinions, and animated by these sen timents, we declare our conviction that the Govern ment of the United States is not administered in ac cordance with the Constitution, or for the preservation and prosperity of the American Union ; but that its .,p svstematicallv wielded for the moMo- TION AND EXTENSION OF THE INTEREST OF SLAVERY, in direct hostility to the letter and spirit ot me i on slitution. in flagrant disregard of other great interests -.ntrii and in open contempt of the public sentiment of the American people and of the Christian world. We proclaim our belief that the policy whicht kaa for years past oeen auopieu in nuuiuniuiui r,i.r:npnil Government, tends to the utter subver sion of each of the great ends for which the Const i w.. established, and that, unless it shall be arrested by the prompt interposition of the People, the bold of the union upon mcir iujhj aucuuou will be relaxed, the aomesuc uimumiij m up turned and all Constitutional securities for the bless ings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity will be destroyed. The Slaveholding interest cannot lie permanently paramount in the General Government without involving consequences fatal to Free insti tution. We acknowledge that it is large aud powerful ; that in the States where it exists it is entitled under tbe Constitution, like all other local interests, to immunity from the interferences of the General Government, and that it must necessarily exercise through its representatives a considerable share of political power. But there is nothing in its position as there is certainly nothing in its character, tosustain the supremacy which it seeks to establish. There is not a State in the Union in which the slave holders number one-tenth partot the free white popu-lation-nor in the aggregate do they number one fiftieth part ot the white population of the United States The annual productions of the other classes .k. fTn;m. fur exceed the total value of all the sieves. To say nothing, therefore, of the questions of natural justice, ana oi pouucai involve!, neither its magnitude nor the numbers of those by whom it is represented entitle it to one-tenth oart oe the political powers conferred upon the Federal Government by the Constitution. Yet we see it seek in? and at this moment yielding, all the functions of theGovernment executive, legislative, and judicial and using them for the augmentation of its powers and the establishment of its ascendancy. . From this ascendancy the principles of the tonsti turion the rights of the several (States, the safety of the Union, and the welfare of the people of the United States, demand that it should be dislodged. HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PROGRESS OF SLAVERY TOWARD ASCENDANCY IN THE FEDERAL GOV ERNMENT. . It is not necessary for ua to rehearse in detail the successive steps by which the slaveholding interest has secured the influence it now exerts in the General Government, Close students of political events will readily trace the path ot its ambition through the past twenty-five years of our national history. It was under the Administration of President Tyler, and during the negotiation which preceded the annex ation of Texas, that the Federal Administration for the first time declared, in its diplomatic correspond ence with foreign nations, that Slavery in the United Stales was a " political institution, essential to TBE PEACE, ItflT! AND FROSrsniTl ur inusi ,.fn nr the Union in which it exists and that the paramount motive of the American Govern ment, in annexing Texas, was twofold Firtt .- To prevent the abolition of Slavery within its limits, and, Second: To render Slavery more secure and more powerful within the slaveholding States of the Union. Slavery was thus taken under the special care and protection of the Federal Government. It was no longer to be left as a State institution, to be controled exclusively by the States themselves; it was to be defended by the General Government, not only against invasion or insurrection of armed enemies, but against the moral sentiment of humanity and the natural de velopment of population and material power. Thus was the whole current of our national history suddenly and unconstitutionally reversed. The Gen eral Government, abandoning the position it had al wnys held, declared its purpose to protect and per petuate what the great founders of the Republic bad regarded as an evil as at variance with tbe principles on which our institutions were based, and as a source of weakness, social and political, to the communities in which it existed. At the time of the Revolution Slavery existed in all the Colonies; but neither then, nor for half a century afterward, bad it been an ele ment of political strife, for there was no difference of opinion or of policy in regard to it. The tendency of arliiirs had been toward emancipation. Half the original thirteen States bad taken measures at an early day to free themselves from the blighting influence and the reproach ot Slavery. Virginia and North Carolina had anticipated the Continental Cougress of 1774, in checking the increase ot their slave popula tion by prohibiting the Slave trade at any of their porta. SENTIMENTS OF THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITU TION CONCERNING SLAVERY. The Constitution, conferring upon Congress full power to prevent the increase of Slavery by prohib iting the elave trade, out ot regard for existing in terests and vested rights, postponed the exercise of that power over the States then existing until the year 1808; leaving Congress wee to eeroiee il over