Southern standard., 1851-05-31
From the New York Tribune.
The Fugitive Slave Law.

dom and Slavery hoS oeea Tought ana IRON 6y those
qrko from 1916 TO 1850 resolutely upheld, during
all tie fierce conflicts Of those gears, the WIlmot
Pyoriso. TIE contest on the Propiso secured our
.Nerican Territories to Freedom. Ea this great re-
suit sce behold It's glorious REGARD We ,aoy there
fore The nsan be content toith the fruits of that
contest. Had it not been for the agitation upon
the subject of Slavery, and the powerful demon
sration of the Free States SidUes aoould paoao be
acaSAiag the golden sands of California. and bar
new Mexico herself would be bowing in still
more hopeless sterlity before the whitening tread
OF African servitude. But, thanks to the ndomi-
table spirit of freedom in the North, the future
millions who to inhabit the vast valleys of the
Gila, the Colorado, the San Joaquin, and Sacra-
mento have the unspeakable boon of liberty for
their inheritance This is the Gn'naot'ng spectacle
presented to our gaze as we survey the held
whereon have fought for years the champions OF
Free Soil In this rich harvest true friends of lib
ertv everywhere share, and may re Oice in its a
bundance They may well regard it with proud
satisfaction and repoSe in tranquility over what is
thus achived for the cause of Humanity.
But the offensive lees of the agitation from
which all this has resulted, is held to the nos
trs of the successful party in the contest, in the
form of the Fugitive Slave Law. As in the dis
pensation of Providence, unmixed good is seldom
the lot of those upon whom earthly blessings
are most abundanty showered, so we should not
the adversares of Slavery, in this contest, should
be dashed with an unwelcome admixture. But it
would be the height of ingratitude, we'll as the
height of stoldty to fail to recognize and enjoy
what we have of good in our existing circum-
stances, because all is not good. The Devu was
IN Paradise.
We are not of those who are cut to the quick by
the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law 1t is
wicked enough no doubt; but we precipitate our
IL into Of -;
its natural operation of successfully returning
a slave to his servtude. We rejoice in the escape
of human being from Slavery-lament his seiz-
ure and return to bondage. But we preserve the
expression of our profoundest emotions upon the
subject of Slavery, for the seasons of our contem
pation of the monster iniquty, its gigantic pro-
portions raise to view in the shape of the three
millions of our fellow -countrymen, who daily rise
in the morning and lie down at night under the
lash of the task-master. 1t is painful to behold
a single individual in Slavery but a thousand
times more bitter, infinitely poignant to the
reflective mind is the thought of that stupendous
aggregate of wrong suffered by the millions who
hopelesSy tell in the cotton fields and rice sWamps
of the South,
In the triumphant march of the cause of free
dom finally marked by the signal events alluded
to we find the liveest satisfaction. That cause
had suffered serious interruption in its career
though assailed at every step by open foes and
treacherous friends. It's coarse has been steadily
forWard, its conquest 0ne9uiUOcaL and gtoriouS.-
The operation of the Fugitive Slave law is but
the picking off Of here and there strgggler By
tie enemy. But while this loss is to be de-
plored, we can hardly regard it otherwise than as
an inevitable evil The 0ery act Of moving squad
rons through an euemyS country ingolUes the ne
cessity of loss. TIE most fortunate and success
til 6attoljons do not come ont Of contest Up
s:otked. Let us count our gains, and consider,
but not magnify our losses,
The violent agitations of the time upon the Law
will cease and comparative tranquility be restor
ed, while the rich blessings secured by the friends
of Freedom in the late contest with Slavery, will
grow with an ever increasing magnitude,
The Law of 1850 must turn out to be nope
ratiye enact,nent Indeed it is practically nuLtif-
ed already, when it costs, in the case of Sims,
five thousand dollars to catch and return single
runaway. But if it is to be anything but self
nulifying act, lying dead the Statute Book ITS
repeal or essential notifications is ine0iable. Its
one hdeous feature, giving to a creature of the
Government called Commissioner, " the au-
thoritv to consign Freeman to Slavery is too in
toerable to be borne in any long course of practi-
cal enforcement The Trial by Jury, in every
case involving Personal Liberty is too precious to
be surrendered at the desire or the dictate of any
Administration or any section of the confederacy;
and the demand of such trial in the of alleg
ed fugtives is, moreover too reasonable to be re-
fused by any Congress which shall approach this
subject in a spirit of Just regard will not say
to the fundamental rights of the citizen, but to
his well-established and ndubitated constitutional
privileges.
Thus it is entertain doubt that the ques
ton of resistance to this law, so rife, and SO
distressing to all manner of cattle that feed at the
trough of Trade and the Treasury, so alarming
to aldermanic sensibites and quilted velvet patr
otism in general, and the cause of so many lugu
brous jeremiads inane platitudes from gentle
men in high stations and in low, who think their
political or pecuniary fortunes depend upon sus-
tanning it in all its parts and to the fullest extent
will, after merging in substantial issues soon
fade entirely from sight.
In Mr.. Clay's elaborate treatment of the SUBJ
ects embraced by the " Omnibus, - he entered
into this question of trial by jury, and true to his
own instincts, and alive to what he felt to be the
reasonable demand of every clear seeing man
jealous of liberty, he acknowledged that the claim
of trial by jury for q ~ person arrested was
most reasonable. And with his accustomed adroit-
ness he proposed to grant much to the advocates
of freedom. But he insisted that that trial should
be in the State from which the fugitive aleg-
ed to have fled, and not in the State in which he
was arrested. To this extent, Mr.. Clay to be con-
sistent with himself, must even now be willing to
go. 1t may be that he has seen enough to con-