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annually, a rare encouragement, it must be confessed, for slave-breeding.

Governor Wise is reported to have told the Virginians that, if California were made a slave state, the value of their negroes would rise from a thousand to three, or even five, thousand dollars.

Every slaveholder, therefore, has a direct immediate interest in the extension of the area of slavery, although it should bring eventual ruin to the development of the country's resources. Add to this, that to gain fresh political power is of highest moment to the Southern interest: The ascendancy of the North is an event the slaveholder with reason dreads, as likely, if not to jeopardize his property, at least to curtail his privileges. Hence the favour with which he regards all filibustering, Southern annexation, and extension of slave territory in general. Every new slave state admitted to the confederacy gives two more votes for slavery in the Senate, and a further addition to Southern votes in the House of Representatives, besides engaging another whole population in the support of the Pro-slavery interest. More need

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not be said, to show that, if the voice of the South were to decide it, Kansas would be given not to freedom, but to slavery.

But the truth is, the question extends itself far beyond the limits of Kansas. The ultimate fate of this territory will very materially influence the subsequent history of territories beyond, as well as of states in its neighbourhood. With all its vehemence in the cause, Missouri is not strong as a slave state; its northern portion is eminently unfitted for slave labour; and, if Kansas were to be made a free state, Missouri itself, having free soil on its north, west, and east, would probably ere long become to a great extent practically free. Again, with a free Kansas, freedom must be given of necessity to Nebraska, and whatever other new states may be formed north of the old compromise line. Hence, Kansas is made the battle-ground of a great principle. "Squatter sovereignty," forced upon the country by the abettors of Southern views, must there work itself out to its legitimate issues; and the issue with relation to Kansas will, to a great extent, determine the ultimate condition of the

other vast territorial possessions of the American Union.

It is of yet greater significance, however, to remark, that the supposition that in Kansas the slave system must yield eventually to free labour, is unfounded, because, from its first settlement, two years ago, this fair competition between the two systems of labour has never been permitted. An equal race would, unquestionably, result in the triumph of freedom; but this has been from the first denied. partisans of the South, insisting on their own views, have proscribed all opposition; and possessing the aid and authority of the federal Government, have decreed that nothing shall be legal which does not favour their own side in this contest of principles.

The

To reveal the base infamy of these transactions, transactions in which the Government at Washington is as deeply implicated as the border-ruffians of Missouri-as well as to exhibit the revolting barbarity which has been associated with them, I invite attention to the brief history of the Kansas struggle contained in the following chapters. A consideration of

A FAIR COMPETITION DENIED.

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its varied events will suffice, I think, to carry the conviction that a fair competition between the systems of slavery and freedom has not hitherto existed, and by those in power was never intended to exist, in Kansas.

CHAPTER XIX.

The Commencement of the Troubles in Kansas.-Its Organization as a Territory.-Slavery prohibited previously by the Missouri Compromise.-Senator Douglas.-Conception of a bold Idea.-The Compact broken.-Passing of the NebraskaKansas Act.-Squatter Sovereignty.-Unskilled Legislators. The people to regulate their Domestic Institutions in their own Way.-Mr. Seward's Speech.

KANSAS dates the commencement of its troubles from the day on which the Act was passed by the Congress of the United States, which gave it a political existence as a duly organized Territory. This was in May, 1854.

Its previous history in relation to slavery was very simple. In virtue of what is commonly called the Missouri Compromise Measure of 1820, the North conceded to the South that Missouri, which lies north of latitude 36° 30', should be admitted into the Union as a slave state; accepting as an equivalent the enactment, that in all the remaining portion of