The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-02-03
The Issue Beroce Congress Great Crisis
Of the Hepublic Mt Inst.

We are on the verge Of one of those great
turning points in the history of nations from
which they take a 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 colo
NAL times down TO this day, have always re-
garded with the keenest apprehensions. But
the crisis Is upon Us at lest and the danger in
volved 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
Union-Minnesota, Oregon and Kansas. The
first two as free States, and the third with a
proslavery constitution. II is upon this that
the whole question between the North and South
hinges and IL is upon Kansas that the conse-
quences of sectional supremacy, sectional princi-
pies, sectional parties and sectional discords and
hostiliies on the one hand, or sectional con-
cessons and harmony on the other, entirely de-
pend. 1t is true that the admission of Kansas
as a slave State will not disturb her manifest
destiny free State; but for all that the prin-
ciple involved comprehends the alternative of
Southern submission to the will of the North
or Southern resistance in shape more sharply
defined than II has ever assumed heretofore.
The disposition, therefore, Of thi5 Kansas
trouble must necessarily result in the most
tranquillizing, or in the mos mischievous, con-
sequences to the country. The first symptoms
of the impending struggle In the two houses are
significant Of the depth and breadth and inten-
sity Of the conflicting sectional passions and
animositie. that will be brought into play. The
comparative calmness with which In the Senate
this Lecompton constitution is approached, is,
we fear, but the calm which Immediately pre-
ceaes the hurricane. But when we see dense
black cloud rolling up from the Western hori-
zon, 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 mutterings Of the distant thunder,
we know what is coming, and we pre-
pare TO escape the tempest or to meet
it. In this instance we may find shell
ter and security only under the compro-
misses of the constitution, and by following the
examples which have saved the republic in its
severest trials. Let us recall these example,
for in times Of peril we cannot too often recur
to 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 danger of an abrupt disco
luton from the apparently insuperable Difficult.
ties of sectional character which they were
called upon to reconcile. But through the con.
ciliatory counsels of Franklin, and of others
who seconded his views, peace was restored in
the Convention, harmony was established in its
deliberations, and its glorious task was happily