Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-09-20

the Northern Democrats also, especially those
of New York, who had reflected, not without
some bitterness, on the political insignifcance
IN which they had so long been held. The
keeping out of new states, or the alteration
OF the Constitution as to the basis of Tepresen-
tation-to which proposal of Massachusetts,
re-echoed from Hartford, the other Northern
states had returned no answers at all, or unfa-
vorable ones-were projects too hopeless, as
well as too unpopular in their origin, TO be
renewed. The extension to the new terrific
nv west Of the Mississippi of the ordinance of
1877 against slavery, seemed to present a
much more feasible method of accomplishing
substantially the same object. This idea
spreading with rapidity, still further obliter-
ated old party lines, tending to produce, at
the North, a political union, for which the
Federalists had so often sighed, similar to
that which, prevailing throughout the South
for the last twenty years, had given to that
section so entire a control over the policy OF
the general government, both foreign and do
nestle"
during the whole session, now Just upon
its close, the excitement OF the members
had grown higher and higher. As the slave
holders had formerly persisted in continuing
the war with Great Britain, at the greatest
national hazards, solely for sailors rights, for
which, in fact they cared very little, and, if
cool, would have risked nothing so now the
Northern members, under a Ike impulse, seemed
ready, on behalf 0fthe free cOIOred population, for
rohOm they cared eDen less, If possible, than the
shareholders had Gor the sailors, to push The pend
ing quarrel to any extremity. So true is it, and
let it not be forgotten, that no class can exist
in any community so helpless and despised
that it may not become the very hinge on
which the fate of the nation shall turn
In a letter to LAFAYETTE, vol. Z, p. 194,
Mr.. JEFFERSON repeats the same idea:
1T is not a moral question, but one merely
of power. Its object is to raise a geographic
| cal principle for the choice of a president,
and the noise viii be kept up till that is effec-
ted. All know that permitting the slaves oil
the South to spread into the West will not
add one being to that unfortunate condition,
that it will increase the happiness of those
existing, and by spreading them over a larger
surface, will dilute the evil everywhere, and
facilitate the means of getting finally rid OF
it, an event more anxiously wished by those
on whom it presses than by the noisy preten.
ders to exclusive humanity. In the mean.
time, it is a ladder for rivals climbing into
power"
In a letter to old JOHN ADAMS. he gives ut
~terance to his anxiety for the future, vol. z
P. 200:
"Our anxieties in this quarter are all con
centrated in the question, what does the Ho
ly Alliance in and out of Congress meant
do with us on the Missouri question? AnC
this, by-the-bye, is but the name of the case
it is only the John Doe or Richard Roe o
the ejectment. The real question, as seel
in the States afflicted with this unfortunat
population, is, are our slaves to be presented
with freedom and a dagger? Fori if Congress
has the power to regulate the conditions o
the inhabitants Of the States, within tn
States, it will be but another exercise OF tina
power, to declare that all shall be free. Ar
we then to see again Athenian and Lacede
monian confederacies? To wag another Pc
~loponnesian war to settle the ascendency be
tween them? Or is this the tOcsin of merel.
"a servile war? That remains to be seen; bu
not, L hope, by you or me. Surely, they vii
parley awhile, and give us time to get out o
the way. What q Bedlamite is man?'