The southern press., 1851-04-05


Union, and the liberties it was designed to Sc
cure {; that when that keystone was removed,
the whole fabric would tumble into ruins and
that d.spotism, unaIIoyed despotsm, was the
inevitable consequence Of the consolidation that
must necessarily 3iilledgepille (Ga)
Union.
Democracy IN France slavery in America, and Papery
From the London Ckromicks
1t is well for the political observer TO keep 6rm-
ly in mind that the word republic will bear
many meanings as may choose 10
give it--sIse the contradictions exhibited bv
the two great extant examples Of 4 self-goyern-
ing democracy will be apt TO drive him to de-
spair. Only week ago, on its being announced
that an infinitely small portion Of the Parisians
intended to celebrate the birthday of their present
institutions by going in procession to church, and
depositing some flowers IN cemetery, the funds
began to stagger, and some sixty thousand sol
diers passed night and day under arms. The
day before yesterday we had to record second
burst of panic terror in Paris, occasioned by re-
port that the officers of the national guard were to
be elected by universal suffrage, according to the
letter Of the constitution. The same evening the
American newspapers reached US with accounts of
a prolonged political disturbance, Of which the
feebest vibration would have toppled down one
half of the European thrones. A fugitive negro
had been taken into custody by the United States
marshal in Boston, under positive enactrpent Of
the central legislature. sanctioned by an express
provision Of the federal Constitution. The news
spread The official is attacked by mob of
colored people, and is compelled to release the
prisoner, who il forthwith carried in triumph to
the border of contiguous State, and thence, by a
new escort, conducted to the British possessions
in Canada. The bulk of the respectable classes
applaud. The newspapers are frantic with en-
thusiasm. A proclamation is issued by the Presi-
dent, declaring that the law must be enforced, and
thousand tongues reply that human legislation
must be postponed to the dictates Of conscience
and the instincts of nature. 1t is the extreme Of
violence defended by the extreme Of anti-social
doctrine Well! you turn from the disastrous
columns, and, looking to the other side Of the
page, you find yourself in report of proceedings
commemorative Of General Washington g nativity,
with editorial comments thereon. The leading
men of all parties have met together to consecrate
the name which is in itself symbol of union, and
to proclaim the eternity of the hero's work. Ev-
cry form of strong and sensuous metaphor is en-
listed to express the strength, the vgor the sta
bility of the republic. 1t is an eagle Ii is the
1t is Orion, with his belt ofstars. 1t is the
Pleiads, "mutiped by three" IL is the infant
Hercules. 1t is COLOSSUS seated on the Rocky
mountains, and bathing his feet in the twin
oceans. The very rhetoric smacks Of lusty end
unchastened youth, and seems to promise length
Of days, in form as well as subject. Clearly the
federation does not mean to go to pieces.
The connections at Boston point undoubtedly
to real and abiding danger, but they do not prove
that it is any closer at hand than it was before.
The tendency of the abolitionist agitation to de-
generate into dsunionist movement has provok-
ed sort of reaction in favor of the Fugitive slave
law, which, obnoxious it is, has been enforced
with unexpected readiness in New York, Penn
sylvania, Ohio, and some Of the Northwestern
States. The attempts to compel the extradtion
Of negroes in Massachusetts, have, on the other
hand, proved fruitless, and the last failure took
place under the alarming circumstances which we
have just skerched. But, as regards the popular
feeling on the subjects of slavery, there is
siderable difference between New England, and
the free States which are in immediate contact
with slave soil, or which receive certain propor-
ton of their immigrant population from the South.
An arrest under the recent enactment seems to
strike the New Enganders more in tholight of a
foreign aggression than as the legitimate. though
oppressive, interference of a domestic authority.
There is much, indeed, in the accounts we have
perused, which recalls and is illustrated by our
own experience of the last four months. Putting
out of the question such exceptional irrtants as
the Durham letter, we may assert that the no -po-
perry agitation grew out Of conditions and combi-
nations exceedingly germane TO the sources Of the
fermens IN Massachusetts. We were all Of us
told, from infancy upwards, that popery was
prosecuting and usurping. The religious educa-
ton ofEnglishmen pre-supposes such an article OF
belief. But though insignificant section of the
community had always specially devoted itself to
the cultivation of ant,-Romsh sentiment, in the
great mass Of Englishmen it had become practi-
cally extinct principle OF action, except so far
as II occasionally colored their view of the ever
lasting perplexities of the Irish question. Then
came the Pope's brief and the Cardinals pas
toral. The enemy, who had passed into the con-
dition ofa myth, assumed palpable and aggres-
sve reality, and point and meaning given
to lessons which had hitherto been sterile The
country seemed, for the moment, to rally to Exc
ter Hail. and Indignation at encroachment began
burning with intensity which would doubtless
have been less violent in its immediate manifesto
tlons, If our contact with the usurping power had
been closer and more constant. Just so, the New
England populations have been brought up in
conventional adherence of negro slavery, against
which the whole economy Of their society is a
standing protest Hitherto they have conem-
p ated it from distance, through the obscure and
embarrassed medium of sectional controversies at
Washington, and they have been content to aban-
don Its permanent condemnation TO the abolition,
societies. The Fugitive slave bill passes; an ar.
r, st is effected in their sreets-and 10 the ac-
cursed thing is there in the midst of them. A
est cause has been damaged by the excess Of ir-
ritatlon in which they have momentarily indulged.
and it would be vain to deny that their turbulence
contrasts very unfavorably with the dutiful,
though reluctant, acquescence Of the Middle
States, whose intercourse with the South has
furnished due corrective to their Judgment on
the matter
There is little room for doubt that the measures
which have convulsed the Boston populace were
expressly shaped to that end by their authors.
The recovery, under process, Of slave from New
England involves 30 much trouble, vexation, and
expense, thattis morally impossible that il should
be undertaken az commercial speculation; and,
indeed beiers that the f,ro arrests attempted hare
been separately traced 10 the maiigniy Of disunou-
isl roiunteer. As it is probable that new provoca-
tlves will be administered, the degree of subse-
quent danger will depend on the greater or less
rapdlty with which New Englanders resume their
characteristic reverence for the law. Patriotic
counsel does no, appear to be wanting; and really
among the most Ingenious IL not {! most scru-
pulous, of the advocates Of moderation, we must
class the author Of the plncard directed against
Mr.. George Thompson, which we printed yester-
day. The members for the Town Hamlets has
been perambulating the Northeastern States on
what he styles, with considerable ndipete, "pro-
fessional tour, and we hear that he has already