The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-06-25


South, and give il more general diffusion
through the South. And we shall, we trust,
afford to our Northern readers more COM
plete and impartial knowledge Of the South
than they have heretofore received. OF
course we shall also communicate to the
South information of whatever in the North
is interesting
If this does not a.lay but provokes sec
tional feelings it will be the fault Of the Offend
ing section, not ours 1t is too notorious
that the North is now, and has been for
a long time, the assailant--and that through
a large number Of the Northern presses,
the assault has been made. We are happy
to acknowledge that the Aibany Argus is
one Of the most blameless in this respect
we agree, also, with that paper that such
strife is to be deprecated, but we cannot
acquiesce in its intimation that the best
mode Of allaying this strife, Of putting down
sectional feeling, is to leave the principal
part Of the field to the aggressor
We regret that the Argus has nadver-
tenty fallen into the cant of classifying any
portion Of the South, with those whom it
condemns at the North, as u.ras. This is one
Of the worst symptoms at the North And
we beg to assure the Argus, that while the
most moderate men at the North persist in
this irritating and unfounded imputation on
the South, or a very large part Of it, they
will make poor progress in cancellation and
harmony.
What aggression OIL the North has been
proposed by the most ultra OF the South 7
Have Northern institutions been assail-
ed? Have Northern territorial rights been
invaded Has the admission of Northern
States into the Union according to the Con-
stituton been opposed 7 When the seat Of
the Federal Government was located by a
compromise at Washington, slavery and the
save-trade existed there The North now
proposes to violate that compromise. 1t
proposes to violate the Missouri Compro-
mise. 1t proposes to vio.ate the Texas
Compromise, made in accordance with the
Missouri. The North violates the consti-
tutional provision for delivering fugitive
slaves. At least a portion Of the North
does, and it is very large portion. Now
what provision of the Constitution does the
South, or asy portion Of it, violate or attempt
to violate None.
To class, Therefore, any portion of the
South with Northern abolitionists and Free
Sellers, and condemn both as ultras is unjust
and absurd, and is a poor specimen of
| Northern moderation, anti-sectionalism and
cancellation. We know it is a common but
| it is very weak afectarion Of impaltiality to
split the difference between all disputants,
| and to call both Of them extreme. Such an
arbiter would always give the plunderer
half the spoil--the robber half the purse.
Ofcourse in all contests there is, as general
rule, liability to extremes. But in the
present contest there are circumstances that
effcctually restrict such tendency on the
part of the South. She is the weaker, and
knows that at most she can get no more than
Justice. She knows that every public man
is looking to the attainment of Federal, even
of Presidential honors-that her own aspir-
ing sons are too apt to be tempted, to aim at
what is, by the prevailing cant, called a ma
tional reputation, rather than to stand sternly
for the rights of his section; and that as the
North has stronger Presidential vote than
the South, there is disastrous tendency to sac
rifce Southern rights to Northern popularity.
Hence there is, there can b, no such tend
ency to ultraism at the South as at the
North, and all the history Of this country
and Of the present controversy but too plainly
proves it. AS for any reliance on either Of
the existing parties, the present position of
the party Of the Argus, tells too us plainly
what that is worth. The party Of the Argus,
for assuming even the position which the
Argus FILTERS itself was moderation, is left
with one or two representatives in Congress
out Of thirty-six.
As for the plan Of adjustment v-ica t:I.'
Argus advocates, it is in scccrGaacr VII,
the Argus notions of uoder:ton, a2d :;
have already expressed GU cri-icl On u
ing it.
"A Specimen of Free Speech.