Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1856-04-23
The "Aggressions of the South"

Opposition to the acquisition of new territory,
and the reception of new states into our Federal
Union, has been one of the characteristics of the
opponents of the Democratic Par ty, since Jeffer
sons administration In the early cont SIS in relc
ton 10 the acquisition of additional territory, the
southern and western States acted together. Ag
rculture was the principal source of the prosperi-
ty of these sections hence their interests the
same and in common. The opposition of the old
Federal Party to the acquisition of territory did
not arise so much from fear or dislike of what is
nowadays termed the '' State Power,'' but from
commercial jealousy. The slavery question was
not the prominent element in the opposition to
the admission of new states, until the applica-
ton of Missouri. The hostility with which that
application was met, had not it's origin in philan-
thropy. as pretended, but in reality in calcula-
tons of political policy. 1t was hoped that the
people of the west would sympathise with the
north, rather northeast, in its pretended anti
slavery feelings, and thus the strong bond which
had hitherto existed between the South and West
would be broken.
The same motive prompts the conduct of the
so called 60 Republican or abolition leaders of
the present day, when they call upon the people
of the west to follow them, and endeavor to ex-
cite in them a prejudice against their southern
brethren by declamatons against what they call
the "aggressions Of the south"
As this matter of Southern aggression will en-
ter largely into the Presidential canvass, and is
intended to be one of the best cards of the oppo
sition, we shall examine it throughout all it's de-
tails 1t will be found that the assertion that
the south has been guilty of aggression or inva-
sion upon the rights of the northern States is
without foundation and false. To day we have
leisure for only cursory view of the subject.
The Free Sellers often point to the ordinance of
1887, by which slavery excluded from the
north western territory; laudation of this ordi-
nance enters largely into the composition of an
abolition harangue, and yet this ordinance was
carried by the votes of Virginia, North and South
Carolina and Georgia, and it's author was Mr..
Jefferson, the first Democratic President, South
erner, and a STAKEHOLDER. A man who received
much vilifcation in his day from his opponents,
as Mr.. Douglass does in this We presume that
the most rabid abolitionist will not say that the
ordinance of 1887 was an infraction by the south
Of the rights of the north.
When our Federal Union was formed, all the
unsettled territory within it's bounds, with the
exception of that portion now included within
the limits of the states of Vermont and Maine.
belonged TO the Southern States Within the
limits of the old 13, and out of their territory.
eleven new States have been formed. OF these
nine were formed out of Southern and Slave Ter
ritory, viz: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin. Kentucky. Tennessee, Mississippi,
and Alabama. Of these nine, the majority Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, do
not recognize in their state constitutions the hold
ing of race or class to servitude-they belong
to the so-caled free states. Before their erection
into state governments. slavery was Law ever
every inch of the territory included in the limits
of the five free states just enumerated.
The Free Soilers of to day, delight to indulge
in chronological enumeration of the successive ag-
gressions of what the south has been guilty, be-
ginning they think, at the formation of the
government and continuing down to the present
time. They seem to have overlooked the facts
connected with the erection into free common.
weaths, of that portion of the Territory of the
Southern States to Which we have Just REFEREED
Had Virginia. and the South generally been pos
sessed of the spirit which the Free Soil politicians
from Seward down, charge them with, the five
States referred to- could never have been received
into the Union except as slave states.
The territory of Louisiana, was acquired under
the administration Of southern President. JEFF
ersop or as the Free oiIers would say, during the
aarenaency oi the Slave Power" Look for !