The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-06-15
ARGUMENTS AND VOTES, NOT THREATS.

ka Bill, now that it is consummated labor to
assuage the Northern agitation aroused by it,
They publish extracts from Northern papers
claiming that, after all, the Bill does not ma
terially damage the interests of the free States,
and from Southern papers, denying that slave
holders have gained anything substantial from
it. We understand all this They fear that
the People of the free States may be driven to
trample under foot the old parties, the instru-
ments Of the Slave DespOtism, and organize
against its usurpations; and all their habits
shrink from the terrible excitement they sup
pose would necessarily result.
While approaching their love of peace, we
would remind them that no peace is worth
having which is purchased by the sacrifice of
justice-no peace can be honorable, stable, or
benefcent which is secured only by habitual
concessions to the demands of tyrannical In
terest They must judge for themselves of the
policy that best suits their circumstance
they cannot judge for the North and West.
The People of the free States have been out
ragged, and they were craven and foolish not
to resort to the ballot-box for redress.
"The more violent of the Northern men,"
says the Journal. "will be for waging general
warfare against Slavery, SO far as they think
they can do 50 without palpably transcending
! the limits of the Constitution. They will be
| for excluding in all their section of country
! every man from the next Congress who is not
pledged 10 the most thorough hostility to Sla-
very; they will be for restoring if practicable,
the Missouri Compromise restriction to Ne
hra md Il hau will ho for ha
cation Of the Wilmot Proviso to every Territory
hereafter admitted into the Union, no matter
what its latitude or longitude they will be for
the abolition of Slavery in the District Of Co.
lumbia; and they will be for the modification
and emasculatiOn of the Fugitive Slave Law.
by cutting out all such of its provisions as tend
to give it the slightest efficacy
"Now, we hardly need say, that if party
intent on such purposes shall so far succeed at
the North as to obtain the power of control in
Congress at any future time, the Union will be
severed. If the people of the North, who are
numerical majority of the Republic, shall, on
account of any real or imaginary provocation,
use their power in manner manitestly injuri-
Gus or insulting to the South-if they shall ex-
ercise it tsuntiDgly or Tantonly, the South will
not hesitate to dissolve the existing partner
ship, be the consequences what they may"
The Shareholders have gone to the extreme Of
the Constitution, and beyond it, for Slavery, and
the Union was not dissolved but, should the
North go to the extreme of the Constitution, and
not beyond it, for Liberty, the Union will in
evitably be dissolved The Shareholders have
done what they had no right to do, and the
Union was not shaken: should the North undo
what they have done, the Union goes to ruin !
Four hundred thousand petty despots have
everything their own way, and the Union Is
safe if two millions Of voters in the North and
West come to the conclusion that they shall
not have their own way, but yield to the will
of the majority, the Union is blotted out !
What does all this mean? Simply this-that
the Union Of these States is founded upon Sla-
very; that its great use is, to minister to the
benefit of Slavery that its guiding principle
ought to be, the will Of the Shareholders; that
supremacy is their right subordinatiOn the
duty of all non-slaveholders. This is the plain,
unmistakable position of the Louisville Jour
nal
As matter of fact, the Slaveholding Oigar-
chy have waged "a general warfare y for Sla-
very excluded from Congress every man not
pledged to the most thorough support of it, sent
men to Congress, who, in defiance of the will
Of the North, and in the face of solemn COM
pact, have repealed the Missouri Compromise.
1t has broken down every safeguard against
Slavery in every Territory of the Union enact
ed and maintained Slavery in the District of
Columbia, and forced upon the free States a
Fugitive Slave Act, in derogation Of the guar
antees of the Constitution, of the sovereignty of
the States, of the Principles of the Common
Law and of the claims Of Humanity And yet
the free States have submitted, without dissolv-
ing the Union. Now, when it is proposed that
they shall, through the ballot box, peaceably
install in power Party which shall take pre-
cisely the reverse action, undo what the OH
garchy has done, and place this Federal Gov
eminent as much on the side of Freedom as it
has been on the side of Slavery, the Journal
denounces such policy as Insulting, injurious,
lganton, and tells us that on its contamination
the South mill not hesitate TO disSOtUe the ernst
ing partnership, be the consequences what they
may!"
Well all we have to say ID this Before God
and man, had we the power, this day would
IRE subject the Ohgarchy to the test-this day
give them an opportunity to execute that pre-
else threat. There are some tremulous people
whom the language of the Journal may intim-
idate bat the great majority Of Northern and
Western voters regard this stale CRY of Dis
union with utter contempt. IL is not the ap-
prehension that that impossible deed viii be
done by the South, which prevents them from
adopting the course Of action so ruinous in the
Judgment of the Journal, but simply the en-
barrassments growing out Of their division into
hostile political organizations, which have hith-
erto subordinated the great issues of Liberty to
minor considerations. Let the Journal lay
this to heart if we can once succeed in over
coming these endorsements, in breaking
down old political combinations and animosi-
ties, no childish fears Of what shareholders
may or may not do, will deter US from put
ting the OEgarchy out of power, and placing
them under ban, just as much as Anti Slavery
men now are under the BAN This question
of political ascendency, MIR. Journal, is to be
settled by hard argument and hard voting !;
and if the Shareholders be outvoted, they will
have to submit, or do worse.
As TO Disunion, our contemporary has evi-
IDENTIFY not studied the subject So long as the
slavcholding Class can govern the Wing and
Democratic Parties, control the organization
Of Congress, determine the Legislation of the
country, fill the Presidential chair, govern the
Territories through the Executive Power, com
mand the Treasury, Army and Navy, and die