The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-09-21
THE TABLES TURNED.

THE TABLES TURNED.
| The New York Courier and Enquirer is de-
| lighted to witness the cool indifference of the
| South as to the fate of Kansas and Nebraska,
as well as the absence of all excitement in that
quarter of the Union, at time when the North
| feeling. Has it never occurred to the Courier
that one fact is the consequence of the other !?
| That the calmness of the South and the evil
dent abatement of Pro Slavery feeling has
resulted from the strong demonstration of
Northern repugnance to Slavery extension !?
| Such is our reading of the signs of the times,
and we think we are sustained in it by the
history of tho country during the last few
years
| In 1847, the House of Representatives adopt
ed the Wilmot Proviso, and it might have gone
through the Senate but for the Parliamentary
1S48, the subject was discussed again, in both
branches of Congress, and with great boldness
and vehemence by Northern members, but the
detection of General Cass and his friends pre-
vented its passage. AT that time, when the
Wilmot Proviso was possibility, the talk of
notification and disunion was confined to
South Carolina; and we remember the cool
indifference with which the subject was dis
cussed at the South, in private circles, and the
| scarcely disguised favor in which it was held
by thousands of Southern people whose Sound
ness on the Slavery question" was never
| .rkn R,,k fho of
Northern politicians, who were willing to sell
the cause of Freedom and the sectional inter-
ests of the North for Presidential honors and
patronage, divided the people Of that section,
and broke down the opposition to Slavery ex-
tension. The Slave Interest, emboldened by
tives of Freedom, rose in its demandsin pro-
portion as opposition diminished and in 1850
almost every Southern State threatened seces-
sion and disunion, not if the Wilmot PEoviso
should be passed, (for that was impossible but
if the Fugitive Slave Law were not so amended
as to convert the North into hunting-ground
for Southern bloodhounds, and if California
were not divided.
The intensity of Southern sectional bitter
ness and the exorbitancy of Southern demands
were never 30 great as when the North was
meanly orouching at the feet of the sIavehold-
er. At length, sort of compromise was en-
tered into, based on the principle that God
and the Devil, Freedom and Slavery, Right
and Wrong, are opposing forces of equal power
and dignity, whose separate interests must be
equally respected. But Slavery had the ad-
vantage of being in power, and the election of
1852 only served to double its guarantees by
giving overwhelming majorities to it's votaries
North and South This served to augment its
| demands still more The most ultra Pro-Sla-
very disunionists and their supple creatures
were called to the Cabinet and the design was
at once formed and avowed, of " crushing out
the last vestige of AbOlitionirm "-by which
was meant every form of opposition to Slavery.
The most open and indecent interference was
made with the free expression of public opinion
in the elections; offce-holders were threatened
with instant dismissal, and aspirants to cfice
with exclusion, if they should dare to vote, in
obedience to the dictates of conscience, against
the orders of the Administration.
At the first meeting of Congress after the
inauguration, the bold villany was proposed
and carried, of repeating the Missouri Compro-
mise. This measure has at last aroused the
North to sense of its degradation, and has
awakened unanimity of feeling and opinion
against Slavery and Slavery extension, never
before known. And what has been the conse-
quenee of this nearly unanimous expression of
Abolition sentiment at the North Has il
awakened corresponding sectional bitterness at
the South, with threats loud and menacing, of
disunion :? Not at all. AS the Courier says,
all is quiet and peaceful The South, which
few months ago could not bear exclusion from
the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, by a
law of the last generation, now patiently muses.
over the Saratoga and Massachusetts, plat
forms, which require tho repeal of the Fugitive
Slave Law, the non-admission of more slave
States, and the abolition of Slavery in the Dis
trict of Columbia.
Now, is IL not apparent that the determine
ton manifested by tho North in a just cause
has produced irresolusion at the South in
bad and hopeless onet We are far from init
mating or believing that the Southern people
are wanting in courage, or that they would
finch in the defence of their constitutional
State Rights. But we do believe that they will
finch in the maintenance of the reckless, IN
principled threats of demagogues-threats of
disunion and war to the knife, based on un.
founded hypothesis, in violation of the spirit
and habitual construction of the Constitution
from its adoption to the present time. In other
words, we have no faith in prophecies of dis
union as consequence of the election of an
Anti-Slavery Presidents, the repeal of any act
of Congress now in existence or the abolition
of Slavery in this District. 1t is equally absurd
to suppose that the South will secede ON the
negative ground Of "no more slave States"
since the two Houses of Congress and the Pres
ident are eonstitutionally empowered to admit
new States at their discretion.
twill be seen, in the progress of events, that
the demands of Slavery viii abate in proper