Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1857-05-14
New Series---Vol ii, No. 27,

honor, or to her everlasting shame.
The repeal of the Missouri Restriction
and the attempt 10 force slavery upon Kan.
sas by fraud and violence, preeipitated
upon the country a conflict between the
antagonlstlc systems of free and servile
labor. In the issue of this conflict is in
VolVed the democratic character of opr
institutions of government, and the indie.
pendence, dignity and rights of the free
white laoorlng man and his poserity.
Slavery is the deadly enemy of free
labor. The Two cannot co-exist on the
same field of enterprise Either labor
will vndicate its right to freedom, or it
will sink into dependence and dshonor.
Free labor is clothed with intelligence and
power. Ii stands erect in the dignity of
true manhood. 1t suslains by its energies
all the noble institutions of refined and
perfectly developed social life. 1t is the
source OF our prosperity and national
greatness. Slavery is labor in ignorance
and chains-a brutalized humanity, slim
ulated to industry by the lash of master.
Ii makes the laborer an article of mer-
chandise, without aim and without hope.
In the place of an intelligent citizen, ready
to defend with his life the honor and in
terests OF his country, slavery gives to the
State an ignorant savage to be held in SUBJ
Jection. 1t endangers the social fabric bv
converting It's great element of strength
into all lmPlacable enemy.
Never, IN the history of partisan war.
fare were men more uniustly and perseve.
ringly misrepresented than are the oppo-
nents OF the extension of slavery. This
arises In par! from the intolerant nature of
slavery. and the weapons it is necessita,ed
to employ, and partly from the fact-so
omnlpotent has the Slave Power become
IN our government-that support of its
every demand is made the single test OF
party fidelity, and the only road to official
preterment. The citizen who dissents in
terms of earnest and manly protest against
whatever exactons Slavery makes, be-
comes thereby-in so far as the National
Government can impose disabilities-al-
most as much an alien and outlaw as is
the slave himself If the freemen of the
North consent 10 occupy such subordi-
nate position in the government OF their
country, the spirit of manly independence
will be crushed out in their posterity.
Our sons will become submissive and
serVlle race, stripped of manhood and of
selt-respect The STAKEHOLDER, proprietor
OF the soil and master of the government,
will dominate over them with scarcely less
OF arrogance and power than he rules over
his hereditary bondsmen.
10 this condition are the nom sIavebold
ing whites of the South already reduced
They have to-day little more OF practical
power IN the formation of public opinion,
and in the affairs of government, than has
the slave. The same fate awaits our pos
terity, if slavery is allowed to monopolize
the virgin soil of this continent. lis the
inevitable retribution of heaven on any
people that have not the courage and in.
tegrlIy TO maintain their rights. 1t is not
true that the defenders of the rights of
free labor seek the elevation of the black
race 10 all equality with the white. They
do not propose the emancipation of the
slave, but leave that question, both as TO
time and the mode of its accomplishment,
with the States in which slavery exists.
They wish to deal with this great and en-
barrassing evil in spirit of friendly for
bearance towards these States, but they
cannot carry their forbearance as far as 10
virtually become slaves themselves-as TO
| surrender the soil and government of the
nation into the hands of an aristocracy
founded upon property in slaves.
Free white labor has rights in the soil
superior to the pretensions of slavery
The slaveholding capitalist claims that his
property, being largely invested in slaves,
will dePreclate, unless the field whereon
he can employ it be enlarged. The white
laborer, also, has property in his labor,
quite as sacred and as worthy Of the care
OF the Government; and where is the field
upon which he is 10 make that labor prof
table TO himself and family, if slavery
shall monopolize tue fertile and virgin
lands of the West? Labor is depressed
almost to the starving point in the densely
populated countries of the old world, be-
cause of the narrow field upon which it is
imprisoned. The demand for labor is
small, compared with the thousands who
have labor TO sell. So it will be at no dis
tant day In this favored land, unless we
keep our past public domain as sacred
inheritance for the free white laboring man
and his posterity forever. In the soil of
our extended empire, the toiing masses
have the only sure guarantee for their fu-
| ture prosperity and independence. This
the cupidity of capital would take from
! them; and here lies the real issue that the
Slave Power has forced upon the country.
1t is struggle for land.
On the one side stands the owner of
slave properly, demanding field on which
to employ his servile labor-upon the 9TH
er side stands free labor, claiming the soil
as an inheritance for free poslerity.--
! Central and Western Europe, teeming