Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1856-12-06

beyond those previously assigned to Is, and that
such was its natural as well as its intended effect
and these baseless assumptions we're made, in The
Northern States, the ground Of uneeasiug assault
upon constitutional right ~
Toe repeal in terms of statute, which was
already obsolete, and also null for unconsttution
atty. could have no influence to obstruct or to
promote the propagation of conflicting views OF
political or social institutions When the act or
gan zng the Territories Of Kansas and Nebraska
was passed. the inherent effect upon thst portion
OF the public domain thus opened to legal settle
ment was to admit settlers from all the States OF
the Union alike, each with his convictions of pub.
lie policy and private interest, there to found in
their discretion subjectt TO such limitations as the
Constitution aud acts of Congress might prescribe,
new States, hereafter 10 be admitted into the
Union Tt was free field, open alike to all
whether the statute line of assumed restriction
were repealed or not. That repeal did not open
to free competition Of the diverse opinions and do
mestic institutions field, which, without such
repeal, would have been closed sgainst them; it
found that field of comprtition already opened, in
fact and in law. All the repeal did was to relieve
the statutebook of an Objectionable enactment,
unconstitutional in effect, and injurious in terms
to a large portion Of the States. ~ S
Is it the fact that, in ell the unsettled regions of
the United States if emigration be left free to act
10 this respect for ITSELF without legal prohibitions
on either side, slave labor will spontaneously 60
everywhere, in preference TO free labor2 Is j. the
fact that the peculiar domestic institutions of the
southern States possess relatively SO much of vigor
that, wheresoever an avenue is freely open to ell
the world, they will penetrate TO the exclusion of
those of the northern Statesl Is 1t the fact that
the former enjoy, compared with the latter, such
rresstiblY superior vitality, Independent of eli.
mate, soil, and all other accidental circumstances,
m ha nh IN no sad in
spite of the assumed moral and natural obstacles
to its accomplishment, and of the more numerous
population of the northern States2 ia, -s
The argument of those who advocate the enact
ment of new laws of restriction, and condemn the
repeal of old ones in effect AYERS that their par
ticular views of government have no sefextend-
ing or selsustaining power of their own, and will
20 no wi ere unless forced by act of Congress-
And if Congress do but pause for moment in the
policy of stern coercion; if it venture to try the
experiment of leaving men to Judge for them
selves what institutions will best suit them if it
be not strained up to perpetual legislative exer
ton on this point; if Congress proceed thus to
act in the very spirit of liberty, it is at once
charged with aiming to extend slave labor into all
the new Territories of the United States.
Of course, these imputations on the intentions
of Congress Ia this respect, conceived they were
in preiudne, and disseminated in passion, are ut
L6fiJ uocLIubO Vi huy III uhLuTc Oh
| things, and contrary to all the fundamental doc
trines and principles Of civil liberty and and self
government.
While, Therefore in general, the people of the
northern States have never at any time, arrogated
for the federt government the power to interfere
directly with the domestic condition of persons in
the southern States, but on the contrary have dis.
| avowed all such intentions and have shrunk from
| conspicuous affiation with those few who pursue
l boir fova iix1
| templated means OF revolutionary change of the
government and with acceptan q Of the necessary
consequences-a civil and ssrvile war-yet many
citizens have suffered themselves to be drawn into
| one evsnescent political issue of agitation after
another, sppertaining to the same set of opinions,
and which subsidized as rapidly as they arose when
it cane to be seen, as it uniformly did, that they
| were incompatible with the compacts of the Con-
stitution and the existence of the Union. Thus,
when the acls of some of the States to nully the
| existing extradition law imposed upon Congress
| the duty of passing new one, the country was
invited by sgitators to enter into party orgsniza
on for its repeal; bat that agitation speedily
ceased by reason of the impractioabity of its OBJ
| ject. So, when the statute restriction upon the
| institutions of new States, by geographical line,
had been repealed, the country was urged to de-
msnd its restoration, and that project also died al
most with its birth. Then followed the cry of
alarm from the North against imputed southern
| encroschments; which cry spraug in reality from
the spirit of revolutionary attack on the domestic
Institutions of the South and after troubled ex-
istence OF few mo aths, has been reblked by the
voice of a patriotic people
OF this last az tItion, one lamentable feature
was, that it was carried on at the immediate ex-
pense of the peace and happiness of the people of
the Territory of Kansas That was made the
attle6eld, not SO much of opposing factions or in
terests within ITSELF as of the conflicting passions
of the whole people of the United States Rey)l.
utonsry disorder in Kansas had its origin in pro.
ects of Intervention, deliberately arranged by GER
tain members of Congress which enacted the
law for the organization of the Territory. Aud
when propaganJist colonisation of Kansas had
thus been Undertaken 10 one section of the Union,
for the systematic promotion of its peculiar views
of policy, there ensued as q matter Of course a
counteraction with opposite views in other sections
Of the Union.
In consequences of these and other incidents.
many acts Of disorder, it is undeniable have been
perpetrated in Kansas, to the occasional Interrupt
ton, rather than the permanent suspension Of reg
ular government Aggressive and most reprehen-
sbe incursions into the Territory were underta-
ken, both in the North and the South and entered
it on its northern border by way of Iowa, as well
as on the eastern by way Of Missouri; and there
has existed within it state of insurreoton against
Inc constituted duI1OrlLlos, not without c0u1te-
nance from inconsiderate persons in each of the
great sections of the Union. But the difficulties
in that Territory have been extravagantly exag-
gerated for purposes of political agitation else
where The number end gravity of the acts of
violence have been magnifed partly by statements
entirely untrue, and partly by reiterated accounts
of the same rumors or facts Thus the Territory
has been seemingly filed with extreme violence,
when the whole amount of such acts has not been
greater than what occasionally passed before us in
single cities to the regret of all good citizens, but
without being regarded as Of general or political
consequence.
Imputed irregularities in the elections had in
Kansas, like ocosgional irregularities Of the same
description in the States, were beyond the sphere
OF action Of the Executive. But incidents of &C
tual violence of organised obstruction of law,
pertinaciously renewed from time to time, have
been met as they occurred, by snch means as were
available and as the circumstances required; and
nothing of this character now remains to affect the
general peace of the Union The attempt of part |
of the inhabitants of the Territory to erect revo-
lutiOnary government, though sedulously encour- |
aged and supplied with pecunary aid from active |
agents of disorder in some of the States has COM
petey failed. Bodies of armed men, foreign to |
the Territory, have been prevented from entering
or compelled to leave it. Predatory bands, en-
gagged in acts of rapne under cover of the existing
political disturbances, have been arrested or dis
persed. And every well disposed person is now
enabled once more to devote himself in peace to |
the pursuits of prosperous industry for the prose
cutiOn of which he undertook to participate in the
Of the Territory.
1t affords me unmngled satisfaction thus to an