Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-05-10
From the Sentinel OF June "a, 1854.
False Rumors.

From the Sentinel OF June "a, 1854.
False Rumors.
Rumors are ahoat, in this city of rumors, re-
lative to the appointment of a governor for the
Territory Of Kansas. 1t is said that the Presi-
dent has rendered, or is about to tender, that
office to an individual from non -slaveholding
State, whose opinions upon the territorial bill
are either unsound or unknown. To such ru-
NOR we give no credence. We cannot, we do
not, believe that the President can for mo-
ment think Of frustrating, by his patronage, the
design of bill which he countenanced in all
its stages, and to which he gave his ready sane
ton as law.
Recent developments have shown that the
Kansas Territory is in the highest degree
adapted to slave labor, and that the equal laws
of labor if unchecked by wilful and organized
opposition, must inevitably introduce the insti-
tuition of slavery there. Thus the abstract
principles set forth in the territorial bill are in
vested with practical results of the highest I'M
portance; results, however, that may be easily
defeated by an unjust and unfair organization
of the territorial government.
If, however, these rumors be true, what bene
fit is the south to derive from the provisions Of
the law? What loss is abolition to sustain by
its passage? The result would be bare alb
straction, impalpable as air: the will Of Con-
gress nulifed and abrogated by the voice of the
President. We would greatly have preferred
the Constitution, than the absolute but indirect
veto resulting from an unequal disposition OF
his patronage.
1t should be remembered that the relative
position of the northern and southern sections
of the Union, with reference to the provisions
of this bill, are entirely different. The former
have but negative. interest; the latter posi-
tive one. With the former, no interest but that
resulting from settlement of the territory is
at stake. With the latter, the stronger and
more sacred interests of property are involved
in the contest. Nothing in the administration
of the government of the territory-nothing in
the future organization of a. State can prevent
the free immigration of northern men into that
country. Much may be done by the admins
tration OF that government, and the Constitu-
ton of that State, to prevent the admission of
the property of the southern emigrant. In the
one case fanaticism and abolition may triumph
over the declared objects of the bill in the
other, nothing can result but fair and equal
emigration of all classes, of all sections, and of
all interests. There is no endeavor on the part
of the stakeholder to prevent the ingress even
of abolition adventures into the common terri
tory of the Union; there is a studied design
and concerted action on the part of the Adolf
tionists to deny and prevent the admission Of
southern property, and hence of southern men
into that Territory. Men from the north, of
all classes and all opinions, come to the South
ern States with all their property and are well
coined there. Men from the south emigrating
to Southern States, who touch in tansitu at a
northern port, are deprived of their property,
and derided, and spurned for their appeals to
justice. Such would be the result in a new
country, if once, by direct or indirect means
abolition should raise its black, piratical flag
there.
Let it not be supposed that the appointment
of southern man, or of a sound constitutional
supporter of the bill as Governor of Nebraska
would be a fair qaid pro quo for an unsound
Governor of Kansas. In the former, nature
herself and the laws which govern labor, may
have placed their stern veto upon the existence
of slavery to an advantageous extent. In the
latter, nature and those laws welcome slavery
as the cheapest, most profitable, and most de-
sirable species of labor. Thus the Governor Of
Nebraska, though taken from the very heart of
the south, may not effect the introduction Of
slavery there; while the Governor of Kansas
and the territorial organization Of which his
appointment is but an index, may effectually
prevent its introduction in that country.
Nor is this all. The contiguity Of Kansas to
the slaveholding States, and particularly to Mis-
sour, points US to them as the natural sources
whence the first tide of emigration will flow.
Is it not, therefore, an object of great import
ance that the confidence of these men should
be obtained, in the security and protection Of
their property when they have located in that
Territory? And can this confidence be better
secured than by the appointment of southern
man Of like feelings and Of like associations
with themselves2 Would they not hesitate be-
fore they would remove to country organized
by men Of different opinions, even though they
might incline to be sound in the maintenance
Of the principles Of the bill? Nay, more, from
the developments Of the recent movements of
the people of Missouri, we see the strongest
feeling of dislike existing there to the syste-
matte and organized opposition at the north to
their emigration with their property. And
while we do not think that government should
yield to popular feeling, expressed in violent
terms, yet it is the part of correct admins
tration to endeavor to reconcile dissentions,
and to allay the elements of strife, when it can
do SO without violation of the principles by
which it should be guided.
- tnSIo Oo Two IeIIlJOrlal governments 10 De
organized, one Of which is adapted to slavery,
and the other is not and if there be design
to select one of these governors from the south
and the other from the north, then, upon every
principle of common justice, nay, Of common
sense, the southern man should be appointed
governor Of that Territory to whose natural in.
stitutions he is favorable, and with the senti.
ments of whose people he is allied
We do not mean to say that no northern man
is to be trusted in this position. The gallant
supporters of the principles Of that bill from the
north-those sound statesmen, who are guided
alone by the charter Of the Constitution
pure patriots, who, unswayed by prejudice, look
with eyes single to the glory and prosperity Of
their common country, may furnish many man
who is trustworthy upon this or any subject.
But the same principles which guided them in
their course, in reference to that measure, will
point them to the propriety and the justice Of
the course which we have suggested.
The governors of the Territories Of Washing
ton, OF Oregon, Of Minnesota, of New Mexico,
and Of Utah are, with one solitary exception,
from the north. Is there then not one from the