The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-11-21
From the Louisiana State Republican.
Fugitive Slave Bill.

The adoption of the Fugitive Slave Bill by Con
gress, has created no little excitement in the free
States, and the spirit Of disunion ID hence less
rife, in many quarters at the North, than in the
South For such sentiments, wherever they origi-
nate, the true patriot can have sympathy. So
incalculabe are the advantages OF union, and 80
vast are the evils OF secession, that light
VIII drive the rejecting, intelligent freemen OF this
Republic into a serious consideration of such an
issue.
II is not little singular that the ultra Abolition
sts, the men who place the wild vagaries of their
own imagination above all law, and the nulliiers,
the extreme advocates of southern rights seek re-
dress in the same mode, strive TO shake hands to-
gether over the ruin of the confederacy of these
States The same series of measures are equally
offensive to both to the former, because they pre-
tend to believe the constitutional privileges Of sla-
very surrcndered to the latter, because slavery has
gained victory over the cause of freedom
Should the opposition to the Fugitive Slave Bill
riPen into State actionif repeal of this constitu
tional measure be seriously agtated in Congress,
and be effected by northern votes--there be no
doubt that the South would take redress into it's
hands Those now earnest for the cause of the
Union would see reason for sef-protection against
spirit OF aggression, which could set aside the wise
and sacred provision of the charter Of Union to effect
the most unholy purposes. But such a result is
scarcely to be apprehended
Though eyentsa the North may, for time, seem
to throw "thc game into the hands of Disunionsts
OF the South" we may look forward with hope from
the gloom to the sunshine beyond, when the fanatic
In religion, the debauched in morals, and the cor
rupt in politics, who now ready to wage war
even with Heaven itself, shall have been curbed and
driven back to their original obscurity by an out
ragged national patriotism.
The real feeling of the North cannot be repre-
scented by the actous fanatics who threaten to resist
the law OF the land, and arrest its execution even
though 1T lead TO dissertation of the temples Of
justice and the destruction Of its officers. In all
communities, particularly those of the free States
there are ambitious, corrupt, and designing men,
who labor to keep society in a ferment that they
thrown he aurfac nvloa IL, ,,;all
an influence which neither their course nor their
ability could other wise acquire.
The northern mind needs excitement 1t is prone
to run into every excess. Socialism, Fourerism
Abolitonism, Mesmerism, and every other wild
and visionary doctrine, Is readily adopted, and,
like fire in the prairie wilds sweeps with a start
ling roar over the land. But, like the prairie fire,
it IL confined to the surface Of society 1t takes no
hold upon minds grounded in stable principles-
produces little effect udon the sober, business por
ton Of the community.
The opposition to the Fugitive Slave Bill appa-
rently more deep and general than any other pot-
ical sentiment, must be less radical than at first
sight Is imagined. No reasonable mind can assent
to any section of the Union observing such parts of
the Constitution as it fances, and rejecting all it
dislikes.
That no candidate for Congress who sustained
this bill has been rejected by the people; that able
public men have been rejected by the Wing party
because they opposed the late Compromise; that
the commercial interests of the whole country is
casting all its influence in favor of the BILL that
political partisans, knowing their separation from
their own party would leave it to certain defeat
have abandoned their associates to assume broad
and national grounds; that the judges OF the courts
are determined to execute the law as they find it,
regardless of consequences, are facts pregnant
with meaning as to the position of the northern
mind when the issue Is broadly and upmstakably
presented.
But though the signs of future peace are not
wanting in the heavens, the South should not fold
its arms and leave fate to guide the result. With
kafx-
nation overcoming all obstacles; with self-rc-
lance, the result of conscious strength; with
union worthy of the nobest cause, she should de
velop every source of wealth and encourage every
species of industry With vigilance that never
sleeps, and caution that ia never broken; with
prudence and forbearance that ensure advantage,
even for bad cause, che should pursue the course
marked out by the Constitution and the laws as the
path of safety and triumph. And triumph will be
hers. The Union will be preserved by her firm
ness, her prudence, her political power.