The Washington union., 1858-03-20
WASHINGTON CITY.
SATURDAY MORNING. MARCH go. 1855
GENERALrTIEs, PRINCIPLES, AND THEORIES, THE
TRIBUNE AND MIR. SEWARD

TRIBUNE AND MIR. SEWARD
We sympathize with Mr.. Seward who is almost
called slave driver" by his puritanic philo.
sophie friend of the Tribune, for accidentally
giving utterance to one palpable truth in his
late speech i'll the Senate, which, by the way,
really want space to repnbsh. The Tribune is
against Mr.. Stewards q abundant genorates We
can readily comprehend the tactics of cur cotem-
porary. " Generates are bad things in politics,
especially for who entertain but one prominent
idea at time. 1t is sieve which is liable
to let through many ugly grains of truth, to sprout
up and reproduce precisely what the Tribune don't
want to see. For instance, Mr.. Seward said, acci-
dentaly imagine
The expansion of territory make slave States will
only fail TO be great crime because it is mpractcable
and therefore will turn out to be tremendous mbe
cility'
This is, in the eyes of the Tribune, an offensive
generalization, and we confess the idea which Mr.
Seward intended to convey got badly mutilated
in his hands. Mr.. Seward desired to express the
fact, we presume, that the existence of slavery
will always be made to depend upon interest; I;
the adaptation of soils and climates to its success
ful employment. Mr.. Seward in this, rebuked the
Tribune and he rebubes himself, too for attempting
to turn slavery to political account. Slavery is an
industrial element in our system. Its employment
is upon those fields where it can be made most prof
liable, and its existence in fact institution
Of labor expresses its real character 1t at an
earlier day called domestic because it was large
ly confined to the household--to home or hearth
service In the progress of and of discovery
Its labor has been extended to the great fields of a
nd = 10 I. boo
HANGED its value and its importance in the United
States. Now what MIR. Seward intended to say was
just what Mr.. Webster more clearly said a pre-
vious occasion, that the extension of slavery was
impracticable mere political enterprise; that
the first necessary condition of such extension was
to find soils and climates adapted to the growth of
certain great staples of agriculture which constitute
after all, the real basis of American slavery. Mr.
Stewards idea that the acquisition of territory to
make slave States will only fail to be crime be-
it is impracticable is problem in ethics about
. clear mud 1t is not crime, because, under
his own theory, it cannot be committed 1t is not
crime, Z" because it is mpractcabe,' in Mr.. Sew
ards words What then, becomes of Mr.. Sew
ards great conflict between free and slave labor
about occupying the public territories? What
of slavery northward? If it is a question of
labor and reward, why is it the subject of
everlasting discussion in Congress- to the exclusion
of the ordinary business of legislation and to the utter
disgust of all right-seeing men In the little extract
we have quoted, Mr.. Seward, unwittingly, we fear,
paid tribute to the principles of nonintervention
and certified to the justice of the position occupied
by the democratic party throughout the country
We are not then surprised at the rebuke the Tribune
administered to him, nor at the warning he received
fiom that vgilant abolition missionary against aIy
further indulgence in ''generalities." Mr. Seward
hereafter must not mix his liquor. It is no time to
trust to the generalitics of brandy punch or cock
tail He must take the pure rotgut of abolition
When the Tribune says "pray for rain, down on
your knees and pray for rain What's the use OF
negro worship if the sanctuary to be polluted with
the frghul doctrines of universal truth, bencvoence
and charity? One thing at a time, Mr.. Seward