The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-15
THE SCHEME OF DIsUHIoH.

THE SCHEME OF DIsUNI0N.
It is stated by correspondent Of the New
York Tribune, evidently on good authority, that
Col. Benton, few days before his death, was
visited by an old and intimate friend from Mis-
souri-probsbly the Hon. Francis P. Blair, jr.-
to whom he expressed himself very forcibly on
the Lecompton question, saying, with his accus-
toned force and energy, that the same men
who had sought to destroy the Republic in 1860
were at the bottom of this accused business"
and warmly praiaing the Anti Lecompton Dem
ocrats who, in defiance of the Administration,
had enabled the House of Representatives to
befls these reasonable schemes, and to put
the feet of the people on the necks of the trail.
tors.
This impressive and significant declaration
of the dying statesman is entitled to great weight,
not only as the deliberate opinion of a man
thoroughly verssd in our politics, and of I'M
questionable patriotism, but because it is corrob-
GRATED by ample and convincing testimony from
other quarters. Mr.. Douglas, of Illinois, and
Mr.. Bell, of Tennessee, have both, in recent
speeches in the Senate, intimated that this Lee
compton scheme was q scheme of disunion, and
that those who were most eagerly pressing it
upon Congress were not acting in good faith,
but we're instigated by Interior designs of de-
testable and dangerous character.
The outline Of the plot, 80 far as it has been
disclosed to the public, seems to have been this.
The Lecompton Constitution and the method
of its pretended submission to the popular vote
in Kansas were concocted partly in Washing.
ton and partly in the States of the South, where
disunionism has taken deepest root, not with the
expectation that the Constitution could be forced
upon Kansas, but with the hope that it could
be got through Congress by the discipline of
the Democratic party, and by the direct exer.
ton of Executive power and patronage. Its
attempted enforcement in the Territory, it was
thought, would provoke resistance on the part
of the Free State men. Civil war would be
kindled, involving in its progress the adjoining
States, and alternating the whole country. The
Free State men of Kansas and the Republicans
of the North would be driven into the attitude
of rebels, while the power, resources, and pres
tige of the Federal Government, including the
army and navy, would be in the hands of the
ultra shareholders. The moderate and patriotic
men of the South would be silenced by the
clash of arms, and in the end the Free States
would be driven ont of the Union, with perhaps
the exception of Pennsy lvania, Indiana, and
Illinois, to whom permission TO remain would
be graciously accorded, in recognition of their
fidelity to Southern interests, and on condition
of acknowledging the nationality of Slavery as
established by the principles of the bred Scott
decision. The pure Slaveholding Republic, thus
created, unembarrassed by the opposition of
Anti Slavery copartners, could enter at once on
a brilliant career Of conquest, annexation, and
the propagation of the peculiar institution over
Spanish America.
can hardly be given to the AntiLecompton
Democrats, for their cordial and decisive CO.
operation with the Republicans and with the
Anti Leoompton Americans in the opposition
to the first step in this gigantic scheme of trea-
son and civil war-the passage of the Lecomp-
ton Constitution through Congress. Impelled
solely by considerations of honor, honesty and
patriotism, they have resisted the pressure of
party discipline and the temptations of Office
aud emolument, to which so many Of the pub
lie men of this country have yielded in times
past. The people whom they have 30 n,i.Le-I
ly served should see to it that these upright
and incorruptible representatives are fully sus
tanned at home. Anti.Lecompton men of all
parties in their several districts are bound in
honor as well as in policy to send them back
to Congress, fortified with the freshest stamp of
popular appreciation and gratitude.