The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-03-13

policy, touching vast interests and vital
rights, questions even of peace and war,
made to turn, not upon the requirements of
justice aud of honor, but upon it's relation
to the subject of Slavery-upon the effect it
will have upon the interest of the slavehold-
ing class.
The people of the Free States have cher
ished the hope that the efforts made to ex-
tend Slavery, which have fallen under their
notice, were accidentas, and indicative of
weakness, rather than ambition. They have
trusted that the sagaclous statesmen of the
slayeholding States would gradually perceive
and acknowledge the inconvenience and dan
4 ger of Slavery, and would take such meas
ures as they might deem wise and safe, for
its ultimate removal. They have feared the
effect Of agitation upon this subject, relied
upon the good faith and honor Of the slave
holding States, and believed that time, the
natural growth of population, and the recog-
nized laws of political and social economy,
would gradually and peacefully work out
the extinction Of system 80 repugnant 10
justice and the national character and vel
fare.
Ii has seemed to them incredible that in
this late age, when Christianity has for near
two thousand years been filling the world
with Its light, and when almost every nation
on earth but our own has abolished chatte
Slavery, the effort should be made, or the
wish cherished, by any portion of our peo-
pie to make the interest Of Slavery predomi-
nant, and to convert thus Republic, the ONLY
Government which Iyofesses to be founded up
on human rights, into the mightiest Slave en-
pire the world ever has seen. But ii is impos-
slble TO deceive ourselves longer The events
of the past two years have disclosed the de-
a hp nd ha
means it is prepared to use for their accomp-
ishment. We cannot shut our ewes longer to
the fact that the Slavehoding interest Is de-
termined to counterfeit the tendencies Of time
aud of civilization, by It's own energy. by its
bold appropriation of all the powers and
agencies of the Government, and by the vio-
latlon, If need be, Of the most sacred com
pacts and compromises. 1t il resolved that
Slavery shall be under the protection Of the
national hag-that 1t shall no longer be the
creature of local law, but that it shall stand
clothed with all the sanctions, and sustained
by all the power of this great Republic 1t
Is determined that the President Shall do its
bidding, and that Congress shall legislate
according TO its DEGREES. 1t is resolved upon
the dethronement of the principles Of Re-
pubicanism, and the establishment in their
stead OF an Oligarchr, bound together in
common interest In the ownership of Slaves.
Nor have we any reason to believe that
Slavery will be content with this absolute
supremacy over the Federal Government.
which it has already so well nigh achieved.
On the contrary, the dark shadow Of its
sceptre falls upon the sovereignty of the
States, and menaces them with dire disaster.
South Carolina abandoned her once cherished
doctrine of State Rights, asserts the Federal
supremacy over laws made by States, exclu-
slvely for the protection Of their citizens
j he State OF Virginia is contesting, in courts
Of law, the right Of New York to forbid the
existence Of Slavery within her limits. 4
Federal Court in Pennsylvania has denied
the right of that State 10 decree freedom to
Slaves brought by their masters within her
borders, and has proclaimed that Slavery ex-
lists by the law Of nations. The divislo of
California, and the organization Of n Slave
State within her limits has been proposed
Senator on the floor of Congress has de-
manded the restoration of the African slave
trade, and the demand is repeated BY South
ern journals and by leading public men in
the Southern States.
When these great objects shall have been
accomplished the States, as well ms
the General Government, shall have become
subject To the law of Slavery, and when
three hundred and fifty thousand shareholders
shall hold despotic rule over the millions of
this Republic, Slavery cannot fail, from the
necessity OF It's nature, to attempt outrages
which will awaken storms that will sweep it
in carnage from the face of the earth. The
longer tyranny is practiced unresisted, the
hercer and more dreadful is the resistance
which in the end it provokes. History is
full OF instances to prove that nothing is SO
ia mos
that evils, which ut the outset it would have
been easy to remove, by sufferance become
fatal to those through whose Indifference and
liberation they have increased. The tenden-
cy OF the measures adopted by the slavehold-
ing interest to secure its own extension,
through the action Of the Federal Govern
mcnt, is to give to Congress jurisdiction of
| the general scbject: and its representatives
must be sagacious enough to perceive that if
they establish the principle that Congress may
interfere with Slavery for protection, it may
interfere with it also for its destruction. If,
therefore, they succeed in such an enlarge
ment of the power Of Congress-having al
ready discarded the principle Of compromise
from egslation-they must foresee that the
natural effect of their encroachments upon
the rights and liberties Of the non-slave-
holding population Of the country, will be
To arouse them TO the direct exercise OF the
power thus placed in their hands. Whether
II Is safe or wise for that interest to invite
such contest, we need not here consider
| The time draws nigh, ow-countrymen,
when you will be called upon to decide upon
the policy and the principles of the General
Government. Your votes at the approaching
Presidential election will determine whether
Slavery shall continue to be the paramount
and controlling influence in the Federal Ad-
minlstration, or whether other rights and
other interests shall resume the degree of
consideration to which they are entitled
The issue is upon us hy no act Of ours, and it
cannot be evaded. Under a profound con-
vIction Of impending dangers, the grounds