The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-10-05

| pus eut1 Oil eDAtl D9 t0uB preserved
whether now owned or hereafter to be acquired
by the Government; that not another slave
State shall ever come into the Union, either
from Utah, New Mexico the State Of Texas
or elsewhere; that the Fugitive Slave Act shall
be repealed; that Slavery in our National
District shall be abolished; and, in foe. that
the curse shall be hurled back upon the States
in which it dwells, to live if it can, or die If
it must, by its own local lawsn
This should be our purpose fearlessly
avowed, if we are in earnest, and mean TO
build up the cause of Freedom through the
treachery of its foes, instead of secretly play
ing into their hands under hypocritical mask
This broad ground has been assumed, sub
stantially, In six or seven Of our Northern
States. 1t is the only ground on which the
reliable friends Of Freedom can etand. Any
thing short of this is practical infdelity to the
cause and the crisis. The Nebraska iniquity
is only single link in great chain of meas
ures, evincing fixed design to nationalize Sla-
very on this continent and thus inviting q re.
sistance on our part commensurate with that
policy. Shall we shrink, like towards, from
position which duty and selfrespeot impera-
lively beckon us to occupy! Is this time for
| hating, halfway, equivocal measures! These
may do for an Anti Nebraska man, but they
and thorough work is now demanded. We
do not need geographical hatred of Slavery,
which loathes and execrates it down to thirty
six degrees and thirty minutes, and then trans
| figures 1t into all bessedness and beauty, by
the magic Of q parallel of latitude, but ha-
! tired OF Slavery as inherently and essentially
| internal. Wewant, not deeper reverence for
compacts and compromises which we should
trample under our feet, but deeper reverence
for humanity and its God given rights-such
a reverence as would lose sight of any bargain
between Freedom and Slavery, in the uuhal-
lowed endeavor to blast an empire by It's with
eriDg power. Not the timid, superficial, thin
skinned Anti-Slavery of the mere politician,
but the deep, fervent uncompromislng, Anti
Slavery of the apostle or martyr in the cause,
Is the thing now most wanted. We must
strive for this. We must, as fast as possible,
baptize the People into it. ever remembering,
that whether many or few shall enlist under
our standard, and whether Freedom shall re-
ceive the crown of triumph this yeer or the
next, our banner must be kept unfurled, and
our principles legibly inscribed upon its folds
Nor will it do to urge that the comprehen-
siye policy here recommended is impracticable.
1t is not even practicable, at least for years to
come, to restore the Missouri Compromise. An
| Administration that conceived and brought
forward the repeal of this compact after it had
stood for more than the third of century, and
when no voice throughout tho entire Union
| demanded it, will not now recede from its pur-
pose on account Of any popular demonstrations
| in the North; and to suppose that the Slave
Interest is to be vanqushed in q struggle be-
| tween Northern and Southern members of
Congress over the general appropriation bills,
| is to forget the character of our Representa-
tlyes and the uniform testimony of our Con-
gressioDal experience up TO the present time.
Hon. John Wentworth has well said that the
South cares nothing for the repeal of the Fugi-
tive Slave Law or tie slavery part Of the Kan
sas and Nebraska bill. 1t knows that it can
not be done, and go fears nothing" The only
Immediately practicable thing in this matter is,
the sending of our people into Kansas. But,
while We in Indiana are quarrelling abouts
more abstraction, and allowing our politicians
to dupc us into the belief that it is not go, but
practicable and desirable measure, tho
South, calmly looking on, is plotting new
schemes of aggression. Doubtless good
moral effect would be produced by sending
strong Anti-Nebraska force to the next Con-
gress; but we have no right TO achieve that
good by misleading the people or murder
ing the Anti-Slavery cause Fidelity to truth
is the only safe policy; and if we wish to strike
terror into Shareholders, it can be done, not by
proclaiming the restoration of the Missouri
Compromise as the climax of our efforts, but
by demanding the freedom of Nebraska and
Kansas as mere preliminary to Interior
measures, totally Riding us of all our guilty
completely in the wrongs Of Slavery.
do not offer these suggestions Dir. Editor,
without reason. The recognised leaders and
organs of tho Anti-Nebraska movement in this
State have hitherto been very decidedly hostile
to the cause Of Freedom, nor do they now
manifest any honest sympathy for it. Many
of them publicly declare that they seek tho
restoration of the Missouri Compromise as the
shortest and cheapest route back to the Com
promises of 1850 and the Baltimore platforms
of 1852. The burden of their complaint is,
that Pierce and Douglas have wautonly broken
up the blessed reign of peace which descended
upon the country four years ago, and which
else should have been perpetual. They recoil
from the charge of Abolitonism, as if it were
the brand of felon; and although, from mo-
tives of policy, Anti-Slavery men are not de-
nounoed and bersted by them as heretofore,
yet there is determined purpose, quite imper-
fectly disguised, to ignore and disown them,
just so far as safety will permit. In the active
management of the campaign for the State at
large, and in many Of the counties and Con-
gressional districts, they are studiously kept in
the background, or turned entirely outside of
the ring. This, am confident, is the policy of
our managers, and it might naturally enough
have been expected, from the action of cur
State Convention in July.
Nor am blaming the Anti. Nebraska leaders
here for the course they have seen is to pursue
in this campaign. 1t would have been differ
emit, had the Free Democracy willed it. They
l. a - - bo,r h. fox, l. a
q bold stand, to command their own fortunes
instead of committing them to the keeping of
their foes. They could have constrained the
other forces of this movement to recognise their
Just claims both in the selection of candidates
for Office and in fixing basis of principles
upon which the battle should be fought. We
ourselves are chiefly to blame. The repeal of
the Nebraska and Kansas act is made the limit
of Anti-Slavery effort here, because we did not
insist upon going further The Free Demo
cratic leaders are thrust into the back ground
because they seem willing thus to be dealt
with. Our politicians shrink from tho cry Of
Aboltionism, because they see that we our
selves are afraid of it. Whilst they are striving
to cripple the present movement by con6niDg
it to the restoration of the Missouri Compro-
mise, instead of making its breach the exodus
of the people from the bondage of all compro-
misses, we are slumbering at our posts, as if the
good work had been taken out of our hands
and was being gloriously contaminated by
others We are holding no meetings. / have
not, for months past, heard of an old-fashioned
Free Soil or Anti-Slavery gathering in any
part of this State. In some localities it would
be difficult to get up such meeting, because
the question of Freedom is so complicated with
county Offices and peculiar local arrangements,
that our friends think it unwise to speak on
the subject. Indeed the opinion is not uncom-
mon here, that the best thing We can low do