Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1858-02-18
..,.4 From the New York Herald.
The Issue before Congress The Great
80 Crisis Of the Republic at Last.

80 Crisis Of the Republic at Last.
We are on the verge of one of those
great turning points in the history OF nations
from which they take new departure for
power and glory, or the downward road to
dissolution and destruction. The issue now
before Congress brings us face to face with
that great peril which the patriots of the
country, from the old colonial times down
to this day, have always regarded with the
keenest apprebensions. But the crisis is
upon us at last and the danger involved
lies in the possible application of the mere
will of sectional majority in Congress,
regardless of the spirit of the constitution
and the principles of the Union.
Three new States are knocking at the
doors of the federal Capitol for admission
into the Minnesota, Oregon and
Kansas. The first two as free States, and
the third with a pro-slavery constitution
1t is upon this that the whole question be.
tween the North and South hinges; and it
is upon Kansas that the consequences of
sectional supremacy, sectional principles
sectional parties and sectional discords and
hostiities on the one hand, or sectional con-
cessions and harmony on the other, entirely
depend. 1t is true that the admission of
Kansas as slave State will not disturb her
manifest destiny as free State; but for all
that, the principle involved comprehends
the alternative Of Southern submiss sion TO
the will of the North, or Southern resis-
tance, in shape more sharply defined than
it has ever assumed heretofore.
The disposition, therefore, of this Kan
sas trouble must necessarily result in the
most tranquillizing' or in the most mis- chev-
Gus, consequences to the country. The
first symptoms of the impending struggle
in the two houses are significant of the
depth and breadth and intensity of the con.
flicting sectional passions and animosities
that will be brought into play. The com
paratire calmness with which in the Senate
this Lecompton constitution is approached,
is, we fear, but the calm which immediatly
precedes the hurricane. But when we see
dense black cloud rolling up from She
Western horizon, and extending, as il
rises, its heavy wings, North and South,
and when we see the first chickering's of the
Tightening, and hear the first solemn NUT.
ierings Of the distant thunder, we know
what is coming, and we prepare to escape
the tempest or to meet it, In this instance
we may find shelter and security only un.
der the compromises of the constitution
and BY following the examples which have
saved the republic in its severest trials
Let us recall these examples, for in times
of peril we cannot too often recur 10 The
lessons Of the past.
Our first great compromise upon slavery
was the constitution of the United States.
The wise and sagacious men who framed
that instrument were, at one time, in dan.
ger of an abrupt dissolution from the ap.
parently insuperable difficulties of sec.
tional character which they were called
upon to reconcile. But through the con.
ciliatory counsels Of Franklin, and of 9th.
ers who seconded his views, peace was
restored in the Convention, harmony wa.
established in its deliberations, and It's glo.
riOus task was happily cOnsummated in the
establishment Of this mighty confederacy.
From that day 10 this the peacemakers o.
the Union have been those men, and onl,
those, who have followed most carefully il
the footsteps of the fathers of the constiti
tion.
There were thirty years Of peace upor
slavery from the adoption of the constltu
tion; but then, in 1920, upon the question
of admitting Missouri with her slave Stat,
constitution, the Union, pro-slavery ahC
anti-slavery, was shaken from its centre I,
its circumference by an agitation which
threatened a violent disruption. But Hen
ry Clay, Calhoun and their cOnpeers of tha
day, came TO the rescue. Peace was re-
stored, not SO much by the Missouri com
promise line as by the admission of Mis- sou
ri and Maine-a slave State and free
State-together. From this point some
thirty years more elapsed without any Sc,
rious sectional quarrel upon slavery. Bu
in 1850 the territories acquired from Mex.
100, the Texas boundary and the fugitive
slave question brought up the slavery agi,
tatiOn in all its comprehensive bearings.-
But here again Henry Clay and his associ,
ate peacemakers were fOupd equal to tht
necessities Of the crisis; and their severa
compromise measures acted like a charm
in re-establishing the peace of the Union
That adjustment of 1850 would, perhaps
have lasted also for thirty years but for tn,
Kansas-Nebraska experiment Of Mr.. Doug
las and poor Pierce in 1854, for the presi