Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1855-10-06
NORTHERN SENTIMENT.

III OenaH OF the rgnC ana OF q CONSTITUTIONAL Union
Read the following noble, just, and liberal article
from the Boston Post
"THE Position OF THE NORTH "--On Tuesday the
Boston Atlas put question, which it is earnestly
hoped every citizen will thoroughly consider before
he leads himself to a movement conspicuous and
alarming that journal advocates to wit the for
nation of great Northern sectional party. The
question is this:
The great question is not, is the South pleased,
| but is the North right?'
We agree this form of putting the ISSUE Is the
North right? Is it right in its present defiant atti-
I Jude? Is it right in forming party for national
purposes in which the citizens of fifteen States in the
Union cannot enrol themselves? is it right in ma
king the basis of this party be attack on one
of the great interests-the slavery interest-which
by the Constitution left to be dealt with by the
States where exists? 1t is fact that these slave
States refused to go into union with the free States
On the basis of the international law, that a slave
reaching free country became free but stipulated
that the fugitive should be returned; and this was,
prior to the Constitution, put into the North western
ordinance. With this in view, is it right for the
North to say that no slave shall be reclaimed from
its soil? Is it any right that this interest,"
minority be attacked, in spite of the
State rights limitation than it would be if the navi-
cation interest, or the manufacturing interest-both
minority interests-should be attacked? In word,
is the North right in trying to the fraternal
ties that connect the South and the North in the
grand old common bond of country? We earnestly
hope that each patriotic citizen WILL in the feeling of
q Washington patriotsm-at least to it
all ths9
To show more clearly in what position the North
has been, let go back little and state question
with scrupulous historical exactness Bearing in
mind that the Northwestern ordinance prohibiting
slavery passed before the adoption of the present
constitution, remark that, from 1889 up to 1920,
no law passed by Congress in relation to pro-
hibition of slavery in the Territories of the United
States, and no State was excluded from the Union
account of slavery. 1t is true, discussions
on this subject in Congress. Thus, Illinois and
Indiana, when Territories, passed slavery laws-we
mean laws recognizing and protecting slavery-not-
withstandng the Northwestern ordnance and when
Illinois, in 1918, came in State, objection was
raised to her admission this ground but it was
sustained. We state facts that cannot be success
fully controverted; and repeat that, from 1883 to
1920 prOhibitory law passed relative to slave
ryand State was excluded on account of slavery.
In 1920 the North took position that Missouri
should not be admitted into the Union without hav
ing restriction put upon her, prohibiting her from
allowing slavery to exist within her limits; and the
North announced this determination in resolutions
passed by we think nearly every Northern legisia-
ture. And in this manner, the united North stood
upon the position that Congress had the power to
enact perpetual prohibition a sovereign State.
Was the North right in taking this position. 70
answer this fully would require elaborate argument,
for the considerations bearing it were wcighty
to involve the issue whether there should be
continuance of the old union Of co-eQual States
whether a union should be commenced of su-
perior and inferior States Rather than over this
ground, prefer to state that statesmen illus
trous the country has produced went into the
argument, and have left on record answers to the
question, the North right in the position it took
i. e., that of insisting a prohibition a SOW
ereign State? These answers given by Presi-
dents Jefferson, Madison, Monroe John Quincy Ad-
ans Jackson and Harrison by host of states
men, from Henry Clay and John G. Calhoun, to
those far inferior to them in talents and reputation;
and these all to the point that the North was
not right! We challenge contradiction on this point.
We affirm that the opinions of all the great men
whose names we have given are directly opposed to
the doctrines that Congress has power to impose
restriction sovereign State They pronounced
such restriction to be unconstitutional If the judg-
ments of these patriots and statesmen have weight,
they show that in Is19-'2O the whole North stood
upon the ground that not tenable. 1t was
ground marked out by camor, passion, demagosu-
ism, and not by reason Judgment and regard to
the obligations to q common country.
We now return from the past to the present, and
repeat that nothing be more patriotic or more
salutarv than for each citizen to ask the question, is
the North right? The its majorities- thanks
to Maine patriotism, State excepted-are pursu-
ing, inevitably tends to deYide this noble country,
to run its commerce and its manufacturers, to tear
into halves its noble banner, and to make the hrst
experiment the annals of the word afford of great,
self governed people, to be failure. Look, patrio-
tic citizens, at the results of this American system
thus far, after siXtyfive of trial of Con-
stitution Is it possible that the North be right
to act the part of parricde, and the bless
ngs which the Union confers? Can the North be
right in throwing itself in the hands of the madmen
/
no Union? Will not patriotic instincts here in old
Hancock and Adams Massachusetts,, and everywhere
| in country, compel citizens to pronounce the
| demagogues who thus play feelings, and pas
! sions, and prejudices to be traitors?
Patriotic citizensi The voices from the past, the
prosperous freedom of the present-al that is dear
to humanity in the future-unite to proclaim that
| the North is not right in seeking to divide
bic country.
| tY Judging from all the signs of the times, the
probability is that the next movement of the Know
| Nothings of the South will be of ultra devotion
to Southern rights The leaders must have perceiv-
ed by this time that their Order in the free States is
| hopelessly fused and abolitionized and that the
Union of the States so far they concerned as
national party. is gone. These leaders affect to
have confidence in the national Democratic par.
ty and as under the circumstances, they must do
something for the country, they will be apt go off
! to extremes for Southern rights. They mag still
struggle with their Northern brethren and labor
to produce the impression the minds of their de-
luded followers that the brethren referred to are
sound and worthy to be trusted; they mag bow
down in silence and submit to the threatened ag-
gressions and insults of the abolitionsts and free
soilers. No predict with absolute certainty,
what they will debut they will bear watch Ig.-
! AS well calculate upon the way of a ship in the
| sea" upon the of the K n. leaders. Of
! -