The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-03-25
PAPER READ BY FRANCIS p. BLAIR
At the Pittsburgh Convention, Feb. 22.

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There is great body of the thinking mel
in the Southern States-inany / know il
Maryland, a considerable number, my neigh
bos in Montgomery county, who deplore th
repeal of the Compromises in relation Il
Slavery, which all hoped had terminated tn
distractions, growing out of this disturbing
subject forever. 1t is true these people hav
not hitherto manifested by public demonstra
tions solicitude. The violation Of good faitl
in the breach of these compacts of peace be
tween the sections and the fatal consequent
ces likely to follow, were not at first obvious
to the mass Of the Southern people, because
by the art of the politicians who conducted
the passage Of this measure through secret eau
Gus, where all the personal interests of the
leaders in Congress and their partizans making
up the majority in both Houses necessary t.
effect it., were previously amanged-the repea
was made to appear, as the voluntary tender
of the North to the South. There had beer
no consultation by the members of Congress
in any quarter with their constituents, either
by issue made before the people, during the
canvass or afterwards, or by address, petition
and votes in public meetings or by resolu.
tions.
Among us extraordinary changes, cffecting
large interests, and reaching tho feelings, the
prejudces, the religious and political principles
of men, as well as the political power OF the
States had hitherto always been preceded or
attended by every mode of forming and elicit
ing tire public opinion, which is the vital move
ment in a Republican Government. But in
the late overthrow of all the adjustment of the
most anxious question which Congress has had
to deal with, from its first to the present sess-
ion, not whisper of the design was permit
ted to reach the ear, until It's success was
sealed by the private arrangements of the
politicians in Congress, in conjunction
with the President. The measure when
publicly presented WAS at first yelled in the
Committees Report as being but reference
to the supreme Court Of question involving
the constitutionality of the compromises
as conclusion that the compromise of 1920
was superseded by the compromise of 1850,
but this Interpretation of the Bill, covertly
contained the repeal of the compromise Of
lS20-that of ls5O-and also the compact
with Texas by which all the Territory re-
served by each Of them as free from Slavery
in the territorial condition, was opened up to
its admission.
This Bill of intrigue, passed in conclave by
the aspiring politicians, to sulserve personal
interests, was well understood by themselves
and their partizans to be a bonus for the
Southern vote in the election of President,
but it was ushered into Congress as the volun-
tary offering of the North to the South to the
principle of equality. 1t was thus divested in
the eyes of the South, Of being breach of
faith on their side. 1t came as free gift to
them from the Chief Magistrate and other
leading men, Representatives of their North
crn brethren.
They were not aware of the treachery of
these Representatives to their constituents,
nor did they anticipate the excitement which
has ensued from the wrong, aggravated by
the betrayal which it was attended, nor the
dangerous consequences likely to follow
Multitudcs of honest patriots in Slaveholding
States, who love the Union, would willingly
restore the compromises, the work of the
great men of ther own region. They arc
sensible of the fatal effects of its dissolution
upon the peace and prosperity of the confede-
racy; and of the inevitable destruction of the
inevitable destruction of the security iii which
they hold the Slave nstitution-of the fright
ful scenes ofcivil war and Slave instruction
which might arise out of the collisions between
thetwo sectioRs--on the one side wearing the
aspect of a war of conquest, for the extension
of Slavery,-on the other a war of defence to
preserve the rights of the emigrants who have
gone from their bosom. But these men of
good faith who respect engagements which
have produced concord and happy ties be-
tween the States of the Union, find their sec
ton already embarked in strife by the COM
bination of politicians, who seek personal ad-
vantages by the power it gives them over the |
masses. Warfare always commits the power
and interests of the many, to the few chiefs
who manage it; and so the whole South is at |
this moment in the hands of politicians who
have contri ,ed the movement, to strip the |
North of its interests, and the best men of |
the Slave holding States, who are sensible of
the iniquity cannot venture to declare their |
sentiments, lest they incur the mputation of
deserting their own section in contest in
which defeat would be humiliation, and for |
which the leaders who have produced it,
would subject them to the charge of failing to
stand by the cause of their peculiar institu--
tloDs.
The persons who have sent mo to this
Convention, are the first of the slave holding
region who have come forward to vindicate the |
cause of our common country against this |
sectional influence. They are party of busi-
ness men of Baltimore who feel that their
city especially and the State of Maryland
have great stake depending ON the preser-
vation Of the Union and the peace of the coun-
try. If the bonds which unite the two por-
lions of the Union, distinguished by free and
slave institutions shoHld be severed the nature
Of the different interests growing out of the
species of property in which it consists on one
side, must involve continual conflicts for its
recovery, when flying to the other fcrfreedom
and the animosity thus engendered cannot
ail to bring on those protracted and bloody
vars of ambition and conquest which have
nations of contiguous Territory
n every age and which have produced the
nost relenf1ess hosfiitiaa hotucar thoso .or