slavery, in this
country, a matter of peculiar difficulty, and which, consequently,
require those who would promote the real welfare of the coloured race,
to act with great caution.

In the first place, the political organization of the United States is
widely different from that of England; and this difference makes it
impossible to adopt here a course similar to that which the British
Parliament have adopted in reference to slavery in the West Indies.
This country is not one State, with an unrestricted Legislature, but
a confederacy of States, united by a Constitution, in which certain
powers are granted to the National Government; and all other powers are
reserved by the States. Among these reserved powers is the regulation
of slavery. Congress have no power to interfere with the slaves in the
respective States; and an Act of Congress to emancipate the _slaves_ in
those States would be as wholly null and void, as an Act of the British
Parliament for the same purpose. The Legislatures of the respective
States cannot interfere with the legislation of each other. In some of
the States, where laws forbidding emancipation exist, the _minority_
cannot, if disposed, give freedom to their slaves. You perceive, then,
that the National Government, and the people of the Northern States,
have no power, nor right, to adopt any direct measures, in reference to
the emancipation of the slaves in the Southern States. The slave-holders
themselves are the only men who can act definitively on this subject;
and the only proper and useful influence which the friends of
emancipation in other States can use, consists in argument and entreaty.
The existence of our union, and its manifold blessings, depends on a
faithful adherence to the principles and spirit of our constitution, on
this and on all other points.

This view of the case exonerates the nation, as such, and the States in
which no slaves are found, from the charge of upholding slavery. It is
due, moreover, to the republic, to remember, that slavery was introduced
into this country long before the colonies became independent States.
The slave trade was encouraged by the Government of Great Britain,
and slaves were brought into the colonies against the wishes of the
colonists, and the repeated Acts of some of the Colonial Legislatures.
These Acts were negatived by the King of England; and in the Declaration
of Independence, as originally drawn by Mr. Jefferson, it was stated,
amon