The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-07-12


IDENTITY following in the line Of its precedents.
The more sanguine among us, / am aware,
have regarded the repeal Of the Missouri Com
promise as a God-send. They have argued
that Northern endurance, already taxed to the
utmost, would sink under such weight; that
the Slave Power would thus dig its own grave;
and that wicked institutions must ALWAYS grow
to their full stature and display all their inhe-
rent enormity, before men will earnestly engage
in their overthrow. l confess ] cannot feel en-
couraged BY this line Of argument 1t has fla
vored cur Anti Slavery dishes on other occa-
sions, when the Slave Interest has trampled
down our rights 1t has DO Just application to
the contest between the free and the slave
States for, if it he true that our acquiescence
in one scheme of aggression emboldeus the
South to concoct another still more fragrant
and alarming, it is likewise true that it prepares
the North to submit to it. The enormity of Sla-
very is lost upon us, when displayed by such
process. Not submission to despotism, but re-
sistdHce, is the true method of deliverance
from it. We need have no fears that the dew
ilish attributes of Slavery will not be exhibited,
without any guilty help from us. The Ne
braska and Kansas act of 1854 Is a natural
fruit of the Compromise measures of 1859, end
is in no respect more hagitious in principle.
1t is only sprout from Daniel Webster's
grave. The AntiSlavery sentiment that sub
mitted to the former, viii aequiesce in the lat
ter. Indeed, the very ground on which this
new outrage has been generally opposed, proves
our repugnance to Slavery to be shallow and
insincere. The popular argument against it has
been ats breach Of an ancient and solemn COM
pact, made for the security of Freedom north
of the parallel of SO 30/ Of north latitude"
Sir, thoroughly baptized Ant-Slavery people
would have lost sight of any bargain with Sla-
very, in its unhallowed conspiracy to blast an
empire by its whitening power. | oppose Sla-
very upon principle. / hold it to be wrong, IN
principle, for one man to be the owner of an
other, to deny him fair days wages for fair
days work, to rob him of the hottest ties of
life, and sell him on the auction block as a
chsttel, to take from him his Bible, and close
against him the avenues of knowledge, to ami
hlate the institution of marriage, and spread
RIGHTEOUSNESS and crime over the land This
regard as unutterably wicked, independ-
ent of any compact, or compromise, by which
Slavery and Freedom may have assumed to
dispose of their possessions according to GER
tain geographical lines. Hence bate Slavery
wherever | can find it, from the North Pole
down to thirty-siX degrees and thirty minutes
north latitude; and when | get there, | go
right on hating it all round the globe, wherever
/ can trace its Shiny footsteps. / confess I
have not yet mastered the slippery philosophy
by which some men loathe and execrate it on
the north side of particular line, and then
transfgure it into all blessedness and beauty
by the magic of mere. parallel of latitude.
This cheap and popular method Of hating Sa-
very geographically may do for an Anti Ne
braska man, but it will not do for an Anti STA
Gerry man. 1t may accord with the frigid tenn
per and technical ethics of the mere politician,
or the dOughface, but it will not satisfy the
deep. fervent, uncompromisiug spirit of the
Abolitonist Opposition to Slavery, as an out
rage upon man and a crime against God, as
an evil essentially Internal in its very nature
this alone will avail us of any bona fde en-
counter with our Southern masters; and this
| regret to say, has not been the controlling
element in the late popular demonstrations in
the Northern States.
To prove that the Anti-Nebraska excitement
was the product of political rather than moral
causes, of transient influences, rather than deep
rooted convictions, ! might refer to a kindred
fact. The stereotyped watchword of the people
was, "the restoration of the Missouri Compro-
mise" 1t is true, that in several States the
Anti-Savery demand went beyond this, but this
was the effective rallying cry in marsballing thu
different wings of the movement under a COM
mon banner. 1t was deceptive. and therefore
victories that were achieved upon IT, I most
cordially welcome whatever blessings thew NAV
bring in their train. l rejoice that the Admin
istration has been rebuked, and rebuked with
emphasis; and that although no intelligent man
could have believed the restoration of the bro
ken compromise practicable thing there was
yet manifested an unmistakable purpose to
brand with public Reproduction the perfdy that
had destroyed it. The malady of the party in
power demanded the physic thus administered.
But the issue, | insist, was unworthy Of the
crisis. 1t was an instrument on which very
different tunes could be played. 1t had a face
looking both North and South. The policy Of
restoring the Compromise, in one Of its aspects,
was anti-slavery, since 1t would prevent the
cause from spreading over soil that was free:
but in others it was incuraby pro-slavery. To
restore this Compromise would be to propitiate
the spirit of compromise, which has been the
great curse of our cause. 1t would be to re-af
firm the binding obligation of compact that
should never have been made, and from which
we should seek the first favorable opportunity
of deliverance. 1t would be TO recognise the
Slave Power as an equal and honorable con.
tracing party, waving its violated faith. and
thus precluding US from pleading its per6dy in
discharge of all compromises from the begin.
ming. 1t would be to go back, by the shortest
and cheapest route, to the compromise meas
ures of 1850, and the Baltimore platform Of
1852, instead of forward to the platform of the
Free Democracy. 1t would be to degrade our
cause to the level of those who studiously wash
their hands of all faint Of Abolitionism, and
only wage war against the Administration be-
cause it broke up the blessed reign of peace
which descended upon the country in the year
1850. Sir, had we in the North been animated
by a spirit equal to the crisis, we would have
said to our Southern friends, 4" We do not ask
you to restore the Missouri Compromise. The
breach you have made is one we do not desire
to heal in that method, but we are resolved To
march through it to the fullest assertion of our
constitutional rights. We do not mean to NAV
into your hands under hypocritical mask. or
attempt the folly of firing a double battery
against Freedom and Slavery at the same time.
but we mean to avail ourselves Of your treacb
cry, in building up the very cause you have
sought to destroy. You have trampled upon
your plighted faith to US, that Kansas and Ne.
braska shall be free, by ruthlessly breaking
down the wall which guarded them; and now,
by way of redressing the wrong YOU have done
US, and as some atonement for it, we not only
demand that these Territories shall be presery-
ed free by law, but that all territory shall be
thus preserved, whether at present owned or
hereafter to be acquired by the Government;
that not another slave State shall ever be add
ed to this Union, either from Utah, New Mexi-
60, the State of Texas, or elsewhere; that the
Fugitive Slave Act shall be Internationally re-
pealed that Slavery in our National District
shall be abolished; and, in fine, thar the curse
shall be hurled back upon the States which il
scourges, to live if it can, or die if it must bv
its own local enactments. You have made
manifest your purpose to nationalize Slavery in
his Republic; we now proclaim our fixed pur-