new States and over the Territories of the United JHulet! by prohibiting the migration or importation uf slaves into them, without any rectriCtion except such as its own discretion might supply. Congress promptly availed itself of this permission by reatiirming that great Ordi nance of the Confederation by which it was ordained and decreed that all the territory then belonging to the United States should be forever free. Four new Stales were formed out of territory lying south of the Ohio river, and admitted into the Union previous to 1820 ; but the territory from which they were tunned hud belonged to States in which Slavery existed at the time of their formation ; and hi ceding it to the General Government, or in assenting to the formation of new &uten within il, the old States to wliirli it belonged had insertad a proviso against any regula tion of Congress that should tend to the emancipation of slaves. Congress was thus prevented from pro hibiting Slavery in these new Slates by the action of the old Slates out ot wh.ch they hail been tunned. But as soon as the constitutional limitation upon its power over the States then existing had expired Congress prohibited by fearful penalties the addition bv imtiortatioii of a single slave to the numbers already in the country. The trainers ot (lie I oiiMtitution, although the his torical record of their opinion proves that they were earnest and undivided in their dislike of Slavery, and in their conviction that it was hostile iu its nature ami it-i influences lo Republican Freedom, after taking these steps to prevent its increase, did not interfere with it further in the States where it men existed. Those States were separate communities, jealous ot their sovereignty, and unwilling to enter into any league which should trench, in the least degree, upon their own control over tlieir own affairs. This senti ment the frame of the Constitution were compelled to respect, and they accordingly left Slavery, as they left all other local interests, to the control ot the sev eral States. But no one who reads with care the de bates and the recorded opinions of that age, can doubt that the ultimate removal of Slavery was desired by the people of the whole country, and that Congress had been empowered to prevent its increase, with a view to its gradual and ultimate extinction. Nor did the period of emancipation seem remote. Slave labor, employed as it was in agriculture, was less profitable than the free labor which was pouring in to take its place. And even in the States where tins consideration did not prevail, other influences tended to the same result. The spirit of liberty wa then voune, generous am! strong. The men of the nation had made sacrifices and waged battles for the vindi cation of their inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and it was not possible for them to sit down in the quiet enjoyment of blessings thus achieved, without feeling the injustice as well as the inconvenience of holding great numbers of their. fellow-men in bondage. In all the States, therefore. there existed a strong tecdency toward emancipation, The removal of so great an evil was felt to be a wor thy object ot ambition by the best and most sagacious statesmen of that age; aud Washington, J enerson, Franklin, and all the great leaders and representa tives of public opinion, were active and earnest in devising measures by which it could be accomplished. But the great change produced in the industry of the Southern States, in the early part of the present century, by the increased culture of cotton, the intro duction of new inventions to prepare it for use, and its irrowinir imiiortance to the commerce of the coun try and the labor of the world, by making slave labor more profitable than it had ever been before, checked this tendency toward emancipation and soon put an end to it altogether. As the demand tor cotton in creased, the interests of the cotton-growing States became more and more connected with Slavery; the spirit of Freedom gradually gave way before the spirit of gain ; the sentiments and the language of the Southern States became changed ; and all at. tempts at emancipation began to be regarded, and re. sifted as assaults upon the rights and tho interests of tho slaveholding section of the Union. For many years, however, this change did not affect the politi- cal rotations of the subject. States, both free and slaveholding, were successively added to the Confed eracy without exciting the tears ot either section Vermont came into the Union in 1711 with a Consti- tuliou, excluding Slavery. Kentucky, formed out of Virginia, was admitted in 1792; Tennesse in 1796 Mississippi in 1817, aud Alabama in I8l'. all Slave States, formed out of territory belonged to Slave States, and having Slavery established in them at the time of their formation. On the other baud, Ohio was admitted in 18113, Indiana in 1810, and Illinois in 1818, having formed State Governments under acts of Congress which made it a fundamental condition that their Constitutions should contain nothing repug nant to the ordinance of 1787 or, in other words. that Slavery should be prohibited within their limits forever. In all these occurrences, as in tbe admission of Louisiana in 1812, there had been no contest be tween Freedom and Slavery, for it bad not been generally felt that tbe interests of either were seriously involved. