already written more than will be read. Whatever may be inferred from my arguments against slavery in Oregon, I disclaim all sympathy with the abolition agitators of the North and deprecate and denounce all sectional organizations upon that subject. I take the ground that the general government has no right in any way to interfere with slavery, except to carry out the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution, and have maintained the opinion that each State and Territory has the absolute right to establish, modify, or prohibit slavery within its borders, subject only to the Constitutional restriction to "persons held to service; or labor in one State escaping into another."
T hold, too, that a man's views as to slavery in Oregon are no test of his Democracy. To be national, the Democratic party must necessarily embrace those who prefer a free and those who prefer a slave State. Cobb no doubt upholds slavery in Georgia, where he lives, and Dickinson would oppose it in New York, where he lives, and both are good Democrats. Buchanan, Cass and Douglas would vote against slavery in the States where they respectively reside, and if they mean what they say, would vote against it here if they lived in Oregon.
Taking everything into consideration, I ask if it is not the true policy of Oregon to keep as clear as possible of negroes, and all the exciting questions of negro servitude 1 Situated away here on the Pacific, as a free State, we are not likely to be troubled much with free negroes or fugitive slaves, but as a slave State there would be a constant struggle about laws to protect such property— fierce excitements about running off or stealing negroes, for which this country is so favorable, and there would be no peace.
I have faith in the future of this country, but I do not conceive that its prosperity depends upon the spiritless efforts of enslaved labor, but upon the energies of a free and intelligent people. New routes of travel are being opened across the continent. New lines of steamships and clippers are being put upon the ocean. Facilities for traveling are
