GENERAL LIBRARY

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 7.27.33

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

WASHINGTON CITY, MARCH 29th, 1850.

On the 6th instant, the writer of the following pages forwarded to the Editor of the New York Evening Post a communication headed "Slavery and Slaveocracy." It was the first number of a series of articles which it was contemplated to publish in said paper. These articles were intended to be digested leisurely, so as to afford proper time to investigate considerately "the absorbing question of the day," by expounding with care and accuracy the provisions of the Constitution which have a bearing on the subject of slavery. Two articles had been written when it was ascertained, on the 16th instant, that the Editor of the above mentioned New York paper declined to publish them, and the original plan was in consequence given up. However, portions of the manuscript having been read to a few friends, the writer has been induced to publish the result of his investigation in a pamphlet form. It will be divided in two parts. The first part, now published, contains a portion of the first article forwarded on the 6th instant to the Evening Post, and the whole of the second article, dated three days later.

This FIRST PART comprehends an exposition of the whole question, and of the various points intended to be treated; it points out a remarkable and characteristic novel feature of the Constitution of 1788, which contrasts materially with the nature of the compact agreed upon, under the articles of confederation, by the "United States of America;" it demonstrates the complete fallacy of the new fangled theories concerning the rights of the South, &c. &c. ; it, establishes irrefutably the right of Congress to legislate on territories-to form or create new states-and to require, as an indispensable condition to the admission of any new state into the Union, that the Constitution of any such state shall prohibit slavery within its borders and jurisdiction.

The SECOND PART will be published separately, and will contain 1st. An examination of "the novel feature in the form of governments,' which is designated in the FIRST PART as being peculiar to the Constitution of 1788, wherein it will be shown and demonstrated, that this "novel feature" has not been as yet properly defined and appreciated by public writers, and that it constitutes a connecting link between the People of the various states, which renders all attempts at DISUNION by sectional factions, however formidably organized, utterly impossible.

2d. A brief analytical review of the most important speeches delivered this session of Congress on the slavery question.

3d. An analysis of the causes which have brought about a most striking

change in the views expressed on the subject of slavery by the slaveholders of the present generation as compared with those entertained on the same point, by the slaveholders who framed the Constitution. This analysis to be followed by a careful research of the causes and circumstances which originated slaveocracy in the United States; this research will be illustrated by a brief outline of the spirit, the tactics, and the general organization of said "slaveocracy."

4th. Remarks explanatory of that clause of the Constitution which provides, Art. XII, of the amendments, that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to to the States respectively, or to the People," showing that these "powers" imply, of course, such powers only as may be within the attributes of any State, in its individual capacity; and cannot apply to those "powers" which are inherent to a sovereign jurisdiction of a general character, such as has been conferred to Congress by the Constitution, because Art. I. Section X, of said instrument, prohibits the States expressly from exercising "power" of a "general character.'

One word concerning the object in view of the writter may not be out of place. He has no partizan predilections to advocate, no interested motives to subserve; the vindication of truth on questions of national importance is the only subject which has ever impelled him to surmount his national repugnance to elaborate his views so as to be able to carry into others the conviction of his own mind. Being an attentive observer of passing events, he has remarked, particularly for the last 15 years, that the slaveocrat accuses the abolitionist and the free soiler of violating the Constitution, which said slaveocrat pretends to respect, and vice versa; while on the other hand the political writers and demagogues of both the Democratic. and Whig parties vie with each other to mistify the plain import of that instrument, by creating numberless false issues. Well," the object in view" of the writer, is to carry into others the conviction of his own mind, by expounding, faithfully, and conscientiously the Constitution which all pretend to respect, and which all, more or less, seem to misunderstand.

The two articles originally written for the Evening Post, bore the assumed signature of "Jefferson," it has been accordingly preserved in this FIRST PART; but the writer intends after the publication of the SECOND PART, to condense the two parts into one, and publish it under his own name. Although no attacks on the motives of individuals will be found in these pages, still, opinions will be freely expressed on the acts of public men, without regard to high names, whenever the "vindication of truth" will require it, and it becomes, in such a case, the duty of a conscientious writer, not to shrink from responsibility.

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