New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-05-27

was Mr.. Webster from stating or implying
this. that he argued against the proposal of
Mr.. Bell to reenact that part Of the resolu-
ton with greater distinctness, by providing
for the immediate establishment of one or
more such States, as altogether supereroga-
tory and only weakening the original reso-
luton. 1t is plain, then, that while keeping
within the letter of his former declarations
AGAINST Slavery Extension, Mr.. Webster IN
that memorable speech lent himself, his
reputation and influence, his weight as
senator and a jurist, to the increase Of the
Slave Power in the Republic. VIII any
body call US hypocrite and falsifer for say
ing this Perhaps but the person would
do well to wipe out the record and obliter-
ate the facts beforehand.
Here is the apology for abandoning the
Proviso in the Territories; as all who have
read the speech must have remarked, it
contains nothing very new:
oFrom the best investigation I have given the sub
ect and the reflection | have devoted 10 IT, was OF
the opinion that the mountains OF New-Mexlco ano
Utah could no more sustain American slavery 'uaI
the SHOWS Of Canada. | saw II was Impossible.
thought so then and | think so now. Therefore,
gentlemen, when It was proposed IN Congress TO ap-
DIV the Wllmot PrOvisO TO New-MeIlco ana UIah'
it appeared just absurd asst apply Il here IN
Western New-Yor saw that the snowy hills, the
eternal mountains, and the climate OF those coun-
tries, would never support Slavery No man COuld
carry slave there with any expectation OF proht IL
I'll 10 md no thOUunf
II was irritating and dlsrospectiul. was not VIII
ling to do it and, therefore, saw no occasion Tor
applying the WimOt ProUso to New-Mexco or
Utah. / voted accordingly, and who doubts II
now The law admitting those Territories pass
ed without any ProylSO Is there slave or Is
it likely there viii be one there why, there
Is not a man in the United states so stupid az
not TO see AZ this moment. that SuCn 4 tning was
wholly unnecessary, and that 1t was only calculated
10 Irrtate and offend. And | am not one VINO Is dis
posed 10 create irritation, or to give ofense 10 our
brothers or to break up fraterna friendship, without
cause. The question was open whether slavery
should or should not go 10 New-MeXlco or Utah
There Is no Slavery There IS not the shining face
Of an African there"
First, let US say that Mr.. Webster was
not always of this opinion, and does not pre-
tend that he was Before the election Of
ls4S, and during that canvass, he was de-
cldcd and' uncompromising advocate of the
Wilmot Proyiso; in the debate on the ad
mission Of Oregon he sustained the Pfoylso
for that territory, though 1t is mountainous
and grows no sugar-cane, nor rice, nor
cotton. and though the South earnestly
contended for the right to take slaves
there. But afterward, he obtained new
light, laid down the thunder-bolt to which
in the Springfield speech he had asserted
his right of property and even of pater-
nifty, and declared that he would inter-
pose no legal restriction on the holding of
slaves in New Mexico or Utah. He would
advise Shareholders that, as far as he was
informed, it would not pay to work their
chattels in those countries; but, If they
should think otherwise, they might try it
without hindrance To be sure there al
ready existed in Ncw-Mexico an institution
pconage) nearly equivalent to slavery,
which was supposed to benefit the class of
masters but the very slight variation be-
tween that and African bondage was, he
thought, sufficient to destroy all chance of
proftably introducing the latter. Such was,
in substance, the argument.
And now Mr. Webster triumphantly APP
peals to the fact that there are to-day no
slaves in New-Mexico and but few in Utah,
to Justify his tergiyersation. But we will
venture To suggest that his seli-gratulatlon
is not well founded. 1t is not any unenacted
law of God or Nature, not the geography
nor weather there prevalent, which have
kept slaves out, but the fact that the North
stands all ready to put the saving grace of
the Proyiso upon those territories should
there be any movement 10 take slaves there.
Ii is because the South knows that the great
struggle would instantly be renewed, not
indeed by the man who once spoke for
Massachusetts,
quantum mutatus al ITO
Hcctore, qui reiit eHuylas lndutus Aciuuii
not BY him, but by the mass of Northern
people. led by other chiefs who have not
forsaken the old altar fires of liberty TO 90
and bow the knee to strange diyinities that
their fathers knew not. This it IS which
has kept the Territories free from the over
seer and the slave, and in this Mr. Webster
has no part nor lot, having sold his birth
right.
There is another aspect in which his
abandonment of the Proviso consists with
neither the political foresight to which he
lays claim, nor his still avowed opPositionto
the increase OF slave territory. At the
time when the Seventh of March speech was
made, he knew that plot was on foot at
the South t. get possession of Cuba, with 4
view to its ultimate annexation as a Slave