The fact of its presence, and the
difficulty of its removal, will carry the vote in its favor. Keep it out
until a vote is taken, and a vote in favor of it cannot be got in any
population of forty thousand on earth, who have been drawn together by
the ordinary motives of emigration and settlement. To get slaves into the
Territory simultaneously with the whites in the incipient stages of
settlement is the precise stake played for and won in this Nebraska
measure.
The question is asked us: "If slaves will go in notwithstanding the
general principle of law liberates them, why would they not equally go in
against positive statute law--go in, even if the Missouri restriction
were maintained!" I answer, because it takes a much bolder man to venture
in with his property in the latter case than in the former; because the
positive Congressional enactment is known to and respected by all, or
nearly all, whereas the negative principle that no law is free law is not
much known except among lawyers. We have some experience of this
practical difference. In spite of the Ordinance of '87, a few negroes
were brought into Illinois, and held in a state of quasi-slavery, not
enough, however, to carry a vote of the people in favor of the
institution when they came to form a constitution.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249