Then there is little hope for us on this continent, short of those places where, by reason of their numbers, there is the greatest combination of strength and interests on the part of the colored race.
We have ventured to predict a reduction of the now nominally free into slave states. Already has this “reign of terror” and dreadful work of destruction commenced. We give you the quotation from a Mississippi paper, which will readily be admitted as authority in this case:--
“Two years ago a law was passed by the California legislature, granting _one year_ to the owners of slaves carried into the territory previous to the adoption of the constitution, to remove them beyond the limits of the state. Last year the provision of this law _was extended twelve months longer_. We learn by the late California papers that a bill has just passed the Assembly, by a vote of 33 to 21, _continuing the same law in force until 1855_. The provisions of this bill embraces _slaves who have been carried to California since the adoption of her constitution_, as well as those who were there previously. The large majority by which it passed, and the opinions advanced during the discussion, _indicates a more favorable state of sentiment in regard to the rights of slaveholders in California than we supposed existed_.”--_Mississippian._
No one who is a general and intelligent observer of the politics of this country, will after reading this, doubt for a moment the final result.
At present there is a proposition under consideration in California to authorize the holding of a convention to amend the constitution of that state, which doubtless will be carried into effect; when there is no doubt that a clause will be inserted, granting the right to _hold slaves at discretion_ in the state. This being done, it will meet with general favor throughout the country by the American people, and the _policy be adopted on the state’s rights principle_. This alone is necessary, in addition to the insufferable Fugitive Slave Law, and the recent nefarious Nebraska Bill,--which is based upon this very boasted American policy of the state’s rights principle,--to reduce the free to slave states, without a murmur from the people. And did not the Nebraska Bill disrespect the feelings and infringe upon the political rights of Northern _white_ people, its adoption would be hailed with loud shouts of approbation, from Portland, Maine, to San Francisco.