Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-09-01
"THE UNION IN DANGER !"

AhNiS ~ 81 l. AANAAS va nv 'HO
savers This glorious confederacy is in immi-
nent danger The good ship of State is surg
ing ahead directly on the breakers which are
to dash her to pieces ! So say the slavery
propagandists, and SO echo their adjuncts and
tools the Northern dough-faces. The Repub-
lican party now arouscs the apprehensionS of
the Union saving gentry. If the North com
bines to rescue the country from the political
dominion of slavery-if parties are given up
for the good of the country-if the North dare
to present obstacles in the way of the extern
sion of slavery-this confederacy is not worth
four pence ha'penny. So says the South, and
so reiterates Northern men, chuck full of APP
prehension and patriotism.
This cry of Wolf-this threatened danger
to the Union, allow us to say, is becoming very
stale. 1t has answered the purposes of the
South often enough. 1t no longer frightens
Northern freemen from their propriety, nor
awakens apprehensionS or alarm. Not that
the evils of disunion are not fully appreciated
but we clearly understand that the Union is of
ten-fold more value to slavery than to freedom,
and that disunion would be suicidal to the
South. 1t is hardly worth while to speculate
upon such a result, because the South has no
tecting her peculiar institution-in providing
for her safety from foreign invasion-for carry
ing her mails-and for supporting a National
poor-house for her paupers.
The Union somehow is only in danger when
the shareholders are plotting to extend the in
stitution. Then it very suddenly becomes in
very great danger of dissolution. Fortunate
ly, the catastrophe never quite happens. a
band of selfsacrificing, ardent, devoted, union
saving, patriotic statesmen step in just as the
Union is all going to smash, and by compro-
missing, save the country. That is, the North
gives way, and the South gets all she asks and
the Union is no longer in danger.
Just now, the danger arises from the feeling
at the North in regard to the Repeal of the
Missouri Compromise. Alarmed at the popu-
lar demonstrations, the Southern press has
simultaneously raised a shout. Secession, mill
tary preparations, legislative enactments, are
spoken of as the remedy,-or rather as the al
tentative, unless the North allows slavery to
be forced upon the settlers of Kansas. To
show our readers how hypocritical are those
alarmists, we make the following extract from
an article in the Washington Star, in regard
to the Republican party =
As this new party gains strength at the North, demon
STATIONS against the continuance of the Union, if aboli-
tionism bids fair to be installed in its government. must
so increase throughout the South as to excite greatly
against the so-called Republican party all Northern men
whose profits and property may be involved in the con-
tinuance OF the Union. Year by year, through the aggre-
CATION OF capital, the power of that class il becoming
greatly increased, Notwithstanding the Increasing popu-
larity OF extreme radicalism in the non-slavehoIding States.
That power has not yet been brought into play but Sc
rlous danger to the Union, from the increasing political
strength OF abolltlonSm, will not long hence compel its
eXertion when it will be found equal to the emergency
or we are greatly mistaken in our estimation of the politi-
cal elements of the times.
is mt that a cool confession The weak
nerves of Northern dough-faces have become a
regular element in politics, and are counted
upon as no small power in carrying out the
plans of the South. Ambition and interest are
to overcome principle ; and q show of buster
and braggadocia, are the arguments which the
South expects will, as a last resource, frighten
the North into acquiescence with the extension
of slavery.