The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-08-16
THE STRUGGLE IN THE NEXT CONGRESS.


THE STRUGGLE IN THE NEXT CONGRESS.
Alabama, Missouri, Indiana, and Pennsylva
MIA, having yet to elect Senators, will send foul
Nebraska and Anti-Nebraska men; so that the
next Senate will stand, Anti Nebraska %, Ne
braska 40.
of the 234 members Of the House, ia have
been already chosen, leaving sixty to be yet
elected. AS all these will be from the slave
holding States they will of course be opposed
to the restoration Of the Missouri Compromise
1t is supposed, then, that the next House will
stand-Anti-N Nebraska 1913, Nebraska 1906
showing an apparent Anti-Nebraska majority
of %.
| Will this be an available majority? viii all
the members elected on account of their hos
tility to the policy Of the Nebraska Bill, be pre-
pared to do all they can to undo the wrong in
aicted by it? Would bill to restore the Sla-
very-prohibitory clause of the Missouri Com
promise be suffered by the solid phalanx of
one hundred and six ProsSlavery members, IA
miliar with Parliamentary tactics, to go to a
final, direct vote? Can that apparent majority
of twenty-five be relied upon for successful re-
sistance to such tactics? Has not the North,
with much larger majority to begin with in
former struggles, been invariably reduced in
the end to a helpless minority?
But suppose the first exception should be
presented in the next Congress-that the Anti
Nebraska majority should compel direct vote,
and triumphantly carry such bill, how is the
Nebraska majority of eighteen in the Senate
to be overcome? Will Cass and Douglas,
Bright Toucey, and Weller, Gwin, Wright, and
Thompson, reverse their votes? "The House
holds the purseslrings, and can stop the sup
plies. Aye, it can arrest all legislation till the
Senate yield" That is true it can do so, but
wiH it2 When has it ever done it? Men who
engage in such policy must be able to look
upon revolution without fear. Could major
ity of members be rallied in support of such
an experiment? Would not the timidity of
some, honest doubts in others, the lukewarm-
ness or treachery Of others, be iusuperable OBJ
stacles to its success?
If, then, it should seem impossible to carry
such bill in the face of such opposition, why
would it not be better for the Ant-Nebraska
ground Of Principle, instead of Compromise?
The Principle of "No Slavery within United
States Territory" instead of No Slavery in a
portion of United States Territory? The
ground the Free States stood on in 1913 was
the policy of the Ordinance of 1897, interdict-
ing Slavery IN all Federal Territory. Betrayed,
and driven from that position, it was some COM
pensation in their defeat to remember that the
Missouri Compromise, itself a departure from
the policy of the Ordinance, still secured the
larger and more valuable part of the territory
of the Union to Freedom. But in 1854, again
betrayed, they were robbed of this heritage !;
the policy of Slavery prohibition anywhere was
broken down, and the Slave Power now de-
mands all. Whittier shall they go? Is there
lower deep to which they can be driven
They have turned upon the aggressor, deter
mined upon final resistancel What now
is their true course? "Fiftyfour Forty, or
Fight!" No more COMPROMISING halfway
measure-no issue upon exceptionsl Let
them demand the revival of the policy of the
Ordinance of l787-NO SLAVERY IN FEDERAL
TERRIroRY. This is principle, sound, con-
stitutional, comprehensive, sanctioned by our
fathers-a principle, adherence to which gave
US Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wiscon-
sin, with their millions of free laborers, and
the Reputation of which has given us Texas,
Notification, Propagandism, with a horde of
Slavery conspirators, who are laboring to use
the Union as the chief agency in effecting
their devilish purposes.
Let the Anti-Nebraska members of the next
Congress meet the crisis, then, like men, They
can just as easily carry bill prohibiting Sla-
very in all Federal Territory, as one excluding
it from above $50 30. The Slave Power will
no more consent to one measure than to the
other. Planting themselves upon Principle,
they can put forth their full energies-they
will not convict themselves by implication to
any compromise-they will show the South
that they have confidence in the Justice of their
cause-they will define the true platform of ac-
ton for the Party of the People, which is now
rallying for the campaign of next year.
There will be no plotting to induce North
ern members to lower their demands. Know
Nothingism will prove a disturbing element.
Ambitious aspirants for the Speakers Chair
may be willing to barter principle for votes.
There are Northern candidates who may seek
to wriggle themselves into that place through
new and tortuous schemes of compromise. Let
Anti Nebraska members beware lest thew in.
vest with power a man who will assign to Sla-
very the control of the important Committees.
After all, it is not improbable that the real
battle of Freedom may be fought on the ques.
ton of admitting new States. Oregon was
ready last year. Next winter, bill for her ad.
mission as a State will be brought forward, and
possibly Minnesota may ask recognition. The
Slave Power will resist both measures. Its
cherished policy has been, the admission of
free and slave States in pairs, with view to
preserve "the equilibrium" between the two
sections. 1t will adhere to it with desperate
tenacity it will keep Oregon waiting, with the
hope of concentrating the perfdy of the re-
peal of the Missouri Compromise, by yoking
Kansas with Oregon, forcing the one to drag
into the Union the other, as slave State. This
| abominable plot is what gives so much pract
cal significance to the resolve of the North
"No more slave States" The North and Yves,
must take this ground, or there is no hope fol
Kansas. If their Representatives are true, the
scheme of the Slavery Party will be baffled
and the question of the admission of Oregon
as well as all the other aggravating issues
forced upon the country by the Slave Power
viii be thrown into the Presidential canvass