Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1849-09-19
The new Territorial Quc.t,,n.

Upon the speedy or the tardy the angry or The
acaoe, The violent or the rational solution of tbe
question, ''Whoher slavery shall OF shall not be-
admissible IN our newly acquired Mexican terrific
neS; is plainly about to depend no little par, of the
puoiic wen being of ih, country. II must 40 do
pend at least as long they who are interested i'm
stirring The strife can keep il alive: for, with such
puolc passions as the matter provokes--eo u,,p,stc
50 fierce, so general, and little capable Of being
argued down-there can be no public tranni.v ~,
us, so long as the thing can, by the nHammatory
arts of sectional demagogues be- kept unsettled ~,
when legally settled, shall have been 50 settled "a
still to leave ranking in the memory Of the reeion
that have differed aboutits resentmens easily reyiy
ed and readily brought by unworthy politicians I'd
mix with all other issues, no matter how foreign to
them.
Than the dispute itself nothing can. as VIC s.vs
already iniima,ed. be more bootless, more void os
every thing but calamity 10 the great body Of the
people either side. 1t cannot by lis affirmative
decision, add one TO the slave population of tho u
mon; 1t cannot, by its negative decision, free a
single slave. Equally illusory are those results Of
political power which the ZealOis on either part mag
Nifty. Nature herself forbids the introduction Of n
large slave population into either New Mexico or
California; while nothing less than preponderatipo
one could make ofeither, TO representation whetL-
er In the House or the Senate, slave territory
Bat, besides, could physical causes even be set AZ
nought, and slaves and slave holders be TRANSPORTED
H.
ance their white Inhabitants and elect them slave
representation In Congress, what would it signifv2
ouch voters must have come from somew here not
even Africans can now DO produced as men wereiu
those Greek fables when serpents teeth beinp sown
sprsn9 up armed warriors, or stones thrown behind
Deucaiion and Pyrrha rose up grown men and wo-
men. New Mexico abouhds in shakes and Califor
MIA IN stones, for that experiment but who shonld
succeed shall us that the crop and the on,,
RES VIII not be white, instead of black2 In fine.
inc new seats of slave population must in order to
become such, be peopled by the aepopulation of ain
equal amount OF previous slave territory; so that tile
political power of the South will receive transf.r
merely, not an accession, and will only r,in at one
end by oosing at the other
Guided by these general feelings the IntelGeh-
Ger has resouely forborne TO take any part in The
agitation of this question of the admission or non.,d
mission OF slavery into the new dominion which we
have--equally against the spirit of our own nstitu-
uons and the counses ofordinaTy rrudence-wrung
from helpless neghbor. From the first we fore,
saw. among the many unhappy effects of tina. need
less and illegal aggression wide acquisition OTTER
i'oly as The most so, because certain draw after
1T IN most violent form, this very dispute We
aohorred The idea OF acquiring the territory Of
helghoorng nation by right hut that of the stron-
gest We abhorred ii the more because we knew
that a furious quarrel the i'll gotten pundet
must follow. When that quarrel came, unable to a.
do was to Sit silent and wait until its first madness
should be spent, until fortunate conjuncture
should offer the means of quoting it, Such con-
Juncture seems to us now 10 have arrived, and we
therefore quit our silence, to announce it.
Congress having, at its las, session. failed in con-
sequence OF the alterations there about the evil
mot Provso," TO provide civil government for
New Mexico and California, the inhabitants of those
Territories are about TO erect State Governments
Tor themselves The one has already taken all the
proper steps preliminary to enactng a Constitution
having called for this purpose Convention, which
ed or will speedily follow, the example.
We take 1t for granted, then, that California and
New Mexico will give themselves regular state
Governments, and that the fundamental laws or
ganZng these will settle to those countries this
slave question: because they will perceive that with
out that settlement they cannot into this u
nlon
Nor is this all Not only is this mode of settling
the question that which must now come about:
( whaiever we might, under ordinary circumstances
have advised but it is also the only one which a.
ny body not bent upon fomenling public strife for
his private gains should any longer wish to see pre-
vail The Will OF the people, whom the decision
almost alone Affects, is the busiest for arriving
at that decision and this, therefore, will--no mat,
ter what effort to the contrary shall be made by the
skilul ariificers of public trouble-be speedily &C
The Calhoun division of the Democratic party arc
pledged to commotion should Congress adopt as to
the new territory, the wilmot provso and an oppo-
site decision, should that prevail cannot fail TO raise
at least an equal flame throughout all the "Free
States," among the ''Free SDilers" as thew call
themselves. But how should either section withhold
It's pacc ifnot cheerful acquiescence in tho legiti
mate determination Of California and New MexIco7
Tho Wing party at least-ever the friends of the
Union; ever conservative Gifts harmo-
ny and laws ever interested in keeping calm ths
public temper, in studying the public mind. in 70
pressing all those mere heats of opinion which dem
agogues blow up into confagralion in order that
they may pIllage while others are burnt out-the
Nhigs at least, we repeat, will yield their cheerful
assent to the coming decision Of California and New
Mexico, let that decision be what il may.-They
will respect it, we sure, as, first Of all theoreti
cally right. and secondly, offering the only deci-
sive means Of aaying great sectional strife that
will other wise but two probably affect the country
for years. and derange, disease and contamnate ev-
cry public function every public act.
Nor, though not party whose policy aims al
the present alone-a wretched and shameful sys-
TEN Of temporary expedients temporary influences,
temporary passlous,and temporary principles only
must The Wings forget the present, and all that it
asks OF care, of zeal of earnest devoted nav sacred
purpose to guard the desnes of the country, by il
so lately committed to their hands. Nor must they
spare any honest effort TO secure and protect that
wide, sober and solid reform, that expurgation OF
bad measures and bad men, that Transformation Of
and patriotism which the great public
voice has summoned brave,good and strong. mind
ed old Soldier 10 conduct Nat. MteLigencer
BAYARD TAYLoR.-The Richmond Republicans
says that this young gentleman is one of the rising
poets of our country. He is connected if we mis-