Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1856-12-04

stitution. Ardently attached to liberty In /
the abstract, they do not stop to consider |
practically how the objects they would attain |
can be accomplished, nor to reflect that, even
if the evil were as great as they deem it, they
have no remedy to apply, and that it can be
only aggravated by their violence and uncon-
stitutional action. 4 question, which is one
of the most difficult of all problems of social
institution, political economy and statesman
ship, they treat with unreasoning intempe-
rance of thought and language. Extremes
beget extremes. Violent attack from the
north finds its inevitable consequence in the
growth of spirit of angry defiance at the
south. Thus in the progress of events we had
reached that consummation which the voice
of the people has now so pointedly rebuked
of the attempt, Of portion Of the states, by
a sectional organization and movement, to
usurp the control Of the government of the
United States.
( confidently believe that the great body Of
these who inconSiderately took this fatal step,
I are sincerely attached to the Constitution and
I the Union. They would, upon dcliberati0n,
/ shrink with unaffected horror from any con-
. scious act of disuuion or civil war. But they
. have entered into path which leads nowhere,
unless it be to civil war and disunion, and
which has no other possible outlet. They
/ have proceeded thus far in that direction, in
{ consequence of the successive stages OF their
progress having consisted Of a series of sec
! ondary issues, each Of which professed to be
confined within constitutional and peaceful
| limits, but which attempted indirectly what
/ few men were willing to do directly, that is,
/ to act aggressively. against the constitutional
! rights of nearly one-half of the 81 states.
/ In the long series of acts Of indirect az
! gression, the first was the strenuous agitation
! bv citizens of the northern states, in Con-
! gress and out of it, of the question of negro
emancipation in the southern states.
! The second step IN this path of evil consist
! ed of acts of the people Of the northern States,
/ and in seyeralinstances of their governments,
aimed to facilitate the escape Of persons held
/ to service in the southern States, and to pre-
vent their extradition when reclaimed accord
/ ing to law and IN virtue of express provisions
/ of the Constitution. To promote this object,
/ legislative enactments and other means were
adopted to take away or defeat rights, which
/ the Constitution solemnly guaranteed. In
| order to nullify the then existing act Of Con
I gress concerning the extradition Of fugitiVes
! from service, laws were enacted in many
! States, forbidding their officers, under the
severest penalties, to participate in the execu-
/ ton of any act of Congress whatever. In
! this way that system Of harmonious cooper
! alton between the authorities of the United
! States and Of the several States, for the main
/ tenance of their common institutions, which
existed in the early years Of the Republic
was destroyed; conflicts Of jurisdiction came
! to he frequent; and Congress found itself
compelled, for the support of the Constitution
and the yindication Of its power, to authorize
/ the appointment of new officers charged with
I the execution Of its acts, as if they and the
! officers Of the States were ministers, respec
lively, of foreign governments in 4 state Of
mutual hostility, rather than fellow maglS-
trates of a common country, peacefully sub
sstIng under the protection OF one we'll con-
stituted Union. Thus, here, also, aggression
was followed by reaction; and the attacks
upon the Constitution at this point did but
serve to raise up new barriers for its defence
and security.
| The third stage of this unhappy sectional
! controversy was in cOnnexion with the orga-
nization Of territorial governments, and the
/ admission of new States into the Union
! When II was proposed to admit the State Of
/ Maine, by separation Of territory from that
| of Massachusetts,, and the State of Missouri
! formed of portion of the territory ceded by
France to the United States, representatives
/ in Congress objected 10 the admission Of the
latter, unless with conditions suited to partic-
/ ular views of public policy. The imposition
/ Of such condition was successfully resisted
/ But, at the same period, the qaestion was
/ presented of imposing restrictions upon the
/ residue Of the territory cedcd by France
That question was, for the time, disposed of
| by the adoption Of q geographical line of
! limitation.
! In this conncxon it should not be forgotten
I that France of her own accord, resolved, for
/ considerations of the most far-sighted sagaci-
/ ty, to cede Louisiana to the United States, and
that accession was accepted by the United
/ States, the latter expressly engaged that the
| inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be
incorporatedin in the Union Of the United States,
and admitted as possible, according
! to the principles of the Federal Constitution,
| to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages
and immunities Of citizeus Of the United
! States; and IN the meantime they shall be
maintained and protected in the free enjoy
ment of their liberty, property and the relig-
! ion which they profess that is 10 say, while
/ it remains in a territorial condition, its IN
! habitants are maintained and protected in the
/ free enjoyment of their liberty and property,
! with right then to pass into the condition Of
/ States on a footing of perfect equality with
! the original States.
/ The enactment, which established the re-
/ strictive geographical line, was acquiesced in
rather than approved by the States of the
Union. 1t stood on the statute books, how
ever, for a number of years; and the people
of the respective States acquiesced in the re-
enactment of the principle as applied to the
State of Toxas; and it was proposed to acqui-
esce IN its further application TO the territory
acquired by the United States from Mexico.
But this proposition was successfully resisted
| by the representatives from the northern
States, who regardless Of the statute line,
insisted upon applying restriction to the new
territory generally, whether lying north or
south of it, thereby repeating it as a legisla-
tive compromise, and, on the part of the
North, persstently violating the compact, if
compact there was