Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1856-12-10
EBENsBURG, DECEMBER 10, 1856.


Is it the fact that. in all the unsettled re-
gions of the United States, if emigration be
left free to act in this respect for itself, with
out legal prohibitions on either side, slave la
Dor will spontaneously go everywhere, in pre-
ference to free labor Is it the fact, that
the peculiar domestic institutions of the South
ern States possess relatively so much Of vigor,
that, wheresoever an avenue is freely open to
all the world, they will penetrate to the ex-
cluslon OF those of the Northern States ? Is
1t the fact, that the former enjoy, compared
with the latter, such irresistibly superior Vi
tality. independent of climate, soil and all
other accidental circumstances, as to be able
to produce the supposed result, in spite of
the assumed moral and-natnral obstacles to
Its accomplishment, and of the more numer-
Gus population of the Northern States
Of course these imputations on the inten-
tons of Congress in this respect, conceived
as they were in prejudice and disseminated in
passion, are utterly destitute of any justifca-
ton in the nature of things, and contrary to
all the fundamental doctrines and principles
of civil liberty and self lf-government.
The argument OF those who advocate the
enactment ofnew laws of restriction, and con-
demn the repeal of old ones. in effect AYERS
that their particular views of governms n. have
no self-extending or selfsustaining power of
.heir OWN, and will go nowhere unless forced
by act of Congress. And if Congress do but
pause for moment in the policy of stern CO.
ercion-if it venture to try the experiment of
leaving men to judge for themselves what in
stitutions will best suit them-if it be not
strained up to perpetual Legislative exertion
On this point-if Congress proceed thus to
act in the very spirit of liberty, it is at once
charged with aiming to extend slave labor it,
to all the new territories of the United States.
While, therefore, in general, the people of
the Northern States have never, at any time,
arrogated for the federal government the pow
er to interfere directly with the domestic con-
dition CT persons in the Southern States, but,
on the contrary, have disaxowed all intentions,
and have shrunk from conspicuous afiliation
with those few who pursue their fanatical OBJ
jects avowedly through the contemplated
M cans of reyoluti onary change of the govern
ment, and with acceptance of the necessary
consequences civil and seIvile war-vct
many citizens have suffered themselves to be
drawn into one evanescent political issue OF
agitation after another, appertaining TO the
same set of opinions, and which subsided as
rapidly as they arose when it came to be seen,
as it uniformly did, that they were incompati-
BILE with the compacts of the Constitution and
the existence of the Union. Thus, when the
acts of some of the States to nullify the ex-
isting extradition law imposed upon Congress
the duty OF passing new one, the country
was invited by agitators to enter into party
for it's repeal; but that agitation
speedily ceased by reason of the impractical
bility of its object So, when the statute re-
striction upon the institutions of new States.
yb.cat L. L. IL IL
country was urged to demand its restoration,
and that project also died almost with its birth
Then follows the cry of alarm from the North
against imputed Southern encroacbrents
which cry sprang in reality from the spirit %
tions of the South, aud, after a troubled exis-
tence of few months, has been rebuked by
the voice of 4 patriotic people
Of this last agitation one lamentable fea-
ture was, that it carried on at tue iu.rie- !
aiate expense of the peace aud ha ppiness of
the people Of the territory Of Kansas. That /!
was made the battlefield. not so much of op-
posing factious or Interests within itself as of :
the conflicting passions of the wilule people of
tue United States Revolutionary disorder
in Kansas had its origin in projects of iu;er-
pention, deliberatoiy arranged by certain
members of that Congress which enacted The
aw FOR the organization of the territory. And
when propagaudist colonization of Kansas
had thus been undertaken in one section Of
the Union, for the systematic promotion of
its views of policy there ensuel, nlatlcc of
course. a counteraction with opposite views,
n other sections of the Uniou.
In consequence ofthesc aul other Incidents.
many acts of disorder. it is unders.oo, have
been perpetrated in Kansas, TO the occasiHn,i Il
rather than the peamaneus sus
pension, of regular government. Aggressive
and most repreLensibie incursious into the !
Territory were undertaken, both In the North ,
and the South, and entered in on its northern |
border by the way of Iowa, as well as on the |
eastern by the way of Missouri and there |
has existed within it state of insurrection a /
gainst the constituted authorities, not without !,
from inconsiderate persons in
each of the great sections of the Union. But
the difficulties in that Territory have been cx /,
exaggerated for purposes of polit- /
;cal agitation elsewhere.
The number and gravity Of the acts of vio- |
lence have been magni6ed partly by state
nents entirely untrue, and partly By reiteca-
ted accounts of the same ru!nors or facts
Thus the Territory has been seemingly filed
with extreme violence, when the whole a
mount Of such acts has not been greater than
what occasionally passes before US in single
cities to the regret of all good citizens. but
without being regarded as of general or per-
manent political consequence
Imputed Irregularities in the elections held
in Kansas. like occasional irregularities ofthe
same description in the States, were beyond
the sphere of the Executive. But incidents
Of actual violence or of ergauized obstruction
Of law, pertinaciously renewed from time to
time, have been met as they occurred by SUCH