BUCHANAN ON HUMAN STOCK.
President Buchanan is a grave statesman. Gravity is a quality peculiarly American. The most preposterous anecdotes about snakes and spirits are related by citizens of the United States with a composure of face that is more wonderful than the anecdotes. But, for profound seriousness of statement, is there anything outrageous in even American romance to match the subjoined paragraph in the President’s Message to Congress?-
“It is a striking proof of the sense of justice which is inherent in our people that the property in slaves has never been disturbed, to my knowledge, in any of the territories. Even throughout the late troubles in Kansas there has not been any attempt, as I am credibly informed, to interfere, in a single instance, with the right of the master. Had any such attempt been made, the judiciary would doubtless have afforded an adequate remedy. Should they fail to do this hereafter, it will then be time enough to strengthen their hands by further legislation. Had it been decided that either Congress or the territorial Legislature possess the power to annul or impair the right to property in slaves, the evil would be intolerable.”
Mr. Buchanan talks about property in slaves with the calm assurance of a moral philosopher; just as if he had not the least idea that the title to such property had ever been disputed. He speaks of the right to that sort of property as soon and confidently as id he really believed that such right was something distinct from might. Yet, in a subsequent part of his Message, he condemns the Slave Trade. What objection is there to the Slave Trade, if it is possible to acquire a right of property in slaves? If slaves are property, how do they differ from buffaloes in a commercial sense, and in what respect is the Slave Trade worse than the buffalo trade?
That Americans are in a fix with respect to Slavery – the evil legacy of ancestors – that immediate abolition of that vicious institution is impracticable, and that its present maintenance is a deplorable necessity, are things that one endowed with a real sense of justice may be conceived capable of saying with a grave face. But to talk of the right of property in Slaves, as though under a solemn conviction of its moral existence, is surely possible only to those who are inspired with that peculiar sentiment which Mr. Buchanan happily describes as “the sense of justice which is inherent in our people.”
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