Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-03-23
DAILY NATIONAL ERA.


ritory below 80 deg 80 min. was to be surren-
dered to slave labor; but this act releases US
from any such restraint by recognising the
right Of the People everywhere to determine
and regulate their own institutions. The coun-
try west Of Arkansas, a large portion OF Texas
and the tract Of land your GadsdOn Treaty
proposes to buy at an enormous price, Tor dis
union purposes, will all open wide field Tor
Anti-Slavery agitation and free labor institu-
buttons.
Your policy ia by this Principle Of Month
tervention, to extinguish agitation against Sia-
very, hem in and paralyze free labor instltu-
tions, and extend the area and augment the
rower Of Slavery. We will show you that
Non-Intervention has two sides to it. You
trample upon all compromises--no restraint
imposed by the wisdom of our Fathers on the ex-
tension Of Slavery, will you regard-cyery
compact, by which, in consideration OF certain
concessions to Slavery, certain advantages were
to be secured to Freedom, you have swept
away. We are this released from all homo
rary obligations you force upon us naked
struggle, hand to hand, between Free Labor
and Slave Labor, between Freedom and Sla-
very, between Northern Power and the Slave
Power and the scene Of that struggle is to be the
Territory Of the United States. We take up
the gauntlet--look to yourselves God defend
| the right
| We shrink not, say the Shareholders We
control the Administration, and the Admins
tratipn appoints the Governor, who can veto
the will Of any majority Of the Territorial
Legislature, less than two-thirds; also the
Judges, who will have the right to decide On
tie consttutionaIity Of its acts Agitate as
much rs you please, you will first have to over
come the veto preragotive of our Governor;
and, should you succeed in this, battle the vigil
ance and acnmen Of our Judges And depend
upon it. we shall always take care to have
Governors and Courts that will carry out our
views of the Constitution.
That is tho game, is it? replies our Northern
friend You bring back the agitation, then,
from the Territories to the States, and concen-
trate it at Washington. What you mean, then,
by your Principle, is, Non-Intervention by the
Federal Legislature, not Non-Intervention by
the Federal Executive. You intend to thrust
this Slavery Question into National politics, as
basis of Party, as bond of union between
you and your allies as test Of fitness for the
Presidency AS you will-here, too we will
meet you Since you intend to fill the Presi-
denny with man pledged to battle the will of
the People of the Territories to appoint for
them Governors and Judges who will prevent
them from excluding Slavery, and forming their
own domestic institutions to suit themselves, we
will intend just the contrary We will 60 for
Nn-Intervention out and out We will make
it the issue Of every election for the Presidency
On our banners we will inscribe, Non Interuen-
tioa By Congress or the Federal Executive rith
Slavery in The Territoriss--election Of Terrific
rial Governors and Judges by the People. or, if
this should not suit you, we will seek to fill the
Presidential Chair with man pledged 30 to
constitute the Executive and Judicial depart
ments of the Territories rs to allow full and
free course to the will Of the People
What say you, gentlemen How do you
like this exhibition Of the workings Of your ia
vorite Principle Of Non. Intervention What a
miserable dslusion-that it will relieve you
from agitation! Turn this agitation out Of
Congress and you have only aroused it in the
Territories; and your efforts to arrest it there,
only bring il back to Washington, to shake
the Federal Executive, and involve National
Politics.
The truth is, Slavery and Democracy are
eternal antagpnisms and the attempt to har-
monizo them in one system, to equalise them
must forever prove an abortion. What one
gains, the other loses-laws operating to the
benefit Of one must damage the other.
II Is impossible in one system Of Govern
ment to pursue policy which shall equally
promote the interests OF free labor and the in
terests Of slave Tabor which shall carry for
ward, pari passu, the power and influence Of
the men who work for themselves, and the
men who make others work for them. The
incorporation of-two elements so fundament-
ally opposite in nature, generating habits so
different wants 30 variant, and demanding
policies 90 directly hostile to each other, must
engendsr perpetual strife, dissension, and agi-
tation. Each will be forever striving for the
mastery, and the struggle can be decided only
by casting out one or the other. So long
as the shareholders insist upon making the
General Government responsible for Slavery
and subservicut 10 ID, in its fundamental law
the Constitution--in its statute laws, in it's ju-
diciaI decisions, in its diplomacy, there will
be and there ought to be, political Anti Sla-
very agitation. They can have rest from
such agitation, only by consenting that the
idea Of Liberty shall be supreme in the Fede-
ral Government in all it's Departments in
all its action, and Slavery be limited to the
States in which il exists, completely divorced
from the Federal Power, asking nothing from
it and never seeking to use il for it's sectional