Slavery Defended as a Positive Good.-As the abolition agitation increased and the planting system expanded,apologies for slavery became fainter and fainter in the South.Then apologies were superseded by claims that slaveryJohn C.Calhounwas a beneficial scheme of labor control.Cal-houn,in a famous speech in the Senate in 1837,sounded the new note by declaring slavery "instead of an evil,a good-a positive good."His reasoning was as follows:in every civilized society one portion of the community must live on the labor of another;learning,science,and the arts are built upon leisure;the African slave,kindly treated by his master and mistress and looked after in his old age,is better off than the free laborers of Europe;and under the slave system conflicts between capital and labor are avoided.The advantages of slavery in this re-spect,he concluded,"will become more and more manifest,if left undisturbed by interference from without,as the country advances in wealth and numbers."
Slave Owners Dominate Politics.-The new doctrine of Calhoun was eager-ly seized by the planters as they came more and more to overshadow the small farmers of the South and as they beheld the menace of abolition growing upon the horizon.It formed,as they viewed matters,a moral defense for their labor system-sound,logical,invincible.It warranted them in drawing together for the protection of an institution so necessary,so inevitable,so beneficent.
Though in 1850the slave owners were only about three hundred and fifty thousand in a national population of nearly twenty million whites,they had an influence all out of proportion to their numbers.They were knit together by the bonds of a common interest.They had leisure and wealth.They could travel and attend conferences and conventions.Throughout the South and largely in the North,they had the press,the schools,and the pulpits on their side.They formed,as it were,a mighty union for the protection and advancement of their common cause.Aided by those mechanics and farmers of the North who stuck by Jacksonian Democracy through thick and thin,the planters became a power in the federal government."We nominate Presidents,"exultantly boasted a Richmond newspaper;"the North elects them."
This jubilant Southern claim was conceded by William H.Seward,a Republican Senator from New York,in a speech describing the power of slavery in the national government."A party,"he said,"is in one sense a joint stock association,in which those who contribute most direct the action and management of the concern....The slaveholders,contributing in an overwhelming proportion to the strength of the Democratic party,necessarily dictate and prescribe its policy."He went on:"The slaveholding class hasbecome the governing power in each of the slaveholding states and it practically chooses thirty of the sixty-two members of the Senate,ninety of the two hundred and thirty-three members of the House of Representatives,and one hundred and five of the two hundred and ninety-five electors of President and Vice-President of the United States."Then he considered the slave power in the Supreme Court."That tribunal,"he exclaimed,"consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices.Of these,five were called from slave states and four from free states.The opinions and bias of each of them were carefully considered by the President and Senate when he was appointed.Not one of them was found wanting in soundness of politics,according to the slaveholder's exposition of the Constitution."Such was the Northern view of the planting interest that,from the arena of national politics,challenged the whole country in 1860.
Slavery in National Politics
National Aspects of Slavery.-It may be asked why it was that slavery,founded originally on state law and subject to state government,was drawn into the current of national affairs.The answer is simple.There were,in the first place,constitutional reasons.The Congress of the United States had to make all needful rules for the government of the territories,the District of Columbia,the forts and other property under national authority;so it was compelled to determine whether slavery should exist in the places subject to its jurisdiction.Upon Congress was also conferred the power of admitting new states;whenever a territory asked for admission,the issue could be raised as to whether slavery should be sanctioned or excluded.Under the Constitution,provision was made for the return of runaway slaves;Congress had the power to enforce this clause by appropriate legislation.Since the control of the post office was vested in the federal government,it had to face the problem raised by the transmission of abolition literature through the mails.Finally citizens had the right of peti-tion;it inheres in all free government and it is expressly guaranteed by the first amendment to the Constitution.It was therefore legal for abolitionists to pres-ent to Congress their petitions,even if they asked for something which it had no right to grant.It was thus impossible,constitutionally,to draw a cordon around the slavery issue and confine the discussion of it to state politics.