ORDINANCE OF 1787.

41

from the whole of that vast dominion. At the very moment of its adoption, the Federal Convention, sitting at the time in Philadelphia, was engaged in the consideration of the subject of slavery in its various aspects. Constant intercourse, by mail and otherwise, was going on between these two great commercial marts. Some of the most eminent members of Congress were likewise members of the Convention, and were of course sometimes engaged in the deliberations of one of these bodies, and sometimes in those of the other. The ordinance was unanimously adopted, every Southern member present and every Northern member voting for it. With such facts staring us in the face, surely he would be a bold man, and far more bold than discreet, who would assert that at this memorable period in American annals any serious antagonism, either of sentiment or of policy, in regard to slavery, was apparent. But other evidence in corroboration is easily adducible. In the Federal Constitution under which we now live, two other points were distinctly and definitively settled: 1st. Provision was made for the prospective, not the immediate prohibition of the African slave-trade-that is to say, Congress was, by the clearest implication, empowered to pass laws for the suppression of this nefarious traffic by the clause which provides that no legislation by this body for the purpose specified should take place anterior to the year 1808. 2d. The Convention, in language to which, until recently, only one interpretation has been any where affixed, not only guaranteed to the states wherein slavery then existed the right to regulate it according to their own discretion, without any foreign interference whatev

er,

but moreover guaranteed in a manner deemed at the time sufficiently explicit, the return of fugitive slaves to the service of their recognized masters.

No moon-struck political philosopher then undertook to declare that the constitutional clause guaranteeing to each of the states a "republican form of government" was designed by its framers to provide for the universal manumission of bondmen and bondwomen of African de

scent.

I now assert, what no fair-minded man will deny, that the existence of slavery in the states still choosing to retain it did not, for many years after the foundation of the present government, become a source of excitement and unbrotherly feeling. The injunctions of the Constitution were every where understood in the same way, and were every where faithfully observed. A few abolition petitions were sent forward by a portion of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania to the first Congress, the appearance of which produced no serious irritation, and these petitions were at once quietly disposed of and forgotten, but not until the adoption of the following important resolution:

แ

Resolved, That Congress have no authority to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them in any of the states; it remaining with the several states alone to provide rules and regulations therein, which humanity and true policy may require."

For many years, and, indeed, up to the year 1835, slavery in the South did not become a subject of unkind discussion any where.

Justice demands the admission that, up to a period

WEBSTER IN DEFENSE OF THE NORTH.

43

comparatively recent, the spirit of this resolution was most faithfully adhered to; so that Mr. Webster was perfectly justified in what fell from his lips on this subject in the memorable debate in the United States Senate between himself and Mr. Hayne, when he said, referring to the resolution above cited,

"The fears of the South, whatever fears they might have entertained, were allayed and quieted by this early decision; and so remained, till they were excited afresh, without cause, but for collateral and indirect purposes. When it became necessary, or was thought so, by some political persons, to find an unvarying ground for the exclusion of Northern men from confidence and from lead in the affairs of the republic, then, and not till then, the cry was raised, and the feeling industriously excited, that the influence of Northern men in the public councils would endanger the relation of master and slave. For myself, I claim no other merit than that this gross and enormous injustice toward the whole North has not wrought upon me to change my opinions, or my political conduct. I hope I am above violating my principles, even under the smart of injury and false imputations. Unjust suspicions and undeserved reproach, whatever pain I may experience from them, will not induce me, I trust, nevertheless, to overstep the limits of constitutional duty, or to encroach on the rights of others. The domestic slavery of the South I leave where I find it-in the hands of their own governments. It is their affair, not mine. Nor do I complain of the peculiar effect which the magnitude of that population has had in the distribution of power under this Federal government. We know,

sir, that the representation of the states in the other House is not equal. We know that great advantage, in that respect, is enjoyed by the slaveholding states; and we know, too, that the intended equivalent for that advantage, that is to say, the imposition of direct taxes in the same ratio, has become merely nominal-the habit of the government being almost invariably to collect its revenue from other sources and in other modes. Nevertheless, I do not complain, nor would I countenance any movement to alter this arrangement of representation. It is the original bargain, the compact: let it stand; let the advantage of it be fully enjoyed. The Union itself is too full of benefit to be hazarded in propositions for changing its original basis. I go for the Constitution as it is, and for the Union as it is. But I am resolved not to submit in silence to accusations, either against myself individually or against the North, wholly unfounded and unjust—accusations which impute to us a disposition to evade the constitutional compact, and to extend the power of the government over the internal laws and domestic condition of the states. All such accusations, wherever and whenever made, all insinuations of the existence of any such purposes, I know and feel to be groundless and injurious. And we must confide in Southern gentlemen themselves; we must trust to those whose integrity of heart and magnanimity of feeling will lead them to a desire to maintain and disseminate truth, and who possess the means of its diffusion with the Southern public; we must leave it to them to disabuse that public of its prejudices. But, in the mean time, for my own part, I shall continue to act justly, whether those toward whom jus

ADMINISTRATIONS OF WASHINGTON AND ADAMS. 45

tice is exercised receive it with candor or with contumely."

Nothing can be more undeniable than the proposition that, during the eight years' administration of Washington, there was not in existence any where what has since become so mischievously known as a sectional party or ganization, though much opposition was in various quarters presented to the measures of policy recommended by this most venerated of all our presidents. That this opposition was mainly of a factious and reprehensible character can not now be doubted, and it would seem to have owed its origin in a considerable degree to the eager desire entertained by certain ambitious statesmen to secure their own advancement to the highest official position known to our form of government, to the exclusion of others whom they suspected of possessing a larger share than themselves of the confidence and friendly wishes of the exalted personage who was even then preparing to return to private life. The election of John Adams, of Massachusetts, to the Presidency, and of Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, to the Vice Presidency of the United States, would appear to prove conclusively that sectional jealousies had not yet gained much strength in either of the two great divisions of the republic. The passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, during the administration of the elder Adams, and the questions connected with the then anticipated war with France, furnished a plausible occasion for the array of opposition to the new administration, and supplied an opportunity far too tempting to be passed by of calling into existence a party organization which, under proper tutelage and training, it