It is the great and distinguishing feature of our free government, that it is built upon the eternal principles of justice and rectitude. The passions and the interests of its subjects or administrators may pervert its original design, and wield the power it confers to the purposes of oppression or licentiousness. So long, however, as we have access to the charter of our constitution, the great original fountain of our laws, we may renew or purify those streams which have become choked up or polluted. It forms a perpetual and unerring standard by which to judge of principles and policy; and whatever measures are found wanting in its scale, may safely be pronounced to be unwise and unsound. The flux and change of opinions and interests, the perpetual encroachments of wealth and power, the decay of old prejudices and jealousies, and the rise of new ones, wear away continually the old landmarks, and imperceptibly give to our institutions a new aspect and new bearings. While we admit this flexibility to be in a certain measure necessary for the conservation of peace and union, we must steadily insist upon its being limited by the great leading features of the constitution, and that reference should constantly be had to first principles, as to a fountain of life and strength.

Never, surely, has there been a question agitated, in which those principles were so deeply at issue, as in the one which is now before the American people. I need scarcely say, that I allude to the Missouri state bill, and to the introduction of slaves beyond the Mississippi. This subject has been ably and repeatedly discussed. A universal expression of sentiment has gone forth from the people of the northern and middle states, and it has awakened powers of eloquence and argument that have seldom been surpassed. That first burst of emotion has subsided; and now that the question is upon the point of being settled, it may not be altogether useless to recall the attention of the public to the subject.

That slavery is a crime against God and nature, and that its existence in our free country is a most dangerous and lamentable evil, cannot be doubted. Our only apology as a nation for its existence, is, that we found it among us, and that an overruling necessity obliged us to leave its extirpation to the hand of time and experience.

The august founders of our republic have not once named it in the constitution, as if they were unwilling that so foul a name should stain the purity of our escutcheon, as if it were a crime against humanity too execrable to be uttered. They looked forward to a period when it should cease and be forgotten, and made ample provision for its future annihilation. Their solemn declaration to the world, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," had otherwise been the worst of mockeries.

The words of the constitution, "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress, prior to the year 1808; but a tax may be imposed on such person not exceeding ten dollars for each person,"—clearly show, beyond the possibility of a cavil, that the right to legislate concerning slaves is vested in the general government, and that the convention was fearful that the attempt to exercise it might be made, before the southern states were prepared for any laws upon the subject. The Congress has, in fact, uniformly exercised this right in all its laws for the government of the new states and territories. It prohibited the importation of slaves and their migration into the northwestern territory. The states which ceded the territory south of the Ohio, and east of the Mississippi, were fully aware of this power of Congress; and they ceded it with certain stipulations in favour of the slave holder. Yet even over the states which were formed in this region, has Congress exercised its power, and secured to the slave the right of trial by jury and of the habeas corpus. All these laws were passed without exciting any suspicion that Congress was transcending its powers in thus clogging the constitutions of the new states. They were regarded as decent and becoming in a government founded in justice and freedom, "as extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty." That northwestern territory offered no inducement to the slave holder, or to a slave agriculture. Now, however, the case is altered. A province adapted to the cultivation of cotton and tobacco, and in obtaining which the government made no stipulations in favour of slavery, claims to be elevated to the rank of a state. It is a desirable situation for the planters, and holds out from its situation and fertility a golden prospect. They claim accordingly to be admitted there, with their slaves; and a clamour is raised because the people of the United States are unwilling further to extend slavery—to sacrifice the principles of our republic upon the altar of avarice.

The pretence—it scarcely deserves the name of argument—is, that such restriction would be unconstitutional, oppressive, and inexpedient.

It is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!—The refutation is a part of our history, and is written in the pages of our statute book. It is OPPRESSIVE! It would exclude the southern states from sharing in the benefits of these new settlements. Are not the lands open to all, and disposed of at public sale? They can only be made valuable, it is true, by incessant labour, under severe privations. But this the hardy yeomanry of the eastern and middle states are willing to endure for the sake of independence and an establishment for their families. We see them accordingly in the van of our empire, subduing the forest and filling the wilderness with the busy sounds of industry and contentment. Are the slave holders of the south a privileged order, that these labours would demean them? Are they oppressed by being placed on an equality with their brethren of the north, who leave behind them all the artificial distinctions and luxurious indulgences of society? Are not their arms and limbs as capable of labour, and their bodies of fatigue? Where then is the inequality and the oppression? A citizen of a slave holding state, at home, and under his state laws, may be a petty monarch; and he is apt to fancy that he derives the power from an inherent birth-right. But out of his state, and from under its laws, he is an individual unit, a mere citizen of the United States; and can claim no privilege which is not granted to every American, or which is opposed to the spirit and intent of the constitution. That constitution pays no respect to persons. It does not recognise the existence of slavery; and the petition to admit it in the new states, is a glaring mockery of its character.

It has been contended, that after the state was organized, the inhabitants might assemble in convention, and alter the constitution in this respect. Such an assertion betrays the grossest ignorance of the true principles of the Union. Our government is emphatically a compact, originally between the people; and since then, between Congress as their representative, and the new members. It is binding on both sides, and the terms of admission are, that Congress approves of the constitution which the state has formed. Its power of rejection, it is true, is limited to certain points. But upon those points that power is absolute; and amongst them, without a shadow of doubt, is slavery. The state which, having accepted of a limitation to its power in this respect, should presume to alter it, would set that power at defiance.

