The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-11-06
Federal Politics and the Slavery Question
Another Great Speech from senator Ham,

repuDuC.
Federal Politics and the Slavery Question
Another Great Speech from senator HAM
mond.
One of the most refreshing, comprehensive,
conservative, suggestive and instructive speeches
on federal politics, in connection with the slavery
question, that we have ever published or ever
read, We spread before our readers this morning.
We refer to the speech of Senator Hammond,
delivered to his constituents at Barnwell Court
House, South Carolina, the other day. Con-
trasted with the late abolition harangues of
W. II. Seward at Rochester and Rome, it pre-
sents us, in the boldest relief, the difference be-
tween the views Of calm and nquiring states
man and the desperate electioneerng tricks of
an ambitious and INSCRIPTIONS demagogue.
| In the one case, the ripening influences of time
and experience have changed the South Carolina
nullifier into the most powerful advocate Of
union. peace and harmony; in the other case the
Kansas agitation appears to have transformed
the coolest and shrewdest Of our snti-slavery
leaders into the most foolish excesses of fanati-
cism.
Leaving the views Of Senator Hammond upon
Kansas to speak for themselves, we turn to the
broader political issues of the future which he 80
ably discusses. He believes that the South
can still maintain herself within the Union, and
under the constitution "control its action in all
great affairs" and yet he comedies, substantially
that the extension of slavery within our present
territorial limits has reached its terminus; that
Mexico and Central America are wholly llnavail-
able for slave States, and cannot be touched
without contamination" and that Cuba itself is
forbidden fruit" Nor is this all; for while he
fully recognises the continually increasing pres
sure Of Northern free labor, from our constant
accessions from Europe, he utterly opposes the
retaliatory scheme of the revival of the African
slave trade, as impracticable and visionary He
il satisfied with the selfsustaining resources of
the South az she stands, and looks with distrust
upon Cuba as q graveyard of negroes, the de-
mand for which upon the Southern States would
be more prejudicial than profitable
But the most conspicuous view in which Mr.
Hammond presents the success and security of
slavery in the South is in connection with the
practical results which have followed the abol-
ton excitements and experiments of England
and France, and the thirty years Of our North
ern abolition agitation. These results are,
that England and France have confessed their
abolition bunders, and that while the former
has been driven to the coolie system of slavery,
the latter has openly returned to the African sys-
tenn and traffic. Within the same interval our
political Northern agitation has not only resulted
in doubling the value of Southern slaves, but has
brought about a union of the South in defence of
the institution. which renders it, in connection
with the necessities of commerce, perfectly safe
and impregnable for the future, and entirely
competent to protect itself within or without
our existing confederacy.
Best OF all, no doubt, TO the mind of Mr..
Hammond, is the conviction which he entcrtains
that there can be no anti-slavery issue in the
future upon which ''the ssootionsts Of this coun-
try can ever muster their legions as they did in
1856" We incline TO a concurrence in this OPT
Mon. and TO believe that henceforward, to 1860
the practical issues of the government and the
practical exigencics of the country will come
more and more prominently into the foreground,
until niggers and the niger agitation are entirely
superseded in the reconstruction of parties and
party questions for the Presidency. That Kan
sas-Nebraska box Of Pandora has done its
work of mischief, North and South, and the
conservative people of both sections, with
"the sober second thought, will repent and atone
for their late debasing carousals of sectional ex-
citement and folly over this miserable expert
ment Of Presidential intriguers.
The only remaining distractions of any mo-
ment to pacifcation upon the slavery question
are W. II. Seward, his new abolition platform.
and the sectional Presidential clique whose OBJ
jet is to thrust him forward as the anti-slavery
candidate Of the North against pro-slavcry can
didate in the South. Upon such an organization
ofparties In 1850, all the pleasing anticipations
Of such conservative men as Mr.. Hammond may
be borne down in the fierce war between sections
and sentiments, North and South, upon slavery
We believe, however, that unless this arch-agita-
tor, Seward, shall be cast out BY bis party he and
his party will in the end be overwhelmed
with something Of those divisions and disasters
which they would bring upon the Union The
curtain Is lifting upon the great drama Of the
future For good or for evil, we are upon the
Threshold Of mighty revolution.
SEwARD's ABOLITION SPEECH BEARING Fgurr-
SHAREHOLDERS CONVENTION IN MARYLAND
The natural and inevitable result Of the brutal
and bloody programme laid down by VIM. ii.
Seward in his Rochester speech has already
commenced to be made apparent For the past
three days there has been In session a convcn-
ton OF Shareholders Of the Eastern Shore Of
MARYLAND In which Eve countica Talbot Caro-