The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-03-14
THE SLAVERY EXCITEMENT IN THE SOUTH
AND PARTY LEADERS.

Having laid before our readers the speech of
Mr. Calhoun it may be well to call attention to
certain portions of it, We do not intend to reply
to his main argument, but simply to comment
upon few statements made by the speaker.
Assuming that deep discomfort pervades the
mind of the South, he says that it is great
mistake to suppose that it originated with dema-
gogues
con the contrary, all the great political intiu-
ences of the section 1.-THE South were arrayed
against excitement and exerted to the utmost
to keep that people quiet. The great mass of the
People of the South was divided, in other Sec
tions, into Wings and Democrats The leaders
and presses of both parties in the South were
very solicitous to prevent excitement and restore
quictD
The history of the country from the election
of John Quincy Adams down to this time refutes
this statement of Mr. Calhoun From 1925 TO
1850, the Slavery Question has been used by
demagogues in the South to subserve party pur-
poses, aud much of the deep discomfort" of the
Southern people is chargeable on their sinister
aims and articles The Democratic or Jackson
raised the alarm cry of danger to Southern Insti-
tutons and talked ominously of dissolution Of
the Union. When General Jackson came into
power, their tune changed and they began to
sing p@lns to the Union. Mr. Calhoun and
his special friends now became the alarmsts
We have before US volume Of Duff Green's
Political Register, printed in Washington, in 1888,
in which, from week to week, the Administration
was denounced for promulgating principles fatal
in their ultimate consequences TO Slaveholding
institutions. The proceedings of Northern anti
Slavery societies are published at full length,
with the most inAammatory comments, designed
to arouse the prejudices of the South. Garbled
quotations are made from Northern papers, es-
pecially those sustaining the Jackson Adminstra-
ton, and they are tortured into declarations of
hostility TO Southern rights The Proclamation
of General Jackson in notification times is de-
nounced as involving principles, which, IL carried
out, would authorize interference in certain con-
tingencies with Slavery in the States; and the
constant aim Of the paper is to convince the
Shareholders that the Northern majority harbors
the purpose of passing an act of universal eman-
cipation Every art is practiced to infame the
minds of Shareholders, to arouse sectional jeal-
ousy and discomfort among them. Next to the
Emaneip0tor itself, then published at New York,
we know of no paper that contains 30 full
record of the proceedings of abolition societies
and lecturers in 1893, as the Political Register Of
Duff Green for that year. And in this policy he
was sustained by all the politicians of the South
who favored the claims of John c. Calhoun for
the Presidency, and hated Martin Van Buren,.
They played reckless game for power, and the
agitation of Slauery was the trump card by which
they always sought to win the game.
The same policy has been pursued ever since.
The Slave States have been kept in perpetual
turmoil and excitement, by the cry Of wolf
wolff especially when the Democrats Of the
South have been out Of power. During the
Administration of Martin Van Buren,, Congress
was the scene Of incessant strife growing out Of
the attempt of the Calhoun faction TO institute
extreme tests on the Slavery Question, and force
gags upon the free people of the North. Under
the Administrations of John Tyler and James X.
Polk, although anti-Savery operations at the
North grew more vigorous, although gags were
repealed, and petitions ON Slavery received in
Congress, although the Liberty party swelled its
numbers from seven thousand voters to seventy
thousand, excitement slept at the South-there
were no cries of danger to Southern rights, no
menaces Of q Dissolution Of the Union. But,
the moment the power passed away from the
hands of Southern Democrats, they joined forces
with the Calhoun faction, and forthwith every
Slave State was racked with agitation. The
Washington U"ion becomes the central organ Of
the excitement, but, with keen eye to party
power, amidst its agonies for the imperilled
Union, II forgsts not to admonish the South that
Northern Democrats are comparatively sound on
the Slavery Question, that Northern Fed1aiias
are the traitors, that to the alliance Of Northern
Federalists with Southern Wings are 10 be ascri-
ped the dangers that now threaten us and then
II strives to arouse the Shareholders without dis
JUNCTION OF party against the Wing Adminstra-
ZION OF General Taylor. Now, who doubts, were
the Administration TO change hands tomorrow,
passing under the control Of Mr. Buchanan for
example, that the Union would set TO work to
prove to the South that II was laboring under IN
NJ ala a.