The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-10-06
Free Lands and Free Men.

The real question at issue between the
North and the South in the present con-
test, is not sentimental difference grow
ing out of the oppression of the negro,
but whether free settlers shall be allowed
70 occupy the free lands of the nation,
in the enjoyment of free institutions, or
be excluded from them.
There are, in this great nation of
twenty five millions, but 345, ,525 slave
holders, great and small, male and fe-
male /; and this squad, contemplate in
point of numbers, not only claims the
power to lord it absolutely over three and
a half millions of negroes, but a right
to almost exclusive possession of our
national Territories.
Against this arrogant claim to the Ter
ritories the people of the North are call
ed to set themselves determinedly. If
it is once recognized and admitted they
will be shut out forever from the heritage
which is theirs by every consideration
of fairness and justice.
For it has come to this, as we are now
learning from the events transpiring in
Kansas, that the STAKEHOLDER and the free
settlers cannot peaceably occupy the
same Territory together The former
will not suffer the latter to become his
neighber. upon terms of equality. The
non- STAKEHOLDER who seeks home whore
slavery exists, must either sink into an
inferior class and be content to take the
place assigned them by their slaveholding
neighboF, or find themselves driven off
violently, with insult and scorn.
Proof of this is found in almost every
paragraph of intelligence which comes
to us from Kansas. The free settlers of
that Territory are assailed by every vile
epithet in the vocabulary threatened
with the halter and many minor indig-
mites; driven by force from their homes,
and denied their rights as citizens and
their legislative power usurped by a band
tof ruffians, and bloody laws enacted to
punish them forthe crimes OF. humanity
and free utterance. So far as mere
| physical power can dominate over them,
they are now subject to imprisonment and
death for offences which have no ex-
istence but in the iniquitous statutes
framed by slaveholding bullies. In a
short time, if the public sentiment of
| the North does not soon work change,
/ evvIy seutler fiUI the free States i'll Kan
sas will be driven from it.
The question then is, since the two
cannot, in the nature of things, occupy
the Territories together, which shall be
excluded ? Shall it be the millions of
the free North, or the few thousands of
Shareholders in the South ?
There is no avoiding this question:
Mr.. Brodhead, in the name of northern
democracy, declares that the STAKEHOLDER
has perfect and indisputable right to
take his slave property with him into the
national Territories and if we acknowl-
edge this right, We cut ourselves off
from going into the same Territories
with our property. Must we give up
our right that he may enjoy his ? Or
shall we feel bold enough to dispute his
right, (and undoubtedly it is questiona-
bic in every aspect, and say that the
inalienable rights of millions must not
be made to give way to the doubtful
claim of few thousands ? One or the
other must yield which shall it be?
The States and Territories now sacred
to freedom will soon be fully occupied
Ohio is thoroughly settled; Indiana,
/ M;nL,o., lViSonnoi1 ood Illinois aro
rapidly filling up; and Iowa and Min
nesota will soon be unable to afford a
resting place for the tens of thousands
annually pressing to the West. In few
years there will be no outlet for our re-
dundant population. In the meantime,
here are Kansas and Nebraska tempt
ing paradise land flowing with milk
and honey, set apart by violence to the
sole use of shareholders, its soil stained
by the blood of fee northern men, who
have vainly sought home there, and its
borders guarded by wall Of terrible
enactments against the advancing tide
of free settlers. To its fair acres our
claim is good against all the world !;
yet We cannot set foot upon it. The
working man, the mechanic, the farmer
or the artisan of the North who desires
to find dwelling place within its
bounds, is shut out that the southern ma
bobs may have undisturbed possession.
1t is question, then which comes
home to every northern man, whether
he be opposed to slavery or merely In
different to it. The struggle now begun
is a struggle TO preserve free homes for
free men. 1t is not so much a question
of black as of white slavery: for if the
free settlers of the nation are to be con-
fined within the present limits OF the
free States, and the shareholders to have
uncontrolled and unlimited range of the
rest, it requires no prophets eye to see
what will follow.
The highest interests of the North.
therefore, are involved in this contest
We are not fighting for the liberty of
the black, but for our own self-preserva-
ltion. With large majority in popula-
tion, and an immense preponderanee in
resources, the free States are in danger
of being walled in. Fifteen millions OF
people, from whose midst constant
stream of emigration is flowing west
ward, are to be denied all access to the
free regions of the West, because 345,-
525 Shareholders want the Territory for
their own exclusive use. Will the hardy
sons Of toll, the enlerprising, industri-
Gus, home-seeking men of the North
consent to be imprisoned within their
present bounds. by this insignificant
handful Of zmen9 Let them answer for
themselyes.-Pi Pitstsrgk Gazette.
g The opponents of any idea, found
ed on reason and common sense. are like