The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-07-22

most mQdQEete OF them only walt Tor more Ia
vorab)e tins to strike the blow. We are In favor
of breaking of oil intercourse with such peo
pie, commercially, politically, and socially. One
Of the first steps to Southern independence is to
break of, as fast as possible our social and
commercial connections with the North.
|
Mr.. Brownson ON FrccsoIlism.
The July number Of Brownson's Quarterly
Review contains powerful article on Freesoil.
ism, in which the progress and present strength
Of that destructive fanaticism, the character Of
its leaders, and the inevitable end to which it il
driving general anarchy and Reorganization,
Me set forth with signal cearness and truth. In
the end Mr.. Brownson utterly demolishes the
moral platform of the Freesoilers in their re-
sistauce to the Fugitive slave law and their as
saults on Southern institutions. The article il
y review of the Sermon of the Rev. Theodore
Parker, on occasion Of the restoration of Sims
to his owner We quote from it u few passages
that are separabIe from the context, and com
mend them to the attention Of our readers.
Mr.. Parker plainly counsels resistance to the
laws downright treason and civil war,--only
not just yet. The hour is not yet come, anu
armed resistance might be premature, because
just now it might be unsuccessful The traitor
Gus intention, the traitor0us resolution is mani
fest, is avowed is even glOried in, and nothing is
wanting to the overt attempt to. carry it into
execution but fair prospect of success. And
what is of more serious consequence, the party
Of which this fierce declaimer il an accredited
organ is now in power 10 this State, and has the
governor and he majority of the representa-
tivss ia both houses Of Congress-. 1t rules or
misrules the great State of Ohio /; 1t is numerous
in Pennsylvania, almost the majority in New
York, triumphant in Vermont and, we can but
| ~ not nj in Nm Hov ITO rer
ciples are entertained by men who do not pro-
fess allegiance to the party. Nearly every men,
Der of Congress from this State, with the OK
ception of Mr.. Appleton, of this city, is in reality
as much Free-soer as Horace Mann or Robert
Rantoul. Mr.. Winthrop, the Wing candidate
for the Senate, was not a whit sounder than Mr..
Sumner, his successful free-soil competitor, and
would have made a far more dangerous senator.
The party has absorbed in it's bosom all the
separate fanatcisms of the free States and all
who, like ourselves, have watched its growth
from 1884, are well aware that it has been
steadily advancing, that it has never lost an inch
of ground once gained and that it has never for
a moment met with serious check. 1t is as
certain as anything human can be, that, it it is
not speedily resisted, and resisted as it never yet
has been, it will in short time possess the
po wer in nearly all the free States, and conse-
|
we coming?
"This statement will, no doubt, CRAFTY and
encourage the party butIthe party has already
become too strong to be pushed aside as con-
temptible, and we must not deceive ourselves as
to the magnitude of the danger that threatens
u.s. Both parties, Wings and Democrats
Wings more especially till lately, have crimi-
nally tempered with it, and aided it to acquire
its present formidable power,-a power which,
perhaps, is no longer comfortable. The mea.
sures hitherto taken against it have thus far
, only exasperated and strengthened it. Tho
! I" Compromise measures" of the late Congress,
3 which it was hoped would alay the exciteussnt,
Q and extinguish the party by depriving it Of all
= pretence for further agitation, have had only a
g contrary effect. We do not agree with the So
!, called disunionists of the South, fox we are
4. unionists, but it must be confessed. that they
e have been the only considerable party in ths
D. country that has had any toegable appreciation
e of the Free soil movement. They were correc
is in their predictions that the. compromise mea
d sures would be intellectually and they have no
is overstated the danger We say not danger tc
d the institution of slavery, for the question Of
slavery loses itself in much higher question
even higher and more important than the simple
maintenance of the Union,-in the question Of
If the maintenance of society itself. The Free
l. sellers are to American society what red repub.
s. hcans and socialists are to Europe an society," anc
% their triumph is the triumph of anarchy and
" despotism.
g. "Good, quiet, easy men, looking over thei
e ledgers, or slipping their wine may hatter them
n selves that there is no serious danger, and tel
m us that we are unnecessarily alarmed but in al
d. human probability, If the fugitive slave Sims hat
not been given up on the claim Of his owner tn,
t. American Union had now already ceased to ex
IN st. 1t is all very well to talk of Southern
is buste-s,' and the Hotspurs" of the South
ID but there is something more than buster j1s
d. now. The Southern people are as virtuous ed
" patriotic as we, and their statesmen are as on
,e lighened and sagacious as ours. They Sc,
ir what, with individual exceptions, we De not per
lie NIT ourselves TO see that the free States are fas
v losing all their respect for law and becomin,
If unfaithful to their solemn engagements, ant
o blind to all the claims of religion and morality
They see that the abolition of slavery at III,
J. bidding Of our fanatics would DO the dissolution
}. of American society itself. They see che dis
t organizers steadily advancing, and that we ar,
e taking no efficient means to. repress them, ant
e they very naturally consult secession from tn,
s Union as the only means of self-preservatior
e THAI remain to them. They may be wrong bu
D we OF the North have no rsght to blame for do
a ing what we are forcing than to do, if thel
: wish to retain any semLance of freedom.
r "Let no man deceive himself with the vail
t hope that this radcalism now represented by
e the free-soil party would stop with the mere alb
\ clifton of negro slavery. II is the persuasion
0 so many Of our citizens that II would, which rem
y ders it so dangerous. The abolition of SLAYER,
a by violence, against the will of the masters, anc
!, without compensating them for the propert,
: we compel them to surrender, would be grea
evil, but it is one of the lightest evils to be ex
pected from the progress of Free-soil fanaticsm
We assure the public, and it is the point We
= wish particularly to impress upon our readers
that the abolition of negro slavery is only an in
r cident in Free-soilism. Neither the Free-soiI
e era nor we can foresee where they would stop
3 Combining as they do in one all the severa
i classes of fanatics in the country, and being tn
e party opposed to law, to constitutions and gov
y ernments, certain it is they would not stop
/ long ms there remained single safeguard f.,
ltndr L.