Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1856-12-18
WHOLE No. 2g5.
and principles Of civil liberty and self
Uovorpn,ont


government.
While. therefore. in general, the
people of the Northern States have
never, at any time, arrogatad. for the
federal government the power to inter-
fere directly with the dome site con-
ditiOn of persons in the Southern
{ States, but on the contrary have dis
avowed all such intentions, ard have
shrunk from conspicuous afiiIiation
with those who pursue their fanaticaI
objects avowed through the coutem-
plated means of revolution ary change
Iof the government, aud with aceep-
tance Of the necessary consequences
"a civil and servile war-yet mary
citizens have suffered the mselves to
be drawn into one evaDescent pollt-
ical issue of agitation after another
appertaining to the same set of opin-
ions, and which subsided as rspidly
as they arose when it came to be
seen, as it uniformly did, that they
were incompatible with the eompacts
of the Constitution and the existence
of the Union.
Thus, when the acts of seme Of
the States to nullify the existing cx-.
tradition law imposed upon Congress
the duty of psssing1a new one, the
country was invited by agitators to
enter into party organization for its
repeal; but that agitation speedily
ceased by reason of the impracticabil-
ity of its object. So, shen the stat. :.
ute restriction upon the institution Of
new States, bya geographical line
had been repealed, the country was
urged to demand its restoration, and
that project also died almost with its
birth. Then followed The cry Of alarm
from the North against imputed
Southern encroachment.; which cry
sprang in reality from the spirit of
revolutionary attack on the domestic
institutions of the South, and after
troubled existence of a few months,
has been rebuked by the voice of
patriotic people.
Of this last agitation, one lament
able feature was, that it WIS carried
on at the immediate expense of the
peace and happiness, of the people
of the Territory Of Kansas. That
was made the battlefield, no so much
Of opposing factions Of interest within
itself, as of the conflicting passions
of the whole people Of the United
States. Revolutionary disorder in
Kansas had its origin in projects Of
intervention, deliberately arranged
by certain members of that Congress,
which enacted the law for the organ.
ization of the Territory. And when
propagandist colonization Of Kansas
had thus been undertaken in one Sec
ton of the Union, for the systematic
promotion Of its peeuliar views of
policy, there ensued as a matter Of
course. a counteraction with oppo-
site views, in other sections of the
Union.
In consequence Of these and 9TH
er incidents, many acts Of disorder,
it is undeniable, have been perpetra-
ted in Kansas, to the occasional inter-
ruption, rather than the permanent
suspension of regular government
Aggressive and most reprensible ia-
eursiOns into the Territory were un-
dertak en- both in the North and in
South, and entered it Oh It's northern
border, by the way of Iowa, as well
as on the eastern by way of Miss
ouri; and there has existed within it
a state of insunection against the
constituted authorities, not without
countenanee from inconsiderate per-
sons in each of the great sections Of
the Union. But the difficulties in
that Territory have been eztravagant-
ly exaggerated for purposes Of polit-
ical agitation elsewhere. The num-
Der and gravity Of the acts of VIC
lenee have been magnified partly by
statements entirely untrue, and partly
by reiterated accounts of the same
rumors OF facts. Thus the Territory
has been seemingly filed With ex-
treme violence, when the whole
amount of such acts has not been
greater than what occasionally passes
before us in single cities to the regret
Of all good citizens, but without be-
ing regarded as of general or political
consequence.
Imputed Irregularities of the elec-
tons had in Kansas, like occasional
irregularities Of the same description
in the States, were beyond the sphess