New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-07-13

iDptons tomb builder is reported to have said:
The political life OF the country has sunk down
" into sectional agitation, and in such conflict |
have no part to take" Plainly, the Oldest Nor
tally cannot so absolve himself from political life
unless between the contending sections there is
nothing to choose; unless the triumph of the one
,ection lust as desirable for the whole country
the triumph of the other unless the defeat of the
one will be as deplorabe to the whole as the defeat
of the other. 1t is easy enough to imagine Sec
t:onal controversy in which ,uch would be the case
II would be strife without distinction of principle
or polcy; OF parties dineripg from each other not
more essentially than two peas We do sometimes
see contests for which there is no apparent reason
which the benevolent must be very long sighted not
to depore, and where the peacemaker will hang in
perfect equilibrium between the sides. But DO We
often see such contests on large scale Tom
and Dick may give each other bloody noses and
black eyes for the possession of baube worthless
to either The only consolation perhaps is that the
propensity they thus cultivate may be useful to
their country, by and by, in it's wider qusrrels.
But are these latter to be equally bootlessl Have
we no right to believe that the world s made better
sad, generally leads to better construction
Some Of the mighty dead not yet buried, have
discovered that the strife which now agtates this
continent 90 intensely as to have smothered the pull
sations of the tariff question and made US cold to
cur foreign relations, is mere unprncipled, geo.
graphical quarrel between Tom and Dick 70 see
which will whip and rule one being just as well
adapted and qualified BY nature for the latter pur-
pose as the other. 1t 10 prejudice or odium Of
lsttuder not to say Of lopgitudes, coming from
row .mndedness, and to be cured only by cultvat.
lrg breath Of soul. And, by the way, has it never
occurred to these illustrious ghosts to ask them
selves why this purely sectional strife in the
United States should be one Of ATTITUDES rather
than of loDaitides Was it sheer fortuity that
the section should occur aparalle rather than on
meridian We humbly submit that it is exceed.
ipely unfortunate we did not split on q meridian,
because then il would have been 90 much clearer
that the strife was purely sectional, and not about
principle or policy. Now, as the evil star of
destiny will have IT, the sections are almost exactly
coterminous with a peculiar institution, giving a
pas.able fulcrum for the quarrel between the
friends and enemies Of that Institution without any
regard to latitude or longitude; or that geography,
however present accidentally, has really nothing to
do with the controversy, which would at once
cease if Slavery were TO sink out of existence.
We earnestly recommend to these venerable re-
thing politicians to employ their prodigous powers
of analysis in discovering some demonstration BY
which this baleful error may be dislodged. For
I'LL they do il, all their solemn warnings against
sectiousli.m are well nigh wasted II may truly
enough be said, as general thing that man had
better quarrel with bis neghbors than with his own
family: vet there are circumstances inwhich man
must and will quarrel with his own household. and
you cannot make peace or sllay the strife without
entering into the merits You may preach never
90 eloquent and pathetic homles on domestic har-
mony and the wickedness Of domestic broils, but
they are thrown away on the father, wife, child
tia. i. conscious of maintaining the right against
intolerable domestic wrong. If you can eIpunge
this consciousness it is practically better than any
smount of gererslties, gltteriDg or otherwise.
If Mr.. Everett can show that the question 10
which political life is now absorbed IS merely
sectional agitation and cot question vital to the
republic which our fathers labored to establish,
then be does wisely and yirtuOusy to take neutral
position. Ifhe cannot, the mere crcumstance that
the question has accidentally geographical a'ps:t
cannot excuse him. This geographical aspect 20
far from making the question sectional one, does
not even yield US sectional solution as among
reasonable probabilities. Our confederation Of re-
pubEcs is 90 bound up together that our largeness
only strengthen. our sneness. Our interests tend
80 strongly to unity. that however local the cause
of quarrel. it must become Of general interest
ftcm the sheer imPo'ibiliiy Of our being geo