The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-05-29


ing to the Territories Of Oregon and Minnesota.
The Union yesterday came TO the aid of
what it calls the ''scathing assault Of Mr..
CLAY on the plan of the PRESIDENT" Our
humble ssendeavors TO defend" that plan from
such assault, our contemporary affects to regard
as san open declaration by the Administration
that ''the position assumed by Mr.. CLAY, in
endeavoring to adjust our present difficulties"
is looked upon by them as san act of faithless-
ness and characterization, !" and that they are de
! termined upon .'the expulsion of Mr.. CLAY,
and all who act with him, from any communion
with the Wing party" This is simply alb
surd DOES the Union, regard its Advocacy Of
the Compromise as reading out Of the Demo
cratic church of all the members thereof who OPP
pose that pan2 We presume not. How, then,
can it pretend to look upon our defence of the
Presidents plan as denunciaton of all the
Wing members of Congress who prefer some
diversity of opinion among the members of
both parties with regard to both plans.
| In relation to the fugitive slave bill and the
bill which has reference to the prohibition of
the slave trade in the District of Columbia, the
| Union asks, How can it be pretended that
the recommendations of the PRESIDENT are all
sufficient, when they leave those prominent
matters uInoticed?" Those measures, it con-
| tends, ''must constitute part of any perma-
nent adjustments" they would require addi-
| tonal legislation, and the necessity of such
| Legislation presupposes the insufficency of the
| PRESIDENTS recommendation. We give our
contemporaries argument, but are wholly I'M
able to discover the point of it. The necessity
of Legislation on these subjects by no means
presupposes thenecesslty of a previous Executive
recommendation in regard thereto. They are
not new subjects. They have been discussed
in Congress and out of Congress for years past;
yet no former Executive, so far as we recol-
lect, ever felt called upon to bring them before
the consideration of Congress, either in spe-
cial or an annual message. Besides, no one
will pretend that the Union was ever in any
danger from either OF both of these causes.
They have undoubtedly produced irritation;
but who ever heard the North threatening to
dissolve the Union, because slaves were bought
and sold in this District, or the South mena-
cling secession because of the difficulty of re-
capturing fugitive slaves? 1t is, then, an abuse
of terms to speak of these two subjects as
''bleeding wounds" which may bring on ex-
haustion and death.
The great question of the day, and the
only question which menaced the harmony
and perpetuty Of the Union, was that which
related to the prohibition of the introduce
ton of slavery into the territory acquired from
Mexico. ''What," says Mr.. CLAY, 'were the
South complaining of all alongl The Wilmot
proviso' '''Their great effort" he continues,
'|their sole aim has been for several years to es
cape from that odious proviso." 1t was with a
view to the final settlement fthis vexed question
that the PRESIDENT recommended to Congress
his principle of Adjustment principle to
which neither the North nor the South can OBJ
ject-to which both parties stood committed
the principle, namely, ''that the people of ter
ritory, in establishing a constitution for their
government as State, have the right to estab-
fish or prohibit slavery, as they may please"
| Adopt this principle of Observation-Disclosures the
question to the people of the Territory when
they come to organize constitution, prepara-
tory to their admission into the Union as a
State-Congress abstaining in the mean time
from the establishment of any territorial gov
eminent over them, but leaving them to be
governed by their own local laws, with sufi-
cient military force from the United States to
protect them from the incursons and depreda-
tons Of the Indians--do this, and the question
will be finally settled, and settled in manner
at which no section Of the Union will have
right to complain But the very moment an at
tempt is made to establish territorial govern
inents, up comes the difficulty Of adjusting the
question Of the admission or prohibition Of slavery
during the existence Of such territorial govern
ments-a difficulty which cannot be evaded or
compromised, but which must necessarily and
inevitably lead to future agitation and excite
ment.
! The De Ia Frsncia Claim.
| H. aIIoxvanca of the cla;r, L..