New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-04-16
PERPETUAL ENDORSING.

ita hack covered all over win lndOfsc-
me.ts that we are not involuntarily impel-
led to distrust its genuineness. If it were
not intrinsically suspicious, how came it to
need or to receive so much otherwise super
fuous backing
The Compromise measures are all
confessedly beyond the reach of repeal or
modification except those which were tag
oed on at the end, ostensibly to strengthen
bu. actually to weaken Mr.. Clay's 'Omni-
bus.' The chief Of these is the Fugitive
Slave Law. The Southern ultras were not
conciliated by this act, though it was
drawn and urged by themselves and passed
in their own most arbitrary and obnoxious
shape they went against the real Com
promise measures as vehemently as if this
had not been adopted by Mr.. Clay and his
friends. The Northern ultras were no bet
ter pleased with the Abolition of the Dis
trict Slave-Trade, though they voted for
it; for, SO long as Slavery shall exist in
the country, they would rather have its
darker features constantly exempli6ed at
the seat of Federal Government than not
Slavery in the District being perpetual
answer to the query What has the North
to do with Slavery!' Thus the real and
needed Compromise measures were only
loaded and embarrassed, no wise aided nor
promoted, by piling tlose unsightly loads
on their back. No public danger, no i'm
minent crisis, no unforeseen contingency,
required any legislation at all on the sub
ject of Slavery, the Slave-Trade or Slave
Catching in the old States and District.
The occasion was simply seized by politi-
clans intent on exciting i'll blood, to give
the screw another turn against the North
by forcing through the Fugitive Slave Law.
Nothing was gained for the Territorial
Compromise, nothing for tranquility, by
gratifying them; but only new sources Of
excitement and irritation.
The real Compromise-the only one that
needed to be or should have been made
now justifes itself by needing no propping
up. 1t stands by its own proper vitality and
breadth of base. Nobody wants the
Admission of California, the Boundary Of
Texas, the organization of Utah or New
Mexico, rea6rmed or acquiesced in by Con-
gress or any body else. They take care of
themselves, and want nothing to lean
against. But the Fugitive Slave Law, on
the other hand, seems to be always needing
an extra stay; and the more 1t gets the
more it needs. Congress has passed the
act in its most pernicious form, so that no
slave-hunter can suggest provision calcu-
lated to render it more effective or in
human; and nobody dreams that it can be
repealed within the present generation.
However obnoxious it may beto the general
conscience and moral sense of the North,
no one doubts that instruments can always
be found to earn thirty pieces or so by exc
cutting it. But all does not suffice-its
friends clamor for new guarantees, new
safeguards. new Endorsements, and no
amount of either can satisfy them. Now
Senator Dayton must be defeated in New
Jersey; then Senator Baldwin in Con-
necticut; next Gov. Johnston in Pennsyl-
vania but when all these are effected, the
craving is still unsatisfed, The Wing
Members of Congress must inscribe the
Fugitive Slave Law on the list of their
principles; and because they do not,
Speaker Winthrop is defeated and the con-
troll of the House made over to the OPP
position by Messrs. Toombs, Stephens &
Co. Another Congress meets, thus admon-
ished, and the Wing Members pass Com
promise resolution. 1t might fairly be
supposed that this would answer for the
Session; but No! the next meeting Of
Wing Members is confronted by fresh
Compromise resolve, which must be
swallowed as prescribed or the Slave
States are ready to bolt again And no
amount Of acquiescence will suffice for
a month. Let a National Convention be
assembled, and all that Congress may have
done goes for nothing-we shall inevitably
have Monsieur Tonson came again.
The naked truth is that the Southern
ultras mean to saddle US with an equal par
ticipation in the responsibilities of Slavery
to make US partners in the guilt, the
shame, the curse, of that horrible relic of
Paganism and the ages of darkness. Our
fathers and theirs formed a political con-