New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-05-20

more that the imminent danger OF tue
dissolution of this Union, and the destruc-
,ion f this Government, arises wholly and
solely from the apprehensions entertained
Of the action Of the Slave States. 1t IS an
idea conceived in cowardice and brought
forth in folly It is the bass product 7t
craven iimidity, an emascOla,ed manlines''
Il should shame the front AID bleach the
face Of ythirg wearing the shape Of man.
who processes to spprehend disunion, TO
trace cut and see where the idea bottoms.
Itrests on plain, bald. naked fear and cow
srdce. 1t is rooted in the sinking bed OF
poluoonery. No man with heart beneath
bis ribs, that ever beat to bold and manly
impulse. or who possesses spirit not
wholly craven, servilo and ensaved' but
would sink away in shame from preaching
a discourse on the dangers of disunion, If
cox honted with an exposure Of the ground
upon which all such aPprehensions rest.
What Of these dangersl What are the
people Of the Slave States saying and Co.
ing, or VITA, have they been hitherto say
ing and doing tina, should alarm even ii
midity and cowardice itself! What is
there in their language or their attitude
that should cause even old ladies in breaches
70 shiyer aud shake, and run clucking
about ike setting hens, as though every
bodv ought to pa,tske Of the intensity of
tb.ir interest in the incubation of their own
idle spprehensiors J Is it anything new
for tho South TO declare that the North
shall not preach or practice emancipation
of their slaves not even one at q tins !
And did not their great champion long ago
declare. and have not various State Legs.
lstures long since declared in substance,
thst agitation of the Slavery question at
ell was good cause for secession and disu-
MON? Has not the whole burden Of the
song Of the South always been that the
North SHOULD have nothing to do with
Slavery, except to return the runaways
And have they not always insisted upon
the discharge of this latter duty! In a
word, does not the South stand now just
where it has always stood on this whole
question Wherein is the difference be-
tween the state Of things tn, last year and
that of former years, excepting that the
Southern men swore little louder than
common when California was admitted,
and subsequently when Northern men de-
clared the Fugitive Slave Law should not
DO executed Aud excepting, too, land a
most important exception it ISL that GER
tain political interests and certain trading
interests in the North, warmed into life a
new brood Of dough faces, (Mr. Webster
once called such people " dough heads "
and " dough souls,") who very suddenly
discovered the Union to be in danger, and
have been ever since preaching and pray
ing to Northern men to support and exc
cute that law and so save it. Taking q
far Listonc survey OF the whole field Of
Slavery affairs, it is nothing less than a
sham and humbug to declare that the
American Union and Government has been
in any greater peril during the last year
than it has been any time these ten years,
and that is Just no peril at all.
And what is the execution of this Fugi-
tive Slave law upon which we are graveIy
told the issues of life and death to this
Union and Government hang! Does not
everybody know thatit amounts to nothing,
pracucahy Does it not cost a good deal
more than it comes to for an owner Of an
Ascending chattoI to repOsse5s himself
thereof! Do not the fugitives fly in droves
to Canada at its approach ! Indeed did
not Mr.. Speaker Cobb himself declare here
in New York, in effect, that it was only
the name Of the thing that they were after,
and not the runaways themselves that they
expected to get! And did they not get
that in the passage Of the law ! Don't the
South understand that they can't get their
escaped slaves, no matter how many laws
are crowded upon the statute book, Or
crtmmed down tho unwilling throats Of the
Northl Are not the flying blacks slid along
10 Canada, secroted, and otherwise kept out
of the reach of their masters! Was the
Union dissolved because Shadrsch was
rescued, or would it have been if Sims had
escaped! The rescue was made the occa-
sion Of an extra ebullition of Southern SEQ
rin belched through Union throats in
various attitudes, and the escape would
have had the same results, but this is all.
1t is no compliment that tho peculiar