Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-07-31


made to place the responsibility of it on the
wrong shoulders, should be met and resisted.
When that last browning outrage and in
suit upon the free States, by the slave power,
the repeal of the Missouri restriction, took
place, feeling of indignation, pervaded the
whole community, and a determination to
submit no longer to these high-handed ag-
gressions. Under the pressure of this right
eous feeling, the opinion was every where
openly and freely expressed, that all minor
considerations must be merged, and all old
antipathies suppressed, in the one great effort
for freedom that there must be " union of
all honest men, for the sake of the union"
In this patriotic determination, there seemed
to be but one mind and one voice.
But, as time advanced, and as the people
began to move toward the accomplishment Of
their object, the poor party hacks-those
whose only hope of distinction is in the foul
examinations of pa1tizan warfare, and whose
principal hope of preferment is in sustaining
the interest which has always allied itself to
the slave power-these men took the alarm.
They saw that if the people became united in
the support Of their true interests, and if they
took the management of those interests into
their own hands, their occupation would be
gone. The movement must therefore be de-
feated-not directly, by advocating continued
servility and submission to the slave power,
but indirectly, by any means which would
operate on the prejudices of the people, with
out an open and fair ayowal of their purpose.
The proposed convention was therefore repre-
sented as cunningly devised trap of the Free
Sellers, to catch the Wings and draw them
into their organization. 1t was affirmed that
the Wing party was all right in Massachu-
sets, and would place itself SO on the record,
and that, as that was the dominant party,
whatever cause there might be for a new par
tv organization in other States, there was no
occasion whatever for one here. And, all the
time, the members of the Wing party were
cautioned, warned, and entreated, not to at
tend the Convention.
by such means as these, the members of
the Wing party, to a considerable extent,
were deferred from attending. Yet there
were many noble exceptions. Hundreds did
attend, who participated cordially in its ac-
ton, and thousands on thousands, in all parts
of the State, will concur in its results. They
see and understand, that if their party was
not fully represented there, if it was not pre-
sent even in numbers sufficient to control the
action of the convention, the fault was its
own, exclusively, and no one else is RESPONSE
bic for any share of the blame. They see
and they feel, that party organization, which
at such time as this holds back from this
movement, and fails to come up to the rescue
of liberty, is not adapted to the times, nor to
the circumstances in which we are placed.
There are certain other men, now, howev-
er, who protested to be favorable to the move
ment, and who see and admit it to be the fault
of the wings that they were not present in
greater strength, yet refuse to concur in the
action Of the convention. The excuse for this
course, is, that the Free Sellers, having con-
troll Of the convention, took advantage of it,
and went too far; that they should have
adopted only such measures as all could con-
cur in They indicate, specially, that they
should have passed resolutions, pledging unan-
imous support to the reelection of all the
members of Congress who opposed the Ne
bfaska Bill, and united action IN favor of the
restoration of the Missouri restriction, and
should have stopped there, without any fur
ther action.
Had the Convention taken this course, it
would have made itself fit butt for ridicule--
laughing stock, for all time to come. 1t
would have paralleled the French King, of
whom it is said
aThe King Of France, with forty thousand men,
What occasion, or what reason would there
be- for passing resolution in favor of the
reelection Of our members of Congress- Did
they make any sacrifice, personal or political,
in voting as they did on the Nebraska Bill
One of them, we admit, might have done SO,
but the others did not. On the contrary,
they voted not only in accordance with the
almost unanimous opinions of their constitu-
lions as party men. To have voted otherwise
than as they did, would have evinced an
obliquity or a stupidity without parallel or
an excuse. That bill was an administration
measure, and, as such, it would be expected
that it should be supported by administration
men. and opposed by the opposition. The
Wing party was the opposition party. Wings
or Free Sellers, therefore, who voted against
the bill, are entitled to no special Commando
ton for that act. But it is widely different
with Democratic members, who by SO doing
placed themselves in opposition to their party.
and to the administration it was expected they
would support. The sacrifices made by these
men, eau hardly be estimated. While, there
fore, there is no good reason for passing such
resolutions in Massachusetts,, there would be
very strong ones for passing them in New
Hampshire or Pennsylvania. b
Any movement for the restoration of the
Missouri restriction, we deem entirely useless
Aow.s Before that could be accomplished,
with the senate and executive, as now consti-
tuted, the question of freedom or slavery will
have been decided, both in Nebraska and Kan
sas. The agitation of that question, then
per Sc, would do positive harm, in diyerting
public attention from the great question which