The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-09-14
LET US HAVE PEACE.

| LEI Uo HAVE fEACE.
awe can heartily second the wish of our CO.
temporary of the Baltimore American, that
the country possessed some statesman, elevated
in patriotism and comm andipg in influence,
whose voice could be heard throug bout the land,
rallying to his aid the conservative majority
of all sections, and bidding Northern fanati-
cism and Southern ultraism, Free Soil aggres-
sion and Pro-Slavery agitation, alike be still.
We are tired of this everlasting commotion
about Negrodom the Southern people are
tired of it, and they want peace and quiet, if
it can be obtained without the sacrifice of their
inalienable rights. "-Richmond Wing.
The Wig desires peace and yet it advo-
Gated and still advocates the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise. 1t says:
"When the question of tho repeal of the
Missouri Compromise was presented to them
by Northern Senator, they naturally took
sides in favor of that repeal Its existence
was an odious and uni ust discrimination against
the South; and when tho opportunity was
afforded to remove that discrimination, the
great mass of the Southern People fels il
duty they owed to themselves and to their in
stitutions to cooperate in effecting its reno
val"
But the is Wing the champion of Compro-
mise; and the Compromise of 1920 deemed
almost as sacred as tho Constitution, having
been openly violated by the South, aided by
few reckless and unprincipled Northern dem
agogues, can it reasonably expect the North
to aeq1iesce in the treachery? Tho Wing
cannot deny that the previous acquiescence of
the North in repeated acts of aggression of
the Slave Power, only served to render North
ern politicians and Northern people contempt
ible in the estimation of the South. Never
did the North have less of the respect Of the
South than after the passage of the Compro-
mise of 1850. In fact, it was nothing but the
low estimate in which the integrity and spirit
of the North were held, which emboldened
demagogues to propose the repeal of the Mis-
souri, Compromise. The idea Of serious oppo-
sition to that nefarious scheme being aroused
in the North, was treated with the utmost
contempt, and those who insited that unprecc-
dented agitation and excitement would be the
result were laughed TO scorn. It was We
hemently proclaimed by Douglas, and oil who
conceded with him, that the repeal Of the
Missouri restriction would put final extin-
guisher upon Abolitionism that the unani-
nous voice of the country would sanction the
measure, and that only few bowling fanatics
would be found in opposition to it. And what
has been the result? Mr.. Douglas, the author
Of the bill, is not permitted to address his
immediate constituents in its vindication and
his State, together with New Hampshire
Maine, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Indiana, the
strongholds of the so-caled National Democ-
racy, are not whit behind Vermont, Massa-
chusetts, and New York, in their indispensable
hatred of the measure. Much as we detest
the bad faith which actuated it's authors, we
nevertheless heartily rejoice at their success,
since it he's had the effect of rousing the
North to q sense of its dignity and duty.
IL is worthy of remark, that the North was
never held in higher respect at tho South than
at this moment, when every State, through the
press, and the Conventions and the primary
meetings of the People, has given the most un-
mistakable evidence of hostility to Slavery.
1t would be objectionable weakness end folly
to abandon this honorable, just and COM
handing position, for tho degrading yoke of
servitude which has just been thrown off.
There can be no cessation of agitation, no
peace, in the sense in which the Wing uses
the torn, while the South cherishes any of its
schemes Of Slavery extension, or whilo the
cruel and unconstitutional Fugitive Slave Law
remains on the statute book.
The North has now majority of the States
and, including Delaware, which is practically
free, a majority Of three. This majority must
in few years be increased by the addition of
Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Washington,
and Oregon and, probably in as short pc
riod, by five States from the British Provinces
In the mean time, not slave State can be
added to the Union, unless the North, in q
spirit of magnanimity, abatcs something from
its present demands, and comedies slave State
out Of Texas The rule of Slavery is therefore
at an end, as regards the Federal Government;
and the Southern People may as well make up
their minds to that result. Slavery, in the
language of Mr.. Sumner, is to become sectional,
and Freedom national. Is not this fair =?
Would the Richmond Wing have it otherwise?
Should not the national institution of Free
dom be the ruling principle? And should not
the institution of Slavery which is local and
sectional in position, be so in influence!
The North-in other words, the Anti-Sla-
very men of the North-claim no right to in
terfere with Slavery in the States they claim
no power in the Federal Government to med.
die with it; on the contrary they all, with
very inconsderablc exceptions, admit that the
States are sovereign within their own limits.
But they deny that Slavery is the common
law of the land, which is carried by the Con-
stitution, or which can legitimately be carried
by an act of Congress, into the Territories. On
the contrary, we believe that the prevalent
opinion of the North is, that the Constitution
Is Anti Slavery and that spirit of fair con-
struction Of that instrument would abolish
slavery in all the Territories if the institution
should be found in any of them at the time of
their acquisition. They hold that the Fugitive
Slave Law, which withholds the trial by iurv
and the writ of habeas corpus is unconstitution-
al, and We believe that majority of the North
ern People at the present moment would on
the length of MIR. Sumner, in holding that the
clause of the Constitution relative to fueit;ves
from service is a compact between the Ssates
requiring no legislation on tho part of Con-
gress.
Tho sooner the Southern People know the
true position of the North--in other words, of |