The Empire County argus., 1855-11-03
The Issue of 1s5e-Union OF Dlsunion.

Whatever side issues may be raised in the cam
of 1856, there seems now to be no doubt but that
the real and vital point on which all the great par
ties will take one side or the other will be the sla
very question and as necessary incident union or
disunion. Ever since 1920, when the slavery ques-
ton first attained the prominence which gave it
national Importance, there have been large num-
bers of persons in the North and South who have
endeavored to shape our national legislation so as
to bear practically upon it the one in favor of
strcting slavery within the limits in which it exis
ted at that day, and the other seeking every oppor
tunity to enlarge its area and consolidate its pow
er The anti-slavery feeling first appeared in the
form of temperate free-soilism. Those who were
opposed to it content to initiate the crusade
by erecting legislative barriers to its extension
They had in view its ultimate abolition, but knew
that it must be destroyed not by assault, but by
siege. The first point in the long campaign upon
which they entered was to hem it in by free terri
tory. to use military phrase, circumvent it by
parallels of free States. They determined to set
down before it, as the Allies have sat down before
Sebastopol, using the Missouri Black line and sub
sequently the Wilmot proviso as trenches, under
cover of which, the phalanx of freedom might ap-
proach the southwestern border of slavery and COM
mence series of offensive operations against it,
The South early foresaw the tendency of the te-
dous but ultimately effective programme which
had been adopted and naturally became awake to
the necessity of peopling and annexing territory
south of the Missouri line, with slavery firmly in
corporated into its political and social constitution
They went into Congress with these schemes and
supported them with all the vigor and determina-
ton peculiar to Southern politicians. Opposition
upon the part of the slavery proscriptionsts begat
unprecedented jealousy as well as ardor upon the
part of the extensionists and in few years. from
the press of feeling both Sides all mask all dis
guse was thrown of-the anti-savery party assu-
ming the name of unqualified abolitonists and
~, ii, tbot &c
gandists. Since the date of this open and avowed
hostility, both of these great parties have been
struggling to thwart the policy of each other
The annexation of Texas, the fugitive slave bill,
the repeal of the Missouri black line by the passage
of the Nebraska Kansas act, although strictly con-
stitutonal, republican and democratic measures,
were and still are regarded by the aboitionsts as
great Southern triumphs-so great indeed, that the
repeal of the two latter measures were made the
issue in the late Northern elections and will be car
ried from thence into the House of Congress. They
will be the compelling element in the great effort
which must soon take place The aboitionists have
secured mai orty in the House of Representatives.
They are now ppe-layng for the election OF one OF
their turbulent and treacherous clan-Seward, per-
haps-to the Presidency, so that the whole of the
Executive patronage particularly that at the seat
of government and its immediate locality may be
made potential auxiliary in their efforts to repeal
the Fugitive Slave law and the restoration of the
Missouri Compromise The veto power will also
be safe. With majority in the House of Repre-
sentatives and an Executive and Cabinet, the Holy
Alliance would have but present obstacle left
them the Senate, which is so constituted that four
or five years must elapse, before, under the most
favorable auspices the Abolition element could be
strong enough to give effect to the action of the
Lower House. The ingenuity of the Holy Alliance
has, however, already suggested policy which for
atrociy of purpose and reckessness of design could
mot bovo from, n hron lose frYtia in
ent and unscrupulous in the of means than that
of the unta who head the dissolution movement
Seward, Sumner Chase, Wade and Wilson. If
they should succeed so far as to secure the election
of any of their clan to the Presidency in 1856,
they have proclaimed their intention to starve the
Senate into a concurrence with their legislative
scheme or, in other words, to tack on the appro-
priation bills the repeal of the Fugitive Slave law,
of the Nebraska Bill and the assertion of the Will
mot Proviso The Government must then cease
its functions altogether the Senate must acquiesce
This is the pan-the desperate plan-which was
mapped out by the Holy Alliance after the adjourn
menU of the last Congress, and by this system Of
coercion they expect to compel the South to acqui
esce in her own destruction to adopt the alterna-
tive of seeding from the Union.
The policy of tacking important domestic meas
to bills of appropriation or supply, is i'm
portant means of popular defence in a constitution
al monarchy, when the people seek to redress
grievances or aDrldge the arbitrary power OF the
sovereign but in democratic government, and
particularly in this instance, it would become an
instrument of popular despotism which never has
and never will be submitted to by minority. Any
attempt to exercise it would be the signal for disso-
luton and the South would secede. But it is ques-
tionable, for it is almost certain, that the South
would not wait for great provocation to with
draw The election Of either one of the Abolition
junta to the Presidency, would of itself determine
the existence of the confederacy. 1t would be in
consistent with the expressed determination of
Southern politicians, as well as their general course
upon the exciting question of slavery, to suppose
that they would submit to the domination of an
Abolition House of Representatives and listen to
the annual twaddle of President Seward or Sum-
ner on the horrors of slavery receive their sug
gestions as to the best for wi ping ii out for
ever. The Inauguration of an Abolition President
Or any attempt to coerce the repeal of the fugitive
slave law or the restoration of the Missouri black
line by the odous system of tacking, would compel
the South to renounce the present government and
erect confederacy of her own.
The Mayor of Marysville, in q late message,
says:
UThe yerv great dimnution in the water Of the