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1 Pacificus: The Rights and Privileges of the Several States in Regard to Slavery: Being a Series of Essays, Published in the Western Reserve Chronicle, (Ohio,) after the Election of 1842 1 (1842)

handle is hein.slavery/pacificus0001 and id is 1 raw text is: PACIFICUS: THE RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF THE SEVERAL STATES IN REGARD TO SLAVERY; BEING 4 series of Essays, published in the Western Reserve Chronicle, (Ohio,) after the election of 1842. BY A WHIG OF OHIO. INTRODUCTION. To THE EDITOR OF THE CHRONICLE- The election is past, and our opponents have triumphed. They are now charged with the responsibility of administering our State Government. This being the ,case, we may expect the election of a Senator to Congress who will vote to repeal the tariff, and to -abandon the protection of the free labor of the North. We must expect the election of such a man as will exert his influence against'oor harbor improvements, and a completion of the Cumberland road; and who will oppose the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands. We must look for the election of a man who will vote for the annexation of Texas to this Union, and who will lend his influence gene- rally to the slaveholding interests. The State will be so districted as to elect the greatest possible number of Representatives in Congress, who will sustain the same policy, and who will vote for John C. Calhoun to the office of President in 1844, should the election devolve upon the House of Repre- ,sentatives. Had the friends of northern rights united their political efforts at the recent election, these conse- quences would have been avoided ; but we were divided, and of course were conquered. Crimination. and recrimination will not extricate us from the difficulties into which our unhappy divisions have pre- cipitated us. Future triumph can only be secured by future union ; we should, therefore, profit by ex- perience. Let us search out the rock on which we have split, that we may avoid it hereafter. If there be any political or moral principle involved in the controversy, let us understand what it is. Let it be developed and placed before the people, that we may all distinctly understand it. In order to do this, it -is the intention of the writer to enter into an examination of this subject. He will endeavor to do so with such plainness and sincerity as the subject demands ; no false delicacy shall deter him from a full, fair, and candid expression of truth ; nor shall feelings of excitement induce him to use terms or epithets that may offend the sincere inquirer after truth, whether he lives in a free or slave State, or belongs to the Whig, the Democrat, or the Liberty party. In order to be distinctly understood, your readers may expect an examination of the subject in the following order: 1st. He will inquire into the rights and privileges of the several States in regard to slavery. 2d. The encroachments upon these rights, of which the anti-slavery men complain. 3d. The remedy which, I think, all will agree should be adopted. The whole will occupy several columns of your paper, and will be furnished as the writer finds leisure to communicate with your reader, ,November 1, 184:. PACIFICUS. NUMBER I. RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF THE SEVERAL STATE9 CONCERNING SLAVERY. MR. EDITOR : For the purpose of fixing in-the mind a definite idea of our rights and privileges respecting slavery, it becomes necessary to look back to the time of forming the Constitution. At that period, the spirit of universal liberty pervaded the minds of our people generally, particularly those of New England and the northern States. The sages and patriots of 1776 had put forth the undying truth, that man is born free, as a self-evident fact. In obedience to this declaration, Massachusetts, ever forward in the cause of liberty, by a similar assertion of the rights of man, had stricken the shackles from every slave within her territories. The soil of Vermont had never been contaminated with the footsteps of a slave. Pennsylvania, and indeed nearly all of the northern States, had commenced a system of gradual emancipation. The delegates from the north carried with them a strong predisposition in favor of universal liberty. While in convention they spoke of slavery with deep abhorrence, and the most irre- concileable hatred. Not so with the southern States. They regarded slavery as necessary to their pros. perity. They refused to enter into the constitutional compact upon any terms that would subject that institution to the control of the General Government. Up to this period each State had acted, in regard to slavery, according to the dictates of its own will. Each, for itself, held supreme, indisputable, and ,unrontrolled jurisdiction over-that institution within its own limits. This entire power was reserved to

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