The daily union., 1854-11-14

own State his views upon the abstract question: while de-
Tending the right the South adjust il practically for
themselves is another and quite different thing, aud
nothing the very extremity of intolerance could COZ
found subjects widely separated in their position and SO
different in their nature.
Upon this question Of the right of opinion and of the
duty of withholding the expression of IT. said in the Sen
in February last Truth was never permanently IN
ured by free inquiry You cannot control investigation
and YOU must take it, with It's abuses Tor the pies
ngs il brings with it, highly respectable and respected
member of the House of Representatives said upon TINS
subject some time since You consider slavery great
evil Very WELL think so but keep your thoughts 10
yourselves. sure, sir, this honorable member must
have uttered this sentiment while feeling strongly the
aspersons upon the South too frequent in the North fo
he knows well any one the impossbhty OF proscr
bing the right OF speech and Of conning the thoughts OF
man his bosom. You might just as well undertake
stop the tide OF the to stop the de oil human
opinion and though both of these mighty agents in their
ressess march felt for evil well for good, yet
their healthul econ is infinitely better than would
be their slagnant quieude But the speaker did as he had
perfect right to do without regard to tins proposition
he examined the whole subject in the hall of the nation
and could not expect that his precept and not
his practice would be followed 10y others
So much for this claim of occluson this demand that
every northern shall place bis hand upon his mouth,
and his mouth in the DUST whenever the word slavery
sounded in his by its friends its foes And for
the assertion OF the Richmond Enquirer that had trans
gressed the limits of legitimate investigation by my
saults upon slavery. very few words will dispose ot
this charge to the perfect satisfaction Of every one but of
him who made it, shall not commit the folly of expect
ing his rccantation- lie who does injury when the in
justice exposed theneeiorth often considers himself
| the injured party
have uttered reproachful word the sub
ject of slavery. Not 1t is Of discussion
which sus neither my taste, my habits my age And
least of all am likely TO adopt it when of the graysst
constitutional subjects that be presented TO the Amer
can people is brought forward for consideration. have
never like the members of the Virginia legislature applied
gnomnsous or ddydgy names to it and defy the wri-
ter of this article anybody else, TO find in all my
marks single assertion epithet that the most
Jealous friend of the institution Justly censre In my
Nicholson letter speaking OF slavery said "There it is
and not by the act OF the present generation and
deal with it great practical question: involving the
consequences We have neither the right
the power touch it where /, exists and if we had
both, their exercise by any heretofore suggested
might lead to results which wise would willingly
encounter, and which no just man could contemplate with
| out anxiety
In the Senate said, in 1850, thes slavery is an exist
ing institution in the South for which no living is
sponsbe 1t interviewer into the very texture of soce
y Between three and four millions of people, differing in
race aud color from the predominant caste, held in
bondage have good deal of slavery and believe
its evils much magned, and that the slaves generally
in our southern States treated with much kindness
and consideration as are compatible with the relative
dition of bond and free and certainly we'll they would
be treated in the North If had slaves there 40 not
see myself how such mass of human beings can be set
free Emancipation unless the work, may say, of ages
would equally destroy white and black God in his PROV
dence may bring il about do that man can 1t
s question which concerns the southern States alone
They have every motive deal with 1t Justly and wisely
and every interference from abroad but adds the diff
Guilty OF the position and creates natural reaction in
every southern mndn
ulSc1SslOu,1
right direction, and that should be the effort Of every
true American in the non-savehoding States whose feel
nEs and whose intellect have ot been seized captive by
TINS strange hallucinet;Oh He should stand up for the
rights of the South by standing up for the obligations of
the constitution, and expose that hollow philanthropy
which seeks through blood and fire the emancipation o
race OF beings who become free in Gods good time and
when he has prepared them for it-how know not-bu
who It made free tomorrow wooa al least those of them
who survived the struggle become the most miserable and
abject population on the face OF the globe
To touch it Slavery by the general government would
De 70 shake to its cornerstone ohr whole political edice
like other human institutions it has neither all the adj
vanages its friends claim for it, all the evils lis enc
mics Gcplore Believing ii misfortune Tor any country
regret its establishment but looking upon as an exist
ing condition, an free to confess that though may
come to or endand hope it may peacefully and Justly
sec no way in which this be effected but by lsnyng
may find it best to adopt ANY extSrna interference would
only aggavate the evils and the dangers and this our
perience hss eready shown AS TO the ghtfu pictures
witch have been drawn of cruelty one side and suffer-
Ing and wrechedness the other they are gross eyagge
rauons by whatever modern Gullver fabricated whether
man or strong-mndd woman originating ignorance or
ana mnsterng to the worst Of passions both
"Cerianly objects commiseration are everywhere to
ee found even in the most prosperous communities Mis-
orune whether produced by ourselves by the chances
OF life, nseparable from human society And there is
no man who cannot look around him and find objects
enough upon which to exhaust ha beneyolence whether
lis contributions confined pulling senmentaity or
extended to substantial offerings for the relief distress
have no patience with that costve charity which negecs
the misery OF its neghborhood because that demands
aid OF the purse and seeks subjects for noisy philanthropy
far beyond its reach because words wealth. and
professions cheaper than cash.
These are the sentiments which have always felt and
which have always expressed in the Senate popular as
Embages and in private conversation whenever this sub
ect was under discussion And call upon the ENQUIRER
to redeem itself from the ohoquy which failure would
cast upon it, to point single instance in which have
assaulted the institution, stimulated "thc fanatcism
OF the aboonss by joining in their denunciatons of
slavery
But let my views be sought in the acknowledged YER
sions OF my speeches. and not in brief and hasy sketches
written out from recollection and for publication oppo
sition journals 1t is expecting too much from human
ture to expect accuracy and impartiay under such cir
cumstances.
As 10 the distinction attempted to be drawn between
myself aud Mr. Douglas Mr. Bright Mr. Toucey, and other
northern and western senator's it has foundation in fact
nor IN honest argument They supported the BILL and
did y because it acknowledged in political community
right to establish exclude slavery for itself But they
likewise conended and did that slavery in those Ter
rories was not revived by those bills and that it could
not go there unless introduced by the people So much
| Tor this TRADE upon my union with abotonsm.
But made another remark at the last session which |
Will here Introduce because it foresladowed such
gdncies as we find in the Richmond Enquirer:
| Another and yet greater error connected with this
whole subject consists in the demands altogether too ex
acting made upon the public of the
States, many of which have and some Of which
have felt @
II requires but little exeron to swim with the current
and even then may become its victim. Popular feeling is
power hard to resist and the reproach of being dough-
face belongs to him who pandcrs to it, and not
strives TO maintain the constitutional rights of ALL in
opposition to his community which holds in its hands
his political life and death This is precisely the condition