Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-05-28
NoRTsERN EXPERIMENTATION.

Tribune, writing from Washington under date
of May IL, says ssThe shameless tergiversa-
ton Of Northern men on the subject of Slave
ry is a spectacle to make angels weep. 1t is
needless to cnumerate instances in detail
They Indignantly dot the surface of the Free
States like pus,ules on smallpox patient.
Southern Slavery has become the great god
before which the army Of place seekers bow
down with ahject submission. Ii occupies the
seats of power, and robes and unrobes official
dignitares i'll all the plcntitude of imperial
majesty. 1t issues its bulls of excommunica-
tion with the lordly authority of the Vatican.
1t saves and it damns with more than papal
promptness and zeal. Its mandates issue, and
the trembling herd of its obcdent followers
rushes in skurried alacrity to obey. This is
no figure of speech it is sober and exact truth.
| Behold what Slavery has demanded of North
crn men in the way OF eating their words and
swallowing their opinions, and behold what it
| has got. Let the record be examined. There
was time, and no distant time either, when
all parties in the North expressed their con-
| demnation of Slavery. 1t was condemned
without qualification, and manly stand taken
| against its spread. Every eminent and every
uncminent man in the Free States declared a
ganst its being carried into Free Territory
| There is not man in the north, who has a po-
litical record, which is not clear and emphatic
on this point. All men and all parties, and all
the Free States, upheld the Wlmot ProviSo
! few years ago-whilc most of them declared
against agitation and against molcsting the in
sttution in the States, even by discussion, the
expression of determination to resist its spread
! into Free territory was universal. Search the
| record, and it will be found that every proml-
ncnt mans position was identical on this point.
The gathering up and exposing the attitude Of
this man and that on tho question in times
| past, which the House has been occupied about
of late, is labor lost. The record of all is a.
| like. Ten years ago not one Northern man
was as debauchcd as the entire body OF leaders
of the Democratic party is now. Ten years
ago the North unanimously occupied the
ground now maintained by the Anti ebraska
men. Whoever does not hold it now has fall
len from his former position, and apostatizcd
from his former faith. 1t is idle to cnumerate
individual examples. Every Northern man
who does not occupy the auti-Ncbraska ground
to-day, is a deserter from the side of Freedom
to that of Slavery, and goes to swell the rcek
ing mass of political apostacy that olends
the moral sense of every upright man. Look
back and around and see the individual monu-
mcntS of this most lamentable detection. Be
| hold Mr.. Webster; himself at one time a light
shining in the path of the Wilmot -Proyisoists.
| Behold Mr.. CaSs. ponderously rolling into the
| l.:
hat, which he was only saved 10y an accident
| from delivering. Look at Mr.. Buchanan, hold
! ing to the Missouri restriction, and declaring
| it holy and sacred as the Constitution. Sec
New Hampshire, headed by Franklin Pierce,
| outright and rank in declaring against the
spread of slavery. Read the resolutions of cY-
cry Northern State to the same purport, pas
sed with the consent of all sides and emcna-
ting from all sides. Even in the South, the
voice for the same general doctrine was potent
with its nobler spirits. Hearkcn to that of
Henry Clay ,as late as 1850, uttered in the Sem
ate of the United States. There, with flushed
| countenancc and an eye OF fire, rising in his
place he proclaimed with defiant gcsticulation
and mpassioned tones, to breathcss and ST.
| fenced Senate, that he NEVER would consent
! TO admit Slavery into territory now free-NEv-
Err. Contrast all this and volumes more of the
same kind, which the history of the past few
years can furnish, with the state of opinion
now upon the subject, and weep over the hu-
initiating record. 1t exhibits the y orth in
! position which her sons might well pray to the
Almighty to bury in oblivion. 1t exhibits
recrcancy that blotches the history of the Free
States with u:lsightly sores, and surrounds it
with an atmosphere smoking with corruption.
1t blears and bedims history once clear, no.
BILE and glorious. 1t befouls by contact our
colonial and revolutionary reputation, that
once challenged the admiration of the world
for its purity. Who could have believed that
a son of New England would be found to head
4 movement that thus trails her honors in the
dust, brings reproach upon her good name land
causes her children to blush over the coerccd
degradation of the land Of their affections
| And this is done all for what For place
for official honors; fora temporary lease of
high stations for day of authority. Here
they go and there they go. From every Free
State, aud from every county of every Free
State, the examples of this deep humiliation
crowd forward with a dsgraceful alacrity.-
They come from hill and valley. High and
low throng in supple subseryiency around the
throne of Slavery. They are called upon to
disavow and repent of every sentiment in>fa-
yor of Freedom they ever expressed, and they
do it. They apostatizc from the faith of their
fathers. They repudiatc their principles
They renoance their opinions. They learn,
o. md fI.a ~,