Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1857-12-22
THE PRESENT ASPECT OF POLITICAL
AFFAIRS,

AAG InCoENl ASfECI Ot
AFFAIRS.
The slavery question has for years been more and
more attracting the attention and exciting the anxiety
OF the country, until at last, as was evidenced in the
late Presidential election in purely party sense, it
has shut out from view every other ISSUE and divi
ded the nation into two political organizations as
contradictory to each other darkness is to light
and irreconcilable as savagesm and civilization.
The party contends for the Constitution, for the
rights of the South, the equality of the States and
the maintenance of the Union. The other strikes at
the principles Of the Government. and seeks to cir
cumscribe the institutions of the slave States by
Federal legislation. The Southern people are united
u favor of the former. The Northern people are di-
vded in support of the latter. The great De.
mocratic doctrines Of popular sovereignty and State
Rights cordially endorsed and earnestly fought
for by our allies in the North The slave States de.
msnd nothing than their guaranteed rights shall
be maintained. They only ask that their domestic
institutions shall BE- left entirely to them within their
own limits, and that the people Of the Territories
| shall be allowed to decide for themselves whether
slavery shall shall not be recognised in the or
ganic laws of the new States. The Northern Demo
cracy conoede the business ofhs constitutional claim
The Kansas question has brought them TO praci'
cal test And while We regret to see that there are
Democrats at the North, who persist in opposing the
policy Of the Administration that question: it s
now presented, We will not charge them with an in
ention to further the interests Of the Black Repub
party. They still profess to uphold that great
principle, that the people shall rule, which is the
strongest security of the South. And cannot but
! conoede them honesty in such profession. But,
intentionally or not il cannot be denied that by op
posing the admission Of Kansas under the action OF
the Lecompton Convention, they are giving aid and
comfort to the enemy Senator Douglas is in this
category 1t is not at all unnatural that he should
be deeply interested in the operation of the Nebraska
bill. And considering his former fidelity, his previous
bold defence of Southern rights, We are willing to
bear with him to certain point. lie has reached
that point. If he takes a single step beyond it, the
Southern Democracy will forsake him, in sorrow.
As he now stands before he country, simple
question of erpediency alone places him in opposition
to the Administration. But upon that question the
fate Of the Union may be turning.
II is the earnest desire of patriots of all par
ties, to put an end to the slavery agitation
to withdraw the question from Congress. The Ne
braska bill, it was thought, would do thisi and it
is amply adequate to the purposes. But Senator
Douglas and his ooadjutors are pursuing coure cal
culsted to embarrass it's action. After the medicine
has been administered the physician who prescribed
it, recommends regimen TO countervail its effects.
The principle for which they contend, cannot be con-
tradicted among a Republican people. But they
seem TO be altogether regardless of the fact that no
controversy upon that point has ever arisen or ever
tod A,f,r Jb,
institution of sauery. They cannot contend that the
contest between the fanatica followers Of Fremont
aud the conservative supporters of Buchanan, hat
the rsmotest relation to any other organic law or in
sttution, either in the States in the Territories thar
that of siapery. And when the slavery question ID
submitted to the people of Kansas as has been pro
vded 30 far as that Territory Is concerned the objec
of the Nebraska bill will have been fully and fairl!
attained. 1t is natural for lnen to differ and W,
will not impugn the motives of those Northern Demo
crats who are 60 incorporating in their demand
that the nhole Constitution shall be submitted fn III
povp'~, osaureu tnat unless It ls done
they are willing to relirquish their alliance with tn
South, and enlist in the ranks of the enemy. Thi
however, we hope not to see. Should Congress ad
NIT Kansas inte the Union under the action of tn
Lscompton Convention, ss national question tn
Kansas question will then be at an end. That th
will be done we most ardently trust, as We are il
clined strongly to believe.
The time will then have come for Senator Douga
and those who concur with him to place themselve
in an unequivocal attitude of open hostility to the
Democratic party and the South, or to prove to tn
country that they still continue in close allianc
with US, and in sntsgonsm to our enemies. As the
stand now, their opposition to the Administration ca
only be temporary. They do not deny the justnes
of the war, but they differ from as 10 the mode
making battle. We will not refuse to concede (
them, patriotic purpose. But We do not hesitat
to charge them with embarrassing our cause, an
encouraging the encmy. Should they 20 of from tn
Democratic party, the Union will be weakened
0 and the South must prepare for the worst. Blu
they cannot co 80 without abandoning the grount
they occupy now. The position of Senate
> Douelss has aroused serious suspicious in th
minds Of the Southern people, not 80 much from
, any opinion expressed in his speech, considered
apart from all other things, as on account of th
company in which he has placed himself. Had b,
been content with declaring that the principle O
popular sovereignty demands the submission of the
whole Constitution 10 the people, and at the same
i
the great question of the sectional contest has beer
duly referred to the proper tribunal and, therefore
that the agitation should be queted as soon as prac
ticable by the admission of Kansas, all would have
been well. As it s, however, he has shaken the faith
OF his rmes friends in the South But he has not gone
too far for redemption. And in TRUTH we do not be
eve he has left In oontending for the principle
of popular sovereignty, he has almost lost his equi
brium, but we cherish strong hope that he will
come back to his original attitude. As soon as the Kan
question settled which we trust will soon be done
by the present Congress, there will be no room for
doubt as to the true position Of all those Northern
Democrats who differ from the Administration in re-
lation to it. Every vessel must then sail under a
genuine flag. And we have little doubt that scarce
single ship will be missed from the Democratic
squadron in the Nortn.
Should it, however, prove otherwise should Doug
las and those who think with him desert up we may
be assured that there is political earthquake coming
which in 1860 may leave 6ssure Of fire as the
dividing line between the North and South.
THE LATE COURSE OF THE ENQUIRER
We have reason 10 apprehend that the course OF
the Enqui in its defence Of the Administration,
TOm Iu6 onu 'peu hltdNho W
the CLIQUE of maloontents in the South, has been
misconstrued by of the truest Democrats in the
State They seem to have COMPOUNDED our denun
citation of the actionsts, with contradiction of the
doctrine of the right of secession, and disposition
to depart from those safeguards of the South
which are essential to our security, either in the
Union or out of it. There appears to prevail to some
extent, an impression that the Enquirer is less
observan of the old land marks by which the State
rights school has been accustomed to steer upor
the political sea. Those gentlemen who have ar
rived at such conclusions have doubtless done &c
without bestowing due reflection upon the articles
from which they draw such deductions The :" En-