The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-02-14
SHALL WE COMPROMISE?

tuated and refuse a reasonable settlement. Blu
the skill OF Mr.. Clay has evidently not touches
the seat OF disease He either has not perceived
or has not thought it expedient to meet the rea
issue now before the people of the United States
The struggle going on is a struggle whose depth
lie in the organization Of society, in the Nortl
and South respectively; whose causes wer
planted in the Constitution. There are two in
compatible and mutually destructive principle
wrought together in the government of this land
Hitherto, like Esau and Jacob, they have striveI
together IN The womb. Now they are born, ant
that feud has begun which shall drive the one o
the other to the wilderness. Pc attempt to settl'
a radical opposition of polity, by easing OIL tn
rub here and there, leaving the great principles
in full vigor, is as if one should hang tenders anC
sand bags along the side of hostile ships tia
come crushing together instead OF putting the
helm about and going another tack. Slavery
is right" and "Savery is wrong" "Savery
shall liven "Savery shall die )" Slavery shall
extend" Slavery shall not extend are these
conflicts to be settled by any mode Of Parcellng out
certain territories? Now the battle RACES at one
point By and by it will rage at another These
oppugnant elements, Slavery and Liberty lnhe-
rent in our political system, animatng our Con
stitution, checkering public policy, breeding IN
statesmen opposite principles of government, and
making our whole wisdom of public legislation
on mrny of the greatest questions crosseyed and
contradictory, elements are these seeking each
others Jiia One or the other must die.
fOF
peace. We think it worthy of his reputation, to
have declared that he would never vote foE the
extension of Slavery. If his compromise had
taken that determination as its starting point he
would then have come nearer to our ideas OF the
leader which our times and our difficulties de-
mand 1t is no sportive joust upon which our
nation is gazing. The shield of the challenger
pangs out for no blunted lance. Like lvanhoe,
we should have been glad had MIR. Clay struck
the shield of Du Bots Gilbert with the sharp
lance-head, importing earnest battle. One straight
forward speech against the extension OF Slavery,
cased, not upon political reasons but on the great
principles of humanity and justice one glowing
appeal to the whole nation to take the stand,
which he has personally taken, neUer to vote for
the extension of Slavery either side Of any t'nej
this would have been a noble craftsmanship, and
crowned the last years of the revered sage OF
Ashland with the brightest glory of his life
Let no man suppose that the contentious which
now agitate the land, have sprung from the rash
procedure of a few men--the hot-heads either Of
the North or of the South We are in the midst
of collision not Of men, but Of principles and
political institutions The inevitable course OF
affairs has been developing the results for which
provision was made, first in the organization OF
society, and then in the structure OF the Cons'l-
tuition. No harvest ever answered more closely
to the husbandman's seed, than do our dlihcul-
ties to the original sowing
The North, adopting the theory of democracy,
organized all her civil and industrial institutions
upon that basis. Every man, the lowest, the
least, the highest and best, had one common plat
form of rights. The South, adopting the theory
of aristocracy, made two platlorms-the one for
the governed, the other for the governors. The
one and the other began at once to exhibit their
results In the North, labor was voluntary,
honorable, and universal; in the South 1t was
compulsory, and made disrepuabe by being las
tened upon an abject class OF course the la
borer had different values. In the North, he was
a citizen, capable OF any honor, framing his own
laws, making his own rulers, and so an integral
element of the State. In the South, he neither
voted nor determined he had no rights; he was
a slave. Labor and Laborers are the foundations
of a community. The strength, the virtue, the
civilization of a community must be measured
by the condition of its laborers, and not by the
polish on its surface.
The whole structure of society conformed to
,nese respective foundations.
The North put honor upon its laborers; they
we're trained in common schools; they became
veading and rejecting men; shrewdness, pene-
hation, forecast, personal independence, fertile
resource, marked the industrial classes. Grow
as RAPIDLY as the educated and the wealthy might,
the distance between them and the laborer con-
stantly diminished There never was time
when the bottom of society was so near the top
as now.
The South making labor disgraceful neces-
sity, denying it education, compelling 1t not by
those motives which are ordained healthfully
to develop the man, but by the overseer's eye
and lash, and educating only her wealthy sons,
has steadily widenedSbe distance between the top
and bottom of society. Nothing can be more
dissimiar than the tone and sentiment OF socl-
cites so diversely formed. Liberty is univer-
sal right--it belongs to men, on the one sidej ii
is privilege and belongs 10 a class, on the other
side. The North binds society together, identi-
es its interests, equalizes and kneads it. causing
it to grow alike throughout and makes it strong
by the strength of its individuals, and gives to
individuals the advantage of oommonlceai. There
cannot be commonwealth of Slavery. 1t is
class-weal and class-wealth. The South hope
lessly divides society; puts her honors on one
side of the cleft her mental Offices on the other.