Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1853-09-09
THE PACIFIC RAIL ROAD AND THE
SPIRIT OF SLAVERY.

Their manifestations are various but care
full investigation of all the popular issues,
shows them to have these two sides. The
construction of the Pacific Rail Road is gra-
dually growing to be an important question
Slavery, true to its own instincts, takes sides
against it. 1t was supposed at one time, from
the givings ont of some members of his cabi-
net, that President Pierce favored the enter
prize, but late and reliable intelligence from
Washington, speaks as follows:
"The President has determined not to adopt,
father or recommend the Pacific Railroad
measure in any manner whatever as policy
of the administration, and in this determine
ton he is warmly and decidedly backed and
supported by both the Secretary of State and
| the Attorney General This YOU may RELY
| upon rs an ;lScertained fact"
What are the Presidents personal predilec-
tons in this matter, we may not know, but
his determination quoted is the natural and
inevitable operf,. ION of the power that made
him and controls him. Is it not The spi-
rlt of chattel slavery, is simply the ultra spi-
rt of despotism individually applied,and when
this spirit controls the policy of nation as it
manifestly does that Of this nation, the results
must be in harmony with it. The slave hol-
der is perpetually at war, for the spirit that
prompts him to make an onslaught on an in
dividual suggests war with kindred nations:
and the same want Of justice that prompts to
Cypress an individual and rob him of the
fruits of his labor, prompts also aggression
upon kindred territory and robbery of the
people upon a grand and national scale. The
spirit of slavery is spirit Of injustice, and its
means are those of brute force; will it be in
any respect different in governing the nation
1t went 10 war with Mexico to achieve new
territory, and is now the fibustiering spirit of
that prompts aggressions upon Cuba and Mex
leo and assumes a hostile, bullying bragga-
docio tone toward the world generally. 1t is
too, the spirit of ignorance. What has the
Shareholder or the sa, e to do, particularly with
moral culture; this would destroy the oppres-
sive disposition of the former and the aptitude
of the latter. Slavery is the darling child of
Ignorance, and the parent and child mutually
stand by and protect each other. Contrast
the natural fertility of the south with that of
| the north; contrast her advantages for enter
prises and Improvements of all kinds with the
north. and then contrast what the north has
accomplished compared with the south, in
every department of physical, mental, and
moral life, and we have a fair exhibition of
the results of the different spirits which ami
mate and govern the two sections of the coun-
! try,
How natural and inevitable then, that sla-
very should take sides against the Pacific Rail
Road. That enterprise proposes, instead Of
spending a hundie millions in carrying fire,
and sword and desolation into kindred terri
tory, and enisting the national passions in do
ing it, to invest i in constructing great work
of permanent improvement, which shall quick
en- all the pulses of industry and healthy en-
tcrprse; which shall procure the settlement
and cultivation Of lands, now n waste and
without it would so remain; bring together
! tn, people of distant lands in industrial har-
mony; and do very much towards improving
the condition and generally elevating and be
NETTING the people of the whole world, and
to enlist the national love ard all its human
and generous energies in the work. These
two spirits are just as wide apart in their re-
suits as are heaven and he'll. The operation
of one, by the enlistment of the national en-
erges in permanent works of benefit to hui
mainly, leads the moral power Of the people
in the same channel, and thus by our physi-
cal and moral greatness combined, will we at
tract and annex to us the whole world in the
bonds of sympathy and brotherly loye-the
only legitimate mode of annexation, and the
only kind that is valuable. The operation of
lic OlliCit iipiIl VI
talities and injustice, would lead us with fire
and sword to the practice of the same vices on
national scale, to blaze for time as have
other Republics, but only to expire in the
blackness of our own crimes, and dissolve by
the corruptions internally engendered.
AS we said in the commencement: the
spirit of freedom and despotism are at war in
this nation as in all Others, and we allude to
this Pacific Railroad enterprise as the natu-
raj offspring of the former, just as fiibustier
ism, war, and rapine are of the latter. Which
of these two spirits shall finally prevail in the
land
Dear, reader, you are one to determine this.
Let those who esteem office, and power, and
wealth, as above all considerations of truth,
justice, and virtue generally, lend themselves
to do the work of this spirit now in the as
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