Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-03-04
q he Antt-5lauerp Busle.
Salem, Ohio, March a, 1854.
THERE WAS A NORTH.

There once n north, and though shivcrcd
and broken by earlier compromises, still it excrted
a political power before which the southern poll
tcians did homage, till the fatal compromise Of
1920. Since when, an utter desttution Of control
ing power has marked our northern political his
tory. Before that, southern nsprants for the pres
idency courted the North. They pandered to
northern jealousy of slavcholding aggrandizcment
and to northern prejudices against slave extcn-
sion. They yielded to northern opinions then. the
same Difference in kind, Though not in dcgree,)
as the north now yields to the South. But whom
the question Of admitting Missouri came up,
freedom and slavery met in open conflict Free
dom, positive at first, yielded at length and that
battle won, all subsequent conquests have been
easy. The north has submitted to every insolcncc,
and yielded TO every demand, till now submission
is matter Of course and Shareholders do not even
say, "by yoWr Iedee Sir"
The chapter from Col. Benton's History relative
to the purchase of Florida, sets out this fact most
wildly. We may state that Florida was purchased
and the ratification of tho treaty of purchase with
Spain, was pending before congress during tho
same session which first rejected Missouri's appli-
cation for admission to the Union, viz: lSl8.-
This same province of Texas, of which we have
since heard so much, was then in dispute. Spain,
says MIR. Benton, was then willing to cedc it to us.
But our government was unwilling to receive it.
And the reason he assigns for this refusal must
seem marvellous to this age of fllibustcring and
slavery extension. What that reason was, VIC give
in Mr.. Benton's own language. After quoting
from Mr.. Monroe's correspondence IA paragraph
which attributes the refusal of Texas to internal
difficulties" he says;
"This paragraph from Mr.. Monroes letter lifts
the curtain which concealed the secret reason for
ccding Texas-that secret which explains what
was mprehensible-our having refused to nc
cept as much as Spain had offered. Internal diff
cultes it was thus shown, had induced that refu-
sal and these difficulties grew out of the repug-
nance of leading men in the northeast to see the
further aggrandiZement of the Union upon the
South and West. This repugnance was then tax
ing an operative form in the shape of the Missouri
controversy; and, as an immediate consequence,
threatened the subyersion of political party lines
and the introduction of the slavery question into
the federal elections and legislation and bringing
into the highest of those eections-those of Presi
dent and Vice. President-d test rhica no soutkeyn
candidate could stand The repugnance in tho
northeast was not merely to territorial npcran-
dizement in the southwest, 5m TO The consequent
extension Of slarey IN that quarter and to allay
that repugnance, and to prevent the slavery extern
sion question from becoming a test in the presi-
Dental election, was the true reason for giving
away Texas, and the true solution of the enigma
involved in the strange refusal to accept as much
as Spain offered"
Strange indeed it may seem to Americans in this
day, for their government to refuse slave holding
territory, and the very territory where slavery's
best staples are produced. And for such cause,
too, because southern aspirants for the presidency
could net otherwise obtain northern votes. But
that day of northern power has passed, long since.
and we can hardly credit the truth of tho history
T which ayers that it once existed. We in these lat
ter days give up Texas, and the Presidency to boot
We give them Utah, Now Mexico, ten millions 10
Texas, the Fugitive Slave Law, and last of all,
Franklin Pierce into the bargain. And now they
ask Nebraska, and its free lands to be paid, as q
) bonus for its settlement with slaves ra.
What was the policy of the north, policy which
acted powerfully, and somewhat successfully upon
the government thirty years ago, we will let Mr..
Benton himself state. The contrast between that
period and the present. cannot fail to strike every
reader What progress has our government made
towards despotsm in the last generation az
Mr.. Benton. speaking Of the treaty for the pur-
chase of Florida, says; m e
The point to be now noted of this treaty of 1919
s that 1t completed, very nearly the extinction of
J slave territory within the limits of the United
States, aud that il was the work of southern men
! with the sanction Ct the South, 1t cxtinguishcd