The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-11-18
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT" OF
FREEDOM AND SLAVERY.

There is nothing more natural, and few
things more inevitable, than resort to perver-
sion, Misrepresentation, and falsehood, by those
who are called upon, by the exigencies Of party,
to maintain desperate cause. The plain ele-
mentary truths which are the foundation of hb-
erty and Of, common justice are so interviewer
into the constitution of the human mind, that
a man can no more confront them than he can
gaze at the sun, at noon; and if esndor and
fairness were the Indispensable conditionsOf the
debate ON Slavery, the. popular verdict wonld
have condemned the institution twenty years
ago in every State in the Union.
The fate which the late Rochester speech of
Senator Seward has met with at the hands Of
the Slavery press of the country is an illus
tratiOn of this truth. They have exerted their
ingenuity in peVverting, distorting, garbling,
and mis-quOting, in order to render the speaker
and the Republican party odious. The passage
which they have found best adapted to their
purposes of Justification is that in which he
speaks of an "irrepressible conflict" between
Freedom and Slavery. This philosophical
statement of the conflicting social and political
elements of Freedom and Slavery has, in spite
of the vigorous and perspeuous English in
which it is clothed, been perverted into " bru-
tai and bloody" declaration of war, TO be waged
by the Republican party against the South.
The following is the entire passage, which
we quote in order to show the utter absurdity
of the differences which have been drawn
from it
Hitherto, the two systems have existed in diff
ferent States, but side by side within the Amer
4 lean Union. This has happened because the
Union is confederation of States. But in an
other aspect the United States constitute only
one nation. Increase of population, which is
filling the States out to their very borders, to-
gether with a new and extended network of
railroads and other avenues, and an internal
commerce which daily becomes more intimate,
is rapidly bringing the States into higher and
more perfect social unity or consolidation. Thus
these antagonistic systems are continually
coming into closer contact, and collision re-
suits.
" Shall tell You what this collision means ?
They who think that it is accidental, unneces-
sary, the work of interested or fanatical agita-
tors, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case
altogether. 1t is irrepressible conflict be-
tween opposing and enduring forces, and it
means that the United States must and will,
sooner or later, become either entirely slave
holding nation, or entirely free-labor nation.
Either the cotton and rice fields of South Caro-
lima and the sugar plantations of Louisiana will
ultimately be titled by free labor, and Charles
ton and New Orleans become marts for legiti-
mate merchandise alone, or else the rye fields
and wheat fields of Massachusetts and New
York must again be surrendered by their farm
ers to slave culture and to the production OF
slaves, and Boston and New York become once
more markets for trade in the bodies and souls
of men,"
The dullest intellect will perceive at glance
that Mr.. Seward, in the above passage so far
from attempting to marshal the hosts of Free
dom to battle with Slavery, describes am ire
pressible conflict" which began before he was
born, between enduring forces" and in the
preceding paragraph, he describes a similar
conflict which commenced centuries ago in Eu
rope, and which has resulted in the emancipa
ton of the great majority of its inhabitants
Slavery" says he existed in every State OF
Europe. Free labor has supplanted it every.
where, except in Russia and Turkey" and he
proceeds to show how State necessities are
bringing about emancipation in the latter coun
tries.
SO far from this statement of Mr.. Seward being
a declaration of war upon the South by the Re
publican party, it is a statement which comedies
with the position, and must meet the entire appro
A l,x.s,s,, ,Srsa.s - "F's-
declared the existence of the same irrepressbe
conflict, and they have boosted that Slavery is
destined to triumph. They say that free socie-
ty is failure, that emancipation in Europe was
a mistake, and that events are rapidly Fastening
on a state of things when Slavery must be re-
stored in all Europe, and at a remote day, u
our Northern free States. Books have been
written in proof of these positions, and every
leading newspaper south of Washington has
endorsed them. Mr. Fitzhugh, whose work on
The Failure of Free Society" was so lauded
in the newspapers of Richmond and Charleston.
stands fully committed to the statement of Mr..
Seward. Not only he, but his editorial ADM
rers should come forward and repel the stupid
misrepresentation of shallow and INSCRIPTIONS
partisans. But, fasehood and misrepresenta-
ton have done their worst They may have
cheated the Republican ticket of some hundreds
or thousands of votes, when resOrted to on the
eve of an election, but the sober second thought
of the people will expose their fallacy. Already,
candid and honorable men of all parties have
had their eyes opened, and no longer dread the
bugbear which cunning and fraud coniured up
for the purpose of frightening the people from
their propriety.
There is, however, another class of persons,
whose fears and scruples are entitled to more
respect. We allude to the conservative men of
all parties, who are unable to see the force of
Mr.. Stewards remark, and who therefore regard
it as tending to produce the conflict which it
describes. They see no reason why Slavery
and Freedom cannot co-exist perpetually, with
out coming in conhict and they can see no
reason for fanatical fury and agitation on either
side.
At the hazard of being thought presumptu-
Gus, we will undertake to point out the reasons
for the irrepressble conflict between Free
dom and Slavery and in fact, no task could be
more easy, as will be evident if we consider the
two conditions of Freedom and Slavery, and
their relations to each other We will state
them.
In the first place, Freedom, which implies
civil religious, and political liberty, as they
exist in all the free States, is the right of every
man to speak, write, print, and publish his
thoughts upon all subjects, and to vote accord
ingly.
Slavery is an institution which claims for a