Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1857-07-16
The Turn of the Tide.


We presume we do not attach too much i'm
,yortance to an article which we copy to day
from the Washington Union, when we infer
from it determination on the part Of the
Federal Administration to sustain Governor
Walker in Kansas, and treat it as pledge that
the people of that territory shall have an op
portunity of passing upon the Constitution un-
der which they are now TO live. 1t bears in
ternal evidence of having been written byauthor-
ity and seems to be so construed, uniformly
by the cognOScenti at Washington
This article, assuming it to be authorized
by the government, marks an era in the pollt-
ical history of the country it is the first trlb-
ute of respect to the antslavery sentiment OF
the Northern states which has come from the
federal Executive for the last twenty years.
After a contest conducted with great bitter
ness, and so far as the North was concerned,
under every imaginable disadvantage, we
have to-day to record the very first act of any
federal administration wearing an aspect of re-
sistance to the pro-slavery policy Of the south
ern oligarchy. The guietus which Gen. Jack
son gave to the nullifers in 1885, though
blow to the same political interest as that
which now has had the control of the govern
ment for the last few years, arose upon alto
gether different Issue, and, therefore does
not deserve to be regarded as an exception.
Mr. Buchanan and his advisers, in the article
to which we refer, have deliberately sounded
a retreat from the ground which was occupied
by the late administration they admit that
the circumstances under which the late legiSla-
tive government of Kansas was imposed upon
its people were unpopular, and never could
command their general obedience or respect
and in spite of the threats and dennnciationS
of the southern press, they recognise the ne
cessity of giving the people of the territory
an opportunity of approving or ofrejecting the
constitution which q convention elected under
that organization should provide Such a sub
mission to the popular voice was not provided
for nor even contemplated, so far as we can
discern, by Congress no such concession was
ever dreamed of by the late administration,
who spared neither bribes nor blood to silence
the speech and bind the hands of the free
state settlers who sought at the ballot-box
and with the press to keep slaves out of the
territory. But We have had Presidential
election in the country lately, and state of
feeling has been revealed which Mr.. Buchan-
an, we begin to think, has had the good sense
to profit by. He was diScoyered-so we sus-
pect-that the government of this country
cannot be conducted any longer under a sla-
very-extenson policy that the nearest ap-
proach to it that our people will bear is rig
orous neutrality, and for that he is steering.
TO reach it he will be obliged to take several
steps back. The first we have to-day the
pleasure of recording. We hail the omen.
May he select for his motto the words inscri-
bed by the ancents upon the pillars of Her
cules, Plus Ultra. If so, he will be able to
do what no President of late years have done,
(and for an obvious reason he will lay down
his office more popular and more respected
than when he assumed it.
But the question which will soon be in every
mans mouth is, will the President have the
courage to meet and brave the assault which
the policy here indicated is sure to bring upon
him Nearly every leading administration
journal is committed against Walkers course,
and most of them such as the Charleston lNer-
cury, the Richmond South, the Washington
STATES and the Georgia, Mississippi and Lou
iSiana presses, have very generally denounced
it in terms which will compel them hereafter
to occupy an attitude of hostility to the Gov
ernor and to any party that sustans him. Two
state legislatures have expressed similar opin-
ions, and others may follow their example.
Has the President the firmness necessary to
stand to his colors, and risk a second dismem-
bcrment of his party If not, he is ruined.
If he has, the force of circumstances will give
him one of the finest historical positions occu-
pied by any President
In either case, whether he is or is not equal
to the emergency, he is at the least able to
mark the change of current which has taken
place, and to show to the future student of
history when slavery ceased to be protected
by the federal government as national, and
freedom to be prescribed as sectional.-Ers.
Post