The southern press., 1851-07-10
PRESS.
WASHINGTON CITY.
THURSDAY, JULY 10. 1851.
An>ther Step.

the Whig State convention Of Ohio. They ex-
pressly refused to endorse the compromise.
The Wing party of New York, in the legisla-
ture, has done the same thing. In all the States
north of New York similar course will, or has
been adopted. Evea in Psnnsy lvania, cotsrmi-
nous with the boundary of the Southern States,
the Wings have nominated governor opposed
to the compromise. And tho Ohio, Indiana
and Pennsylvania Wings have rejected their po-
liticsl leaders, CLAY and WEBSTER, who sup
ported the compromise, aud have nominated
General Scorr.
The argument advanced in favor of tho CON-
promise, at the time it was pending and since,
was that it would terminate agitation. In fact,
this was the principal inducemeut to Southern
men for supporting that measure That con
sidesation has now utterly failed. 1t was the
silliest notion that ever entered the heads of po-
litical calculators that it could, or would have
that effect But it was gravely and dogmatically
insisted on by the contriyers and supporters of
that scheme, and il has been impudently and in
cessantly asserted since, that agitation had
ceased, or was about to cease, at time when it
ragged more than ever before, and when almost
every election in the North was an Abolition
triumph.
We have, therefore, to admoaisi Messrs
CLAY, WEBSTER, FILLMORE e. Co, that events
have now demonstrated the utter failure of this
measure-and OF their prediction. And every
opinion we expressed of the effect of that
measure in the North, has been fulfilled to the
letter. Although the compromise surrenderd
to the North every single practical position that
was in debate, yet because it provided for one
Southern right, which nobody had the hardi-
hood to question, it has only rendered the North
more aggressive, more confident and more ex-
fore, who undertook to construct and support
the compromise, have displayed their utter in
capacity for the occasion. And the consolation
il that they have failed as signally in tho per-
measure, as in the measure itself.
We are now to witness q disrnion Of the
Wing party, North and South. 1t is impossible
for any amount of party cunning, or treachery,
to avert that catastrophe. The symptoms Of
this event were visible on organizing the last
Congress. And now We may, without much
prophetic inspiration, announce it as fact, soon
to be. No pretence of Union, or of party, or
equivocation, or ambiguity, will avail. 1t is
impossible for Southern and Northern Wings
hereafter to act together. And thus one of the
great national parties is at an end. The same
thing is true Of the Democratic party. In Mas
VAN BUREH, in Ohio, Mr.. CHASE, and in Maine
Mr.. HAMLIN, stand at the head of this party
Between these men and the Southern De-
mocracy, the chasm is wider and deeper than
between the Southern and Northern Wings
1t is in vain TO deny or conceal the fact that the
political parties of the county are each divided
as some of the chief religious sects already
were. They can no longer meet in convention,
they cannot agree on candidates, they cannot
agree on principles. The compromise has failed
to reconcile them, or 10 restore the promised
peace
We submit, therefore, that Messrs. CLAY,
WEBSTER, FILLMORE, g. Co, have failed in the
predictions and expectations on which they re-
lied TO justify the compromise. There is no
peace, no truce even, but increased agitation and
aggression.
Now, the institution of slavery is not only po-
ltical, but il il social and domestic II involves
not only political power but social comfort and
domestic safety. II is one of the very last the
very worst topics, for agitation. But we have
long since known or believed, that agitation for
an indefinite period, fierce and bigotted, was in
evitable. But such was our conviction of the
stability of slavery, that we believed that it
could withstand and defy agitation, if those who
were connected with the institution were faith
ful to themselves. Until recently they had the
power within the Union of triumphant self
defence. But of that they have been deprived
by the late compromise measures-and thereby
the Union has been endangered, since it has
been placed in the attitude itself of an agitator
and assailart BY restoring to the Southern
States their rights and their power, the faculty
of selfdefence in the Union will be restored,
the Union will no longer be the assuiaut or a
party to the dispute, but the agitation will be-
come sectional, and can be resisted with sue
cess.
And since the dissolution of the two political
parties is now inevitable, there remains but one
resource TO save the Union and that is to unite
ail the conservative elements of the country in
one party, and TO restore the two sections to that
condition of equality to which their rights the
circumstances of the country, and the preserva-
tion Of the Union enttle them.
If the present state Of parties and condition of
the country dictate the restoration of the two
sections to their equality statu quo ante Jelluu,
impending events and the indications from neigh
boring States proclaim the necessity of It. New
Mexico and Utah, are yet to be admitted, and
Texas divided. The Sandwich Islands the neirh-
boring urovinrpa of Mexico tho recant oyont. a.