The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-02-03
Senator Douglas and his colleagues rather to

SENATOR Douglas and his colleagues rAther 10 |
affirm and consolidate wrong policy than |
boldly to reverse it and return to sound one.
y ne Senate well knew the unconstitutionality |
of the Missouri law and If the debates within
its walls at that time he referred to, it viii be
found that Senators were not slow to express
this opinion. Still. with the symptoms Of ire
mendous CONFUSION springing into life around
them neither Senator Douglas nor any one
else had the courage to grapple with the
difficulty in front, or strike at the root OF
the evil. Hence the notion Of prolonging the
line 10 the Pacific; and hence the strangely in
consistent proviso in the Texas boundary law
Men, at that ds., had not confidence enough in
the strength of the Union sentiment to say
openly that Congress had no right to prescribe
slavery.
The Courier denies that the Jaws of 1850
disturbed the compromise Of 1920 because
forsooth it was in no speecA in Congress SO
pretended at the time.' VIII at reasoning Is
it not as clear as day that the former establish
ed the right Of new States, TO choose Tor them
selves in relation to slavery, while the latter
delegated that right to Congress? Is this not
the establishment of two antagoRistic princi.
pies? In the face Of such palrab contra
dction need we inquire whether other people
noticed it three or four years ago? is it not
enough shat any child can see it now?
But these are but the outworks of the C0n-
yier's position. We feel for the absent proprie.
tor Of that journal when he reads such SEN
| tence as this. at cannot be too well under
stood that the North, though it is not abolition,
is anti-slavery in sentiment 1t was go at
the time Of the formation of the consiitu-
tion," &c, &c
Let us devote a moments examination to this
precious sentiment. Let us inquire in the first
place what evidence we have Of the antislavery
sentiment of the North at the time the constitu-
ton was framed? Is it the clause of the cousti
tuition granting representation in Congress to
| slave property greater concession to the
| South than the most ultra Southern man
would demand to-day? Is it the slow and
reluctant discovery by the North that slave-la-
Dor was more expensive than free, and must
therefore be abandoned Is it the glazing fact
! that Notwithstanding the ordinance OF 1887
slavery existed ia Indiana, Illinois and Ohio till
about the time of the Missouri compromise, and
| that when the last admitted of these States
framed her State constitution, she expressly de-
| cared that all the slaves then within her Dor
ders should be slaves till their death -notwith-
| standing the superior cheapness Of free labor.
Here is strange evidence OF the anti-slavery SEN
timent of the North in olden times.
What shall we understand by the North being
anti-savery in sentiment, though not aboli-
ton" at the present day If abolition means
anything at all, it means practical and political
anti-s!avery in action. When therefore the
Courier talks of this section of the country
being ant-slavery but not abolition, it means
in plain English that the North hates slavery.
but dares not or does not choose to say So or
act upon the sentiment. What sort Of hypo-
crisy is this, to be protested by pablo journal
"The North says the Courier j" is anti
slavery in sentiment" OF course ii is: so are
we all North, South, East and West. We
all regard labor or slavery, for they are on
and the same thing, as q thing hateful part
of the primeval curse inflicted on MAJ. We
have cur system Of slavery, the South
| theirs. Theirs is q system OF hereditary
labor, to which a certain race, not homo
geneous with the WHINE race, has gradually
become subject and to the laborer it is un-
I doubtedly curse. Ours is system Of hired
labor, lasting for time only instead of whole
life; recompensed with specific wages, and not
with perpetual guaranty of the wants of life;
terminated al will, and not necessarily attend
ed with any personal attachment between mas
| ter and slave This also, is curse to the la
borer. He is anti-slavery, inasmuch as he
| would like to live without the severe toll to
which he is now driven. In this sense the North
| is undoubtedly anti-slavery: but the slavery to
| perhaps more than Southern. AT all events. if
the various kinds of labor or slavery existing in
the world are to be judged by their incidental
fruits as well as their direct characteristics,
that species of slavery viii meet with the
strongest reprobation from enlightened mon,
which breeds the most vice, the most crime. the
most misery, the most hardship among the la
borers In this view, we have no hesitation in
| declaring that our Northern slavery ought TO
| be and must be far more hateful than the sys.
| tenn Of labor employed in the South.
Furthermore, if the Courier means to say
| that the North is so imbued with the fanatical,
| prejudices of the clique into which it seems
lately to have fallen as to peril the Union
for the sake of interfering with Southern
slavery, we most emphatically assure our
contemporary that he is wrong. We North
erners talk much and write more. We read
novels like Mrs. Stoves, and are quite
shocked with stories of Southern Legrees and
iDfallible Uncle Toms. But when II comes to
the practical carrying out of these theories, we
are not quite so ready to move as the Van Blu
rens and the Stewards and their organs are
pleased to suppose. We have our railroad in
terest to protects our shipping investments to
guard; our cotton cargoes to secures our agri-
cultural nrosnects to look ont for We knon