Washington telegraph., 1850-02-20
Fronzthe Louisville Journal.
rHE NORTH AND THE SOUTH

from recent demonstrations at Washing
ton, has to some extent alarmed the pub
lie mind, that the union of these States
is in danger. We think it is our duty to
give some thoughts and opinions on this
momentous opic.
1t is fortunate that the people of Ken.
lucky have not been deeply enlisted as
partisans in the questions concerning sla-
very, which now agitate the North and
+hA South Our paorlA .d;~-~,4 tn the
Ohio line have been deeply injured and
excited by depredations on their slave
property, and by the utter absence of any
remedy, if not the open opposition to all
redress. 1t has so happened, however,
that the two great parties in our State,
for reasons we'll understood at home, have
not hitherto enlisted as parties with either
the North or the South. The sober and
dispassionate counseIs and judgment of
Kentucky should be needed by the North
and the South, and if not received in
good temper should be rung into their
ears as the admonitions of one of this
family of States that has peculiar right
to be heard. 1t is but too certain, that,
if the curse Of disunion shall be consuma-
ted, KENTUCKY again: as when the savage
aborigines possessed this country, will
become dbatable and bloody ground.
Our mainpurpose is to speak of the part
which Kentucky should take in the pend
ing difficulties between the North and the
South. 1t will be necessary to state the
points in dispute.
The Moth claims and insists that sla-
very shall lot be extended, and that it
shall be abolished within the rightful
jurisdictio1 and power of Congress. To
accomplish these purposes, the North
claims that slavery shall not be allowed
in the Territories, or the new States to be
made out If them, and that slavery shall
be ABOLISHED in the District of Columbia
The NORTH insist that the Congerss of the
United Sutes has the rightful and plena-
ry power TO Iegislate for the Territories
and the District of Columbia, and that it
is just anf proper that slavery should not
be tolerat,d within its jurisdiction.
The Suth resists these claims as vi
olatou of the spirit OF the Constitution,
as unfair and unj ust to the slave States,
as an insult to the South, and daring
aggression on the rights of slave p-operty-
The South also complains that the people
Of the North seduce their slaves to run
Oft, aid and farbor them as runaways. OBJ
struct and resist their reception. that their
courts OF justice furnish no redress, and
that the law made in pursuance of the
Constitution for reclaiming fugitive slaves
is dead letter by reason OF its covert or
open violation i'll the free States.
1t is notour purpose to examine at
length the position and arguments of the
statesmen Who have spoken or written on
these controversies The people of the
North are generally opposed to slavery as
it exists in the South, and to its extension.
They have perfect right to their opin-
ions, aud the righbal practical exercise
of them. They hold that Congress has
full power under the Constitution to
make all or any laws for the regulation
and government of the Territories of the
United States and the District of Colum-
bia; aud, to avoid all controverted coli
stitutional questions, this will be conced-
ed
But is it prudent, fair, or just, that the
North should exclude the South from
full participation in the territorial proper
ty of this Union, or that she should urge
the abolition of slavery IN the District OF
Columbia?
In this investigation. the following po-
sitions may be stated as facts, truths, and
principles which receive the undivided
assent of wel-regulated and enlightened
men off parties in Kentucky.
/. That the territories of the United
States,by whatever title acquired, and not
in the ordinance of 1856, right
fully belongs to the people of the United
States, have an equal right to their full
acquisition and use.
2. That large portion of the people
of the slave States being the owners OF
slave property, which is only exceeded by
their landed property, 1t is necessary to
their full enjoyment and use of the terri
tories that they should not he obstructec
in the removal of their slaves to the
territories, and that any act of Congress
which excludes the people of the slave
States from removing their slave property
into such territories would be unequal
and unjust, and would amount to an ex-
elusive appropriation of the use OF the
territories to the free States.
3. That the people of the territories,
after they shall have0attained the neces-
sary constitutional population FOR admis,
sion as States of this Union, have the full
right to form constitutions republican IN
their character, and to be admitted as
States, whether their constitutions shall
permit or exclude slavery.
4. That the seat of the government OF
the United Safes having been located
on lands cedea by the slave States OF MA
ryland and Virginia, and the government
of the District of Columbia thus ceded
being conferred on and entrusted to the