The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-11-01

States have an overwhelming majority of the
electoral votes, and, whether the South should
go into the contest or not and it probably
would not, the result would be the election, not
merely of Northern President, but President
T! for the North, who could no more make an Ad-
ministration for the whole United States than
Governor of the smallest State in the Union
could do the same thing. Such a President
could never cross the Potomac or enter the
capital of the nation. Neither he nor any Off
cial under him could ever pass the boundary
or tread the soil of any slave State, unless to
carry the desolation of war into its borders
This man is guilty of encouraging rebellion
and treason. He virtually invokes civil war.
His infamous prediction is in effect an invita-
ton to a minority, fairly and constitutonally
out-voted, to rise in arms, set at defiance a
constitutional majority, and overthrow the Con-
stitution and Union. He is the first Northern
man who has blackened his soul by giving
countenence to Treason, that no Slavery
Propagandist has yet dared to suggest.
Southern men, representing Southern views
of Slavery, have been elected to the Presiden
cy, and what " National" Southern man has
volunteered the opinion that the North would
never endure such visitation-that the South
ern President elect would never be permitted
to enter the Presidential mansion? Suppose
Wise or Davis, or even Atchison himself, the
very impersouation of Vandal Props anddism,
should be nominated by the Slavery Party for
the Presidency, could you find any dwelling
Southerner so cowardly as to cry out, in alarm,
" the election of such man will be dissolu-
ton of the Union-he will never enter the cap
ital-never can he tread the soil of Washington
unless to carry the desolation of war in his
train?" What Party at the North would dream
of civil war, should the Slavery Party succeed
in installing, by a constitutional majority, a
Slavery Propagandist in the Presidential chair ?
1t comes to this then, in the judgment of this
man, and the Straight-out Wings whom he rep
resents: The Slavery Party may elect Pres
ident, and it is becoming that the Free States
submit but, if the Republican Party elect a
President, as matter of course the Slave
States will rebel, and set fire to the temple OF
our Union the minority of the Republic must
rule, the majority, submit if the majority assert
its constitutional power, in a constitutional
low What is the practical conclusion? What
! is the language of this Northern traitor and
his associates to the Slavery Propaganda? We
disapprove your aggressions, but we abhor your
opponents. You have done wrong, but we shall
not permit your opponents to right the wrong.
We shall oppose any further aggressions on your
part; but if you succeed in them, we shall submit.
! We expect you to unite the South always for
Slavery: but as the union of the Free States for
! Freedom would be sectional, we shall always
resist it to the death. You may elect what
Presidents you please, and we pledge you the
acquescence of the North but, as you will
not of course tolerate the election of man
pledged against the domination of the Slave
Power, we will not suffer it. Much as we dis
like Savery-and what Northern man loves it?-
we shall forego our opposition to you in your
determination to use the Federal Government
as an instrument of Slavery-extension, and
wage war alone upon that traitorous Republi-
can Party which seeks to prohibit the extension
of Slavery, and wrest the Federal Government
from your power. To the death we swear our
:
This is the detestable position occupied by
Messrs. Barnard, Hunt Winthrop, Choate, and
their deluded followers. 1t is to such men,
and such counsels, that we owe Pro-Slavery
Propagandism, Notification, the manifold
usurpations, the insolence, and overshadowing
tyranny of the Slave Power. To such men
and such counsels, we owe the division, conse-
quent weakness, and abject subservience of the
Free States. 1t is they who, should civil war
ever grow out of this conflict between Slavery
and Freedom, will have to answer to God and
the world for its crimes and desolations.
But we do not fear civil war. The Republi-
can Party will place upon them the inelface-
able brand of traitors and towards. 1t will
pursue the policy it has inaugurated, carry ont
the principles it has proclaimed, elect Presi-
dent who shall reflect their views, and administer
the Federal Government in obedience thereto,
and the South will conform to the new order
of things. Finding that not one of its consti-
tutional rights is invaded, it will see in the
overthrow of the schemes of Slavery Propa-
! gandism and sectional ambition that have dis
graced it, no adequate cause for mourning the
guilt of rebellion and the horrible hazards OF
civil war. Let not its politicians deceive them
selves. Straght-out Whiggery, Know Nothing.
ism, National Democracy, cannot last forever
Every struggle leaves them weaker. The
growth of the Party of Freedom is slow, but
sure; its ultimate triumph, inevitable. To this
contamination they must make up their minds.