Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/475

CHAPTER XXVI.

Political History of Slavery in the United States from 1801 to 1820.

Slave population in 1810. — Period of the war. — John Randolph's denunciations. — Proclamation of Admiral Cochrane to the slaves. — Treaty of Peace — arbitration on slave property. — Opinions of the domestic slave-trade by southern statesmen. — Constitution of Mississippi — slave provisions. — The African slave-trade and fugitive law. — Missouri applies for admission — proviso to prohibit slavery. — Debate — speeches of Fuller, Tallmadge, Scott, Cobb, and Livermore. — Proceedings, 1820. — Bill for organizing Arkansas Territory — proviso to prohibit slavery lost. — Excitement in the North. — Public meetings. — Massachusetts memorial. — Resolutions of State Legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Kentucky. — Congress — the Missouri struggle renewed. — The compromise. — Proviso to exclude slavery in territory north of 36° 30' carried. — Proviso to prohibit slavery in Missouri lost. — Opinions of Monroe's cabinet. Reflections of J. Q. Adams. — State Constitution of Missouri — final struggle. — Missouri admitted as a slave state.

In the period between 1800 and 1810, the slave population of the states and territories increased 298,323, exhibiting a total in 1810 of 1,191,364, a rate of increase of about 33 per cent.

 

CENSUS OF 1810. — SLAVE POPULATION.
District of Columbia	5,395		Georgia	105,218
Rhode Island	108		Maryland	111,502
Connecticut	310		North Carolina	168,824
Pennsylvania	795		South Carolina	196,365
Delaware	4,177		Virginia	392,518
New Jersey	10,851		Mississippi Territory	17,088
New York	15,017		Indiana Territory	237
Louisiana	34,660		Louisiana Territory	3,011
Tennessee	44,535		Illinois Territory	168
Kentucky	80,561		Michigan Territory	24

 

About this period the foreign relations of the country absorbed the attention of congress, and the subject of slavery was only incidentally alluded to. John Randolph, of Virginia, in a speech in opposition to the contemplated war with England, in his usual discursive style, thus denounces the slavery agitation and the "infernal principles" of the French democracy, as inconsistent with the safety of the south:

"No sooner was the present report laid on the table, than the vultures came flocking round their prey — the carcass of a great military establishment. Men of tainted reputation, of broken fortunes (if they ever had any), of battered constitutions, "choice spirits, tired of the dull pursuits of civil life." seeking after agencies and commissions, and wishing to light the public candle at both ends.

"Such a war might hold out inducements to gentlemen from Tennessee and Genesee (Grundy and Porter). "Western hemp would rise in the market, and western New York might grow rich by provisioning our armies; not to mention he political interest which that state had in the acquisition of Canada. But