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1 J. M. Mason, Speech of Hon. J. M. Mason, of Virginia, on the Admission of Kansas, Delivered in the Senate of the United States, March 15, 1858 1 (1858)

handle is hein.slavery/sjmmvaks0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SPEECH OF HON. J. M. MASON, OF VIRGINIA, ON THE AADIMISSION OF ITSA0S DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 15, 1858. The Senate having under consideration the bill (S. No.' 161) for the admission of the State of Kansas into the Union, and Mr. WADE having concluded his speech in t)pposition to the bill, the debate was continued as follows: 1 Mr. MASON. In the remarks which I am to submit on the subject before the Senate, I de- sire to review as briefly as I may the history of the events and causes which have brought the question of African bondage into discussion before the American Congress, in connection with the expansion of the country in the addition of new States. I The question of slavery, 49 it has existed upon this continent now for more than two hun- dred years, was, before our colonial independence, a sibject of no contention whatever between the colonies-none that I have been able to trace. It was found,' after the Declaration of Inde- pendence, (when the colonies, before that time perfectly independent of each other, came to- gether to form a common government, in a spirit of fraternity that I wish could actuate States and statesmen now,) that the existence of African bondage was, to a large extent, confined to the southern States; but still 'it existed in all the States. 'The subject of this form of servitude became a question of discussion in the Federal convention, upon the' inquiry whether those subject to it should be treated, in the formation of the government, as a 'element of political power. It constituted a part of their population; it was theit property, conceded on all hands; and it became immediately a, sine qua non to the formation of any common govern- ment, on the part of the southern colonies, that their African slaves should constitute an element of political power in' the colonies'where they were found. It was a subject of great deliberation, as all Senators know who have looked back into the history of the country. Many most disturbing questions arose in' that convention-questions naturally springing out of the dissimilarity of interests and the dissimilarity in the pursuits of labor-questions be- tween the planting States and the commercial and navigating States, and other questions that arose upon the demand of the smaller States to stand as equals in the Confederacy, by an equality of representation in one branch of the national Councils; but there lay at the bottom of all, as was conceded by the patriots and statesmen of that day, this question of domestic servitude in the population of the southern Sta'tes, as the most difficult to adjust. Senators will find, in looking back to the proceedings of the convention, that one of its greatest minds and most illustrious members-I mean the late James Madison-when there seemed to be al- most an irreconcilable' rupture between the large and the small States, on the question of equal representation, told them, all that could be overcome; should they go back and settle the political relations of African bondsmen in the Confederacy, they would find the rest of more easy adjustment. It was done, and resulted in the stipulations of the second section and first article of the Constitution, by which thre6-fifths of the slaves were to be computed in fix- ing decennially the ratio of representation, thus constituting the slave population 'an element of political power. Now, sir, statesmen may look at this subject as they please, but they will be brought' of necessity, back to this very question of representation of the slaves as the true point of d vi- sion between the different sections of the country. Sir, if that were not fixed by the Constitu- tion as an element of political power in the South, the sickly sentiment of the North, now so sedulously nursed by their politicians, against African bondage, would find little sympathy at their hands. Let us meet the question, then, as men and as statesmen, and, I trust' also as, patriots.

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