Washington sentinel., 1854-02-25

are the reasons for it? The NORTH it is said, is
to be excited And excited about what Why,
because Congress, when this bill passes, will
have recognised the territorial principle estab-
lished in 1850, and declared all antecedent le-
gislation over the Territories of Kansas and
Nebraska inconsistent with that principle null
and void. And what is the harm or mischief
to be done? Why nothing but extending to
the freemen of Kansas and Nebraska that priv
ilege which ought to be the birthright OF ev-
cry American citizen, to have voice in form
ing the institutions and passing the laws under
which he is to live. That is all. Who, then,
is to be agtated at this monstrous outrage?
Why, nobody but those who wish to impose an
unjust restriction upon freeman's franchise ;
nobody but those who deny to portion of
| their fellow-ctizens fitness or capacity for
republican government. Nobody but those
who would maintain the same policy on the
part OF the general government towards the
people OF the Territories which Lord North
and his tory confederates on the part of Eng
land held towards the colonies. That there
may be, and that there are, some such bodies,
do not doubt. But who are they, and what is
their force They are nothing but the frag-
ments of the old "Wilmot proviso," freesoil,"
and abolition phalanx," attempting to rally
their broken and routed columns by this hypo-
critical cry about the sacredness of compacts
Who ever expected TO see the New York Iri.
6une and the Erening Post and such newspa-
papers, pouring forth their invocations in be-
! half of the "sanctity of the Missouri compro,
mise 1? I"
The men who thus cry aloud now are the
very same who denounced every man at the
north who voted to maintain that line, while
the question was open, as dough face" and
u troi H. Ar l,.>J
the world in swing, and would have every
thing their own way. Not satisfied to have 'sthe
Wilmot" fixed upon all the territory north of
$50 30/, they determined to have it fixed upon
the whole of the public domain. With this
spirit they went into the contest; and, so far
from getting it fixed where it was not, they
came out of the contest with the establishment
of principle, which took it off where it was
fixed before. Like the man who failed proper
ly to use his talent, they had taken away from
them seven that which they had" They went
a "woolling," and came back thoroughly
"heeced" themselves; hence their desperation.
That such. men may rail, ard rave, and rage,
may be expected Let them rage on. Had
they, and men of like opinions before them,
never thrust their unjust and anti-republican
territorial policy in the halls of Congress- there
never would have been sectional strife within
these walls. Whatever of party conflicts we
might have had growing out of questions of
legislation for so vast country as ours is, with
all its complicated and diversified interests we
should have been saved from this lamentable
quarrelling about State institutions, which
threatened such fearful consequences in 1850
But, sir, we are told that discord once reign
ed in Heaven. The evil spirit of pride and
ambition, craving powers and prerogatives not
proper or legitimate, entered the breasts of
those admitted even to the presence Of the Most
High; jealousy, envy, and hate produced not
only words, but blows, between archangels
ministering around his throne.
Long time in even scale
The battle hung
These unholy conflicts, so unsuited to that
place, were never composed until Heavens
First Born, clothed in the majesty of divine
power, arose and hurled the factous hosts from
the empyrean battlements to the bottomless
pit below.
" Nine days they fell; confounded chaos roared
And felt tenfold confusion, in their fall,
Through his wild anarchy so huge rout
Encumber'd him with ruin. He'll, at last,
Yawning, received them whole, and on them
Hell, their fit habitaton, fraught with fire
UDquenchable, the house Of woe and pain.
Disburden'ed Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired
Her mural breach, returning whence i rolled
From that profound deep, below which there
was no lower deep, they still sent up much
cursing, wailing, howling, and kissing.
So, sir, in these halls, sacred to national pur-
poses, and those objects for which the govern
ment was formed, we have had peace-destroying
feuds and unseemly conflicts engendered and
instigated by the fell demon of restriction, q
or "Wilmot proviso," which once stalked, with
insolent brow, in our very midst. These scenes
lasted until the genius of our country rose in
its might, on the l7th of June, 1850, armed
with the great American principle Of sefgov-
eminent, which had borne our fathers through
the struggle of the revolution, and drove the
hideous monster, with all his impious crew
from the Capitol-cast them out, and hurled
them downward to that low deep from which
their plaintive howls now ascend.
These convocations at the Tabernacle and
at Chicago and elsewhere-the rawlings of the
infidel preacher, Theodore Parker, and all his
weaker followers-are but the repetition of the
Pandemonium scenes; there consultations were
held, and grave debate had, how the banished
fiends should regain their lost estates, "whether
by open war or covert guile" These mani
festations may be expected. We have had
them before--yea, and much more violent too.
When the compromise of 1850 was passed,
these same men declared open war against its
provisions. "Repealr' "Repealln was blazon.
ed upon their banners; mobs were got up in
Boston, in Syracuse, and at Christiana; blood
was shed by these resisters of the law The
spirit of the north was appealed to in fanatic
accents. That spirit answered in prompt and
patriotic tones Of popular reprobation at the
ballot-box, just as it will do again. These
threats of what will be the fate and political
graves" Of northern men who vote for this bill
can fright nobody but old womea and timid
children. They are worse than ghost stories
we have heard them before.
! recolect well with what eoquence gen
tleman from Ohio Mr.. Root some years ago,
in tins House, spoke of the deep degradation
that awaited every man of the north who
should dare to vote against the Wilmot proviso.
No patronage of the government could save
him. no land Office, ever so remote, could keep
him from being hunted down, ferreted out, and
held up to the just scorn of an indignant con-
stituency. But his prophetic warning came
far short of becoming history. Northern men
did abandon the proviso. In doing SO, they
acted wisely, justly nobly, and patriotcally
and an far from dioo;no ,ho;r ,>al.....1