inst
them, of having seceded in order to make slavery a national
institution, they must be careful not to exhibit such intentions in
their Constitution. But that the South seceded on account of the
slavery question, there can be no historical doubt whatever. Jefferson
Davis, President, so-called, of the Confederate Government, said in
his Message, April 29, 1861:

"When the several States delegated certain powers to the United
States Congress, a large portion of the laboring population
consisted of African slaves, imported into the colonies by the
mother-country. In twelve out of the thirteen States, negro
slavery existed; and the right of property in slaves was
protected by law. This property was recognized in the
Constitution; and provision was made against its loss by the
escape of the slave.

"The increase in the number of slaves by further importation from
Africa was also secured by a clause forbidding Congress to
prohibit the slave-trade anterior to a certain date; and in no
clause can there be found any delegation of power to the
Congress, authorizing it in any manner to legislate to the
prejudice, detriment, or discouragement of the owners of that
species of property, or excluding it from the protection of the
Government.

"The climate and soil of the Northern States soon proved
unpropitious to the continuance of slave labor; whilst the
converse was the case at the South. Under the unrestricted free
intercourse between the two sections, the Northern States
consulted their own interest, by selling their slaves to the
South, and prohibiting slavery within their limits. The South
were willing purchasers of a property suitable to their wants,
and paid the price of the acquisition without harboring a
suspicion that their quiet possession was to be disturbed by
those who were inhibited not only by want of constitutional
authority, but by good faith as vendors, from disquieting a title
emanating from themselves.

"As soon, however, as the Northern States that prohibited
African slavery within their limits had reached a number
sufficient to give their representation a controlling voice in
the Congress, a persistent and organized system of hostile
measures against the rights of the owners of slaves in the
Southern States was inaugurated, and gradu