New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-06-16


running around with handful of oakum in
one hand. and 4 caulking iron and mallet IN
the other, fussing over dreadful leaks in the
Southern end of the Snip of State, and ex-
pressing great fears that he would not be
able to keep the craft aioat, notwlthstand-
ino his most herculean exertions. He even
gave up in despair at one time, and said the
country was gone, hook and line, bob and
sinker: and that the Union would 90 down
on given Saturday afternoon, I'VE forget
the date,) at four o'clock, post meridian
We believe he added, or if he did not, some
body else did, that there would be no post
ponement on account of the weather. Mr..
Calhoun declared that the Northern democ-
racy had given way before the abolition cur
rent. and that the crisis had come The
South. he said, were to be excluded from the
territories. This was settled, and it was
only left for them to act. With great So
lemnity he announced his belief that they
would meet the crisis as it should be met.
In this way the country was agitated, and
the attempt made to dragon Congress into
a second Missouri Compromise. DisuniOn
was brought close home as the inevitable al
tentative. But all would not do. The
North stood firm, and the Administration Of
that day had no Union hobby to ride, and so
let the storm spend its fury, and blow itself
a calm.
The idea of Disunion, because the South
could not have half the Mexican territories
for Slavery, died out, and nobody now thinks
any thing of it, Yet it was the vital point
in the whole controversy, and constituted
the graramen of the whole subject in dis
pute. 1t was indeed the only substantial
thing in the case. The South wanted
half of the new territories for Slavery, and
if she could not have this, and could not
have any part Of them, what good was to
come to her of the Mexican war, Of which
such high hopes had been entertained in the
way Of enlarging the area of Slavery? If
this was to he the result of that grand scheme
to extend and perpetuate and make profta
bic the peculiar institution, how barren and
how inexpressibly Notifying was it! The
South had rolled in the dirt for nothing
Her cherished system Of propagandism, so
gloriOusly hoHrishing in the annexation of
Texas, so delightfully."- promising during the
war, was here snubbed, knocked in the
head, and the blood all let out. Here was
genuine reason for threatening disunion
The South were here after a substantial ad-
vantage; if they could not get it, it was
matter of no surprise that they should get
mad and swear they would secede, dissolve,
break up the Government. Any sensible
man can see that there was body and brains
for this demonstration. Yet if we had
been told then with half the solemnity with
which we have been told since, that
there was danger to the Union growing out
of all the movements, all the declarations,
and the real disappointment felt by the South
at this sudden check to her expectations,
we should have denied it point blank; but
nobody could have denied that there was
some ground for trepidation in the sensitive
circles of cotton, trade and money and
among the equity gentlemen in velvet slip
pers. Qt is great pity there was no chance
to start the Union party at that time. The
worthy proprietors of that concern might
have got another six months dividend.)
Thus, in fact, the real, vital, practical
point in the whole controversy was tacitly
yielded by the South, simply because they
could not get help enough in the North to
carry it. If Mr. Cass or Mr. Buchanan
had been President it would not have been
so. We should have had a second Missou-
ri Compromise settlement. The success of
the Wings in the Presidential election of
1913, and the brief civil career of Gen.
Taylor saved that.
Now, what we say and show is, that the
Union stood the shock of the real conflict on
the Slavery question, and passed the only
ordeal deserving of aname, n perfect safe
ty long ago, even before the death of Pres
ident Taylor. The Union was not dis
solved, and did not begin to be dissolved,
because the South did not get the demanded
division on the line of $50 80, with all
south of that line for her inheritance. Yet
for the remainder of the questions in issue,
it was to the South just the difference be-
twixt tweedledum and tweedledee Mr..
Calhoun, and the other intelligent leading
Southern men, who were in pursuit of an