Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-12-06

ton itsel and sought, by every means within their
reach, to deprive portion of their felow-citzens
OF the equal enjoyment Of those rights and prvil-
eyes guaranteed alike to all by the fundamental
compact of our Union.
This argument against the repeal of the statute
line in question, was accompanied by another oil
congeDial Character and equally with the former
destitute OF foundation in and truth. 1t was
imputed that the originated in the concep-
ton OF extending the limits OF slave-aoor beyond
those previously assigned to it, and that such was
its natural as well as intended effect; and these
baseiess assumption were made, in the northern
States, the ground of unceasing assault upon con-
stitutional right
The repeal in terms of a statute, which was all
ready obsolete and also null for unconsututonali-
ty, could have no influence to obstruct or promote
the propagation OF conflicting views OF political or
socrl institution.
When the act organizing the Territories Of Kan@
sas ane Nebraska was passed, the inherent effect
upon that portion of the public domain thus OPEN
ed to legal settlement, was TO admit settlers from
all the States of the Union alike, each with bis
convictions of public policy and private interest,"
there TO found in their discretion subject to such
limitations as the Constitution and acts Of Con-
gress might prescribe new States, hereafter to be
admitted into the Union. IL was a free field open
alike to all, whether the statute line OF assumed
restriction we're repealed or not. That repeal did
ions and domestic institutions field, which, with.
out such repeal, would have been closed against
them; it found that field Of competition already
opened in fact and in law. All the repeal did was
to relieve the statute book of an Objectionable en-
actment, unconstitutional in effect, and injurious in
terms to large portion Of the States
Is it the fact that, in all the unsettled regions
of the United States if emigration be left free
to act in this respect for ITSELF withoutlega pro-
hibitons On either side slave labor will sponta-
neously go everywhere, in preference to free la
Dor? Is it the fact, that the peculiar domestic
institutions of the Southern States, possess rela-
lively so much of vigor, that, wheresoever an
avenue is freely open to all the world, they will
penetrate to the exclusion of those of the North
ern States? Is it The fact that the former enjoy,
compared with the latter, such rresistibly supe-
rior vitality, independent of climate, soil, and
all other accidental circumstances, to be able
to produce the supposed result in spite Of the as
sumed moral and natural obstacles to its accom-
plshment, and of the more numerous population
of the Northern States?
OF course, these imputations on the intentions
of Congress in this respect, conceived as they
were, in prejudice, and disseminated in passion,
are utterly destitute of any justification in the
nature of things, and contrary to all the funda-
mental doctrines and principles Of civil liberty
and self government.
The argument of those who advocate the en-
actment of new laws of restriction, amp condemn
the repeal of old ones in effect AYERS that their
particular views of government have no self ex-
tending or selfsustaining power of their own,
and will go dOwhere unless forced by act OF Con-
| gress And if Congress do but pause for mo-
ment in the policy of stern coercion; If it ven
! ture to try the experiment of leaving men to
| Judge fer them what institutions will best suit
them if il be not strained up to perpetual legis-
lative exertion on this point; if Congress pro-
| tht,e To anti urt no liberty
is at once cearged with aiming to extend slave
| labor into 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 power to Interfere
directly with the domestic condition of persons in
the Southern States, but on the contrary have dis
avoweG all such intentions, and have shrunk from
conspicuous utilization with those few who pursue
their fanatical objects avowedly through the con.
| templated means of revolutionary change Of the
| government and with acceptance Of the necessary
| consequences-a civil and servie war-yet many
citizens have suffered themselves to be drawn into
one eVanescent political issue of agitation after an
other, appertaining to the same st of opinions,
and which subsidized as rapidly as they arose when
it came to be SEEM as it uniformly did, that tn,y
were incompatible with the compacts of the 81
| stitution and the existence of the Union.
Thus, when the acts of some of the States to
nullify the existing extradtion law imposed upon
| Congress the duty of passing new one the
! country was invited by agitators to enter into
party organization for its repeal; but that agita-
ton speedily ceased by reason of the impractical
bility of its object So, when the statute restric-
| ton upon the institution Of new States, by a
geographical line, had been repealed, the cOun-
| try was urged to demand its restoration, and
| that project died also almost with its birth.
| Then followed the cry of alarm from the North
| against imputed Southern encrOachments; which
cry sprang in reality from the spirit of revOlu-
tiOnary attack the domestic institutions of the
| South, and, after a troubled existence of a few
months, has been rebuked by the voice of a pat
rotic people.
OF this last agitation, one lamentable feature
was that it was carried on at the immediate ex-
pense Of the peace and happiness of the people Of
the Territory of Kansas That was made the bat
tle-feld, not much of opposng factions or inters
Gets within itself, as of the conflicting passions of
The whole people OF the United States. Revou-
tionary disorder in Kansas had its origin in pro-
iects of intervention, deliberately arranged by Ger.
tain members of that Congress, which enacted the
law for the organization of the Territory. And
when propaganda colonization OF Kansas had thus
| been undertaken in one section of the Union, for
the systematic promotion of its peculiar views Of
policy, there ensued as a matter of course, a
counteracton with opposite views in other sections
of the Union.
In consequence of these and other incidents.
many acts of disorder it is lndenioble, have been
perpetrated in Kansas, TO the occasional Interrupt
lion rather than the permanent Suspension, of re-
| guar government. Aggressive and most repre-.
| hensbe incursions into the Territory were UNDER
taken, both in the North and the South, and enter.
ed it its northern border by the way of Iowa, as
well as on the eastern by way of Missouri; and
and there has existed within it state of insurrec-
ton sgainstthe constituted authorities not without
couutenauce from inconsiderate persons in each of
| the great sections of the Union But the difficult.
ties in that Territory have been extravagantly e1,
aggerated for purposes Of political agitation else.
where. The number and gravity Of the acts of vic.
lence have been magnihcd partly by statements en-.
tirely untrue, aud partly by reiterated accounts Of
| the same rumOrs or facts. Thus the Territory has
been seemingly filed with extreme violence, When
the wi ole amount of such acts has not been greater
than what occasionally passes before US in single
cities TO the regret of all good citizens but with>
out being regarded as OF general or permanent pos
| litical consequence.
Imputed Irregularities in the elections had in
| Kansas, like occasional Irregularities of the
same description iu the States, were beyond the
| sphere Of action Of the Executive. But Incl
| dents of actual violence, or of organized Oh
structiOn TO law, pertinaciously renewed from
| time to time, have been met as they occurred,
| by such means as were available and as the cir
cumstances required; and nothing OF this charac-
ter now remains TO affect the general peace of
| the Union. The attempt OF a part of the inhab-
! itants OF the territory TO erect revolutionary
| government, though sedulousy encouraged and
supplied with pecuniary aid from active agents
of disorder in some Of the States, has completely
! failed Bodies of armed men, foreign to The ter
| ritory, have been prevented from entering, or
PEELED to leave il. Predatory bands, engaged in
| acts of rapine under cover of the existing poi.
tic disturbances, have been arrested or dispersed.
And every well disposed person is now enabled
once more to devote himself in peace to the pur-
snits OF prosperons industry. for the nrosecntion