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. The first contest concerning the admissiou of a new State, which turned upon the question of Slavery, oc curred in 1819, when Missouri, formed out of terri tory purchased from France in 1903, applied to Con gresa for admission to the Union as a slaveholding State. The application was strenuously resisted by the people of the Free State. It was everywhere felt that tbe decision involved consequences of the last importance to the welfare of the country, and that, if the progress of Slavery was ever to be arrest ed, that was the time to arrest it. The slaveholding interest demanded its admission as a right, and denied the power of Congress to impose conditions upon new States applying to be admitted into tbe Confederacy. The power rested wi Ji the Free States, and Missouri was denied admission. But the subject was reviewed The slaveholding interest, with characteristic and timely sagacity, abated something of it pretensions and settled the controversy on tne basis oi compromise, Missouri was admitted into tbe Union, by an act bear-1 iug date March fc, 1820, in which it was also declared that in all that Territory ceded by France to tbe united Males, under the name of 1-ouiiiana, wbicu lies north of 30 deg. 30 nun. of north latitude, not included within the limn of the State of Missouri, Slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crime whereof tbe parties shall have been duly convicted, shall sc. and l hereby toRKVER raoHisrrcii. In each House ot Congress a majority of the Member from slave- holding States voted in favor of this bill with this pro vision, thus declaring and exercising by their vote the constitutional power of Congress to prohibit Sla very even in territories where it had been permitted by the law of r ranee at the dale ot their cession to tbe United States. A new Slave State, Arkansas, formed out of that portion of this territory lying south of 3n' deg. 30 mm., to which the prohibition was not extended, was admitted to tho Union in le3rJ. Two Slave States thus came into the Confederacy by virtue of this arrangement ; while Freedom gained nothing by it but the prohibition of Slavery from a vast region which r reenom had made no attempt to penetrate. Thus ended the lirst great contest of 1- reedom and Slavery for position and power iu tbe General Govern ment. The slaveholding interest bad achieved a vir tual victory. It secured all the immediate results for which it struggled , it acquired the power of offsetting in the Federal Senate two of the Free States of the Confederacy , and the lime could uol be foreseen when, in the fulfilment ot its compact, it would yield any positive and practical advantage to the interests of freedom. Neither then, nor lor many years there after, did any statesman dream that, w hen the period should arrive, the slaveholding interest would trample on its bond and lling its faitii to the winds. A quarter of a century elapsed before the annexation of Texas. Slavery had been active, meantime, in fas tening its hold upon the Government, in binding polit ical parties to its chariot, and in seeking in Congress to stifle the right of petition, aud lo crush all freedom of speech and of the press. Iu every slaveholding State, uoue but slaveholders, or those whose interests are identified with Slavery, were admitted to till any office, or exercise any authority, civil or political Free whiles, not slaveholders, in their presence, or in the midst of their society, were) reduced to a vassalage little less degrading thau that ot the slaves themselves. Even at this day, although the white population of the slaveholding Mates is more than six millions, ot w hom but J4i,02j, or less than viie-seventeeuth, are the own era of slaves, none but a slaveholder, or one who will act with exclusive reference to Slavery, is ever allow ed to represent the State in auy National Convention, in either branch ot Congress, or in any high position of civil trust and political power. Tbe slaveholding class, small as it is, is the governing class, and shapes legislation and guides all public action lor the advancement of its own interests and the promotion of its own ends. During all that time, and from that lime even to the present, all slaveholding delegates in National Conventions, upon whatever else they may differ, always concur in imposing upon the Con vention assent to their requmitiuua in c cgm4 tASIaverv. as the indispensable condition of their support Hold ing thus in their hands power to decide the result ot the election, and using that power uudeviatingly and sternly for the extortion of their demands, they have always been able to control the nominations of both parties, and thus, whatever may be the issue, lo se cure a President who is sure to be the instrument of their behests. Thus has it come to pass that for twenty years we have never had a Presideet who would appoint to the humblest otuce within his gilt, in any section of the Union, any man known to hold opinions hostile to Slavery, or to be active in resist ing its aggression and usurpations of power. Men, the most upright and most respectable, in States where slavery i only known by name, have been in eligible to the smallest trust have been held unfit to distribute letters from the Federal post-office to their neighbors, or trim the lamps of a light-house upon the remotest point of our extended coast. Millions of our citizens have been thus disfranchised for their opin ions concerning Slavery, and tbe vast patronage ot the General Government has been systematically wielded in its service and for tbe promotion of its designs. It was by such a discipline, and under such in fluences, that the Government and the country were prepared for the second great stride of Slavery to ward new dominion, and