The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-07-20

OF Ms ctaoe is netthey cannot and will not swerv
from this poslsion; and rs for me, shall live anC
| die by it, This committee have not reported tina
as resolution, aId have, therefore, fallen far shor
of what want said; but, nevertheless, they do say
| something"
The speech to which Es Van Buren, referred wa,
delivered at Cleveland, or the anniversary Of the
ordinance OF 1857, just month previous to the
assembling Of the mass convention, at Syracuse In
that speech he had thus defined his position
When have heard II said that no STAKEHOLDER shsx
be President Of the United States have dissented
Washington was stakeholder Jefferson, Madison
and Monroe When Shareholder Ike them shall sustain
our principles he can bring to aid class of
other man reach, therefore, 10 think proper
TO take such position. however the unmitiratey
enemy OF slavery and would have 1t abolished without
delay. say the eiore for mysef-and wish TO be un-
dersood as speaking for myself alone-that let what will
come shall under no necessity whatever support
who does not believe slavery to be unmxcd curse
who will not by virtue Of his office all constitutional
power to abolish it. But ask by what mode to
reach the object in view The plain BY going
back directly TO that adopted and pursued the
mortal founders Of our government. 1t ia comprised
briefly in this No more slave States-no
government from slavery and the abolition Of it wherever
1t can be reached By constitutional means know very
well we have no power to touch within the States where
u now exists but even there surround by
States whose action and example will wear it away.
Against compromise, that insdious enemy of Ii
berty, he thus emphaticaly warned his hearers -
that those who represent you faithful to the cause
freedom see to it that they make compromise with
slavery:
While there prominent free soil democrats thus
gave their sanction to the proposed union was un-
derstOod, Also that the measure received the appro
baton of Martin Van Buren,, who, in his letter ac-
ceeptipg the Buffalo nomination, had not only de-
clared himself as "approving of tho platform which
the Convention had adopted" but us "conscisus,
from my impressions Of right and duty in regard to
it, that shall be among the last to abandon it,"
and who, in very recent letter to the Cleveland
Convention, had declared his unchanged conviction,
hat "the influence of the government should be
kept actively and perpetually on the side Of free
DOM
Quotations Of this character might be extended in
indefinitely They might be gathered from the speech
esand letters ofpubic men-from the resolutions and
addresses Of political assemblages and committees
and from the columns OF the press-but it is not
cessary. No one can doubt that the masses of the
earnest free soil democracy were induced to go into
the union by the hope and expectation that the en-
tire democracy would unite in the great purpose to
divorce the general government from slavery, and
resist all future compromises with wrong; and by
their conviction that in case this hope and expecta
ton should be disappointed, that they who were
now foremost in recommending the union would be
foremost in repudiating it.
That there was ground for the opinion so conf
IDENTIFY expressed in respect to the prevalence of free
coil opinions among the democratic masses, made
sufficiently apparent by the Of the candidates
to the nterrogatores touching their positions the
slavery question; among which answers, that Of Mr..
Chatfeld, nominated by the hunkers for Attorney
General, was as decisive, as explicit in its anti sla
very character that Of either of the radical de-
mocrats. Not many months however, elapsed be-
fore an occasion presented itself for testing, in
more striking manner, the consequences Of the
union.
Congress assembled in December, lSi9, and the
whole question OF slavery and slavery extension was
brought into discussion. The result is now before
us, strengthened by the influence of several promi-
nent democrats, and aided by the whole power and
influence of the wing administration. Henry Clay
succeeded in carrying through both houses that Sc
res Of bills now known us the Compromise measures
1t is due to the memory Of that distinguished states
man to say, that those measures sketched in the
resolutions submitted by him to the Senate though
they did not yield single demand of the free soil
democrats, were yet much less obnoxious in their
Character that they finally became through the al
terations by which it was sought to recommend
them to slave State Senator'S But Is due to truth,
further to say, that not single amendment was
made in any one of the Compromise bills, designed
TO make the bills more acceptable to the opponents
OF slavery. Every change was against liberty.
The admission Of California into the Union Sc
cured indeed the territory within its limits against
the Introduction OF slavery, except through the act
OF the State Itself: and the prohibition OF the slave
uade in the District of Columbia relieved the city of
IA hineton # The slave pens which had disgraeed
A"ugh il continued TO slavery Itself, and TO the
citly traffic IN human beings within the district.
he fuii protection of national legislation. The
'ttr acts, which converted vast district of free
eiitory into slave soil-assumed five millions of the
l. san state debt-undertook. without any consti-
u,ioual wanapt, to bind future Congresses to admit
la.e states ont Of New Mexico and Utah, should
be i habi'ants allow slavery-and in plain viola
9cn ot the constitution. in dcrogation of State
'plis, ard in disregard of the common principles of
Is''ce and humanity. attempted to degrade the
IT, men OF the North ard West into the slave
a. hers OF the general government, all utterly
:, r. gr"nt to The principles of radical democracy
To approve Of any of these acts, to acquiesce in
any OF thu M except the act providing for the settle
nient of the Texan boundary, and the payment of
the Texan debt-wbich was in its nature irrepeal-
able-seemed impossible for democrats who had
pledged their faith to freedom a. Buffalo and Utica.
Cnder these circumstances, the democracy of New
York met in convention at Syracuse, on the 10th of
september, while the Compromise Congress was yet
in session. united ticket for State officers was
again nominated but the resolutions uttered
condemnation of the obnoxious measures Of the
Compromise, which the free soil democrats in Con-
gre.s had perseveripgiy opposed; urged no action
against natonalized slavery: failed even to recon-
mend the repeal or modification of the Fugitive
Slave law--more odious and more irreconcilable
with democratic ideas than the Alien and Sediton
Lawsuit congratulated the country" upon the
passage OF the Compromise measures, styled by the
convention, 4" The recent settlement, by Congress-
OF the questions which have unbappily divided the
people of these Statesr' Concurrence in this &C.
tion by the radical democracy, was virtual aban-
donm.ht OF the positions maintained at Rome and
Utica, and even of the lower ground taken by the
mass convention at Syracuse.
Disregard of the claims of freedom, far less marked
than this, had occasoned the Herkimer movement
vi iCt'. wow, however, acquescence was Judged
eApedient by those distinguished citizens who pos
sessed their confidence, and again the free soil de-
mocrats, with visible reluctance the part of ma
ny. sustained the nominations of the convention
The same conventional action, followed by the
same acquiescence, was repeated in 1851.
Sill the free soil democracy of New York was
uneommitted to the support Of national candidates
nominated upon any other than the national demo-
cratic platform OF lS40, 1914 and 1873 which plat
form referred to slavery only in single resolution,
which had generally been constructed by the New
York free soil democrats, rs dscountenancing, not
constitutional opposition to nationalizcd slavery,
but unconstitutional interference by Congress with
slavery IN the States.
JnGer these circumstances, the Baltimore Conven-
Jon assembled in May last. As in lsIS, 50 in 1852
laveholdiIg conventions had declared in advance
heir determination 10 support candidates, nomi-
mated or not nominated by the National Convention.
FL e'aining those views Of slavery which the FREQ
democracy of New York had repeatedly ayo we'd;
which were cherished as sound and constitutional by