Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1857-07-14


Governor Of Kansas. He has argued the free
State side Of the question. We quote all that
part Of tn. inaugural on which this charge is
based. Here it is;
4" And LEI me ask you, what possible good
has been accomplished by sgitating In Con-
gress and In Presidential conflicts the slavery
question: Has it emancipated a single slave or
improved their condition2 Has IL made e sin
gle State free where slavery otherwise would
have existed? Has it accelerated the dlsaP-
p~esrance Of slavery from the more northern OK
the slaVsholdibg States, or accomplished any
practical good Whatever2 No, my feliow-ciu-
zens, nothing but unmitigsted evil has already
ensued, with disasters still more fearful i'm
pending for the future, as q consequences OF this
agitation.
There is a law more powerful thanthe leg
islation Of man-more potent than passion OF
preiudice-that must ultimately determine the
location Of slavery in this country; Il 10 the
is0thermal lire ; il is the law OF the thefnom-
eter, o. latitude OF altitude, regulating climate,
labor aud productions, and, % a consequence
profit and loss. Thus, even upon the mountain
heights Of the tropics slavery can no more ex-
list than in northern ATTITUDES, because x Is un-
profitable, being unsuited to the constitution OF
thar sable race transpianted here from the
equatorial heats Of Africa. Why is Il that IN
the Union slavery recedes from the North, and
progresses SouthP II is this same great CHI
matte law now operating for or against slavery
in Kansas? II, onthe elevated plains OF Kan
sas, stretching to the base Of our American
Alps (the Rocky mouutains) and including their
eastern crest crowned with perpetual snow,
from which sweep over her open prairies those
chilling blasts, reducing the average range or
the thermometer here 10 a temperature nearly
as low as that Of New England, should render
slavery Improbable here, because unsuiied TO
the tropical constitution Of the negro race, the
law above referred 70 must ultimately deter
mine that question here, and can no more be
controlled By the legislation Of man than any
other moral or physical law OF the Almighty.
Especially must this law operate with %irresis-
ubie force ia this country, where the number
Of slaves is limited, and cannot be increased by
importation, where many millions Of acres Of
sugar and cotton lands are stiil uncultivated,
and, from the e-ver-augmenting demand, exceed
ing the supply, the price Of those great staples
hsa nearly doubled, d~emsnfing vastly more
slave labor for their production.
" If, from the operation Of these causes, sia-
very should not exist bere, l trust It by no
means follows that Kansas should become a
State controlled BY the treason and fsnatieism
Of abolition. She has, in any event, certain
constitutional duties TO perform to her sister
States, and especially to her immediate neigh
bor-the slavsholding State Of Missouri
Through that great State, by rivers and rail
roads. must flow to a great extent cur trade
and intercourse, our imports and exports. Our
entire eastern front is upon her border from
Missouri come a great number OF her e~Itlzens;
even the farms OF the two States are cut by
the line Of Slate boundary, part in Kansas,
part in Missouri her citizens meet US IN daily
intercourse; and that Kansas should become
hostile to Missouri, an asylum for her fugitive
slaves, or a propagandist Of abolition treason.
would be alike inexpedient and unjust, and
fatal TO the continuance OF the American
Union. In any event, then, | trust that the
constitution Of Kansas will contain such
clauses as viii forever secure to the State of
Missouri the faithful performance Of all con-
stitutional guarantees, not only by federal, but
BY State authority, and the supremacy within
our limits Of the authority Of the Supreme
Court Of the United States on all c~onstita-
tional questions be firmly established"
When we take these paragraphs and com
press the meaning OF them into short sentences
they amount to this: The question Of slavery
has always been, and always will be, settled
BY certain laws of Nature, which are above all
human legislation. If those avs of Nature
shall so operate upon Kansas as to make her a
free State, all legislation in the other direction
viii be vain. This was rather expressing a
truism than making an argument. The propri-
ETY., however, and timeliness Of utteriBg such a
truism then and there, are subjects on which
we affirm nothing and deny nothing. We are
too far away, and know too little Of the cir
cumstances with which he was surrounded, to
be a competent judge Of bis conduct in a mat
ter so nice as this.
But there are certain considerations which
will insure Gov. WALKER just if not a kind
judgment from every fair-minded man, es-
pecially in the South. A Southern man him
self, he has been a uniform and consistent
champion Of Southern rights. The EXTREMIST
men Of that section pressed him upon Mr.. b.
cHASAE for the highest place in his cabinet.
He is, besides, an able, far-seeing, and sa-
gacious statesman, as little likely as airy other
in the country to impale himself on a point Of
mere prudence. This alone might raise a
presumption hat be neither did harm nor in
tended any to Southern interests. But when
we see, in addition to this, that be is actively
cooperating with the Democratic party in
Kansas, including all the prO-slsverY men in
the Territory when We find bis whole course
sustained by the prO-slsvery presses there
when we hear no complaint whatever from the
quarter whence complaint ought to come, if
there were any cause for it, we are constrained
to think that the Georgia and Mississippi De-
mocraey have pronounced their Judsmentrather
hastily.
Gov. Walker is a Southern man he has been
sent out by an Administration pledged to the
defense Of Southern rights be is surrounded by
a corps Of officers, most Of hen from the South,
and every one Of them sound national men he
was instructed to regard the territorial author
tiles as legal, and sustain them against the re-
bellion of the Topeka AbOlitionists he is act
ing in concert with the friends of the South,
and calamity fighting their enemies. We can
not help but think that such a man, 30 sent, so
instructed, 50 surrounded, and so acting, is en-
titled to sympathy, comfort, and aid from the
South whenever they can be given with a con-
scisptious regard 70 truth. With such battle
raging in his front, it was harsh and ungracious
to open this fire on bis rear.