The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-06-13

the eastern WOrIo unQer Sucn an lmpulSlon.-
The crusades were another instance of this mo-
raj madness. The thirty years war which
made Germany bleed at every pore, was an
other sad instance. History is full of them !;
they are the melancholy blot and blur of many
page. They are the only passions which ad.
NIT of no settlement. They must run their
course; it is the law Of their being. To rea'
son with them is idle, because they are found.
ed on some higher law than reason-a belief.
a sentiment, a peremptory abstraction. This
anti.slavery feeling Of the North rests, then,
first, on moral fanaticisln the most powerful
and most dangerous Of all the social elements.
Besides this, it is mpelled by two strong ad
ditional motives-the love of power and of
place. 1t is natural for man to want power
Each individual desires it for himself, or.his
community, or his State or his section. This
feeling is the prolific cause of personal and ma
tional struggles. In vast Confederacy like
ours, there are practical advantages in controll-
ing the Government, and moulding its legisla
ton to promote special interests. Mankind
have never been scrupulous in thus grasping at
power and turning it to their own advantage.
The magnitude of the object obliterates all
sense ofinjustce. Upon the admission of Mis-
souri. this feeling was first strongly developed.
The North were apprehensive they would lose
the preponderance of power. and hence the op-
position to her admission. This idea was open
iy avowed by Rufus King, Otis, Taylor, Plu
mer, Cook, Holmes, all northern representa-
tives. This feeling still operates with increas-
ed intensity.
In addition to this sectional power feeling,
the anti-slaverv agitation is urged on by asPir-
ing politicians. There is no mode by which
ambition can more readily climb upwards than
by connecting itself with u popular idea. This
popular idea has been presented to ambitions
men at the North in this anti.slavery feeling
1t is not strange that many Of them have avail:
ed themselves Of IT, We have thus the North
impeled forward by the strongest possible mo-
tives to human action, fanaticsm, love Of sec.
tional power, and personal ambition. 1t is
only from such strong motives this idea could
have so fully possessed the northern mind-a
mind signally prudent, reflective and sagacious.
Nothing could more strongly illustrate the in
tensity Of this passion, than the excitement at
the North in reference to the bill now before
u.s. One who was not informed upon the sub
ject would suppose there was some remarkable
concession to the South in this bill. Is it sos
Let US see.
This bill repeals the Missouri restriction, but
revives no local law protecting slavery. The
effect is simply to remit the South to their
rights in the Territory under the Constitution.
All that the bill does is to make the Constitu.
ton operative in the Territory. And this
slightest conceivable act Of simple justice has
agtated public sentiment at the North to its
deepest depths.
This anti.slavery feeling is the evil genius
Of the republic. Mankind are never content
with their lot, however auspicious it may be-
Nations are possessed by the same restless dis
content. They are never satisfied with any
amount of present good, but are constantly
seeking and striving after the unreal and the
unattainable. 1t would be impossible to in.
vent state Of society so perfect but that a de-
sire would still exist for something additional.
It's the constant struggle between the actual
and the ideal. As the actual necessarily par
takes of the imperfections of human nature,
the ideal always has more charms, because il
is not of the earth. There is nothing more dis.
astrous to the individual or the nation than too
ardent pursuit of the ideal Mt the expense of
the actual. The pursuit of military glory, the
acme of the ideal, has opened perpetual foun.
tans of human blood. The blind pursuit of
the ideal in morals or politics has inAictt in
calculable injury on the human race. 1t is at
least doubtful whether men, with the best in
tentiuns, in reckless attainment Of the ideal,
have not done more injury to the world than
men of the worst intentions seeking merely the
actual. What have occasioned more desola.
ton and despair than religious warsa What
infinite slaughter did not men with the best in
tentions, in search Of revolutionary ideal, in.
fic. upon France9 Nothing is more danger.
GUS than philanthropy let loose.
This pursuit of the ideal in this country has
taken the form Of abolition. A large portion
of the North, passing by the numerous objects
for philanthropy at their own doors, exhaust
their abstract benevoence on the black race
of the South. Founding themselves on the
captivating abstraction that all men are born
free and equal, they hurry to the conclusion
that general emancipation is desirable, and
that they should seek it. They do not stop to
consider whether emancip ipation, if attainable,
would not be a cu Sc rather than blessing to
the slave. They overlook the sanguinary strug
gle which emancipation at the South would
bring on between the races they forget that,
in this struggle, the blacks would would neces
sarily be overwhelmed and exterminated; they
overlook the disasters emancipation would
bring upon the whites Of the South, who should
be entitled to at least rs much of human SYM
pathy as the blacks; they overlook the disas'
ters such commissions at the South would ne
cessariIy superinduce on their own section;
they forget that the African race of the South
are better of, in many respects, than the labor: