The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-03-28
SETTLING TIE SLAVE QUESTION.

In and out of Congress, the ingenuity of ora
tors and editors is tasked at the present time, to
devise some means of settling and putting at rest
the Slavery Question This is the burden Of
Henry Clay's Compromise, the Presidents Mes
sage, and General Casss plan of mastery in
activity 1t would be well, however, for all par
ties, to consider the result of past compromises,
resolutions, and concessions, which have had this
object in view During the last fifteen years, the
country has been at least as often as semi-annu-
sUp congratulated on. The "settlementD of this
vexed and vexatious question. The adoption
of Pinkney's elaborate report and resolutions
was regarded by sagacious editors and politicians
as the end of the controversy. Patton's rule for
the disposal of Ant-Slavery petitions was another
settlement and Calhoun's Post Office bill aud
resolutions another. In 1889, Henry Clay set
tied it in the Senate to the entire satisfaction of
even the South Carolina Senator. Out of Con-
gress, this whole matter has been over and again
happily disposed of by Wing and Democratic
Conventions, by the servle resolutions of North
ern shopkeepers and pedlers by mob-law at the
North, and Lynch-law at the South. Yet who
does not know that the congratulations over one
settlement have scarcely died away before another
has been found to be necessary. Agitation, re-
pressed in one direction, has burst forth in an
other. As was said of the famous Greek fire, the
more it has been trodden upon, the fercer it has
blazed And in respect to the Slave Question,
nothing is more certain than that every fresh at
tempt at its settlement, by compromises, which
Intentionally ignore or overlook its moral bear
ings, has only served to perplex and add new diff
Guilty to the terrible problem which the Fates
hold out to us for solution.
The truth is, the question cannot be settled in
this way 1t is no ordinary matter of political
economy, which may be regulated and arranged
like the details of tariff, or the charter of q
bank. 1t is a crime AS in an individual, so in
a nation, sin can never be made otherwise than a
source of disquiet and discordance. The pulse
of the body polite can never beat evenly when
slave blood and free blood mingle in the same
veins violation of natural justice, Slavery
contains within itself the inevitable condition of
unrest, and perpetual conflict. 1t is the struggle
of Nature to restore lost equilibrium and harmo-
NY her ceaseless protest against the violation of
her eternal laws. Commencing in robbery, and
maintained only by force, Slavery is liable at all
times to be convulsed by the struggles of its vic
TINS, or the irrepressible sympathies of humanity
in their behalf Let Congress arrange the mat
ter ever so dexterously to-day, a single slave,
fying, with SCARED back, and lacerated limbs,
into free State, for refuge from his pursuing
master, would be sufficient to unsettle it to-mor-
row.
What will hollow and hypocritical truce in
Congress, gained by disgraceful concessions,
avail, when, at the next Presidential election at
farthest, the controversy will inevitably be re-
newed by the prescription, on the part Of the
South, of any candidate who believes and prac-
tees in accordance with the doctrine of the Dec
laration of independence
Concession to Slavery to-day only prepares the
way for a fresh demand tomorrow The detest-
able institution carries aloag with it the primeval
curse of God against oppression. The very soil
pershes under it. Confne it, limit it, and it
dies 1t requires the alment Of virgin territory
for the sustenance Of its hdeous life. Who
dreams that such demands can be quietly acqui-
esced nl If Christianity and Democracy are
volt against the requirement to aid in extending
system which dishonors God in his image, and de-
bases man to a level witha beast of burden. Party
policy and commercial cupidity may consent to
any arrangement which promises to secure office
to one class and leave the other in the peaceable
enjoyment Of its gains but so long as warm blood
flows in the veins of a single free laborer, or a
solitary heart is imbued with the spirit of the
Gospel of Christ, there can be no assurance of
peace.
Besides, were it possible to suppress all natural
sympathy for the wronged and enslaved, and to
forget the disgrace and inconsistency of cherish
ing the worst of despotisms in q Government
founded on the idea of human equality, the ag-
grcssive and exacting spirit of Slavery would
necessarily provoke resistance or at least awaken
the instinct Of selfpreservation on the part of
freemen and free States. Fifty years ago, the
eloquent and patriotic William Pinkney, adj
dressing the Maryland House of Delegates, de-
clsred that it was impossible that the stream Of
genial Liberty should long continue to flow I'M
corrupted through the foul current Of Slavery /;
and that 1t was impossible for the slavery Of the
blacks to endure long without impairing the
liberties OF the whites This prophetic anticipa-
non mas now become history. Slavery suppresses
the liberty Of the poor white man of the South
as does that of the black man, If not in the same
degree, yet in the same manner and for the same
purpose IL tolerates no independence of thouvbt
or discussion. Thousands, who in heart rebel
against its monstrous pretensions, have realised
in themselves the prediction Of the orator Va
have quoted they cannot act out their honest con.
victions, their lips are padlocked; to demand a
hearing for the truths of the Declaration of In
dependence, or the Sermon on the Mount, on their
part, would be as hazardous as the demand of the
slaves themselves for freedom The North itself
Is not free Her merchants too often feel them
selves under the necessity of suppressing their
real sentiments, and Of doing violence to con-
science and humanity, as the indispensable con.
dt'on OF Southern patronage. Her politicians
are too OFTEN the unwilling slaves Of the Slave
ROVER. The petitions Of her People are re-
FUSED hearing at this very hour, in the Sen.
ate az the dictation Of that Power. Citizens Of
free States are incarcerated In the prisons Of
Southern ports for no crime sava th.;r ALL,