The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-12-26

more irritable and NOR g bitter against the
North in proportion to the violence OF the anti
slavery assaults
For twenty years this party organization
he's served no other purpose than that of poll
teal intrigue. j.t has been used by all parties.
The wings hay used it to serve their ends; the
democrats have turned it to equally good ac-
count. w. II. Seward used it to rise to power,
Martin Van Buren, to defeat Cass, General
Pierce to become President ofthe United States.
1t assumed more practical and dangerous
character in 1850, when California was proposed
as State Of the Union, and for some time
threatened the peace of the country. The crisis
was, however, of brief duration. Strpt of its
dangers by the patriotic men who composed
the Senate of that day, the slavery question
again disappeared from public view; and there
were many who INDUCED the hope that the
compromise measures had effected its final set
Element. There were statesmen who did not
scruple to ayow their sanguine conviction that
the slavery controversy would never more
disturb our domestic peace
How erroneous was this belief we now see
in the facts recorded above. The slavery ques-
ton is again reopened. Nay more, it is now
the only question before the people-the only
living principle of action-the only substantial
groundwork for political argument or party
organization. All other controversies and par
ties have died out. The names survive, but
they are mere shadows of realties-ghosts of
principles now sleeping in the grave. The
slavery battle has yet to be fought Twenty
years Of local agitation have not brought us
one inch nearer its solution, or diminished
either its danger or its interest. We may
shirk it for while, or gloss over the perils
with which it is fraught; but the people of this
country must rest under no delusion on the
point-so long as Northern agitators exist it
will always revive and reappear at periodical
intervals each time in q more practical, a
more immediate, a more formidable shape than
before.
At the hour we write we are hurrying on to-
wards the fatal dfnouement. The solution of a
question in which the happiness of the whole
people and the prosperity of the Union are in
volved is rapidly approaching. Every step
taken by the agitators widens the gap between
Us and the South, and begets similar and
equally dangerous movement in the slave
States Every such debate as that provoked
by Gerrit Smith aggravates our position.
Every abolitionist contributes his share to-
wards the ruin of our national hopes md the
Illustration of our noblest projects. For. in
yielding to his fanatical instincts, and heaping
10 L. z. 80,
servinge the cause Of religion or morality.
His efforts produce one result and one
only. They ALLEVIATE the South from the
North, feed the flame Of secession, and
familiarize our Southern brethren with the
fatal idea Of separation and disunion. Whether
he call himself an abolitionist or free soiler,
or adopt any other party designation, if he
make war on slavery, this is the only triumph
he can win: the dissolution of the Union and
the prostration Of our power the only substan
tial conquest he can achieve.
The bitterness of that sad prospect would be
mitigated if we could reflect that
our rulers were using their influence and au.
thority to ward Of the impending disaster. In
stead OF this being the case, unhappily, we see
the President and his Cabinet, with professions
of love for the Union on their lips, actively be-
stirring themselves to strengthen the abolition
comfort to the free sellers in the
North--reviviDg the Van Buren, dynasty-and
invariably sympathizing with the foes Of the
Union in the South Foremost in the van Of
the traitors who are hurrying on our beloved
country towards aconsummation that is appall-
ing to contemplate, stand the President of the
United States and his advisers
1t may be folly; it may be blindness it may
be wilful treachery. Whatever be their mo-
tive, it is certain that these men whom we
placed in power, believing them to be friends Of
the Union are now its worst foes. and have
contributed not little to resusctate the sla-
very question at this early period of their ad-
career, by the policy they have
pursued and the appointments they have made
in New York and the North.
The Real Revolution In Ireland.
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