Part 24 (1/2)

Up to the Revolution there was slavery in all the thirteen colonies. Some of them wished to get rid of it; but England, the mother country, would not allow them to do so, because she profited by the trade in slaves.

After the Revolution, however, when the States were free to do as they pleased about slavery, some put an end to it on their own soil, and in time Pennsylvania and the States to the north and east of it became free States.

Many people then believed that slavery would by degrees die out of the land, and perhaps this would have happened if the growing of cotton had not been made profitable by Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin.

After that invention came into use, instead of slavery's dying out, it took a much stronger hold upon the planters of the South than it had ever done before.

This fact became very evident when Missouri applied for admission into the Union. The South, of course, wished it to come into the Union as a slave State; the North, fearing the extension of slavery into the Louisiana Purchase, was equally set upon its coming in as a free State.

The struggle over the question was a long and bitter one, but finally both the North and the South agreed to give up a part of what they wanted; that is, they agreed upon a compromise. It was this: Missouri was to enter the Union as a slave State, but slavery was not to be allowed in any part of the Louisiana Purchase which lay north or west of Missouri. This was called the Missouri Compromise (1820).

It was brought about largely through the eloquence and power of Henry Clay, and because of his part in it he was called ”the Great Peacemaker.”

But Calhoun was one of the men who did not think the Missouri Compromise was a good thing for the country. He therefore strongly opposed it.

The next clash between the free States and the slave States was caused by the question of the tariff, or tax upon goods brought from foreign countries. Not long after the Missouri Compromise was agreed upon, Northern manufacturers were urging Congress to pa.s.s a high-tariff law.

They said that, inasmuch as factory labor in England was so much cheaper than in this country, goods made in England could be sold for less money here than our own factory-made goods, unless a law was pa.s.sed requiring a tax, or duty, to be paid upon the goods brought over. Such a tax was called a protective tariff.

Calhoun, who voiced the feeling of the Southern planters, said: ”This high tariff is unfair, for, while it protects the Northern man, it makes us of the South poorer, because we have to pay so high for the things we do not make.”

You understand, there were no factories in the South, for the people were mostly planters. With the cheap slave labor, a Southern man could make more money by raising rice, cotton, sugar, or tobacco than he could by manufacturing. Also, it was thought that the soil and climate of the South made that section better fitted for agriculture than for anything else.

”So the South should be allowed,” said Calhoun, ”to buy the manufactured goods--such as cheap clothing for her slaves, and household tools and farming implements--where she can buy them at the lowest prices.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Home of Daniel Webster, Marshfield, Ma.s.s.]

But in spite of this bitter opposition in the South, Congress pa.s.sed the high-tariff law in 1828, and another in 1832.

The people of South Carolina were indignant. So, under the guidance of Calhoun, some of the leading men there met in convention and declared: ”We here and now nullify the tariff laws.” By these words they meant that the laws should not be carried out in South Carolina. Then they added: ”If the United States Government tries to enforce these laws on our soil, South Carolina will go out of the Union and form a separate nation.”

Andrew Jackson was at that time President of the United States. Although he himself did not favor a high tariff, he was firm in his purpose that whatever law Congress might pa.s.s should be enforced in every State in the Union. When the news came to him of what South Carolina had done, he was quietly smoking his corn-cob pipe. In a flash of anger he declared: ”The Union! It must and shall be preserved! Send for General Scott!” General Scott was commander of the United States army, and ”Old Hickory,” as President Jackson was proudly called by many of his admirers, was ready to use the army and the navy, if necessary, to force any State to obey the law.

In this bitter controversy Daniel Webster, then senator from Ma.s.sachusetts, had taken a bold stand for the Union. He said: ”Congress pa.s.sed the tariff law for the whole country. If the Supreme Court decides that Congress has the power, according to the Const.i.tution, to pa.s.s such a law, that settles the matter. South Carolina and every other State must submit to this and every other law which Congress sees fit to make.”

This shows clearly that Daniel Webster's belief was that the Union stood first and the State second. His deep love for the Union breathes all through his masterly speeches, the most famous of which is his ”Reply to Hayne.” Hayne, a senator from South Carolina, was on the side of the South and set forth its views in a public debate. He had declared that the State was first and the Union second, and so powerful seemed his arguments that many doubted whether even Daniel Webster could answer them.

But he did answer them. In a remarkable speech of four hours he held his listeners spellbound, while he argued, with wonderful eloquence and power, that the Union was supreme over the States.

Again the great peacemaker, Henry Clay, brought forward a plan of settling the trouble between the two sections. By this compromise the duties were to be gradually lowered. This plan was adopted by Congress (1833), and again there was peace for a time.

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

The next dangerous outbreak between the North and the South came at the end of the Mexican War. Then arose the burning question: ”Shall the territory we have acquired from Mexico be free or open to slavery?” Of course, the North wanted it to be free; the South wanted it to be open to slavery.

Henry Clay tried again, as he had tried twice before--in 1820 and in 1833--to pour oil upon the troubled waters. Although he was now an old man of seventy-two and in poor health, he spoke seventy times in his powerful, persuasive way, to bring about the Compromise of 1850, which he hoped would establish harmony between the North and the South and save the Union.

On one occasion when he was to speak he had to enter the Capitol leaning upon the arm of a friend, because he was too weak to climb the steps alone. After entering the Senate Chamber that day, the great speech he made was so long that his friends, fearing fatal results, urged him to stop. But he refused. Later he said that he did not dare to stop for fear he should never be able to begin again.