John N. Holloway

“ Slave-breeding for gain, deliberately proposed and systematically pursued, appears to be among the late devices and illustrations of human depravity. Neither Cowper nor Wesley, nor Jonathan Edwards, nor Granville Sharp, nor Clarkson, nor any of the philanthropists or divines, who, in the last century, bore fearless and emphatic testimony to the iniquity of slave-making, slave-holding and slave-selling seemed to have had any clear conception of it. For the infant slave of the past ages was rather an encumbrance and a burden, than a valuable addition to his master's stock. ”

“ It is argued that by extending slavery west, the condition of both master and slave would be improved; but it is replied that by extension the growth of slavery is only accelerated, that it is a curse, and the more it is extended, the more country it afflicts. It was asserted that these conditions would be degrading and humiliating to the sovereign State of Missouri; but it is retorted that other States have complied with them and not felt in the least degraded, but were proud of their positions among the sister States, and were unequaled in prosperity and promise. ”

“ The sagacious Jefferson, then President, comprehending the peril of his country's situation, like a wise and skillful statesman, by one of the most celebrated and strategic strokes of American diplomacy, steered the ship of State free of danger. ”

“ But American slavery has set at naught the teachings of history and baffled the calculations of statesmen. The acquisition of Louisiana, thus opening a vast territory for the introduction of slaves, and the invention of the Cotton Gin, thus increasing the value of slave labor, rendered the commerce in human flesh as profitable as in the days of the African West India Company. Rapacious avarice unable longer to satisfy its greediness for gain by importation, invents a new system for multiplying human chattels. ”

“ The traveler coming nearer, the train will by degrees rise into sight, just as ships at sea appear to emerge from below the horizon. The wagons being all in view, the train, when seen a few miles off, from the shining white of the covers, and the hull-like appearance of the bodies of the wagons, truly looks like a fleet sailing with canvass all spread, over a seeming sea. ”

“ One or more mess wagons, under the superintendence of cooks likewise form a part of the cortege, the whole being under the supreme command of the wagon master and his assistant. As to cooks the crew of the prairie fleet, after having traveled on the Plains a week or two, outshine the deck hands of our steamboats altogether. When ‘under sail’ the prairie schooners usually keep about thirty yards from each other, and as each of them, with its animate propelling power, has a length of eighty or ninety feet, a large train requires an hour to pass a given point. ”

“ A wonderful interest was awakened in France by artfully circulating reports of the gold and silver mines in the Mississippi valley. The stock of the company was soon in great demand. A company of eight hundred emigrants is shipped over and the city of New Orleans is laid out. Great expectations are awakened both in France and Louisiana of the future greatness and grandeur of the province, and for the first time the pulsations of life begin to throb vigorously in the little colony. ”

“ Through this treaty the United States acquired undisputed possession of all the territory west of the Mississippi by renouncing her claim to Texas.
This was a Southern move, and it was difficult at first to understand the motive which actuated it. Why slavery should be willing to give away such a beautiful and extensive country as Texas when she could just as easily have retained it and the Floridas too, was a query which but few in the North could solve. ”

“ Although our fathers were unable to abolish slavery at once, so great was the magnitude to which it had attained, and so deeply had it rooted itself in the interest of some of the southern colonies, still they expected that the northern states would continue to emancipate their slaves as some of them already had done, and by a prudential legislation to restrict slavery in the southern states, so that for the want of territory it would ultimately become extinct. ”

“ The persons having the highest number of legal votes in each of said council districts for members of the Council, shall be declared by the Governor to be duly elected to the Council; and the persons having the highest number of legal votes for the House of Representatives, shall be declared by the Governor to be duly elected members of said House; Provided, That in case two or more persons voted for shall have an equal number of votes, and in case a vacancy shall otherwise occur in either branch of the Legislative Assembly, the Governor shall order a new election ”

“ Ambition, though baffled and apparently defeated, never despairs, but proceeds to consult the unprincipled Oracle of Success. Mr. Douglas resolves to go so far beyond the one who thus outbid him, that the spoils of his achievements shall be all that the insatiable cravings of slavery can demand. He therefore draws up a bill almost entirely unlike any of the preceding ones. Instead of organizing one, he now proposes to organize two Territories, the first to include that Territory lying between Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, north of thirty-seven degrees north latitude, to be called Kansas ”

“ The wagons, after receiving their loads, severally return to the camping places, until all belonging to the train are assembled. At that ‘the order of march’ is given. A scene then ensues that baffles description. Carriages, wagons, men, horses and mules and oxen, appear in chaotic confusion. Men are cursing, distressing mulish outcries, bovine lowing, form an all but harmonious concert, above the desonances of which the commanding tone of the wagon master's voice only is heard. The teamsters make a merciless use of their whip, fists and feet. The horses rear, the mules kick, the oxen baulk. ”

“ The Constitution of the United States ordains that “the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the several States;” and negroes and mulattoes in some States are citizens. The excitement ran very high in Congress and seemed to threaten more danger than at any previous time; but the difficulty was finally adjusted by passing a bill to admit Missouri whenever she should legitimately expunge the above odious clause.
This condition Missouri soon complied with and her admission into the Union was declared by a proclamation of the President. ”