To every beholder these
memories, must have been full of pride and consolation. But, looking
back upon the scene, there is one circumstance which, more than all its
other associations, fills the soul,--more even than the suggestions of
Union, which I prize so much. AT THIS MOMENT, WHEN WASHINGTON TOOK
HIS FIRST OATH TO SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, THE
NATIONAL ENSIGN, NOWHERE WITHIN THE NATIONAL TERRITORY, COVERED A SINGLE
SLAVE. Then, indeed, was Slavery Sectional, and Freedom National.
On the sea an execrable piracy, the trade in slaves, to the national
scandal, was still tolerated under the national flag. In the States,
as a sectional institution, beneath the shelter of local laws, Slavery
unhappily found a home. But in the only terrritories at this time
belonging to the nation, the broad region of the Northwest, it was
already made impossible, by the Ordinance of Freedom, even before the
adoption of the Constitution. The District of Columbia, with its Fatal
Dowry, was not yet acquired.
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