The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1857-09-19

& BLUFFS. IOWA y q 81, I.
III ----
L adg Il as ss sssfsssls ass s
ak yrosn the cinfimsstti Gs.ette
fHE OpYOslTI0N PARTY YATT1fEs0UTls'
& Although bat singls slaseholding State
cast its electoral vots against Mr. Buchan-
an at the last Presidential election, the vote
for Fillmore elsewhere At the South was
larc& and in tbfee Or fonr States nearly
balanced the Shanf Dsmocratic strength
The combined AansTieans and Wings were
consequently, though defeated, not despon-
dent. Considering the odds against them,
they supposed there was good reasonto take
courage and 60 ahead. The course Of the
Administration, since Mr.. Buchanan's cleo
tion. was even claimed TO have furnished
them new capital--straDge as to us, at first
view it might seem. But the late elections
have opened their eyes-in some instances,
We should judge, sather vide. gH
The opposition at the South has come to
q sense Of its loss condition. Its leaders
now see the error Of their ways, but it is =
death bed conviction. A little prudent fore
sight, few years ago, would practically
served better purpose than any amount Of
penitence now. The calamity that has be-
fallen them Is one they had every reason to
expect. Southern Wings and Southern
Americans hare both spurned golden op-
portunitics. The time has been, and more
than once, when they might have co-opera-
ted with true men Of the North ON conser-
yatiye ground, in such manner Us to have
saved the country much Of its recent dis
sension and disgrace. Going back only
three or feur years, let US see what they
have been doing. 90
2 In 1852, the two great parties had alike
given the country solemn assurance Of
quiet on the subject Of Slavery. Each af-
frmed its acquiesence in the compromise
measures of 1850, declaring that adjustment
to be final settlement Of the question:
How much that was odious and bitterly o.
fensive to the people of the free States was
contained in those measures, we need not
rehearse. Northern Wings, however ac-
cepted the platform in good faith. If they
gave Gen. Scott but the electoral vote Of
Massachusetts, and Vermont, our candidate
received no better support ut the South
The country wanted quiet. The abolition
vote cast for J. p. Hale was but trhing
compared even with that cast for Van Buren,
four years previously. "Agitation was
manifestly at . discount-was fast dying
out.o ar.s.. .s g.sssssz s-.s.,ss, sg-T
How came this violent strife to be reyiv-
ed-revived, too, with an earnestness and
effect before unknown? Everybody UNDER
stands where, and when, and how, this bit
ter contest began. The Richmond Wing
tells US that these mischiefs are to be attrib-
uted to the ''National Democracy, North
and South" 'sThey have fed and flourish
ed upon agitation" says the Wing, ssfor the
last twenty-five years." Grant it. Pierce,
Douglas, and the Sham Democracy, were
the first to give the country pledges Of quiz
ct on this subject, and they were the first to
move in this most exciting as well as most
inexcusable and wicked Of all pro-slavery
agitations, in contempt Of the people to
whom their sacred faith was pledged in fa-
yor of the opposite course. But unfortu-
nately the history Of this business does not
end here.
The Southern Wings are themselves res
ponsible for the consumation of this peril
dy. They were indispensable to its accom-
plishment. They even Wed with the South
ern Democrats in the alacrity with which
they threw their Baltimore pledges to the
winds. If Senator Dixon of Kentucky, was
less capable than Senator Douglas, Of the
origin of that part of the Kansas Nebraska
act, which annulled the Missouri Compro-
mise, he was at least not far behind in this
iniquity; and the Senatorial zeal Of South
ern Wing Senators, shutting themselves up
in caucus of their own, with narrow ex-
plotting to betray their North
ern associates, and perseveringly carrying
through their fatal schemes, forever rent
the party in twain. H "
We hold the Southern Wing leaders to
this responsibility. The sagacity aud tidel-
ity of Senator Bell, of Tennessee .-.
"Among the faithless, faithful only he"
is but an exception, which we eleraly had
right to expect would have been the rule.
These Wing leaders of the South counted
too much on Northern submission. 1t was
in that they were warned of the fatal mistake
they were about to commit. 1t was in vain
they were appealed by the conservative
Wings at the North who had long stood in the
gap' for the sake of maintaining a national
party. The perfdy was censu,nated. Nor
thern Wings were ccntemptousiy left to vim.
dicate themselves as best they might, for
the pledges they had given Of the honor
and fidelity of their Southern brethren. No
portion of the North had better reason for
indignation than conservative Wings.
1t was no transient outbreak of popular
passion which gave birth to the Republican
party, and which gained it, at the very start,
eleven Of the free States, and a powerful
minority in every other. The party has a
permanent basis. Its objects are sure to be
accomplished. Its triumph is not remote.
The Southern wing of the Wing party We
have said took the responsibility Of the re-
peal of the Missouri compact of 1870. Per-
haps the mass of the Southern Wings, indeed
deeply regretted what their representatives
at Washington had done, yet deemed it too
late for that action to be undone. lIonora-
BILE and manly exceptions there were, even
in the House. But they were few; and all
untimely oyerborne and defeated 1t home.
With some expression of regret, and with
some attempt to fix the responsibility on the
party in power, despite their own ability to
have prevented the mischief Southern Wings
have universally acquiesced in the per6dious
act of agitation. Agolden opportunity was
thus lost. Had it been improved; had South
ern Wbigs cordially united with those of the
North to maintain the faith plighted thirty
years before, again in the Compromise of
1850, and in their own resolutions (for they
came from the South) at Baltimore in 1852,
the political aspect of the nation would have
been entirely different, and we should have
been spared vast heritage Of discord and
mischief. BY what infatuation was it, that
so suspicious an occasion was allowed to
slip?
Another singular faulty was seen in the
persistence with which Southern Americans
pushed their attempts to make the American
party slavery. They succeeded ten year.
ago in carving their platform; but it killed
the party for which it was made. That party
was imperfectly shaped, clogged with ma.
chinery, burdened with errors and ultraisms
but was yet susceptible, perhaps, Of being
made the nucleus Of q sound national party
But without waiting to see, the South forcet
it into disruption, aud scattered it to tn,
winds. They seem to have been determee
"a drive the North to exercise her politica