Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1855-10-04
CARRoLlToN. Sent. 16- I8h6.

ue"itl aPPIoOati0h ol every HepuOlican.-
Massilon News.
CARRoLLToS, Sept. Is, 1855.
THos. w, HARVEY, Esq,
Dear Sir-Yours was duly
received and l hasten to reply. l had hopeC
before this time to have been able to have Wis
tied portion OF your people; but circumstan
ces prevented Although l have resided
the most of my life in Stark county and in which
are many of the most cherished recolectious o.
my youth, yet | am stranger to the majority
OF your people. Fearing my inebility TO see
your people face to face at as early day as |
desired, | submit my views upon what con
ceive to be the paramount issues of the day.
The great question now before the people o.
Ohio, and indeed the whole North, is the
question of Freedom; and the paramount issue
Is that between Freedom aud Slavery. These
being antagOnistic, never can unite, the one OF
the other must succeed. And how mortifying
1t must be to every right minded person, that
at this enlightened day, the principles of free
dom are in danger of being subugated by its
selfish and relentless adversary, human sla.
very Notifying as it may he to devoted
minds, it is still in danger. Who that has not
home and associations in free State would
have believed two years ago that the whole
energies of General Pierce's administration
would be used to advance the cause Of human
bondage? and if we are to Judge the future by
the past shoIld that party again succeed, sla
very will be carried into all the territories OF
the United States, and stop only with the wa.
ters of the Pacific. l was one of those that
struggled against the annexation of Texas, be-
cause believed then that it was but another
ofthe devices of the slave power TO extend its
political influence, and desired to place as a
condition upon all territory after that event ac-
CURED provision that it should forever remain
free, and while member of the Ohio Legisla-
ture placed myself on the record as to that,
and since that time l have had no desire to
change my position, The acquisition Of add-
tional territory by virtue of the treaty with
Mexico brought with it the compromise of l8-
so. To all of the measures included in what
was called the compromise, never did and
never will subscribe. The idea of being CON-
PEELED by petty bailiff to turn blood hound
and scent down some unfortunate human chat
tel and after the capture deny him a. fair and
impartial trial by jury, is SO shocking to my
sense of justice, that | would suffer political
martyrdom before would be compelled to say
that it was right. However Objectionable these
measures were, the North was acquiescing in
their existence; il is true that !he fugitive act
could not, and probably now never will be sue
cessfully executed in the free States, yet these
measures remained unrepealed, and no effort
was made by their most violent opponents to
repeal them. The South was contending that
inRsmuch as these measures were brought a.
bout by compromise, the North was bound in
good faith to observe and maintain them. Up
on this question the North was divided; but
still no organized effort was made on the part
of the free States to change them. l, howev.
er, never believed the doctrine, that MAORI
ty could forever bind the minority, and that the
minority were not guilty OF bad faith for at
tempting to change that which they never
helped TO create:
While both the political parties were ac-
quiescing in the so called compromise meas
ures, that atrocuus scheme of extending sla-
very over Kanzas and Nebraska, territory
almost equal to an empire, was introduced in
to the Senate Of the United States. The wan
ton violation of covenant that had been res
pected by all parties for more than thirty years
the shocking purpose for which it was form"
ed and the audacious boldness with which the
South executed the edict, very Justly aroused
the whole North, and from the date of the pas
sage OF The nefarious act may be dated the ori-
gin oil the Republican party--a party that
hope may be the instrument Of wrestling from
slavery what has been lost to freedom, and oil