Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/77

Rh for themselves on the question of Slavery. The Southerners in general maintain that they do not contend for the cause of slavery, but for States'-right and the cause of the Constitution. Many are right in this assertion, but with many others, it is easy to see that the interests of slavery colour their opposition.

Other questions of contention belong to the same category, as for instance, whether Columbia, the district in which Washington stands, shall continue to hold slaves or not. There is at the present time, within sight of the Capitol, a gloomy, grey building, half-buried in trees, as if ashamed of itself, that is a Slave-pen, where slaves are brought up or kept for sale. Washington is situated in the Slave State of Maryland. One portion of the Southerners are anxious to maintain, even here, their beloved domestic institutions, as the phrase is. Another point of contention is the question about the boundaries between Texas and Mexico, and about a strip of land between the Slave-State and the yet free territory, or which shall have, and which shall give up, this piece; and Freedom and Slavery get to fighting anew on this ground about this piece of land.

Such is the aspect which this great apple of discord presents, an actual gordian knot which seems to demand the sword of an Alexander to sever.

Henry Clay's scheme of compromise says, California shall be introduced into the Union as a free state, according to her wishes; because her population of nearly 200,000 have a right to determine their measures. New Mexico shall wait for the determination of the law, until she is possessed of a population large enough to constitute a state. She shall, in the meantime, continue to be a territory without slaves. And the same with regard to Utah.

On the contrary, the Slave States shall possess the right to demand the restoration of their fugitive slaves, and, if