The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-02-25


"Two classe s of Disunonists, !" wrote Mr..
CLAY to the committee of the Union meeting
recently held in Westminster county, in the
State of New York, threaten our country.
One is that which is open and undisguised in
favor of separation. The other is that
which, disowning desire Of dissolution of the
. Union, adopts course and contends for mea-
sures and principles which must inevitably
lead to that calamitous result. or the two,
think the latter the more dangerous, be-
cause it is deceptive and insidious. hope
both will be defeated. They will be de-
feated, if the mass Of the people, true to their
best interests, and to their country, will dis
countenance and frown down all attempts at
alienation and discord."
The late debate in the Senate furnished a
striking illustration Of Mr.. CLAY's remark
We can see but little difference between
men who openly advocate dissolution of the
Union and those who tell us that the main
tenance of the Union depends on the execution
Of the Fugitive Slave law, and in the same
breath tell US that II cannot be executed 1t
was well put by General CAss, in his brief
speech of Saturday, that, in the case Of these
gentlemen, ''the wish was father to the
thought" They thought the slave law would
not be executed, because they wished that it
should not be executed. Mr.. Mason it seems
urged the passage Of the law, with the belief
that it could not be executed--a belief spring
ing from his desire that it should fail, in order
that the failure might expedite the period to
which he and his confederates are looking for
ward with so much interest-the period Of the
dissolution of the Union.
1t lis interesting to observe the entire con-
currence Of sentiment, between the Abolitionists
and the ultras Of the South, in regard to the
Fugitive Slave law. Mr.. Mason, of Virginia,
pronounces it dead letter. Mr.. CHASE, of
Ohio, the coalition Senator who represents
thirty-fve thousand voters out of three hun
dred and fifty thousand, or about ten per cent.
Of his State, agrees with Mr.. Mason in the
opinion that it Is "dead letter." The South
ern Press, the organ Of the Secessionists and
Disunionists proper, has denounced it from the
start as ''dead letter." The Boston Com
nsonasealth, the organ of the coalition now re-
presented in the Senate of the United States
by the nine-days' wonder, Mr.. RANroUL,
breaches daily in seditious clamors that the
law cannot be executed in Massachusetts. Mr..
BoRLAND and Mr.. TURNKEY chime in with the
declarations of Mr.. CHASE and the Common
pealth. So they go. Differing in all things
else, these men and these journals agree in their
hostility to the Compromise, their hatred Of
Mr.. CLAY, and their willingness to see this
great Union sacrificed in feud growing out of
the negro question. eee
We agree with Mr.. CLAY in the belief that
both classes of Disunionists are doomed to an
ignominious overthrow. In spite of the insdi-
Gus appeals of the Secessionists in one section,
and the Abolitionists in another, the MASS OF
THE PEOPLE "will discountenance and frown
down all attempts at alienation and discord."
Mr.. CHASE may utter his Vaccinations and men,
aces, and draw parallels between the measures
ofthe British ministry which led to the American
Revolution, and those ola majority of the Ameri-
can people, by their own representatives in Con-
gress, but neither he norhis confedeates will be
able to stimulate the rebellion they desire.
MAINE, New HAMPsHIRE, CoNNEcTIcUr, New
JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, MICnIGAN, INDIANA,
ILLINOIS, WISCONSIN,, and Iowa, have all given
abundant evidence that they are not only deter
mined to take care Of conspirators and traitors in
their own borders, but that they are ready and
willing to see to the execution of the Federal
laws, if need be, beyond merely State limits.
We think with Mr.. DopGE, that the Senatorf from
Ohio has no warrant to speak for the North on
this subject, nor even for his own State; I'M
less, indeed, we are prepared to admit that the
representative of miserable faction can be con-
sidered representative of the majority, who
understand the huckstering bargain by which
he obtained his seat.