Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-07-03
From the Pennsylvania of June 80.


AboIitionism and Black Republicanisn.
Whether negro slavery in the abstract is an
evil or motor whether Southern men regard
the peculiar institution" as an evil which
they have inherited from their ancestors-but
which has become an absolute condition and
necessity-is not the question at issue in the
present contest. 1t is question of far deeper
interest and of graver moment Its solution is
to decide whether the Southern States and the
Southern people have not equal rights under
the Constitution with the NortherA States and
the Northern people. All the fiery declama-
ton, and all the sublime plattudes, uttered by
fanatical demagogues, about freedom and
equal rights, go for nothing when compared
with the immense stake Involved in the pre-
servation of the Union, and the obligations of
every State and of every citizen under the
solemn compact made by the fathers of the
Republic.
1t is an established historical fact, as con-
nected with the formation of our National Con-
stitution, that the Southern States would not
have entered into the Union, had not a provi
sion been incorporated into that instrument
guaranteeing to them the right Of property in
slaves, and providing for the extradition of fu
gitives from service escaping into other States
This privilege was granted, and placed them
upon an equality-an equality which they had
a right to demand as partners in the compact
with their sister commonwealth of the con-
federacy in which slavery did not exist but it
must not be forgotten, in this connection, that
at that time, even in several Northern States,
what is called chattel slavery, was known, re-
cognized and maintained by the municipal law
After the adoption of the Constitution, for a
long term of years, the utmost comfy and good
feeling subsisted between the people Of the
Northern and Southern States. Nobody in the
North-no matter what might have been his
peculiar notions about the abstract right or
justice of slavery-no matter what might have
been his views in regard to its advantage or
disadvantage in the moral advancement or
material development of a people--no one, we
assert, thought for moment of infracting the
solemn covenant made and entered into by the
trainers Of the Constitution, and of denying to
our brethren Of the slave-holdipg States rights
coequal with those enjoyed by the people of
other sections of the Union.
The Abolition movement, however, conceived
in false philanthropy, and by mischievous and
fanatical minds, fostered and encouraged by
emissaries from abroad and enemies of our in
stitutions finally sprung into existence; and
from that time to this, we may safely say, there
las UCcu III dUdtcHCul W TIC cIuDlLteTeu stream
of invective and calumny that has been poured
upon the heads Of our Southern brethren by
the anti-slavery agitators of the North. The
movement was started for the ostensible pur-
pose of bene6ttng the slave by his emancipa
ton. Has it effected its avowed object? The
truth gives bold and triumphant negative
Millions and millions of dollars have been ex-
pended in the establishment Of presses, in the
circulation of tracts, and in the subsistence of
itinerant lecturers-all, ostensibly, at least,
looking to the accomplishment of the one end
the abolition of slavery; and yet not one slave
has been liberated-not one bondman set free
by the means thus employed. Was ever "Love's
Labor Lost more completely Illustrated
twenty-five years of time wasied-millions of
treasure exhausted-and not one chaplet to
deck the brows, not one trophy TO prove the
prowess of the crusaders Nay, worse than
this. Whilst these pseudo philanthropists-
these mock-heroic friends of the colored race
by their incessant abuse of Southern men and
Southern institutions, and by their persistent
and ceaseless agitation, have weakened the
bonds of Union and imperilled an assailed Con-
stitution, they have Enthusiastically rendered
worse the condition Of the slave. They have
made it necessary on the part Of the slave
holding States to pass more stringent laws for
the protection of their property and to prevent
servile instruction and, by natural spirit of
antagonism which they have excited in the
breasts Of the shareholders, by their wanton
and merciless calumnies, they have retarded
the progress of emancipation.
If this be a truthful picture of the character
and the fruits of Abolitionism, what better can
we expect of Black Repubicanism? Adolf
tionism was the foster-mother Of Black Repub-
licanism; and it cannot be denied that the
sucking has outgrown the mother beyond all
proportion. 1t eliminates the same principles
upon wider platform-it is characterized by
the same fierce and inveterate hostility to the
southern section Of the Republic; and in its
ruthless march, and with its iron hoof, it
would trample down every sacred principle
known to or recognized by the Constitution OF
the country.
We ask every man to pause and ponder be-
fore he lends himself to the designs, and be-
comes ehtangled in the meshes Of Black Re-
publicanism. The question of "Free Kansas
Free Soil" and "Free Speech" is merely
subordinate to purposes and aims most fatal to
the peace and safety of the country. The end,
if not the aim, of these ambitious and unscru-
pulous factionists, is the destruction Of the
South, and thereby the dissolution Of the
Union and, if ever, in moment Of blind
phrenzy, the people shall trust them with the
power to compass their designs, the days of
our Republic will be numbered.