Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-05-14
Gorrsspon0eMfe.
The New York Demonstration.

New York, May IL, l854.--The abolition
lists are getting up scare" for the members
from New York, in the shape of an anti
Nebraska mass meeting; but let me tell you,
upon the faith Of one who disdains falsehood
and knows New York, that the whole thing is
a cheat say distinctly premeditated and
double-edged cheat. The members from New
York are to be frightened by it into taking
the " most extreme measures to defeat the bill.
They and other people are to be deluded into
the idea that there is perfect uprising of the
whole community against the Nebraska prin-
ciple What these extreme measures are to be,
/ know not. Perhaps the Tribune hints them
when it talks of Congress breaking up in con-
fusion and consuming the Capitol by fire; but
demagogues can be mischievous without being
altogether mad, and they will probably take
care of per diem and milage interests, and
spare the Capitol for future use.
The grand deceit of this mass meeting is
made transparent in the call. / have reason
to believe some of the most imposing names
appended to it were borrowed without leave |;
but, with or without leave, the invitation is d.
rected to those who "value the rights of the
people" in order to protect the Missouri COM
promise from violation.
Now, the leaders in this movement are pre-
cisely the men who have been all their lives
quarrelling with the Missouri compromise I;
who have made all the political capital they
possess by fomenting sectional quarrels, by
warning on the south, and by open, loud-voiced
attacks on the spirit of the compromise. They
slaughtered it and gloried in the deed, and now
they stand over the dead lamb Of sectional COM
PROMISE and declare they will have no other
god They first murder it, and then pretend to
fall down and worship the carcass, which they
have deprived Of soul and life. They cannot
long mislead the people to worship their spu-
rious idol; nor can they long pass off upon the
masses this deceitfnl substitution Of the dead
compromise for the living and immortal prin-
ciple of popular selfgovernment embodied in
the Nebraska-Kansas bill.
Why they carry themselves so high, and for
time apparently SO noisily triumphant, is
easily explained. Abolitionism at the north is
rich, well-organized, and Of most flexible con-
science. 1t is always ready to act when there
is a chance to make mischief, and perfectly will
ing to take any shape and put forth any excuse
which will help it to make an impression. 1t
is always in the minority when it has to step
out Of its plausible mufaings and come before
the people in its true shape.
The sudden affection for the Missouri COM
promise arises from its knowledge of the strong
love which the masses feel for the Union. This
feeling is appealed to; the people are told that
the compromise was the only peace-maker be
tween the north and south, and they are in
voked to preserve its life. The pretext may
hold varnish long enough to betray q few waver-
ing and shortsighted politicians into the weak
ness of recording their names, like the Hart
ford conventionists of DID, as the evil-wishers Of
the Union; but New York will vote for the Ne
braska principle when it comes to the ballot
box. q.