The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1854-03-10

buying now colonizing and revolutionizing, now :,
queTing now attracting voluntary proposals Of ann
uoni until lts domInionthat republican dominion nj
is not dominion, but voluntary cohesion OF EDNA
happy bTolherhood-wlll extend from the shores ii
Sir John Franklin has not yet been fougd n ~
lremest erag that beetles from Cape Horn. Ana
too much 10 say that the 400, 000, 900 OF populal
which ths coming hundred years must multiply an, nv
beers, viii, and must necessarily, within that very ~
span those almost antpodal limits. WHAT ~
BECOME or THE NEGRO OR SLAVE INCREASED
Assume that we oil the North, by the mass saA -,
OF our maJonly ~ tue federal government, hays ~
we have not the actual power 10 control the ssn' us
this question what is the position we ouyht 10 A.
principle ought TO adopt as the basis OF our poi,
Shall we say, with the extreme abolitionss thal'
very is utter abomnatlon in the eyes OF God and
and will wage upon II to the death, and, sjnss
have certain relations and points of contact viii
through federal institutions, make use of hp 4,
for the purpose OF wagng that war 10 all conseobens
certain probable, and through ali means and aaen
direct and indirect Shall We, with Them make I'M
one great idea, TO which everything else must Be suS"
diDated and which we must pursue, with mononahsI
fury, in disregard OF all possible results, whether II
Union, to the safety OF kindred white race al M
South, or to the true interests and very existence OF N
black race itself On tins mere madness need n
waste words
Or shall we, in the next place, adopt the pos,i,
ayowed by that less violent class OF the same schoo
whom Messrs. Chase and Sumner may be said 10 rs
resent l--namely, the position that this negro slave
being State institution, existing only by local M
ncipal laws shall not, indeed, attack directly wit
In the limits OF the States but wherever and whensy
il threatens to those limits, and TO enter upon
territory controlled by our federal sovereignty, we m
for conscience's sake, and on the responsibilities wh
then become ours arrest and repel il there, and al lead
confne 1t within those State llmslimlts beyond whn
cannot pursue it. except through the moral nausae
OF our reprobation, implied in that mode OF dealing VII
the subject within the jurisdiction OF our own pows
This idea has much larger and more respectable pan
than the former; and il is one which southern OUT
hna lind and xytap
tanned at the North That has lis plausiby its seen
ing soundness OF moral principle, TO the minds Of hs
who regard negro slavery as an unmixed and uHm
gated evil and wrong, and who have not reasoned it
TO all lis consequences cannot be denied. And yet Id
il ID most fatal falacy admits of conclusive proof and
cost wha, il may to habits OF prejudice pride Of cous
ency, il must be given ,pat least by all who do not pc
Ter 70 give up NE Union i1f VINO can q tnis Gay
il inevitably result in the separation OF the souh.p
States from the noIthernf
Grant even that il would be wise or humane for Ii,
negro ITSELF thus TO dam up all outflow of its natun
increase and to accumulate its numbers in thicker AMI
thicker OF black upon the soil where they ALREADY
exist grant that it would not aggravate the evils
whatever they may be, Of the very slavery you depo
that would n0tend 10 seveTer discipline, to local De-
cessity for harsher restrictions, and to diminished phy
comforts grant that these progressive causes would
result in INSTRUMENTATION aud aspiration to insunt
ton, on the one side with counterac.ng repression
the other, the whole tending eventually TO caasropha
of unlmaginabe horror: grant (what IL lar from being
the fac that on the general merits OF the slavery que
ton in the abstract, all the right and truth are unequvc
cally the northern side OF the issue and grant it 10
proper use of the federal power, given by the fact
majority thus to stamp legislative ban OF opprobria
upon minority SO large, SO deeply interested and
warmly excited, on the other side grant that there
no force whatever in the claim TO certain fair right
partnership which southern put forward enls
Them carry with them their accustomed social nsts
tons and industrial habits 10 al least some proportions
share OF the common territorial property: grant ti
sh h,.uh nnv l,pp fharn
domination in party politics, and that there has new
been any provocatlon on our side: grant all this,
and more but then come back TO the simple poitlcax
OF the matter and look II IN the lace as men oil praci
and action, and who will pretend that the san
holding section oil the Union ever would or ever VII
consent 10 submit 10 such policy the parof the |
era government Who will pretend that, staiesma
we ought to expect, fellow-countTymen, TO demand
And who will pretend that the execution OF such pol
cy would be physically possible, even II we should %
derake 10 attempt III
look at the actual national strength Of the SouA
Look al those millions OF white population al tbs
day. TO which have already alluded. Look al ills growa
past and future Look al the indefinite regions Wild
lie PROSTATE before IT, over which no human power cal
arrest It's progressive southwark tread. Look at d,
omlnous threatenDgs OF the disunlon idea IN our pas
controversies especially the last; little many OF
the North believed in or needed those ncipent symp
toms. Look at the latent force which not few publt
men al this day believe TO exist IN that dsunon idea
the slave States and which has recently caused ven
eminent statesman among us Gone whose heart is na
perhaps sustained by that high and strong faith
our democracy and destiny by which others amin,
ted TO make The melancholy avowal that he despaua
The continuance Of the UnioR. Look at the conmerca
jealousy which has so long fixed the thoughts Of mari
leading southern men schemes of direct foreign trade
Look at the thousand signs and symptoms OF bad bloO
perpeiuay ieenlng from The South in regard 10 ih'
North, through the press, the tribune, and habiiua talk
Look al the already consummsied division even O.
great religious bodies into their separate organizations
North and South. Let any look fairly al all ibe,
facts, and then answer fairly, hsw long this Union ra
suruirs the day when the South should be made d
understand that Of the North in consequence OF O
opposition 10 slavery were determined to grid the Souh
round with impossible barriers OF federal authority, =
TO dam up all The natural outflow of the increase
the black race and force their prolific numbers to 90
swelling and sweering there--he easy escape oil eml
grafton meanwhile draining of more and more the move
able white increase-untll eventually vast negro pre-
ponderance would ripen and rot into results, hroug
which the Disguised Imagination shrinks from follown
further.
There is no escaping this conclusion. The principl
of the tee-so Wilmot proviso school, If il had ma
tured into the fixed and predominant policy OF the fcde
government, must have led or II II should herea
ter do So must inevitably Lead sooner or later to sp
ration Of hs Union
True, the whole North rushed of on the tack OF hs
doctrine 10 1S47 True, too, 1t ia that more than half
the democracy of New York (myseli included, ms men
ton for the sake OF candor in this argument unimporaE
as the fact may bel stood fixed on the ground OF lb'
principle with all it's logical consequences (under ell
cumssncss of highly irritating nsu, and wrong inhce
on them,) alter all the other States OF the North ba
fallen away from the doctrine fast they had gaths
ed around IT. But, although II at first universal
The NORTH, though II was reaction against what wa
there regarded as aggressive pro-slavery policy 6t
which the South bad forced The country, and though
had lis root in the great idea OF liberty. and in the conse
Grated and ondispuied precedenls Of the policy OF 10
government, first in 1857 and again in 1920, yet II MOI
clear and certain that the proviso doctrine errt
which must eventually have dissolved the Union il il hs
prevailed. and which would still do so II il should ev
u ...l.,