Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-12-21
From the Louisville Journal.
Kansas-Ne braska Bill.

Il
South are endeavoring to make the Kansas ebras-
ba bill the only political issue. They claim that
support Of this measure 10 an evidence OF nation
ality; and, because Northern Democrats voted for
the bill in the last Congress, the Southern Democ-
racy assert that theirs is a national party.
This is a false issue. II is pregnant with danger
to the vital interests of the South. The support
of or opposition to the Kansas bill should
never be made a test of nationality. Northern
men have supported and do and will support this
measure without losing one particle OF their hatred
OF slavery and slave owners, and without abating
in the least their most strenuous efforts to prevent
the extension Of slavery to any portion OF the Fed
| eral territories.
We have never doubted the correctness Of the
principle contained in the Nebraska bill that the
residents of the Territories should determine for
themselves whether or not slavery should be re-
cognised there but we have always doubted the
| good policy of the passage OF that bill, and have
| never believed that the South could derive any
benefit from it. Practically, the South has gained
| nothing, and will probably never gain anything,
! by it except the mere assertion Of an abb
stract right It's passage by Congress was not IN
| tended as an act OF justice to the South IT was
made amere political hobby by which the South
was to be conciliated without the North's yielding
anything whatever, the hope being that the wa
ming fortunes of the Democratic party might thus
| be bostered up.
| Even the author of this bin, although he has
been held up to the South as perfectly sound upon
| the slavery question, has, in defending his pet
measure In the Free-soil States placed its defence
upon the ground that it was just what the Adolf
tionists needed to carry out their wishes. He CON
tended that the Missouri compromise line legalized
slavery south of that line, and only prohibited 1t
north of it; and that the repeal of the Missouri
compromise by the Kansas-Nebraska bill, opened
to Free-aoiism all the territory Of the Emitted States
on the south Of the compromise line. In his cele-
brated speech at Indianapolis, he advocated this
bill as measure which would certainly enure to
the benefit Of Free-soilism and which would, with
out doubt, and more truly than any other means
that could be devised consistent with the consttu-
ton aid the anti slavery Of the North to BE-
cure to Free-soilism all the Federal Territories.
Thus argued Stephen A. Douglas, the champion of
the Kansas Nebraska bill, and yet the Southern
Democracy point TO him as q model of nationality,
and ask the South to make the support of this
Kansas n ebraska bill the test of soundness upon
the slavery question. N
General Shields, lately the colleague of Douglas
in the United States Senate, maintained, in a
speech at Springfield Illinois, a similar position
Abiding to the passage OF the Nebraska bill, he
said
'Kansas and Nebraska were now free, and the
people there would keep them Free ' =
The establishment of slavery
in these Territories was not only improbable but
impossible. This
principle of non-intervention would not only keep
them such as they are now-free-bM aconld, by
its full and fair operation, If zoe acquire the Con-
tiaent to the Istlmus of Darie,,, work Nth smch
pooertia force and effect, that man could eter.
see another SLAVE State on this Continent"
There is, indeed, too much truth in the positions
of these Democratic friends Of the South The
North has a much larger population than the
- hac odv nf he nf Tho
foreign immigration, which is invariably in favor
of abolitonism its people can move to our new
Territories with ten times the facility with which
Southern men can break up their plantations and
transport their slaves to the far West; and the
peal Of the Missouri Compromise line has aroused
the Free-soil fanaticism of the North to the most
unusual and untiring zeal and energy in throwing
Free-soil population into the new Territories.
Thus, practically, the South-has lost rather than
gained by the passage OF the KansasN ebraska BILL
but, since it has become law, we would not sec
it repealed.
Its repeal would only serve TO infame the al
ready dangerous agitation OF the much-vexed and
xexatious question of slavery. In common with
the great mass Of conservative, Unon-loving men
/ North and South, we have acquesced in this mea-
sure and desire now to the slavery question for
evermore excluded from the debates in Congress,
but we do not think 1t safe for the South just to
either section Of the country to make the mere
support of or opposition to, the Kansas-N Nebraska
measure the only or even the highest test Of ma
tionaty for we have seen that this measure has
been opposed in the South by men whose fidelity
to the Southern interests and whose loyalty to the
Union cannot be questioned, and that It has
been supported in the North as measure espe-
cially favorable to the purposes of the ankest
Free-soilers
There is better and truer test Of nationality
by which the South may recognise its friends in
the North, and that is opposition to the Black Re
publican party, the Free-soil party par excellence
Let this test be applied to the political organiza
tions of the North, and it willsbe seen that the
American party is the only party there capable Of
efccting anything in which there can be found the
least semblance Of nationality, the least hope Of
justice to the South, or of safety to the Union.
The Senate Of Virginia have lately passed bill
for the voluntary enslavement Of a free negro Of
Southampton county. He is an old man, sixty
years Of age, and has been lately emancipated, but
is anxious to remain in the condition Of servitude
which he knows, by his own experience and obser-
walton, is the best and happiest condition for his
race. So numerous are applications Of this char
acter, that II has been found necessary to intro