The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1851-06-05

tation are as yet but uncouth and imperfect ad
vances. We have before our eyes the rude produce
OF those extensive terrtories-rude even in the first
operations Of agriculture and industry; but the
principles of public liberty, of intellectual cutiva-
ton, and even of moral obligation, still pre-
served with more vigilance and respect in Massa-
chusetts and her sister States than in the broad
territories Of the West or the slaveholdng commu-
mites of the South Ii is still to New England that
the American people look for those thinkers and
writer's who constitute the strongest link between
the vigorous activity of the New World and the
mature wisdom and experience Of Europe, with all
her accumulated treasures of literature and the
large inheritance Of the human mind Nor it
be doubted, that in the assemblies of the Union,
but especially in the Senate, that "litte member 4"
who is most versed in the science and the ira
ditions Of politics, in the jurisprudence of the
commonwealth, and in the strict obligations ofright
and duty, speaks with an authority far above the
representatives of regions and States which have
constructed their government with as much rough
alacrity as they have shown in building their log
houses or hewing down the prmeva forest.
With view to the general policy of the American
government, the character and influence of the
representatives of New England are, therefore, q
matter OF considerable Importance; and our atten-
ton has thus been called to the election Of Mr..
Charles Sumner, as a member of the Senate of the
United States for Massachusetts,. Mr.. Sumner is a
lawyer of some emnence in Boston, and one of the
junior members of that society which the names of
Channing of Story, and of Prescott, have rendered
llustrious In letters and in the interpre tation of
law. The tendency of universal suffrage has COM
monty been found to repel men of great cultivation
and refinement from public office in the United
States; and accordingly the influence of the emf
nent men to whom We have just alluded has been
Indirect though not the less perceptible and honor
able to themselves. Mr.. Sumner, following their
example, was no candidate for political honors
duties but the agitation of last year against the
application of the Fugitive Slave law, first called
hun from private life to assert with great energy
what the people of Mass achusetts held to be the
vioable privileges of their constitution. The APP
plcatlon OF the law to rHnaways in the territory of
Massachusetts has already given rise serious dis
turbances, and the Marshal of the United States
has been threatened with resistance in the exe:u-
ton of his warrants. On the ground of principle
and moral obligation a large portion Of the people
OF New England eagerly protest against that law
and accordingly contest of unusual severity took
place in the Assembly of the State, which ended in
the election OF Mr., Sumner to the office of Senator
OF the United states by majority OF one, upon the
10th ballot. The successful candidate had come
forward in no connection with existing parties He
had, on various occasions, expressed himself with
force against the annexation of Texas, and against
the pecuniary transgressions of the repud,ating
States lie was opposed by the pr )tectlonsss of
Massachusetts as a partisan of greater freedom of
trade, and by the adherents of the government
an opponent of the Fugitive Slave act. Yet such
was the strength of feeling in Massachusetts, on
that point alone, that the free soil party have
ceeded IN sending TO the Senate the most active and
able representative of their cause, and Mr.. Sumner
enters upon his ostensible political career under
these remarkable and fattering crcu instances
Wherever slavery exists, but especially where it
exists in close connection with the laws and nsti-
tutions Of free people, the necessity of defending
that violation OF all human rights by extraordinary
provisions gives rise to strange contradictions aud
anomalies. Thus in the United States there is u
large class OF the population to whom all instruc-
ton is forbidden, aud the very laws of God and ma
ture unknown There are harbors in which
free men OF color on board vessels from those
lands where slavery Is abolished may be torn from
their flag and insarcerated by the myrmidons OF
a n a mil mo HINT fh.riy
by law to purue their human game through the
wide territories of the Union, so tina. the British
frontier alone can save the runaway from the blood
hounds of MS owner. No doubt it may be said,
with truth, that these outrages on the rights and
feelings OF mankind ~ Jnsequences ofthe
state Of things in which they originate; and hence
while the Northern American Sta;es have been en-
deayorlng TO remove this stigma from the nation,
their Southern confederates have construed this
opposition into direct attempt TO abolish slavery
In this there Is some exaggeration. The Northern
states have unquestionaoly no right To interfere
with the peculiar Institutions of the South; but
neither have the Southern States any right, exeept
by express agreement, to intrude upon the liberties
OF other communities. In the territorial arrange
ments which made last year, aud especially
by the admission of such States as California to the
Union, on the basis of the exclusion of slave labor
the slaveholding interest received a severe blow;
but, IN exchange, 1t obtained the Fugitive Slave
act The government has remained honorably
aiihful 10 that act, however repugnant it must be
TO the personal feelisgs of many American states
men, because the measure was regarded one part
of a mutual concession, and served, therefore, to
lull the rising luminosity and separatism of the
South. But this consideration does not render il
less repugnant TO the fundamental principles of
liberty and state sovereignty in the United States
and The election Of Mr.. Sumner to the Senate is
everywhere regarded as an emphatic declaration on
the part of his own State thai the law is at least
not to remain, in its present form, unassailed The
South responds to such election by louder deca-
rations Of its resistance to all nfractons its local
institutions, at the sacrifice of the integrity Of
approach of that dissolution Of the confederation,
which is the habitual bugbear Of American polit
clans. IL is evident that the contest Of these vital
questions will be carried with undiminished We
hemence.