The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-02-19
Pfogrcss or the Nebraska Campaign-Ths
Meeting Last Evening.

P1ogress or the Nebraska Campaign-The
Meeting Last Evening.
The second attempt Of the New York anti
slavery party to kindle some show Of enthusi-
asm among the opponents of the Kansas-Ne-
braska bill has proved as abortive as the first
Last evenings meeting can have rendered no
service to the cause. The Tabernacle was full
indeed, and the audience very patient and good
humored Mr.. Blunt was as prosy as usual,
Mr.. Hale as funny az is his wont, and Mr..
Beecher as fanatic as he always is But new
light thrown on the question there was none
No arguments were adduced that have not
been refuted over and over again: no points
made that were not borrowed from the debates
in the Senate If the audience of last evening
was composed of men who are in the habit Of
reading the newspapers, the speeches must have
seemed very stale repetitions Of threadbare ar
guments: if the bulk of Mr. Blunt's hearers
relied upon him and his coadjutors for their in
| formation on the subject, their notions of the
| Missouri compromise and the Kansas Nebraska
bill must be tolerably confused. We should
like to ask any Of the gentlemen who made the
Tabernacle ring with applause last evening
what they would say if Congress were to at
tempt to legislate slavery into the future State
of Minnesota? If any Southern Senator in
some future Congress were to introduce bill
declaring that the new tate-Minnesota-
should only be admitted into the Union on the
condition that he and his friends should be
allowed to migrate thither with their slave
property? What an cutlery we should then
hear about the independent rights of the
States, and the tyrannical assumptions Of
Congress! How the West would ring with de-
nunciations Of the arbitrary impudent attempt
of the federal authorities to wrest from the new
State her iDalienable rights And yet this is
precisely what the speakers of last evening
would have Congress do with regard to Nebras-
ka. 1t may do very well for Mr.. Hale tt. tell
public meeting of abolitionists that the ordi-
nance of 1887 was prohibition of slavery, and
was formally recognized as such by the First
Congress: but every man who is well read in the
history OF the country knows that that ordi-
nance was in point Of fact imperative from the
flrst-that for period of several years, the
whole Norwestern Territory was slaveholding
territory, and that the States abolished it when
they pleased. So we all know that the First
Congress ratified the ordinance simply from q
desire to avoid disputes and strife. Our early
fathers saw the danger of splitting on the rock
Of slavery and allowed the ordinance to pass,
trusting to future statesmen to correct the error
when the foundations of the young republic
were more firmly established. Most Of us know
too-though perhaps Mr.. Hale does not that
in RI tifv hat tho r,raptor Of ha
territory, Virginia expressly omitted the sec
ton prohibiting slavery therein. Fallacies so
easily exposed as these of Mr. Hales might be
safely left uncontradicted. They receive q
practical refutation from the striking GOODNESS
with which his efforts and those of his party are
received by the community at large.
Indeed, nothing is now clearer than the fact
that an excitement cannot be got up on the ques-
tion ofNebraska among the conservative portion
of the North. A few isolated journals here
and there, which have hitherto advocated the
conservative wing side in politics, have broken
ground against Mr.. Douglass measure; but in
every instance their opposition has been mark
ed by hesitation, timidity, and every symptom
OF reluctance and selfdistrust. The mo nent
they abandoned the field of calm discussion
they found themselves fighting side by side
with the open foes Of the Union: and an iu-
stinctive aversion to so repulsive an alliance
immed ately compelled them to draw back
We have heard threats and ominous predic.
tions by the score, about the tremendous ex
element which the Nebraska bill was to create
10 he North we have been warned to prepare
ourselves for a struggle compared to which me
campaign Of 1880 was bat sllrmjsh; The
whole country has been called to witness that
'h0se innocent lam5s--she abyli.ivnists -were