But the restriction is INEXPEDIENT! And what is the amount of inexpediency? Some thousands of dollars less to the public revenue—some hundreds of thousands less in the sale of public lands! Forbid it, Justice! forbid it, the Genius of the Constitution! that we should barter our free inheritance for a mess of pottage; that the countrymen of Washington should coolly calculate the profits of a desertion of principle. But not only is the restriction not inexpedient, it is called for by the clearest dictates of sound policy. We are now entering upon a region of almost boundless extent and fertility, destined at some future day to be the abode of millions of human beings. Upon the decision of the present question, in all probability, will it depend, whether that population will be a free and industrious race, or whether the great majority will be bound in the chains of slavery, stinting the growth and paralyzing the energies of the community.

If it be fairly decided that slavery shall not exist to the west of the Mississippi, we shall soon see the rich vallies of that territory occupied by industrious farmers, proving what is no doubt the fact, that freemen can cultivate the staple commodities of that country more advantageously than slaves. Let us for a moment contrast the opposite pictures which are here presented.

The privileged order of the southern states have, it is true, every temporal blessing they can desire, save that of security. But their hordes of slaves—a million of labourers, chained down to cheerless and incessant toil, shrouded in utter intellectual darkness, cut off from all that ennobles and adorns existence, stationary amidst the general march of improvement, and sold and driven about like herds of cattle;—is there not in this picture, retouch it and soften it as you may, subject for bitter regret? and is there nothing to cheer the heart of the patriot in the reverse? A country studded with villages and farms; a smiling and contented population; intelligent, virtuous, and industrious, and the strength and the pride of the nation, and becoming in its turn the hive for fresh swarms of emigrants. This is no exaggerated or romantic representation. These opposite conditions exist in our country; and Congress have now to decide which of them shall give its features to the western valley of the Mississippi.

But it is from motives of humanity and security, say some, that we plead the extension of slavery. The evil will thus be diluted and lessened. Admirable politicians! profound economists! A poisonous plant has overgrown one of your fields, and you seek to extirpate it by spreading the seeds throughout your possessions! A concealed fire is smouldering in your house, and you would prevent its conflagration by scattering the embers upon your neighbours' dwellings!

It is not thus that slavery is to be mitigated or done away. Confine slavery within its present limits, and we may then hope to see it extinguished. We are young, and may outgrow it. There is a great body of active and enlightened philanthropy in the southern states; and it may yet devise means for its extinction. Build around it a circumvallation of freemen, and you render impotent its fearful threatenings. But give to it that principle of indefinite increase which our white population derives from the inexhaustible extent of our country, and you spread it over the face of the Union; you clothe it a hundred fold with terrors; you render it coeval with our empire.

But not only this. The slave trade from Africa to the United States will never be abolished, if we allow of slavery to the west of the Mississippi. So great will be the value of slaves along the rich bottoms of that territory, that no laws, however severe, can put a stop to their importation. That accursed traffic is even now carried on with impunity, and to an incredible extent. Fifteen thousand victims have been worse than immolated at its shrine within a single year. With greater temptations to engage in it, in more remote situations, and along an unguarded frontier, no human power can altogether check it.

Nor will it be merely a foreign slave trade that this extension will encourage. An internal traffic will take place. The poorer and more healthy states will become the breeders for the new and unhealthy districts; and it will happen as it has ever done, that the pursuit of a trade, wicked and cruel in itself, will entail the commission of crimes, the violation of every moral law, the begetting of offspring for the purposes of an unholy traffic. A deadly taint will spread over the morals and character of our country, which not all our professions of liberty can purify; and if there be any prophecy in history, the rights of these long degraded beings will one day be vindicated with awful retribution.

I have treated this subject with warmth; with more warmth, perhaps, than has served my cause. But I cannot think without indignation of the attempt which is now making to extend the empire of slavery—a despotism in the bosom of a republic; and which I believe to be pregnant with the most disastrous consequences. It is necessary that the public mind should be kept awake on the subject; and I cannot refrain from lifting up my feeble voice on the occasion.

One word more, and I have done. The division in Congress upon this subject, has been truly called a geographical division. The members from the south, with scarcely an exception, voted for the introduction of slaves. Yet from the same quarter do we hear of splendid schemes for colonization and emancipation, for eradicating slavery, and pouring the light of civilization and religion upon ravaged and benighted Africa. Many of the most conspicuous actors in this great scheme of benevolence, are the men who have exerted all their talents upon the floor of Congress to increase the evils over which in another place they mourn; to sink us still deeper in the dangers into which they have confessed we are plunged.

What are we to think, Gentlemen, of the purity of your motives, or the sincerity of your professions? Is it that your fears, and not your benevolence, impel you; that you wish to rid yourselves of the free blacks, and rivet and extend your dominion over the slaves? If these imputations are false, show yourselves at least to be consistent. Do not by your own act extend the evils you so eloquently regret. Give us that proof of the sincerity of your benevolence (the only one we can believe) that it is stronger than your sense of private interest. Prove to us that you are honestly bent upon exterminating slavery, and there are thousands who now stand aloof, that will join you with all their strength in any scheme that can effect it; thousands, whose daily prayer is, that the mercy of an all-just Providence may avert from our country the calamities of a servile war and a divided empire.

We ask of you no extravagant or impracticable scheme of emancipation; We do not wish to see your Helots invested suddenly with privileges which they would only abuse; nor do we look for your relief and theirs, to any other means than those which time and cautious experience may suggest. But we beseech you, as you are sincere in your plans of colonization, as you value the fair fame of our common country, as you regard the security and prosperity of all future generations—to stay the plague of slavery from spreading, and to give to the inhabitants of the Missouri a charter which shall not disgrace the great principles of our revolution, nor allow man to be the tyrant of his fellow man.

Sandiford.

FAMILIAR LETTERS