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

of this State is that they cannot and viii mot svery
from this posision; and for me, shall live an,
resolution, and have. therefore, fallen far shor
OF what want said; but, nevertheless they do 81,
something
The speech to which NJ Van Buren, referred va
delivered at Cleyeisnd, OF the anniversary of tn,
ordinance OF 1857, just month previous to IN,
assembling Of the mass convention, at Syracuse II
that speech he had thus defined his position
When have heard it said that STAKEHOLDER shsA
be President OF the United States have dssented
Washington was STAKEHOLDER; Jefferson Madison
and Monroe When STAKEHOLDER like them shall sustain
our principles he can bring to aid class OF
other reach; taeIeiore do thiik ii prope
to take such position lam however the unmtigate,
enemy Of slavery, and would have IL abolished withou
delay say, therefore for mysef-and wish to be un
derstood speaking for myself aone-tha let what
come shall under no necessity whatever, support a mar
who does not believe slavery to be unnixcd curse
who will not by virtue Of his Office all constitutions
power to abolish it, But ask by what mode are we e
reach the object in view The IL plain BY goina
back directly to that adopted and pursued by the i'm
mortal founders OF our gov ernment II Ia comprised
briefly in this. No more slave atesno slave ter
ritories-the Withdrawal of the support of the federal
government from slavery and the abolition of wherever
II can be reached By constitutional know very
well We have power to touch within the where
1t exists but there we can surround il by free
States. whose action and example will it away
Against compromise, that iusidious enemy of Ii.
berty he thus emphatically warned his hearers =
An our danger lies in compromise Then see to it
freedomi see to 1t that they make compromise with
slavery.
While there prominent free soil democrats thus
gave their sanction to the proposed unon it was un-
derstood Also that the received the appro-
baton of Martin Van Buren,, who in his letter ac-
ceptipg the Buffalo nomination, had not only de-
cared himself as "approying of the platform which
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,
that 1.-THE influence of the government should be
dom"
Quotations of this character might be extended in
indefinitely They might be gathered from the speech
es and letters OF public menfrom the resolutions and
addresses Of political assemblages and committees
and from the columns of the press-but it is not me-
cessary. No one can doubt that the masses of the
earnest free soil democracy were induced to go into
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 this hope and expecta
ton should be disappointed, that they who were
now foremost in recommending the union would BIO
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, was made
sufficiently apparent by the answer Of the candidates
to the interrogat0res touching their positions on 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, lS49, 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
Iies OF bills now known us the Compromise measures
1t is due to the memory of that distinguished states
man to say, that those measures as 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 Senators. 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 agains. liberty.
The admission of California into the Union Sc
crrcd 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
nade in the District of Columbia relieved the city of
y hingion If The slave pens which had disgraced
h"ugh il continued to slavery Itself, and to the
GilaIy traffic in human beings within the district
lie iull protection of national legislation, The
'h'r acts, which converted district of free
eiltory into slave soilassumed five millions of the
Il SAN state debt-undertook. without any consti-
inuonal warrant, to bind future Congresses to admit
lave states out Of New Mexico and Utah. should
lie y habi'ants allow slavery-and, in plain viola
J'n Of the constitution. in derogaton of State
'ehts ara in disregard of the common principles of
hsl'ce and humanity. attempted to degrade the
i.'nen OF the North ard West into the slave
az hers OF the general government, all utterly
r. grant to The principles of radical democracy
To approve Of any of these acts, to acquiesce in
any OF th.m except the act providing for the settle
ment OF the Texan boundary, and the payment of
the Texan 6ebt-which was in its nature irrepeal-
abe-seemed impossible for democrats who had
pledged their faith to freedom at Buffalo and Utica
Under these circumstances the democracy of New
York met In convention ut Syracuse, the 10th of
September, while the Compromise Congress yet
in session A united ticket for State officers was
again nominated but the resolutions uttered no
condo mnation of the obnoxious measures of the
Compromise, which the free soil democrats in Con-
gress had perse.orirgiy opposed; urged no action
against nationa,ized slavery; failed even to recon-
mend the repeal or modification of the Fugitive
Slave law--more odious and irreconcilable
with democratic ideas than the Alien and Sedition
Lawsuit congratulated the country" upon the
passage OF the Compromise measures, styled by the
convention. 9 The recent settlement by Congress,
OF the questions which have unhappy divided the
people OF these Statesw Concurrence in this ac-
tlon by the radical democracy, was virtual aban-
donm.nt 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 occasioned the Herkimer movement
VI iofi. 4NoW, however, acquescence was judged
eApedent by those distinguished citizens who pos
sessd their confidence, and again the free soil de-
mocrats, with visible reluctance on 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
uneommtted to the support Of national candidates
nominated upon any other than the national demo-
cratic platform of l340, 1914 and 1913, which plat
form referred to slavery only in single resolution
which had generally been constructed by the New
York free soil democrats, as discounenoncing, not
constitutional opposition to nationalized slavery,
but Unconstitutional interference by Congress with
slavery in the States.
JnGer these circumstances, the Baltimore Conven-
ion asse mbed in May last. As in lS4s SO in 1852
aveholdiEg conventions had declared in advance
her determination 10 support no Candidates, nomi-
mated or nominated by he National Convention.
entertaining those views Of slavery which the free
democracy of New York had repeatedly ayos we'd;
which were cherished as sound and constitutional by