The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-05-10
Tn. comprom,.s-s.ass or Parties.

monishes us of the extent to which North
ern and Southern agitators have committed
themselves against any reasonable plan of
harmonizing the distractions of the coun-
try. j 1t is not our design to arraign any
one as entertaining purpose, little short
of reasonable, to keep up the excitement
Of either extreme for the purpose Of pro-
noting their own selfish aims, or for the
yet more criminal object Of assisting in a
severance of the Union. In the present
crisis of affairs, abstinence from all I'M
necessary elimination is an especial duty.
| Yet the fact has been developed in all its
glazing deformity, that the present Con
gress contains Northern representatives
who will not agree to any arrangement
with which the South ought to be satisfied;
and that there are Southern members who
will not abide by any adjustment to which
the North can consent. The fate of any
measure designed to heal the disturbances
Of the times, and bring back harmony and
concord to distracted people, must there
fore depend, for the time, upon the num-
Der of representatives who shall be ulti-
mately found in this Northern or Southern
category.
Whatever the issue may be, no man can
point to General TAYLOR, and say that he
is accountable for any injury to the coun-
try that has grown out of the agitation, or
that may yet proceed from it. He has
held aloof from these topics of discomfort
and danger. He has enlisted under
neither banner. He has occupied high,
national, and conciliatory position, regard
ing the tumbling waves of passion with
concern, it is true, but without mingling
in the storm which dashed them into foam.
How full Of instruction and wisdom does
his conduct appear when considered in
connexion with the effect, as exhibited by
the debate in the Senate upon the occasion
mentioned, produced by the labors of those
who decried him for not enlisting under
the banner of either section. AT the hazard
of offending both sections he sided with nei-
Their. He maintained relation to both ex-
tremes which entitled him to be the arbiter
between them; and when, in the discharge
of his official duty, it became necessary to
approach the subject, he did so in the
calm and considerable temper of Chief
Magistrate who had reserved himself for
the Offices of pacihcator. He addressed
himself to the question as a man of peace,
as the President of the whole country and
of all the people. His recommendation,
conceived in the spirit Of Cancellation and
patriotism, produced a calm wherever they
reached; and, in the lull of excitement
produced by the California message, other
patriots and statesmen prepared pro-
grammes for the settlement Of all the is
sues to which the slavery question had
given rise-as well those that were the
immediate subjects of the message, as
others more or less remotely connected
with them.
We we're not among those who thought
il criminal in others to take advantage Of
an ameliorated state Of the public mind,
produced by the PRESIDENTS message,
to attempt to dispose of all the grounds of
contention between the two sections Of
the Union. However we might regret
the introduction at that particular time Of
other matters to embarrass the territorial
question, we could not denounce men as
traitors to the country or to party for
seeking to compose differences nearer the
centre, under the auspices of moderated
public opinion which made any settlement
of those relating TO the frontier practical
BILE. These efforts have thus far resulted
in the formation Of committee of thir-
teen members Of the Senate, to whom all
the questions involved in the slavery agi-
tation were committed, and report from
that committee, accompanied by bills re-
lating to them all.
In regard to the Territories which formed
the subjects of the California message, the
committee have adopted the recommen-
/
dalton of the PRESIDENT touching the inn
mediate admission of California, and have
adopted the principle Of confederation,
which is the main feature Of the Executive
recommendation in respect to the remain
der of the territory acquired by the treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo-departing from the
specific mode Of carrying out the principle
of non-intervention by substituting terri
torisl governments, without the owl
mot" to the operation of time and nat
ural causes We see no such difference
between these two modes of disposing OF
the territorial question as to justify pro-
crastination Of the settlement of that much
Of the controversy; and as any plan Of
Cancellation is better than none, we shall
be prepared to aid in procuring that one