Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-03-06
From the New York Tribune.

Ahe CFend struggle
1.-THE history of our struggle of free labor
against the slave power has many points of
similarity with that of great nations resist
ance to a formidable invader that of Russia
against Napoleon, for example. In the earlier
stages Of the conflict, the defending enemies,
are seen falling back from one position after
another, which are Immediately occupied by
their trumphantly advancing -adversaries,
until the whole country seems likely to be
abandoned and overrun. But the defenders,
| though retreatng, are constantly, though ST.
lently. gathering up their garrisons and re-
ceiving achievements; they are actually
strengthened by their losses of positions,
while their opponents weakened by the
necessity Of occupying or covering them I'M
til at length the order of movement is revers-
ed the invaders are palpably outnumbered
and forced to IecoiL while those who have so
long and YEARLY retreated become in turn the
assailants. Henceforth, the issue of the con-
test is certain, and its end rapidly attained.
The struggle with the slave power has
reached its turning point. Kanzas is its Bor-
odino, Lecompton its Moscow. Whether it
shall be allowed to triumph in fastening it's
detested imposture momentarily on a gallant
protesting people, or not, will make little dit
ference. is bound to be driven ignomini-
ously from the soil it has polluted, the terri
tory it has ravvged and its expulsion from
Kanzas is likely to prove the knel of it's sway
over the Union. There will still be collisions,
conaicte, mutations of fortune but the hour
which sees slavery legally and undeniably ex-
PEELED from Kanzas marks the limit of its
practical ascendancy. 1t will struggle hence.
forth for Missouri, for Maryland, for Ken
lucky, for Virginia no longer for fresh an
nexations-for the extension and consolida-
ton of its power.
1t is true that we who have been engaged
in this struggle for longer or shorter periods
in the past can retard or hasten the final
contamination we desire, by welcoming or re.
pelling those whom the march of events has
at last brought into practical accord with us.
We can, by magnifying differences which
Time has virtually etfaced, by propounding
shibboletfs which have lost all practical sig
nifcance, by interposng Pharisaic preten-
sions and high-caste exclusions, postpone the
suspicious day wherein the interests and in
stincts OF free labor shall bear sway in the
White House and the Capitol; but there is
no need of this, and none but narrow and
selfish reasons for insisting on it.
On the contrary, it seems to us the plain
duty of Republicans to regard and treat as
brothers all who stand with us in opposition
to the Lecompton fraud-to invite them to
our councils and our confidence, while cheer
fully asserting to their prosecution of their
share in the common enterprise under their
own banners and in their own iashion-to
act freely aud faithfully in accordance with
our own convictions, and accord to them the
utmost liberty in doing likewise.
The Lecompton fraud is a crime against
liberty, against humanity, against the funda-
mental principles consecrated by the blood
and sutferings of our fathers in the American
Revolution. But it is, moreover, an express
violation of the principles professed in the
| platforms established by each party in the
last Presidential contest.
The Republicans, in that contest, struggled
| against the violation of the Missouri compact
in respect to Kanzas, and the outrages, frauds
and terrorism whereby slavery had obtained a
footing and seeming legalization therein. OF
those outrages, those frauds, the Lecompton
| Constitution is the logical elimination.
The Democrats-all of them ostensibly,
many of them honestly, as their present atti-
tude procaims for the right of the
| people of Kanzas, and of all territories, to
frame and establish such domestic institutions
as they should judge best adapted to their sit
uation and their needs. This fundamental
| requirement of the Cincinnati platform is de-
nieG to the people of Kanzas by the Lecomp.
ton Constitution.
The American platform insists with equal
emphasis on the right of each community to
! genuine self-government, and condemns all
rule based on fraud, alien Eruption, and ballot
stufting. How can any honest adherent of
this creed uphold the Lecompton Constitu-
ton, which was not only Graded in invasion
and nurtured in fraudulent voting, but which
Its authors refused to submit to the people,
simply and avowedly because no practicable
I of fran 70 81; al "a
from emphatic and unmistakable reiections
Why, then, should not the sincere adher-
! ents Of these varying platforms, since they all
concur in affirming the great fundamental
truth which the Lecompton fraud assails,
unite in defeating that fraud if possible, and
at.all events in holding its authors and up
holders to a stern accountability
| To us, the path of duty is plain. Hence
forth, to the end Of this struggle, we know
all who resist the imposition of the Leeomp-
to fraud on Kanzas as brethren. while we re-
gard those who uphold that fraud as deadly
enemies, not merely to Kapzas and to the
Republican party, but to the principles of
American Independence, the inelienable
Rights OF Man. Politically, the champions
of that fraud are our enemies its opponents,
SO far as they are willing to be so, as our
friends. We shall urge the reelection of
every Democratic or American Member of
Congress who resists the Lecompton fraud to
the bitter end and then declares himself the
determined and persistent adversary of its au-
thors and abettors, as demanded alike by fl d.
deity to principle and to the interests of
Freedom. For those who know and proclaim
the Eecompton imposture grave crime. vet
"acqulesce" in its cosummation, whether be-
fore or after the fact, we have no sentiment
but contempt and aversion but wherever a
Democrat or an American Congress evinces
hostility to the Lecompton fraud to the end,
and to its contrivers and indorsers thereafter,
we urge every Republican in his District to
give his voice and vote for that Members re-
election. We believe the Anti-Lecompton
Democrats and Americans in Republican
Districts will be prepared in due time to CO.
operate in returning Republicans, aud that
thus the next Congress viii be sure to crush
any wrong which may be driven through this;
but, be this as it may, we urge that every
earnest and persistent Anti Lecompton Dem.
oerats or American in this Congress be re.
turned to the next They will there be sure
to tnd themselves in excellent and abundant
company.
Miss Sarah l.. Lewis, the school teacher
who was severely burnt in New York on
Wednesday afternoon, died during the even
ing from the effects of her injuries. She was
eighteen years Of age. Her painful death
was owing, in great measure, to her % hoop
dress. Seeing large hie in the school room
stove che opened the stove door. In turning