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

=.
a., -, No,,beru men on the subject of Slave
~ Isl spectacle to make angels weep Is
needless to cnumerate instances Ill uetalt'-
They indignantly dot the surface OF the Free
States like pusiues a smallpox patient
Southern Slavery has become the great god
before which the army of place-seckers bow
down with abject submission. ltoccupleS the
seats of power, and robes and unrobes ofhcial
dirnitarics In all the plentitude of imperial
majesty. 1t issues its bulls of excommunlca-
tion with the lordly authority of the Vatican.
II saves and it damns with more than papal
promptness and zeal. Its mandates issue, and
the trembling herd of its obedient followers |
rushes iii skurred alacrity to obey. This Is
no figure of speech it is sober and exact truth
Behold what Slavery has demanded OF North |
ern men in the way Of eating their words ana
swallowing their opinions, and behold what II
has got. Let the record be examined lhere |
was time, and no distant time either, when
all parties in the North expressed their con-
demnation of Slavery 1t condemned
without qualification, and manly stand taken
| against its spread. Every eminent and every
uneminent man in the Free States declared a
| cainst its being carried into Free Territory
| There is not man in the north, who has po-
! litical record, which is not clear and emphatic
Oh this point. All men and all parties, and all
the Free States, upheld the Wimot Proviso
/ few years ago--whlle most OF them declared
against agitation and against molesting the IN
stitution in the States, even by discussion, the
expression of detern ination to resist its spread
into rec territory was universal. Search the
record, and it will be found that every promI-
nent man position was identical on this point.
The gathering up and exposing the attitude OF
this man and that the question III times
past which the House has been occupied about
of late, is labor lost. The record OF alhis "a
like. Ten years ago not one Northern man
was as dcbauched 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-N ebraska
men. Whoever does not hold it now has fall
len from his former position, and apostatized
from his former faith. 1t is idle to enumerate
Individual examples. Every Northern man
who does not occupy the anti-Nebraska ground
to-day, is a descrter from the side of Freedom
TO that Of Slavery, and goes to swell the reek
ing mass of political apostacy that now oiiends
the moral sense of every upright man. Look
back and around and see the individual monu-
ments of this most lamentablc detection. Be
hold Mr.. Webster; himself at one time light
shining in the path of the Wilmot-ProvisoiSts.
Behold Mr.. Cass. ponderously rolling into the
Senate with a Wilmot -Proviso speech in his
hat which he was only saved by an accident
from delivering. Look at Mr.. Buchanan, hold
ing to the Missouri restriction, and declaring
it holy and sacred as the Constitution. See
New Hampshire, headed by Franklin Pierce,
outright and rank in declaring against the
! spread of slavery. Read the resolutions Of ev
cry Northern State to the same purport, pas
sed with the consent Of all sides and enema
ting from all sides. Even in the South, the
voice for the same general doctrine was potent
with its nobler spirits. Hearken to that OF
Henry Clay ,as late as 1850 suffered in the SEN
ate of the United States. There, with flushed
countenance and an eye Of fire, rising in his
= place he proclaimed with defiant gcsticulation
and impassoncd tones, to a brcathless and 81
ienced Senate, that he NEVER would consent
= 10 admit Slavery into territory now frec-SEy-
. 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
j now upon the subject, and weep over the hui
initiating record. 1t exhibits the North in
position which her sons might well pray to the
Almighty to bury in oblivion. 1t exhibits
II recreancy that blotches the history of the Free
: States with ulsightly sores, and surrounds il
d with an atmosphere smoking with corruption
. 1t bears and bedims history once clear, no
Z BILE and glorious. 1t befouls by contact ou
II colonial and revolutionary reputation, thai
. once challenged the admiration of the world
: for its purity. Who could have believed tha
u 4 son Of New England would be found to heac
- Il movement that thus trails her honors III the
y dust, brings reproach upon her good name ,anC
= causes her children to blush over the cocrceC
/ degradation of the land of their affections !
d And this is done all for what For place
. for official honors for a temporary lease 0
&C high station; for day of authority. Hero
IL they go and there they go. From every Free
IL State, and from every county of every Free
Il State, the examples of this deep humiliation
/ crowd forward with dseracefu alacrity.-
L they come from hill and valley. High anC
Is low throng in supple subserviency around th'
B throne of Slavery. They are called upon Il
III disavow and repent of every sentiment in ia
III vor of Freedom they ever expressed, and the.
!! do it. They apostatizc from the faith of thci
'i fathers. They repudiate their principles
III They rcnoHncc their opinions. They learn
embrace, and repeat the catechism of the pow
n or at whose feet they cover. They begin, s"
: &c believe in one political god, and that god i