New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-05-17

grown to greatness BY the action Of the spirit
Of liberty developed through the misses. All
We are and all We hope to be as q people comes
from the difused sentiment Of freedom, the AS
sertion and maintenance of the doctrines Of the
Declaration Of Independence. Liberty is our
life Slavery ia our death. Hitherto in our
history the one has been the rule, the other the
exception. The national growth has been 10
spired by the ideas Of freedom. They have been
our boat and have marked our national career.
Slavery has been but an accident in our history.
The generation of men who achieved our ma
tional independence lsmented while they recog-
nized its existence. They won the regard and
the sympathy Of the world by freely acknowl-
edging this political incongruity aud By declar-
ing their sincere purpose TO remove It st the
earliest possible period. Thus our national
course began. Thus has it gone on. The
nation has now arrived at point
where it's path divides. The influences aud
the doctrines which have shaped America and
made her what she is ara now confronted and as
sailed by a new and contrary set of ideas. con-
test has arisen in which Slavery claims TO set
aside Freedom and rule in its place. The IA
ton is no longer to hold the exalted position il
occupied in the days of the Revolution and since
those days, as the tolerator rather than the
advocate and propagation of Slavery. Ii Is to
change fronts, and discarding its old vital doc
trines as set forth in the Declaration Of lnde-
pendence, il j. to be made substantially to de-
clare that Slavery is a natural and desirable
condition for large portion of the human race
to declare that we have outgrown the ideas of
Jefferson and Washington and Franklin, and
choose now to adopt new profession OF politi-
cal faith, based upon the old notions of human
inequality and the necessity OF ruling classes,
of d privileged oligarcby, such as underlie all
existing systems o. despotic government.
Ii is at this juncture, when the country is
separated into two great parties upon this vital
question, and when its settlement is imminent
and pressing, that these plattudes are thrust
upon the public attention. Instead of bold
and manly grasp of the real subjects of public
interest, we find political Know.Nothings and
See.Noibings venting wisby-washy jejunities BY
way of feeding the public appetite. We behold
juvenile efforts to iron down the huge rough
nesses of the time, and to breast back the cur
rent of public sentiment after t! fashion of
Mrs Partington's attempt to sweep from her
door-yard the rising food Of The Atlantic. We
even see Ex-Presidents quiddling about, with
flowing tears and sympathetic boo-hoos 20 lend
their aid in administering to tho public the pap
of these croning nurses of fools.
1t is not because the true questions to-day be-
fore the country not seen that this dribble is
sent to circulate through the public prints, but
it is because there is disposition to cover
them up or avoid their decision. 1t is the dis
position of feeble minds and timid hearts to
steer clear of important issues, or to adjourn
them over to other hands other times In
this tendency coupled with mole.eyed fanati-
cism active only for mischief, is to be found
the reason why the public mind is not resolutely
directed to the solution of the great political
question of this generation.
Why cannot all this rubbish be brushed way,
Ex-Presidents and all, and the question before
n. be looked boldly in the face Why cannot
nee deoi~ion be approached IN the spirit OF An
earnest and vigorous intelligence There is al
open attempt to change the essential ideas of
the Constitution. Instead of Government an
mated with the sentiment offreedom il is to draw
its inspiration solely from darkness and bondage.
II is to repudiste its antecedents, to renounce
all faith in human rights, and to build up new
structure whose base and material shall consist
of human wrongs. When such an attempt is in
progress are the free people of the North to be
deuded by the quackeries and shams of charla-
tans and will-o'-tbe -wispsl