The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-05-26
THE NEBRASKA BILL.

The N. Y. Courier indulges the following
remarks in relation to that measure now be-
fore Congress, which has revived the
agitation and excitement upon the subject Of
Slavery, which it was thought the Compro'
mise of 1850 hadhappily allayed. There are
two or three Objectionable sentences in it, but
upon the whole, it is as sensible an article 's
we have met with on the subject since the re.
opening of the question:
Four years ago Daniel Webster made his
immortal plea for the Union. In the autum'
nal wisdom of his ripened years he stood in
the thronged Senate chamber, and in deep
measured tones, charged with the sense OF an
awful responsibility, he spoke for peace and
concord. 1t WAS u crisis in the history Of the
country. Ambition, pride, selishness, jeal-
ousy, passion, hate, fanatcism, in short, every
feeling that can excite and incense, had been
! aroused to most terrible energy. The brav-
est patriots In the land feared. The master
spirit of the south had three days Before risen
from his sick bed to declare, in effect, that
the kncl of the Union had already sounded.
But Webster made answer, and the answer
he made smotc upon the public. heart and
recalled the nation to its duty. Difficulties
were compromised, agitation calmed down,
sedition hid itself from the eyes Of men. To
those days, when the imprisoned winds We're
let loose, when, to use the language of the
great statesman himself, "the east, the north,
and the stormy south, are all combined to
make the whole ocean toss its billows to the
skies and disclose its profoundest Depths
to those days succeeded halcyon time such
rs filled the whole land with rejoicing.
Webster is dead; he whose eloquence ruled
the storm has gone forever. But the grass
has hardly grown over his tomb, before
another storm is conjured up by the powers
of mischief. 1t is every day gathering
strength, and there is no living man who can
set bounds to its final magnitude or its ulti.
mate consequences. We do not like to ac.
knowledge its existence; but the eye must be
blind that does not see it, and car deaf that
does not hear it. We fain would not allow
it to be dangerous; but the history of the past
the memory Of the extreme difficulty with
which the tempests of 1920 and that of 1850
were aid-forbids us to look unconcerncd
upon the rising commotion. There are rea.
citement will not be easily controlled-per.
haps less easily than that of 1850. The Ne
braska bill has far fewer friends at the North
to rally about it than had the fugitive slave
law. The pulpit, which exercises so strong
an influence upon the northern mind, and
which in 1850 did such good service to the
adjustment measure, is almost without an
exception opposed to this bill; and so is the
religious press. This is IN indication of vast
significance, for after all, whatever be the
combinations or the wiles of politicians, it is
the sober thoughtfulness Of the religious
element that more than any other gives pub.
lie opinion its fixed direction.
Another ground of anxiety is that there
nre not now, MS in 1850, any men of transcen.
dant power and influence. 'ff'ihu-o Is net an
individual in the whole country who has any
important power over the minds or the hearts
of the people; and in the popular storm now
threatening us, no reckoning can be had upon
anything outside of itself to divert or lull it;
when once under full Roadway it must have
its course. And yet, again, there is reason to
fear that it will, hereafter, be impossible to
settle sectional difficulties by mutual com.
promise. The Nebraska bill in rcpudiating
what has been known rs the MISSOURI CON-
promise, takes from all compromises their
hitherto accepted sacredness of character, and
destroys them for all practical purposcswhat-
ever. Indeed, many of the Senators took the
ground boldly that such adjustments were
and to be universally con.
demned. We cannot, hereafter, rely upon
my new compromise to shield us from the
fury of sectional agitation. Especially then is
this new source of discord to be dcplored.