The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-03-13
POWER, NOT FOR THE sPoILs. BUT THE
PRINCIPLES

Ao"er Ihan we are. ms has been our one
object in politics for the last sixteen years, and
all other political questions we have held sub
ordinate. Many with whom we are now co.
operating were our opponents in former years
it is only within a late period that their views
have become concurrent with ours.
1t was not by the commission of any single
act of violence or aggression on the part of the
Slave Power, that our policy was determined
but, on studying the history of our Govern
ment, the policy of successive Administrations,
the gradual growth of the Slave Interest, its
inherent nature, necessities, and appetites, and
the course of action occasioned by these,
we came to the deliberate conclusion that
Political Parties, as organized among us, had
been constantly controlled by it, that all the
| departments of the Government acknowledged
its ascendency, and that this Republic, instead
Of being governed by the People, for the Peo-
ple was in reality governed by an Oligarchy,
seeking first the aggrandizement and perpetu-
alton OF its own powers, and then, public in
terests, so far as compatible Herewith
This was the fact in 1880 and 1910, Just as
it was in 1850, and as it is now But, the
masses OF men, so long as their comfort is un-
disturbed, their sense of justice or of security
unaroused by some great outrage, are not apt
to look very closely into the nature or aims
of the ruling Power. Hence, when in 1910,
we first printed carefully prepared documents,
showing how completely the Slaveholding Oil
garchy had monopolized the highest and most
influential stations in the Federal Govern
ment-bow it had furnished the great majority
of our Presidents, Supreme Judges, Speakers
OF the House of Representatives, and Foreign
Mnisters-how il had made and unmade Banks
and Tariffs-how in our foreign affairs it had
sacrificed the interests of commerce to the sup
posed necessities of the Slave System, and in
terposed to arrest revolution against despotic
power, lest it might involve the overthrow of
Slavery in Cuba, and a consequent shock to
the institution in the United States, it was al
most impossible to gain the attention of the
Public. A few believed, the many either heard
not, or regarded it as abolition fanaticism."
So, when about the same time, Judge Jay is
sued work on the relations Of Slavery to the
Federal Government, showing the insidious
growth and operation of the former, as political
element-a work remarkable for its careful
statements, its formidable array of facts, and
its convincing argument-still the masses were
unmoved. A few were enlightened; very few
we're brought to act with what was called the
Liberty Party.
Meantime, the ideas thus disseminated, made
their way, gradually modifying public opinion,
so that when the annexation of Texas, with the
extension of the area Of slave labor, took place
in 1916, andthe offensive correspondence which
preceded that event, exposing the purely Sec
tional grounds on which the measure had been
urged by John C. Calhoun and his coadjutors,
was made public, for the first time the people
Of the free States were startled from their in
difference, and the two old parties, until then
passive instruments of the Slave Power were
shaken by rebelous movements in various To-
calities And so the process Of enlightenment
went on, renewed aggression producing renewed
excitement in 1913, in 1850, in 1852, till, in
1855, occurred the browning iniquty which
startled even conservatism from its leaden
slumbering, and, for q time, overwhelmed the
old party organizations under the tide of popu-
lar Indignation. In the very crisis, it seemed
as il the hour of retribution had come; as if the
people, fully aroused to comprehension of the
nature and policy of the Despotism to whose
rule they had submitted so long, had resolved
to put an end to it, and assume thei- r;sinrui
position and influence in the Federal Councils.
But our experiea ace had taught us not to be
sanguine. Passion is not Principle. We knew
that hundreds of thousands were enlightened
by this last outrage and were now prepared to
comprehend the real Evil Of the country, and
grapple with it. But it wa9 just as clear to
US, that there were hundreds of thousands more
whose excitement was mere effervescence
who regarded the outrage, not as one of Sc
ries-not as the offspring of fixed system of
policy-not as evidence Of the existence of
ruling caste resolved on perpetual and univer-
sal ascendency-but insulated and excep-
tional. They talked of the adjustment of the
Slavery Question of 1850, of the tranquility of
the country that followed, of their acuuescence
in the Compromises. This last outrage they
deplored, as rericing the agitation eff the SD
oery Question, and all they asked was, that it
should be remedied by the restoration of the
Missouri Compromise, as if the Slave Power
had ever taken q retrograde step, abandoned
one of its usurped positions We feared the
time had not yet come for great political
revolution; and when Know Nothingism inter-
vened, neutrazing the Anti-Slavery excite
ment, or, where it did not do this, vitiating it
by the alloy of an extrsneous and mischievous
element, we felt as if the day were lost.
LoOk abroad. The old Democracy is re-
covering itself, and repairing its powerful or
ganization. Know Nothingism is nationalized,
or rather sectionalized, under the lead of the
signer of the Fugitive Slave Act and the Com
promise of 1850, carrying with it a consider
able portion of Northern men. Straight-out
| Whigery, which defeated the Republican move
ment in Maine and Massachusetts,, is proposing
regular organization, with view to the
possibility of adopting Willard Fillmore as its
candidate, or at least producing diversion
from the Republican movement. Democrats
in New York. dissatisfied with the Pro-Slavery
action of the late State Administration, are
planning kind of independent movement,
unwilling, as yet to act with an organization
which enrols among its supporters such men
as Preston King, Abijah Mann, and Francis P.
Blair. Know Nothings of the North are run
ming CIT into separate movements. George
Law and his band are going for Americanism
and the restoration of the Missouri Compro-
mise. The Order in New York rati6es the
| Fillmore nomination Ex-Governor Johnston