Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1856-06-19

SUBJECT OF slavery III tue ItItllotlco Is ttldl OF
aoa-intarertioa. If to let the people exercise
their own judgment IN their own peculiar az
fairs, if RPublicaaim be pro- Slavery, then
our platform is pro Slavery otherwise not
Hands of by Congress or the States, is Demo
cratic doctrine. Let the people oftho Terri
tories alone settle their own questions.
o.
or Speaking Of the SUMNER assault the
Washington correspondent of the n. Y. Post,
writes
The result Of this occurrence Is 10 bring big
canes and TeyOlyers into more general use
Many of The Northern representatives go pro
yided with pistols, and Congress il now filled
with armed men. With the intense bitterness
of sectional feeling now raging, the slightest
accident may turn the halls Of legislation into
the arena Of bloody strife, for the consequences
. Of which those who have set the example will
be alone responsible Indeed, even before the
/ late outrage, was told by representative that
in searching for his Overcoat, having had occa-
sion to take hold Of nine others, every one con
tanned pistol.
The state OF things depicted by the cores
pondent Of the Posi-, is justly attributed to
the intense bitterness Of sectional feeling
now raging. 1t becomes, therefore, the duty
Of every man to look about him and see who
are the instigators of that bitter sectional
feeling which threatens to turn our halls of
legislation into an arena of bloody strife, and
to array the people of one section Of the
Union in open aud implacable hostility to
those of another section. We venture 10 say
the speech of Senator SUMNER has accom-
plshed more to this end, by hundred
fold, than all the personal encounters between
members of Congress that have occurred
since the organization of our governments
Collisions between individuals occur from
the violence of momentary passion. The
feelings Of the combatants are confined to
the parties themselves or il shared at all, it
is only by few of their more intimate per-
sonal friends The affair serves as top
ic of convcrsa alton for the moment--a sort of
"nine days wonderland is forgotten. Not
so, however, with such carefully prepared
and deliberately aimed phillipics rs that of
Senator SUMNER. The effect produced by
the studiously offensive material of which
they are composed, is not momentary, but
lasting. Il is, moreover, cumulative, as
this very affair" between Brooks and
SUMMER most clearly shows. The tendency
Of the speech was not only to arouse section
al feeling but to provoke personal attack
upon the author by Fir. Brooks. This at
tack adds fuel to the flame, till the hackers
Of SUMNER themselves are forced to ac-
knowledge that the slightest accident may
turn Tie halls Of legislation into he arena Of
bloody strife"
If such state of thing is the legitimate
consequence Of the war of WORDS with which
the fanaticsl leaders of the Black Republi-
can party seek TO overwhelm the South,
what would it be if it were w,ar of deeds and
not IoOrls7 Let-us suppose, fF a moment
that these mon whose very miss ion it seems
to be to arouse the most intense bitterness Of
sectional feeling, Were clothed with the full
panoply of power in tic several branches of
our National GoveraE. ent. What think We,
would then be the result? If their words
mean any thing, they would not stop at any
thing short OF a complete Revolution. The
work of encroachment would begin by inter
dieting slavery in the District Of Columbia
and the Territories, and the refusal to admit
any more slave States. True, this would re
a violation Of the spirit aud intent Of the
Constitution but what are constitutions in
the minds of such men who "know of no
rule of interpretation but their own wild fan
cies, and are 10 be guided only by rude and
fanatical theories" On such principles Of
construction any amount Of power might be
usurped and would he usurped. by these
new tangled doctors of Constitutional law.
The whole country would be outraged, every
interest injndiciorsly meddled with, the
cheek and balance between the sovereign
states and tlse great eternal power broken up,
and our whole system Of self-government
and constitutional liberty fall to the earth, a
shapeless mass of ruins. Then, would the
intruse bitterness of sectional feeling, of
which she correspondent of the Post speaks,
reach us eliminating point. Then would
the halls Of legislation become the arena of
bloody strife in earnest-not from accident or
the ebutltions Of passion, but from causes
that would rise permanent to all considera-
tons OF expediency or the mere maintenance
of personal honor and dignity Of character.
1t would be a struggle between the North
and the South that could end only in a
dissolution Of the Union.