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on slavery |
1821: A convention to create a new constitution for New York
proposed forbidding free Blacks from
voting (which they had been able to do in New York until
then). Van Buren fought that but approved a
compromise that allowed only Blacks who possessed $250 to
vote. He said this “held out inducements to
industry.” (Cole, p13)
1837:
"The
last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent sources of discord and disaster
supposed
to lurk in
our political condition was the institution of domestic slavery. Our
forefathers were deeply
impressed
with the delicacy of this subject, and they treated it with a forbearance
so evidently wise that in
spite of
every sinister foreboding it never until the present period
disturbed the tranquility of our common
country.
Such a result is sufficient evidence of the justice and the patriotism
of their course; it is evidence not
to be
mistaken that an adherence to it can prevent all embarrassment from this
as well as from every other
anticipated
cause of difficulty or danger. Have not recent events made it obvious to
the slightest
reflection
that the least deviation from this spirit of forbearance is injurious to
every interest, that of
humanity
included? (Before the election I declared that:) ‘I must go
into the Presidential
chair the
inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part
of Congress to
abolish slavery
in the District of Columbia against the wishes of the slaveholding States,
and also
with a determination
equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it in the
States where it exists.’"
(Van Buren.)
1840:
President MVB ordered a federal marshal to bring the Amistad prisoners
to a Navy
ship to
be returned to their Spanish (alleged) owners. The courts ruled
against MVB and, a
year later,
the prisoners went free. (Cole, p362)
1840:
President MVB got in trouble with the South for supporting his Navy secretary’s
decision
that Black witnesses could testify in a court martial, even though the
alleged
crime
took place in North Carolina which forbid such testimony. (Cole,
p362)
1848: MVB was nominated for president by the Free Soil
Party, and accepted a platform that called for
keeping slavery out of the territories. MVB announced
that, if elected, he would not veto a law that
forbid slavery in the District of Columbia. (Cole,
p415)
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