The following selections illustrate the debate in Congress over the
Missouri question. The first speech is by Congressman Arthur Livermore
of New Hampshire against the extension of slavery.
I propose to show what slavery is, and to mention a few of the many
evils which follow in its train; and I hope to evince that we are not
bound to tolerate the existence of so disgraceful a state of things
beyond its present extent, and that it would be impolitic and very
unjust to let it spread over the whole face of our Western territory.
Slavery in the United States is the condition of man subjected to the
will of a master who can make any disposition of him short of taking
away his life. In those States where it is tolerated, laws are enacted
making it penal to instruct slaves in the art of reading, and they are
not permitted to attend public worship or to hear the Gospel preached.
Thus the light of science and of religion is utterly excluded from the
mind, that the body may be more easily bowed down to servitude. The
bodies of slaves may, with impunity, be prostituted to any purpose and
deformed in any manner by their owners. The sympathies of nature in
slaves are disregarded; mothers and children are sold and separated;
the children wring their little hands and expire in agonies of grief,
while the bereft mothers commit suicide in despair. How long will the
desire of wealth render us blind to the sin of holding both the bodies
and souls of our fellow-men in chains!
But, sir, I am admonished of the Constitution, and told that we cannot
emancipate slaves. I know we may not infringe that instrument, and
therefore do not propose to emancipate slaves. The proposition before
us goes only to prevent our citizens from making slaves of such as
have a right to freedom. In the present slaveholding States let
slavery continue, for our boasted Constitution connives at it; but do
not, for the sake of cotton and tobacco, let it be told to future ages
that, while pretending to love liberty, we have purchased an extensive
country to disgrace it with the foulest reproach of nations.
Our Constitution requires no such thing of us. The ends for which that
supreme law was made are succinctly stated in its preface. They are,
first, to form a more perfect union and insure domestic tranquility.
Will slavery effect this? Can we, sir, by mingling bond with free,
black spirits with white, like Shakespeare’s witches in Macbeth, form
a more perfect union and insure domestic tranquility? Secondly, to
establish justice. Is justice to be established by subjecting half
mankind to the will of the other half? Justice, sir, is blind to
colors, and weighs in equal scales the rights of all men, whether
white or black. Thirdly, to provide for the common defense and secure
the blessings of liberty. Does slavery add anything to the common
defense? Sir, the strength of a republic is in the arm of freedom.
But, above all things, do the blessings of liberty consist in slavery?