The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-03-11
From the ST. Louis MOI Democrat, Feb. 1
FREEDOM IN SLAVE STATES.

from the ST. Louis MOI Democrat, Feb. 13
FREEDOM IN SLAVE STATES.
Among the signs of the times are expressions
recently uttered by Republican members on the
floor Of the Senate, which we do not feel at
liberty to pass without notice. Mr.. Seward has
stated that he regards the great battle between
Freedom and Slavery as ''over, }" inasmuch as be-
fore one year passes away, the free States will
be to the slave as nineteen to fifteen. This has
been followed by remark from Mr.. Fessenden,
expressly disavowing any intention or desire to
interfere with Slavery in the States where it
now exists, and others have asserted the same
thing in language equally as broad. 1t is with
deep regret we chronicle the use of such terms
by men in whose public conduct we have seen
much to admire Heretofore, and must deplore
the tendency which betrays itself in certain
quarters to give 80 great a cause purely Sec
tional aspect. Ii Mr.. Seward wishes only pre-
ponderance of Northern States in the Confeder.
acy, he may well say the battle is over; and if
Mr.. Fessenden desires to con6ne the benefits of
free white labor to the section it now holds, he
may we'll say that he does not intend TO inter
fere with Slavery In the slave States; but all
must see that such positions, whether so intend.
ed or not, are sectional, selfish, and recreant
to human progress. PartisaEs and placemen
may be content to wear the honors they have
won, but the people will not rest satisfied with
the'dshghts OF any such Capua. To-day we are
struggling here in Missouri, a present slave
State, to give all its valleys to cultivation BY
free white citizens, relieved from Slavery com
petition, and we are told that such effort meets
no endorsement at the hands of men who have
heretofore held to broad faith in the progress
OF free institutions. Very well, let it be so.
We shall go forward, nevertheless and NAV
say with Nelson, when sighted by admiralty
dispatches, "some day we shall have a gazette
OF our own" We are struggling now and here,
not for theoretic preponderance of free States
In the Federal Government, not for mere terri
toria liberties to guarantee free labor expan.
sion, but also to reclaim Missouri from the dis.
advantages of q slave system that is parayzing
her energies and cripplng her advance. And
we make bold to say, furthermore, that our sym.
pathy and our service is not confined within
the line that separates our State from adjacent
States; but that all efforts to confer like benefit
upon other Commonwealth elevate and en-.
courage and protect the labor of the free working
citizens against the depression of seryile toll,
will ever meet with our Jealous cooperation.
In Kentucky, in Tennessee, in Virginia, in
Maryland, the same movement in behalf of free
soil for the free labor of a free yeomanry is
graduation.
We know that it will be said, in vindication
of the positions assumed by Senators, that Con
gress and the Federal Government have no
right to interfere in such work, and that the
Republican party has no mission to constrain
the expansion of free principles in slave States
This in part is true, but it does not fully meet
the case. Practically, Congress is determining
now the existence or non-existence OF Slavery
in Kansas, under the shadow of dominant
party, of an Administration, and of Supreme
Court, that do not recognise the power of Con.
gress over the question of Slavery in the Ter.
ritories. 1t is the influence, the patronage, the
moral weight, the protection of the Federal
Government, that affects the subject, even In
the absence of direct intervention. 1t has
been so in Kansas it is 80 in Missouri. All
these are now thrown into the scale against
free labor and for slave labor. Moreover, it is
the role of political organizations, national and
otherwise, to formulate distinct policies, to give
momentum to great truths, to achieve victories
everywhere in behalf of the right. To this end,
the extinction of Slavery in the central grain
growing slave States is one of the frat steps in
the path of progress step that is to be &C.
complished through the instrumentalty of their
own swelling populations doing the work, as is
INV UCluk UOUc III tu6 lctTttOElc6 duU tiScWHSTc,
and sustained in 80 doing by an embodied pub
lie sentiment throughout the nation, call it
party or whatever name suits, that will cheer
and uphold their self advancement. 1t is idle
for leaders, in their isolation, to ignore such
manifest outgrowths. The shoots show forth
the vital sap in the trunk. Whether, therefore,
present organizations may see fit to accept the
appointed mission of cherishing free principles
extending protecting @gis over free emigra-
ton, and indicating the cause of free labor
everywhere, as it moves from cline to cline, is
q matter OF small consequence; for the masses
OF the people of the United States will not long
want combination expressive of these great
ends, whenever the same becomes needful 1t
is moreover thus, and thus only, that true ma
tionality will take the place of mere sectional
ism, for it transfers the strife from a conflict
between States, to contest for populations. 1t
substitutes physical development, social eleva-
ton, and home aggrandizement, for the issues
of prejudice, repression, and disunion, which
now obtain. 1t subordinates the Slavery ques.
ton to the popular will, and makes appeal to
that will legitimate field of controversy. The
free labor movement as it has taken body and
shape and form out of the late Territorial and
incipient State struggles, as it has found its
strength in colonization and its development in
thickening settlement, as it has gathered in its
hand the aspirations of the heroic, the hopes
of the economic, the devotions of the fanatical,
and the calculations of the speculative, as it
has manipulated the tide of streaming thou
sands who pour forth from the hive, and direct
ed it here or there, so it will dominate the
future of politics, in despite of all opposition.
Those who are with it may guide it to bene6-
cent ends, and cheer the heart of patriotism
with its miracles and its gospels; those who
are not with it, will be crushed beneath its mo-
mentum, and left upon the shore as bleaching
wrecks TO mark . foolish anchorage.
Let as hope that the words we have com.
mented upon are hasty expressions, which the