The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-10-14
THE REAL QUESTION:

| While persevering efforts are u IN the
free States to withdraw the atten = of the
People from the Question of Slaet, Z, in one
form or another it constitutes the ly Ques-
ton in Southern Politics. The din ssiops of
the Southern Press, the speeches Of southern
politicians, all the elections in the S ,e States
! turn upon this single Question. Federal
Administration, subservient to Sl6- ~; Fed
eral Legislation, protective of Slave Foreign
| Diplomacy to promote the extensio # Slave
| ry; Federal Courts, to administer ~, Slavery
Jealousy of the growth of Free Sta (, Acqui-
stien of slave territory; Annexatic { Cuba
| Filibustering in Central America sorption
Of so much of Mexican territory may be
adapted to slave labor, from time S slime, as
that unhappy country shall fall pieces !;
Union Of the South to secure the CT 7ued as
tendency in 1860 of the so-called h ! NAL De.
| moeracy, as the great agent of the !, ,e Pow
er-these are the controlling Idea j. South
! ern politics. Shall the People o 30 Free
| States, and those of the Slave States o prefer
Free to Slave Institutions, shut tbs eyes to
this ttate of things Shall the 81, ieholders
have 1t all their own way Shall we sVe them
ut liberty to mature all their plans control.
ling the Federal Government, and y jsancing
the power of Slavery, and resolve GU yIives into
debating societies on Tariffs, Cover ,ent Ex-
penditures, schemes of RetrenchmeI md Neg
istry Laws? Why attempt to shun ing and
uomsntous issues, forced upon us, seek to
Asvoks obsolete or subordinate ones, d which
the masses can never be rallied
The Hon. Washington Hunt ca unite
With the Republicans he says he is u o Ma.
tao sal Wing, and hopes to see Partie % reor.
gss-ised that the Opposition in 1860 y stand
tised on great National Principl which,
being interpreted, means, on the Pr ;iple of
non resistance to Slavery Propagspe q. We
are sick at hearing this perpetual about
Nationality" They are the create. yicklers
fce Northern Nationality who are Il !, most
b. able servants of Southern Section. ". In
th great controversy with the Sazt 1olding
Ohgarchy, we are national, they, sectosal. Is
net Liberty the great Interest of ALI ACTIONS,
an I'll clauses? We would conse rete the
U,tos to its preservation and difusio- I is this
Sc icpal2 Are not free institutions exclusive
ly prevalent in the States which comErse two
tlAoAof the white population of the country,
and are they not the rule even, In 70 Slave
Statea-and are we sectional because we seek
to plant them in all our Territories Would
we establish on Federal Territory, ons, rule for
the Southern emigrant, another for the North.
ern Do we not insist upon the same Law for
both Do we not seek to make Labor honor
able in both and for both? Is this sectional
On the other hand, Slavery is excluded from
States containing two-thirds of the white popu-
lation of the country, and condemned by the
great majority of them on grounds Of policy
and conscience. In the Slave States them.
selves, it is really exceptional Institution, in
asmuch as the owners Of slaves do not plumber
mere than four hundred thousand, il > white
population of eight millions. The masses of
the white People, dependent upon their own
earnings for support, would naturally be benefit
ed by general system of free labor. But, these
owners of slaves are laboring without the slight
est regard to the interests or views of those who
do not or will not own them, to secure to them
selves the mastery everywhere at home in
| their own States, in the Federal Govern
ment, in all the Federal Territories-so as to
make the masses of their countrymep, in all
sections, tributary to their schemes for perpet
uasing Slavery, for planting it in free territory
and for acquiring new territory for its uss. And
the Party which prostitutes itself to their will,
upder the name, Democracy, glores in its I" Ma.
| tioi,alny" while the People, who through the
Republican Party would resist them, make the
controlling in the Federal Government and
Federal territory, are I" Sectional" The Slave.
holders who would use the Federal Goveynment
to extend and perpetuate the sectional, Class in.
stitution OF Slavery, are national and patriotic.
| We resist them, and therefore are SECTIONAL and
unpatriotic and, to get rid of this obroxious
charge, the North AMERICAN and some other
wh4lom Republican journals propose that we
sa, nothing more about the aggressiops of Sla-
vehy, but resolve ourselves into sort of Gen.
eral Reform Party, to mend the Tariff, correct
extravaganza, and save the country fron, ruin
Jhey have forgotten already the lessoo taught
by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
They seem to have made up their minds to &C.
quiesce in the dicta of the Supreme Court, which
deny to Congress or the People of Territory
the right to interdict Slavery therein, and af
firm that by the Federal Constitution slaves
are regarded in all respects as property. They
see the Slave Power prepared to avail itself OF
all the advantages it secured by that repeal
and to enforce to the uttermost the mopstrous
doetrine of that Pro Slavery Court, and then
discourse to the People of the free States on
the importance of building up great National
Party, to promote Home Industry, and secure
lure Administration
f The Republican Party will not be misled
! 1t will meet issues as they arise, or shall b.
forced upon it, and not seek to evade the re
sponsibilities it has assumed in its great con
troversy with the Slave Power. 1t will deem
, no legislation final, which rests upon wron,
doctrine. 1t will surrender no principle, alb
, stain from the prosecution of no policy, in del
erencs TO presumptuous power, or extra,judi
cisi authority. Wherever the Slave Powe
shell set up its indefensible claims, attempt it
SINISTER aggressions, it will be prompt to con
froat it. Conservatives and Quietists ma,
preach peace, but there can be no peace, til
the usurpations of this Sectional, Class Interes
shsn have been finally subverted.
Let US keep its position and purposes in ful
, view.
II Having committed the so-called Democrac.
| TO the doctrine of MOI Intervention by Con