The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-05-06
A FALSE PRETENCE.

When the Nebraska Bill was pending,
prominent slaveholdng Senators declared
their opinion that Slavery would never go in
to Kansas. They pretended to expect no
practical advantage from tho measure, but
advocated it--al for the sake of principle!
This was said for effect and was merely part
of the Infamous game which broke, up sa-
cred compact between the North and the
South and plunged the country into sectional
agitation and strife. Who is foolish enough
TO believe that the Nebraska Bill would have
been passed against such strong rcmonstrance
and earn, ,st opposition but from the expect,-
tion on the part Of the South that slavery
would be extended thereby. That infsnous
and desperate measure was not dared simply
to assert an abstract principle from which no
practical advantage was to be reaped
But the pretence, false as 1t was, had its
influences in quieting the apprehensions of
certain Northern men and the Bill was pas
sed. How was il theni If the South did
not expect or desire that slavery sho Id be
established in Kansas, why did she, imme-
diately after the passage Of the Bill, under
take to effect that object by such illegal and
outrageous means9 ATcH1soN and SrR1No-
FELLOWS armed ruflians, by their astounding
operations on the Missouri border, gave the
lie, direct and emphrtic, to the hypocritical
and dishonest professions of the champions of
Squatter Sovereignty in Congress EDWARD
EVERETT possibly may have been honest in
saying that he had no idea that slavery would
reap any advantage from the measure and
that the law of "soi and climate" would
Ct.t. d.
TooMBs and such politicians from the South
knew bcttcr--they knew that they were ut
tering lies when they profcssed to the contra
ry.
And now, after tho transactions Of the past
two years-after all that has happened in
Kansas, Southern Senators have still the bra
zen dishonesty to stand up before the Senate
and the American people and claim that they
do not now anticipate nor never have antici-
pated that Slavery would 90 into Kansas and
have not sought to make that territory
slave Statcl And declarations to this effect,
recently delivered in the Senate by such men
as TooMBs and BUTLER, are now being crcu-
lated with great gusto by locofoco prints as
proof that MI the troubles in Kansas have
come from Northern abolition interference in
its affairsl They even go so far as to say
that Kansas would never have been menacod
with any danger from slavery but for the ef-
forts Of Northern men to make il free.
This is all brazen, patent falsehood. The
South intended that slavery should 90 into
Kansas when she demanded and secured tho
repeal Of the Missouri Compromise. That
was the side, the moving consideration TO
that deed of infamy. sinca then, earth and
Kansas aas' How How have the sonth stood by the
principle of popular sovereignty? They used
that principle so long as it would servo their
purposa-they slew the Missouri Compromise
with it,-but now, when they see that under
the principle Kansas would certainly be q free
State, they trarnple it down as they did the
Compromise before it. What has become Of
their tender and touching regard for the alb
stract principle Of Squatter SovereigntyG-
What care they for that now?
How long will men continue TO be hum
bugged and bamboozled by the specious and
hvpocritcal pretences Of slavery9 How long
will Northern presses and politicians stand "a
the abettors of slavery in its rapacious and
damning schemes? Never in all history did
the motive Of any political movement stand
out more plainly than in this Of the Neb as
ka Bill. Slavery clutches at Kansas as the
tiger at his prey. And yet men. Northern
men too, stand by and witness the decd, and
justify it! Has honesty fed the land HAS
Southern rapacity no limits and Northern
baseness no soundings?-[Detroit Tribune.