New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-02-05
nrMocRArrc pRorEcrIoN.

II
year, whether impartial or preudiced, must be more
than ordinarily obtuse If he fail TO become satisfied
that the selEstyled National Democratic party has
not the power if it had the will to protect the rights
Of the South against the assaults of her implacabe
foes That any such disposition exists on the part OF
preponderating majority of that party is question
which, if not already settled in the negative seems
likely soon TO be- ia the legislative halls of the nation.
| The very measure upon which the Democratic party
based the issue of the last Presidential contest has
proved as its originator foresaw the means Of first
deceiyng and then wronging the South, by holding
out a specious promise of securing her rights in
Territory while at the same time providing the GER
tain means Of subverting those rights. This feature
Of the Kansas Nebraska bill was the main argument
urged in its favor in the North that while it would
open territory south of the Compromise line to the
introduction Of laws prohibiting slavery its sQuatter
sovereignty and alien suffrage provisions would guar
antee the future destiny of Kansas as a free State.
Such has been precisely the result of its operation
aud now that the subtle scheme has been fully de-
veloped and its fruits become known TO the world it
really seems pity that unforeseen hiatus should
interfere to prevent its full accomplishment and fru
ton. The unaccountable obstinacy of the instru
ments employed in Kansas to carry it out, in prefer
ring to effect the purpose by open rebellion rather
than by the ballotbox, and thus permitting the pro-
slavery men to prepare constitution and invest it
with all legal FORMS has got the Democratic party
into terrible scrape After all their aborand palms.
and despite the wary precautions that had been taken
by the Northern Democrats to blind their brethren of
the South and at the time ensure success they
behold the whole business about TO mscarry and Kan
sas in a fair way to be admitted as a slave State
The Black Republicans howl at the prospect and the
cry taken upand echoed in drefu chorus from the
western borders of Iowa to the seacoas of New Eng
land The hounds of antslayery fanaticsm are in
full cry. The cunning huntsman has beaten the
bushes and started the wrong game he listens for
one brief moment to the mad clamor, and clearly
discerning the voices Of his own beages in full blast
with the opening pack he sounds the halloo and
joins fercely in the pursuit.
Now let us what are the indications that the
great National Democratic party will assert and
maintain the right of Kansas TO admission into the
Union under the constitution she has fairly and le-
galy chosen. If that party with one unanimous
voice. North and South, now while the Territory
knocks at the door Of Congress- should demand that
her credentials be examined, and that she be admit
ted the moment they are found correct and the re-
quirements Of the law complied with there could be
no question of the result. Therefore the RESPONSE
bility of her rejection will rest as much upon the
Democratic upon the Black Republican party.
Douglas, the author of the Kansas Nebraska bill,
and the man hitherto looked upon by the South Cor
the Democratic portion Of i) as the head and front
Of Northern Democracy and the generous champion
of Southern rights is the first to suceumb to the anti
slavery tempest and declare against the admission Of
Kansas with theprosavery feature Of her constitution
To what extent he carries the Democracy of the en-.
tire North with him Chat portion of it, we mean,
which had not first decided his own course) we eau
not know with any degree Uncertainty yet but there
is every indication that that branch of the great
National party is now almost unit in co-oper-
ton with the Black Republican crusade against the
admission of any more slave territory into the Union
This is not the worst the most startling feature
of the business. Such is the tremendous power of
party cohesion that respectable Democratic Southern
prints and distinguished Democratic Southern men |
have fallen gently into the wake of their Northern
brethren, and denounce the Lecompton Consultation
as lacking the sanction of the people of the Terri
tory willing to assist in crushing out the rights of
the South there, if they can thereby promote the
unanimity and welfare of their party. The Louis
vile Democrat justfes its course in this respect by
declaring that the Freeson men have majority of
two to one in Kansas, and says 1.-THE truth is, emf.
slavery long ago, before Walker and Stanton went to
Kansas !" thus losing sight Of Or acquescing in the
agency of the dangerous doctrine of squatter soyer
eighty and the infamous abors of the Abolition Emf
grant Aid Societies, by which that majority was
obtained.
The President gives his voice for the recognition of
the Lecompton Constitution because he is well aware
that, as the case now stands, it makes no sort of
difference in practical point of view whether Kan
sas comes into the Union as free or as a slave
state and unlike Douglas he has nothing to lose by
taking the side Of justice and law and contending
for what is correct n.prncple. This is made clear
enough by the following paragraphs, which we
extract from leading article in the organ of the
Administration, the Washington Union.
The Lecompton Constitution specifically directs |
that the same may be amended, in certain manner |
after the year 1864. There is no prohibition against
action before that time.
But 1t is asserted that majority ,of the neople of
Kansas are utterly opposed to their constitutions
II So they have the undOubted power to control their
State government All Of its local machinery its |
federal representation, its officers and its offices of
every description, fall Of necessity into their hands
the instant she is admitted into the Union.
The authority conferred to alter or modify the CON
sttnton after the year 1894 is mere surplusage. 1t
confers no power which sovereign member of the
Union may not exercise in any contingency, nor does
It pretend to prohibit the exercise of such power
In other words, the Union says, addressing the dis.
contented Democracy of the North "Why should
you make fuss and get the party into trouble? It
can do no harm to admit Kansas now with pro-
slavery constitution freesoilism is all powerful there,
and it will not be necessary to wait six years nor one
year, to make free State of her. The matter is
already practically settled precisely as you would
have it; why, then, bubble about mere form p
Such is Mr.. Buchanan's championship OF the South,
and such the sort of protection the South may alone
expect from the NATIONAL Democracy.
RS The steamship Philadelphia, Capt. Harrison,
sailed at o'clock this morning for New York via