The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-09-16
THE NATIONAL ERA WASHINGTON D. c. SEPTEMBER 16 1852

Doctor Bell, q delegate from the Fourth Con-
gressional District of Massachusetts,, after the
ffty-second ballot and when it became certain
that General Scott would be nominated the
next time, these Southern gentlemen "were
earnestly appealed to- as a matter OF courtesy,
and to place our candidate Mr. Webster right
wrong on the page of history, to unite in the
final vote on Mr.. Webster, which would have
left him with some one hundred and twenty or
thirty votes"-they refused to give him even
that empty compliment.
SO certain has been the fate of Mr.. Webster,
for the last eighteen months, that | and all
those with whom am politically associated
have foreseen it and predicted it with as much
confidence as an astronomer foretells an eclipse.
Let us trust that the fate of such victims will
not be lost for the future upon Northern men.
Sir, out of this Fugitive Slave Law has
arisen an ilsounding halfbarbarous word to
express the wholly barbarous idea that the law
is never to be repealed or modified. 1t is the
word Fnality." This word has already got
into somewhat common use in regard to its OBJ
jects Ii is destined to get into universal use
in regard to its authors. think General Cas-
and Mr.. Buchanan, Mr.. Fillmore and Mr..
Webster, with many others, have by this time
an interior and realizing sense of what the
word "fnaIity" means Though too late for
them to profit by it, | hope it will be blessed to
the use of others.
And what palliation, what pretext, what sub
teriuge even, had these men for such betrayal
Of human rights, Nothing, literally nothing,
hut that fraudulent idea of danger to the
Union - that cry of WOLFF which the South
always raises when she has an object to ac-
complish and which she will always continue
| IN nd oh
and evanesccnt, the more we have the folly to
heed it, The same threat is now at this in
slant time, made, if the North does not give
them their choice in the two candidates for the
Presidency.
Among redundant proofs, demonstrating that
the Union has been in no peril nor shadow OF
peril, there are two which never have been an
swered and never can be answered Notwth-
standing all that was done in this House. and
more especially in the Senate, and by all the
pro-savery presses and pro-slavery champions,
North and South, during the year 1850, to
create a panic in behalf of the Union they
were never able to effect the price of the Uni
ted States stocks, neither in this country nor in
Europe, so that the difference could be discoy-
cred with microscope Now, of all men liy.
ing stockholders and annuitants are the most
sensitive. universally they are timid race
If there be cloud in the heavens, or a rip
pie on the surface, they fear wreck, and shout
the alarm But timid as they constitutionally
are not politicians nor panic makers could dis.
compose their serenity by all their insane cries
about the crumbling of the Union to pieces
and there was not member of the Castle Car
den committees who would have taken one
cent less, or would not have given every cent
as much, for United States securities on the
days when they sent forth their fraudulent re-
solves as before or after.
On this point will cite an authority whose
soundness upon the question in issue believe
in, and certainly my opponents will not dispute:
I'VE have preserved and fostercd credit till all
have become interested in its further continuance and
preservation. 1t has deep and wide into our
whole system OF social life Every feels the vi
bration when blow is struck upon it. And this is
the reason why nobody has escaped the influence OF
the Secrctarys recent measure. While credit is del
icate, sensitive, easily wounded and more easily
alarmed, il is also infinitely ramifed, diversified ex-
tending everywhere, and touching everything"*
And yet the very men who, in their capacity
of politicians, shrieked danger to the Union =
IN their other capacity of stockholders and
merchants, never varied their asking or their
giving prices one jOt or title. They cried
earthquake" when not a rumble could be
heard nor jar felt; and they tried to make
US believe that tornado was uprootng the
forests, when nobody could see leaf on a tree
moving No the cry of danger to the Union
was raised to divert attention from their as
saults upon the Constitution. 1t was the lat
ter and not the former that was in danger
Another reason, and it is a standing and con-
tinuOus one, why there was no danger to the
| Union, consists in the fact that the South, ac-
| IN, tha,r aok, 4.
of 81, 100000, 900 to keep the public peace. Let
them break up this Union, and their property
in slaves, which they now value at this enor
nous sum, will not, at the end of quarter of
a century, be worth so many greats Does
anybody imagine thatshs Union can be dis.
solved without civil commotion, without revo-
luton by arms! Sir, this is II subject incon-
ceivably painful; but it is a possibility spoken
of and spOrted with by others with such levity,
that | am constrained to invest it with some of
its appropriate soemnties. Does any one be-
lieve there can be two border nations one
founded on the principle of freedom and the
other on the basis of slavery, having contig-
uous frontier of three thousand miles, and dai.
ly trayersing the same waters, with immunity
from war; And in such wars, who will be
the eager allies of the North! Sir there are
ten thousand fugitive slaves in Canada to-day,
capable of bearing arms, and their number is
increasing faster than ever. They are prac-
tcing the use of firearms, and the menage OF
the horse The story of their expressions il
recounted every day, in every hamlet and at
every tre-side. The mothers nurse their chill
dren with milk and with vengeance together.
The knowledge of North star is penetrating
further and further into the Southern interior
and arousing new hearts to the effort of self
emancipation. dissolution Of the Union re-
peals the accursed act of 1850 The free soil
of Canada and the British Provinces-the only
free Soil there now is on the Northeastern part
of this continents brought down to Mason
and DixOn's line. We have in the Northern
States population of two hundred thousand
of African descent. In case of war between
the two sections, thousands of this colored race
will fly to the land of bondage, swift as they
ever flew from it. They will 20 to make DESC
latiOn of the realm that once made desolation
of them, and of all they held dear Under
their avenging cry, insurgents will rise up like
| an exhalaton over all the South There are
no motives more terrible than those which urge
a bondsman to his revenge. Perpetual prox.
unity between master and slave, furnishes per-
petual opportunity for retribution Every
house is an arsenal of weapons: every tool on
the plantation an instrument of death Fire
| and darkness are allies which nature proffers
him. In this warfare, the master does not go
into the battle alone; his wife and children
are at his side, whose weakness or whose beau
ty, in presence of an imbruted foe may provoke
the first assault. Aye sir, in u civil or SER
vile war, the South will be in a more perilous
condition than if every kernel of gunpowder in
all the magazines of an army, just on the eve
of battle, should suddenly become animated and