The Union and eastern journal. [volume] (Biddeford [Me.]) 1854-1858, 1856-04-25

utmost to bring tho rank ana me in" 'a'
support of slavery, and the policy It do
tates. To this end Official power and intin'
ence government officers, Its postmas-
ters, collectors, and its thousands OF Agents
who swarm through the land, are employed
to secure the circulation of papers and doc
umenh which inculcate specious views OF
federal powers, in regard to the rights Of
Shareholders and Slavery. Doctrines eI.
pressly antagonistical to those which led to
the establishment Of the government, and Of
war with the idea Of Republican equality
and from which the democmtic mind of the
| North would have shrink with horror twen-
ty years ago, are promulgated with aston
ishing boldne@ through their organs. Are
not these things 20? We leave the answer
Of this question to those who are familiar
with the history of the dcmocntic party
We leave It to rejecting men who seriously
bordering over the past, and pervadcd witha
sincere desire, for the continuance Of that
freedom, which was won by the fires and
struggles of the revolution, look anxiously
into the future, and perceiving the tenden-
cies of this debauching Of the public mind
to the uses of slavery, see in, the hasty strides
of the South, the danger to oil liberty.
All around us ore the evidences Of this
approach of the Democratic party to the
ground of slayery-the Postmaster in his
Office sending his letters, ordering for clubs
largo numbers Of papers that openly advo-
cate slavery and the slave trade, is IN EVIL
dence; the protesting christian subscribing
for such papers, another; the mcrccnary
editor of the democratic organ whose pen is
moved by the spoils off collectorship, to as
sert the accurscd hcresy that State may e.
tablish slavery, still another; the voice Of q
whole party palliating and justifying Dor
der ruffanism, another, the spirit Of subser-
yicncy which candidates for exalted Offices
exhibit, all are evidences going to show that
the democratic party under southern guild
ance has become simplya party to spread
and nationalize slavery, and whoever sup
ports II hereafter does but show himself to
be believer in slavery, and is preparing
himself to accept whatever its insatiatespirit
demands, not excepting tho making Of free
States, slave, or the revival Of all the horrors
of the African slave trade.
Slavery is ever aggressive, it thrivOs only
by aggression, and it has at last reached q
point in this country when it is striving for
the overthrow of freedom itself The Kan
sas question is not local one, beneath 1t, is
the question Of liberty saved, or slavery tri-
umphant. For the first time really in the
history of our country, has slavery and free
dom met toe to toe, and grappled for the as
tendency. Slavery has been nursing its
strength for the contest, again md again has
it invigorted itself, by carrying some of the
outposts Of freedom, and now, in the plenti-
tude Gifts strength, and relying upon trait
ors standing upon freedoms soil, it hopes
to carry the citadel itself. The South with
a courage and boldness worthy of a better
cause puts forward this view, its press speaks
of the pending struggle, as one of life and
death, The North must accept the issue
.
thus forced upon 1t.
Kansas free, and the wave Of slavery il
driven back. Kansas slave, and the black
stream pours itself without restraint over
the virgin soil of unnumbered acres ofprai-
ric, mountain and valley of the faircst ter
titorries of the republic.
"Thcy enslave their children's children
who make compromise with sim"
Accepting this oracular response from the
Delphic cave, let the north 60 forth to the
struggle, for freedom. There is yet we hope
in the hearts Of the democratic masses,
; that stern attachment to the principles and
teachings of the fathers of the republic,
which will cause them to turn aside from
the pestilential heresies which the leaders Of
the false democracy are striving to inculcate
and to meet in the manliness Of freemen and
with stern rebuke, those who are striving to
commit them to views and measures which
would extend and nationalizc slavery.
Shall we shut up slavery, or extend it?
This is the question to be answered.