Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1847-12-01
THE SOUTH AND THE NORTH.

A spirit of the most determined hostility
against the Wilmot proviso exhibits Itself
so far at least as expressions of public sem
timent from that portion of the Union have
reached US. All other questions of public
moment seem to be swallowed up by this.
While the more moderate of Southern poll
tcians are willing to abide by another COM
promise, on the line and principle of the
Missouri compromise, others of the ultra
school are not disposed to be satisfied even
with this, but express a determination to
carry Slavery, if they choose, even in oppo-
sition to Government authority, into any
part or the whole of the territory that may
be acquired from Mexico. All agree in this,
however, that at any hazard the Wilmot
proviso must be destroyed. At late meet
ing in South Carolina, it was, among other
things, rescued, :" that whenever the prin-
ciple of the Wiimot provso shall become
embodied in any enactment of the Federal
Government, and shall receive the approval
of the President Of the United States, it will
become the representatives in Congress from
the slaveholding States unitedly to protest
against it, and to leave the halls OF Congress,
and return TO their constituents" In other
words, forthwith to dissolve the connection
of the Southern States with the Union.
Assuming the South to be sincere and de-
termned, the destiny of the Union would
seem to hang upon the forbearance of the
| North-a forbearance which is goaded al
most to despair by the continued efforts of
the South to govern our politics, to cripple
our prosperity, TO acquire an absolute con-
troll over us in every respect, and above all
things else TO compel us TO contribute, gra-
tuitously, all our vast moral and pecuniary
resources to extend and sustain the crum-
bling fabric of Slavery.
There has always been TO the interests of
the Slavery, dangerous emergency i'll the
affairs of the South. The proximity of our
she should encourage within herself an Ut
! ter recklessness of the fate of the Union, that
due reverence for it may not be found in
the way of secession, in the event of an as
sertion of the rights of the North, while the
absolute necessity of northern aid, to sus-
tain her peculiar institution compels her
to cling to the Union with desperate tena-
! city. She cannot but feel that on her con-
nection with the North depends her safety,
yet she is compelled 10 endanger that connec-
ton to secure that present help so essential
| to the protection Of her despotic Institutions
against the triumphant advance of the cause
of freedom. She knows that her power
over the North, when guided in its exertion
| by her own peculiar readiness ofexpedients,
is very great but she knows, too, that the
spirit of Democracy is shaking anew the
moral elements-that it is becoming emphat-
ically more than ever before the Esprit of
the age spreading itself wider and bury
ing itself deeper in the public mind. Her
spasmodic efforts, therefore, agains THE prln-
ciple of the Wilmot proviso, the defeat of
which, and the success of the opposite prin-
ciple, may give her that absolute control Of
the government which she deems so essen
tial to the security of her lavorite insltu-
ton, should not be considered strange.
No man can be so stupid but he must see
that the triumph of the spirit of freedom over
the last vestige of American Slavery, is just
as just as certain as that the struggle for the
emancipation of the human mind has been
commenced anew in the United States-and
that the only means by which its existence
can be protracted, beyond very brief pc
Rod, is by placing in the hands of the South
an absolute control over the movements and
resources of the North, or by the demarka-
ton of national boundary, and the culliva-
ton of the btterest hatred between them.
The politicians of the South understand this
matter, and their policy is shaped according
ly. Should they be successful even in the
coming contest between Slavery and Free
dom, the question as TO the perpetuity Of
the first may be settled for time, but not
as the South would fain believe, foreuer.
For the advance of the cause of human lib
erty is irresistible; ii is intimately aud in
dissolubIy connected with the advance of
the human mind and heart, and the South,
though she may check it for time, can ne
yer, neuer stop its triumphant march. The
human mind will, must be free; and the
South, or any other power of the earth,
might better attempt to bind the hurricane
than TO chain down forever portion of the
human mind"
" The Unvercplum, of which Andrew
]. Davis, the PouglkeePsie seer, is editor,
has made its appearance. The Albany
Evening Journal, we perceive, denounces it