New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-12-06
WHY il WON'T DO.


The People of the Free States very gen
orally and heartily desire the preservation
of the Federal Union, and of the amity
and good feeling which can alone secure
the pcrpetuity of that Union. We have
no doubt that like feeling actuatcs great
majority of the Southern People. Agita-
ton and even strife may sometimes seem
essential to the attainment Of great good
or the avoidance of formidable evil, but
they are in themselves, and wherever no
GOOD practical result is attainable, mischiefS
TO be deplorcd and avoided. We have
therefore urged on our friends in Congress
to suffer all questions relating to Slavery
to rest until an obvious and gentnecessity
for action thereupon shall be presented,
with good prospects of an auspicious result.
If Cheap Postage, Land Reform, Retrench
mcnt, and Specific Duties should fail at
this Session, we trust that no man will be
enabled truly on even plausibly to affirm
that 'Anti-Slovcry agitation was the
cause of such failure. And such, we see
reason to believe, is the very general desire
OF the Northern Millions devoted TO the
preservation of Free Soil for Free Labor.
But while everything tends to caImncss
and consideration at the North, very diff
fercnt spirit predominatcs at the South
We speak not now of the Quattlebum
rhetoric there so prevalent, but of the Ian
guage and doctrines of the. Compromise or
Union majority, This language uniform
ly implies that the South has been greatly
wronged blythe North in respect to Slavery
that the forbearance Of the Slaveholding
States has been taxed to the utmost limit
that it is all they can possibly do to bear
what has up to this time been imposed upon
them-that if any thing further should be
done that they object to, such as the prohi-
bition of Slavery in the Territories of the
Union, or any abatement ofthe rigors of the
Fugitive Slave Law then Resistance,
Notification, Secession, would be their in
evitable resort. Mind, we are speaking of
what the Union party at the South pro-
claims, with great unanimity and volubil-
ity, in relation to the attitude and bearing
of the North when cur Websters, ketch-
ums and Duerswere acting fully and openly
with us in favor of the Wilmot Proviso
and lis incidents. These are termed North
ern aggressions, and it is now openly pro-
claimed by Union Governors and Conven-
tons that their success will work the Dis
solution of the Union.
And, while Umonism is thus sectional,
camorous and menacing at the South, it is
essentially Pro-Slavery at the North. Its
tavotites and oracles are those Statesmen
who have most SYSTEMATICALLY lehed the In
structions of their constituents by speaking
and voting against any legal impeachment to
Slavery Extension-men who, if they have
not conquered the prejudiceS' of their CON
stituentS, have at least battled and derided
them-and who have only not apostatized
from the love of Liberty which was their
binhIight because they failed to inherit or
share it. Thus we see that late Union
Meeting at Belleville, Illinois, which was
addressed BY ex-Goy. John Reynolds and
other dignltaries, expressly denounced the
Wilmot Proviso and instructed the Legis-
ature of Illinois to rescmdits own Resolves
in favor of that Proviso
All this injured innocence at the South
and penitential sorrow at the North point
plainly to new exactions on the one side and
new concessions on the other. 'He who
watches viii not wait long to see new guar
antees for Slavery, new restrictions on the
spiritoi Liberty demanded and insisted on.