New-York daily tribune., 1856-05-03
ISSUES


ait of war, to be always strongest On the point of
actual conflict. Let your adversary be three to
one, if be will everywhere else; it sufces that you
are three to two on thepresent field Of battle Thus
be won many brilliant victories; thus he lost Water.
lOo-Blucber arriving there at nightfal, and fall
ing upon the exhausted and decimated French
battalions, while GrOuchy remained miles away
If it be wise thus to be strongest on the actual
field of conflict, it would seem obviously desirable
to fight the battle if possible on the ground rhere you
are positry strongest and your adversary relatively
mtakta. Was not Wellington justified in de.
Tending the lines of Torres Vedras until he found
himself in force to justify an advance to Badajoz,
Salamanca and Vittoria'
There are many just grounds Of opposition to the
policy, measures ard ascendancy of the Slave Pow
er in this country, which have, to greater or less
extent attracted the attention and aroused the in
dignaton of the country. But the one question on
which all earnest opponents of the Slave Power
are united and determined is the Kansas Question.
The Amtric People are familiar with the main
facts which underlie this case. They know that
Kansas was organized from territory solemnly con.
secrated TO Free Labor forever by the Missouri
Compact of l62O-that the Slave States gave to
that compact it's principal support, while three
fourths of the Northern Members resisted it to the
last-that the South demanded and received yalu-
able confederation for quitclaiming this territory
that several Slave States havo since been nurtured,
organized and admitted in virtue of this Missouri
Compact-that the South proposed and carried an
extension of its provisions to Texas, in the Anne1a-
tion of that country and was ready to extend 1t to
the Pacific, in the acquisition of New Mexico and
California. But the North said "N0: we will
abide by what is established, but we are not will
ling to extend it," whereupon the South and her
Northern ser,itors repudiate tho Compact Of lS2o,
and demand the opening of every acre of the Ma
tional t. rritcres to Slave-sbor and Sayebreeding.
The conce ssion of this demand is embodied in Sena-
tor Douglass Nebraska bill whereby Kansas OBJ
tanned distinct eXistence the efforts of large
msiority of the settlers of Kansas TO make her a
Free State, in defiance Of the purpose but in az
cordance with the provisions of the Douglas act,
form the ground Of the present controversy.
At the time of the passage Of this act its Northern
supporters generally commended and eulogized it
as embodyiDg the principle Of Squatter Sovereignty
People of any Territory to determine whether
Slavery should or should not be tolerated therein
Gen. Cass has always maintained, and still insists
that Slavery cannot legally exist in any Territory
until the People thereof shall, through their Legs.
lsture, establish IL. But the South now unani.
mousy insists and most OF the Northern Douglas
ties tacitly admit, that every STAKEHOLDER has
an iudefeasible right, guaranteed BY the Federal
Constitution. 10 take his slaves into any Federal
Territory, and there sell, work, and fog them pre-
csely as in a Slave State, and that the People {
said Territory though ten to one hostile to Slavery
have 10 right and no power to obstruct him. Nay:
they are held to be bound not merely to acquiesce
in his planting of Slavery in their midst but to
actively assist, by Legislation and by personal
effort to maintain his authority over his negroes
to reduce them to subjection if they resist and to
help him recover them il they run away When
tie Territory, after years Of submission to Slavery
shall be allowed to form State Constitution and
apply for admission into the Union, she may e1.
clude Slavery If she sees fit; but, as q slayehoding
Territory always becomes Slave State, and
Free Territory invariably becomes Free State,
this pretense Of guaranteeing liberty to eIpel
Slavery at some indefinite future day becomes
mockery and snare. The triumph of the princi.
piles embraced 10 the Nebraska bill ensures the
establishment Of Slavery in every present and
future Territory into which slaveholders may
choose to carry il.
Before us to-day stands Kansas, the victim of
gigantic frauds perpetraied BY invaders from
Missouri in her Delegate and Legislative Flee
tiors-trampled under foot by the Slave Power,
through yillanies which demons should blush for,
but which the President and Senate, with about
half the House, either eagerly uphold or sneakingy
G, puiye at-snd demands sdmii sion into the Union