Litchfield enquirer., 1844-09-05

T in His councils who out of evil still educes good in infinite progression" The means we see are eVih The first effect is eVll.~Eihe eho as unceA- tain. But, if it were certain and were go0d, we
 may not do evil that good may cone: " whne' nn', therefore, feel it to be my duty distinctly to say'
 that would leave to the masters of slaves every | guaranty of the Constitution and the Unlon--the Consultation as it is-the Union as 1t ls-wlthout
 which there is no security for you or Tor them- no not for day. still controvert tne power' deny the morality. trembIe Tor tne consequences,
 of annexiug an acre of new territory, Jor the mere
 purpose of ffusing this great evil, this great curse'
 over e wider surface of American earth. Shl less would I, for such q purpose "acTetys lay Holo on such territory as Texas, larger than france' ana
 almost as fair; least of all now ust when .ne spi-
 rt of liberty is lowering over it, Tn act 10 descend' But trace the consequences of annexation on our-
 selves. First, chief most cemprehenslve, ana most
 irretrievable of its evils, 1c1H 6e sts daS0so DectS the durability cf hie Ur''on. Texas let us sup pose, the territory, as territory IS anneHeu' e war with Mexico is at an end The valor ot tne 1 West has triumphed. The debt of the war, the debt of Texas is funded. Time passes. New states
 carved out of it's ample fels, knock for admlsslon
 into the Union. Do you consider that It may cut up into forty as large Massachusetts! but sup
 pose twenty fifteen ten, five on1y-apply one after l another. Is there man, out of mad house, wno
 does not see that five, three, 0ne such application could not be acted on, and either rejected or
 granted, without shaking this government to
 its foundation. Is there man who does not
 see that if all the malice and all the inge- nuitv of Hell were appealed to, to devise one
 fiery and final trial of the strength Of our American feeling, of our fraternalove, of appreciation
 of the uses of union, of all our bonds of political brotherhood, it could contrlye no ordeal nalt so dreadful as this: To me, this seems so palpaoie, 1 that have doubted whether Col. Benton is not right in his conjecture that dsWni0n is the exact object aimed at by some of the movers of annexa- 1 ton. Certainly, in looking over that grim bead roll of South Carolina toasts and dinner speeches
 which covers broadsde of the last Intelligencer,
 it is quite impossible to resist the conclusion that as regards some individuals of this body of an-
 nexatonists either they arc laboring under the ve
 " reasonable politics, or that their Madeira has
 quite too much brandy in it will say, too, of
 any annexatonist, who thinks that because we sur vived in the Missouri question, 1t would be pret- ty thing to move half dozen such questions,
 that he means to the States, or is profoundly ignorant of the way by which they are to be kept together Does he consider under what totally diff ferent circumstances these new Missouri questions would break out, from those which attended the
 old? Does he consider that the territory of Mssou-
 ri was ready parcel of the United States, and had been for near twenty years; that unlike Texas, ! it had been annexed part of Louisiana, with no view at all to the diffusion and perpetuation of l slavery; but on grounds of policy which the severest moralst, the strictest expounder of the constitution, the most passionate lover of liberty might approve; and therefore, that having been received as territory diUerso Htuito, the public sensibility less shocked by its emergence into a slave State, than now 1t would be, when the end and aim of the original acquisition is slavery, and
 nothing but slavery? Does he reflect how vast
 change the sentiments of civilization have under
 gone on that whole subject since eighteen hundred | and twenty?, Does he remember that in that lear ming the world is five hundred years older than it
 was then' Can he not read the gathering signs of | the times? Does he not mark the blazing charac-
 ters traced by the bodiless hand, in the unGnsh
 ed picture: Does he not remember what the na- lions have done, and especially what England has
 done, within twenty years? Does he not see and
 teel that in that interval public opinion has been
 generated, has been organized, wholly ncw aSgres-
 Sive ntoerant of the sight, intolerant of the cry | of man in chains? Does he not see and feel with
 what electrical force and speed it strikes from
 quarter of the globe to another, and is spreading to
 enfold the whole civilized world like atmosphere' l Docs he think it wise to blow such an atmosphere
 into hurricane of flame? Does he really expect
 to bring his five States into the Union? Is he not
 sure of failing; and is he not seeking pretex for
 flying in passion; for complaining that territory
 constitutionally entitled to admission is excluded,
 and thereuPon for retiring from the Union, if he
 can, himself? However this may be, I say that he
 means to sever the States, or he is profoundly ig-
 norant or crmnally reckless, of the temper and the
 policy by which they are to be holden together
 1 Iwould have him who desires adequately to com l prehend the probable influence of annexation on VI anu us lniluenCe on temper and feelings of the States composing the ] Union, one towards another to consider also,
 whether, over and above these eternal antiquities of liberty and slavery, which it must kinde into
 ineXtnguishable flame: whether over and above
 these this measure will not appear, and ought not 1 to appear, to be mere attempt to retain, or to
 give, to one region and interest of the republic
 an ascc1dency, to which, against the others, it is
 not entitled Is there not vast danger that in this
 way, it will array States, and regions of States, against each other, contest of interest, of bsi
 ness, of relative local power? Will it not bo re- garded as adrontve to the pride, as usurpation on the constitutional rights, as nenacing 10 the pock- cts, of portions of the people of America as well as an outrage on the sentiment of liberty and the spr-
 1t of the age? How can it be defended, on the principles of our political association? The gener- aton of our fathers, who framed the Union, saw as well as we do the great natural regional divisions of the country. They foresaw, as well as we now see, that one of these regions might come to prefer
 one system of industrial governmental policy, and another to prefer another that ono might incline to free trade, and another to protection that one mghta little more solicitously favor the interest of cotton planting; another, those of navigation an-
 other, those of general agriculture another, those of the mechanical and manufacturing arts. They foresaw that in this way, there might grow to be such thing as southern, or as western, or as central, or as eastern admnstration--each of Which should be constitutional administration, ,- and yet. the policy of each might take tincture from the locality, which predominated in it's origin and composition. They foresaw, too, that there l would come to be- what you would call southern inc fiuence, and western influence, and central infu ence, and eastern influence that these would strive together, without rest, for amcabe mastery; and | they fondiy dreamed, or ratonally hoped that out oi ths opposition and counteracon, this recipro- al afH rIN NAGl: H. 1-- |