tor the avowal of motives by which it was attended. ANNEXATION OF TEXAS AND THE . WAR WITH MEXICO. Texas was admitted into the Union on the 29th of December, 1845 with a constitution forbidding the abolition of Slavery, and a stipulation that four more states should become member of the Confederacy, whenever they might be formed within her limits. and with or without Slavery, a their inhabitant might decide. Tbe General Government thus made virtual provision tor the addition ot Ave new slave States to the U nion practically securing to the slave holding interest ten additional member in the Senate representing States, it might be, with less than 1,000,000 inhabitants, aud outvoting live ot the old States with an aggregate population of 11, 000,000. The corrupt aud tyrannical Kings of England, when votes were needed in the House ot Lard to sustain them against the people, created Peers as the emer gency required. Is there in tins anything in more flagrant contradiction to the principles of Republican Freedom, or more dangerous to the public liberties, than in the system practiced by the slaveholding inter est represented in the General Government. But a third opportunity was close at hand, and Slavery made a third struggle for the extension of its domain and the enlargement of its power. The annexation of Texas involved us in war with Mexico. The war was waged on our part with vigor, skill, and success. It resulted in Hie cession to the United States of New Mexico, California, and Dese ret, vast territories over which was extended by Mex ican law a prohibition of Slavery. The slaveholder demanded access o them all resisted the admission of California and New Mexico, which the energy of freemen, outstripping in il activity the Government and even the slaveholding interest, bad already con verted into Free States, and treasonably menaced Congress and the Union with overthrow if its demands were not conceded. Tbe free spirit of the country was roused to indignation by these pretensions, and for a time the whole nation rocked to the tempest which they had created. Untoward events aided the wrong. The death of the President threw the whole power of the Administration into timid and faithless hands. Party resentments and party ambitions in terposed against the right. Great men, leaders of the people, from whom in better days the people bad learned lessons of principle and patriotism, yielded to tbe bowlings of tbe storm and sought shelter, in submission, from its rage. The slaveholding interest was again victorious. California, with her free con stitution, was indeed admitted to the Union; but New Mexico, with her constitution forbidding Slavery within her borders, was denied admission and re manded to the condition of a Territory: and while Congress refused to enact a positive prohibition of . . m . J- T ( - , . slavery in tne Territories oi new aiexicoanu iseserei, it was provided that, when they should spply for ad mission as States, they should come in with or with out Slavery, as their inhabitants might decide. Ad ditional concessions were made to tbe Slave Power : tbe General Governmsat assumed the rscspturt of lugitive slaves, and passed laws for the accomplish ment of that end, subversive at once of State sove reignty, and of the established safeguard of civil freedom. Then the country again had real. Weane.t with it efforts, or content with their success, lbs slaveholding interest proclaimed a trurp. When franklin Fierce, on the -lib ot March, 1-jS. became President of tbe United States, no controversy growing out of Slavery was agitating the country Established Isws, some of them enacted with unusual aoleirnily and under circumstances which made them ot more than ordinary obligation, had fixed the char acter of all the States, and ended the contest conrern- ing the 1 erritories. Sixteen States were Fiw State?, and fifteen States were Slave Slates. By lb M issmirt Compromise of 1820, Slavery was forever prohibited from all the Louisiana Territory Ivmg north ot'lhe line of 'M deg. 30 mill.; while over that Territory Ivini; south ot that line, and over the Territory of Men Mexico and Deserer, no such prohibition had been ex -tended. The whole country reposed upon this arrange ment. All sections and all interests, whether approving it or not, seemed loaiouieme m its irin-. I neslavi- holding interest, through all its organs, and especially through the General Government, proclaimed that this was a Imal and irrep-alable aJjUstiu.-iit ot the striiGrle between Freedom aud Slavery tor political power- that it bad been aflecied bv mutual concessions and in the spirit of compromise and that it should be as en during as the Union and a sacred as the Constitution itself. Both political parlies gave it their sanction m their National Conventions the whole country ab sented to its vi, I ul i ly; and President Pierce, in Lie first official message lo Congress, pledged himself Id use all the power of bis position lo prevent it from being disturbed. But all these protestations proved delusive, and ll.r acquieseuve and contentment winch they produced afforded the opportunity not only for new aggressions on the part of Shivery, but for the repudiation of en gagements into Inch itsagentt had solemnly entered. Less than a year bad elapsed before these pledges were broken, and the advantage!: which they secured to Freedom withdrawn by the slaveholding power. KATLAL OF THE MlSSiiLIU I'liMI'ROMIKE. Ill the course ot time and the natural progress of population, that portion of the Louisiana Territory, lying weit of the Mississippi River and north of the