New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-04
ComprOmises, &c.

If The Buffalo Express will only wait
till we get ready TO "repent OF having
favored 'the idea of Compromise at ALL"
we will then consider with it the remOter
question as to whether we shall find an
opportunity to atone " for our course. As
vet, its solicitude on our behalf is quite
premature as we'll as gratuitOus. Let The
Express distinctly understand that we do
not repent of having supported Mr..
Clay's great measure of Compromise
though we hoped and expected to secure
some notifications thereof prior to its final
passage. But, even as it was originally
reported, that measure would have given
$4,000 square miles (enough for a large
State) more to Freedom than we now have,
while we should have lost nothing that we
have secured by the defeat Of the Compro-
mise bill. We believed so much Free Soil
worth saving; perhaps The Express had
some belief or other on that subject, and
perhaps it hadn't. At all events, we know
that in favoring an adjustmentof the Terri
torial and Boundary questions on the basis
proposed by Mr.. Clay we were acting on
our fixed principle in politics of securing
as much good and defeating as much evil
as practicable, instead DIMINISHING doggedly
on the unattainable. The Express under
stood this course when we decided to sup
port Gen. Taylor; it might have apprecl-
ated it now had it sincerely desired to do 80.
The Express proceeds:
"The Omnibus was Just wrong in principle as the
subsequent They Offered only IN DECREE and i
Confessional thai Fugitive Slave Bin in all its deform
ity passenger in the Omnibus
We apprehend that our lecture has no
clear idea of of what principle" in refe-
renee 10 politics, is. There is nothing
wrong in principle in giving up your
purse to save your Ii when the alterna-
tive is pressed upon you; though it may
be very wrong in principle to hold pistol
to a travellers head and compel him to
make such a choice. 1t was 'wrong in
principle for Representatives of Free
States and Free Men to repudiate and con-
denim the Proviso of Freedom, as Cass,
Dickinson and Webster did it was wrong
in principle for some of these and pro-
fessed Abolitionists like Henry B. Stanton
to pretend not to know whether Texas
rightfully included the better portion OF
New Mexico or not, and thus virtually
surrender the latter country to slavehold-
irg domination; but it was not wrong in
principle for those who perceived and
confronted the thickening dangers thus
brought upon the cause of Free Soil to
take that course which they deemed calcu-
lated to save to Freedom the most that
could be saved by any means within their
power. If it were, then it was Just as
wrong for Free Soiler to support General
TAYLOR when it became morally certain
that either he or Gen. Cass must be chosen
President.
The Express knows of course that the
Fugitive Slave Act was no part of the ON
nrbus bill" so nicknamed, and was never
supported by US. We supported but one
Compromise BILL namely the bill organ
ling the New Territories and adjusting
the Boundary Of Texas so as to shield
New Mexico from her grasp. Remember
that we do not repent Of this, and have
been to no confessional with regard to it.
We regret that the Boundary IS fixed sofa
vorably TO Texas, but that is no fault Of Mr..
CLAY, nor of his Omnibus The Fugitive
Slave Bill isan independent measure, which
we never supported, though we shall not
cry our eyes out over its passage. Funny
Peace measure a. it is, we believe it is
working out good. The Northern People
wanted something to make them realize
that they have some responsibility for
Slavery-that they, if not Shareholders
are slavecatchers. Let Us wait and see
this law operate a while.