Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/342

 3IO THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

ness of the North, which was then with the admission of new states in the southwest, the minority section. The question of slavery did not enter into the discussions of either of these periods. In the controversy upon the admis- sion of Missouri as a state, for the first time the slavery question was introduced, as it had become apparent that the affinity of the new states to be created with the one section or the other, would be largely affected by the question whether they be admitted as free or slave states, the states of the North being all free, and those of the South all slave. The disaffection in South Carolina and other states in the South in 1830 was created by the feeling that the exist- ing protective tariff was an act of great injustice to that section, — that it was for the benefit of the large manufacturers of the North, to the sacrifice of the great agricultural interests of the South.

After 1830, was commenced the discussion of the moral question of slavery, which added intensity to the sectional feeling. In the meantime, with the large increase of the population of the North and the admission of new free states, it became evident that, within a brief period, the North would be able to control every department of the general government. Extreme men in both sections advocated extreme measures. They were opposed by the conservative men, both North and South, who hoped for a peaceable solution of the difficulties. But the agitation was continued. After the close of the Mexican war, there was a necessity for organizing the vast territory which had been acquired. This opened a wide field for agitation. The extremists at the North, reinforced with the moral stimulants which had been wanting in the for- mer struggles, made great and rapid progress. Holding in many states the balance of power between the national parties, they were enabled to increase largely their influence in Congress, and to enlist in their cause the great mass of the clergy of their section. This increased the excitement at the South. The subject was early brought to a practical test. Propositions for the intro- duction of California as a state into the Union, and for the formation of terri- torial governments for Utah and New Mexico, were made in the Congress of the United States. A long and fierce struggle followed. The extremists of the North were determined to prohibit slavery in all the territories. The states- men of the country became alarmed. The subject was referred to a large committee of the Senate, consisting of Messrs. Clay, Cass, Dickinson, Bright, Webster, Phelps, Cooper, King, Mason, Downs, Mangum, Bell, and Berrien. This committee, composed of the ablest statesmen of the country, of both political parties, and from both sections, applied itself to the great duty com- mitted to it of devising some possible and comprehensive mode of disposing of the immediate questions before the country, and of removing the cause of the agitation. The only policy that had been tried in the past was that of the Missouri Compromise, which limited slavery by the adoption of a conventional geographical line. This had never been acceptable to the people of either section. The South had regarded it as of at least doubtful constitutionality, interfering as it did with the principle of the equality of the states and of the rights of their citizens. The North regarded its indorsement of it as an acknowl- edgment that slavery was entitled to a foothold in the public domain. But the compromise subserved the purpose for which it had been framed. Under it, Missouri was admitted as a state in 1 821, and in 1845 the principles of it were applied to Texas in the act authorizing its admission as a state into the Union. But a rapid change in the sentiments of the people of the North was being effected, and in 1848 Congress refused, by a nearly sectional vote, to apply the principles of the Missouri Compromise in the bill providing a terri- torial government for Oregon, a large majority of the Southern members voting in favor of the application of the principles, and a large majority of the North-

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