line of :i deg. 31) nun., came lo he desired for occu pation ; and on the 24th of May, 1854, an act wa passed erecting upon it the two Territories of Kansas aud Nebraska, and organising governments fur them both. From this whole region the slaveholding inte rest thirty-four years before had agreed that Slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the pun ishment ot crime, should be forever prohibited," and bad received, as the price of this agreement, the ad mission ot Missouri, slid subsequently the admission of Arkansas, into the Union. By the Kansas and Ne braska bill, this prohibition was declared to be " in operative and noii," aud the intent and meaning of the bill was further declared lo lie, "not to legislate Slavery into any Territory or State, nnr to excludr it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof per fectly free to form aud regulate their ilome-tic instt. tutions in their own way, subject only to the Consti tution ot the United tttates." Thus, without a single petition for such action from any quarter of the Union, but against tbe earnest remonstrances of thousands of our citizens against the settled and profound convic tions of the great body of the people in every portion of the country, and in wanton disregard of the obliga tions of justice and of good faith, the Missouri Com promise of ls20 was repealed, and the seal which had guaranteed Freedom to that vast Territory which the United Stales bad purchased from France was snatched from the bond. Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Deserel, and the new State acquired from Texas north ot 30 deg. 30 nun., by compact, were all opened up to Slavery, a.id those who might first be come the inhabitants thereof were authorized to make laws for its establishment and perpetuation. THE INVASION OF KANSAS AND ACTION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. Nor did the slaveholding interest stop here in its crusade of injustice and of wrong. The first election of members for the Territorial legislature of Kansas was fixed for the 30th of March, 185Ti, and the law of Congress prescribed that at that election none but "actual residents of the Territory" should be allowed to vote. Yet, to prevent people of the Territory them selves from exercising the right to prohibit Slavery, which the Act of Congress had conferred upon them, the slaveholding interest sent armed hands of men from the neighboring Slate of Missouri, who entered the Territory on the day of election, took possession of the polls, excluded the legal voters, and proceeded themselves to elect members of the Legislature w ab out the slighest regard to the qualifications prescribed by law. The Judges of Election appointed under the authority of the Administration at Washington aided and abetted in the perpetration of these outrages upon tbe rights ot tne people ot Kansas, and the President ot the United States removed from office the Governor whom he had himself appointed, but who refused to acknowledge tbe Legislature which the slaveholding invaders from Missouri bad thus imposed upon the I erntory. That Legislature met on the 2d of July, lSOo. iu first act was to exclude those members, duly elected, who would not consent to the enactment of laws for the admission of Slavery into the Territory. Having thus silenced all opposition to its behests, the Legisla ture proceeded to the enactment of Jaws for the gov eminent of Kansas upon the subject of Slavery. The laws of Missouri iu regard to it were first extended over the Territory. Il was then enacted Uiat every person who should raise an insurrection or rebellion oi negroes in the Territory ; every person who should entice away a slave with intent to procure his free dom ; every person who should aid or assist in so en ticing away a slave within the Territory ; and every person who should entice or carry away a slave from any other Stale or Territory of the Union, and bring him within the Territory of Kansas, with the intent to elt'ect or procure bis freedom, upon the conviction thereof should eulfer Death. It wss further euacled that if any person should write, print or publish any book, paper, argument, opinion, advice or inuendo. calculated to produce a disorderly, dangerous or re bellious disaffection among the slaves in the Territory, or to induce them to escape from their masters, he should be deemed guilty of a felony, and be pun ished by imprisonment at hard labor tor a term not less than five tears; and that if any free person, by speaking or writing, should assert or maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in that Ter ritory; or should introduce or circulate any book, paper, pamphlet or circular containing any such de nial of the right of persons to hold slaves in that Territory he should be deemed guilty of felony, and be punished by imprisonment at bard labor for a term not less than two year. It was still further enacted by the same Legislature that every free white male citizen ot the United States, and inhabitant of tbe Territory, who should pay a tax of one dollar and take an oath to support the Constitution of tbe United States, the act organizing the Territory of Kansas, the Territorial laws, and the act for the recapture of fugitive slaves, should be entitled to vote at any elec tion in said Territory thus making citizens ot Mis souri or of sny other State legal voters in Kansas, upon their presentation at the polls, upon taking the oath (prescribed, and upon payment of one dollar m direct violation of ths spirit of the act of Congress,
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