Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-03-08
sPnEcm OF HOS. w. n. sEwARD.

who may not have time or opportunity to read
the whole of Senator Stewards great speech,
the concluding portion of it, in which it will be
seen, he enters into some interesting specula-
tions as to the past and Probable) future of par
ties in our Government.
Mr. President, the expansion of territory to
make Slave States will only fail to be great
crime because it is impracticable, and therefore
will turn out to be stupendOus imbecility. a
free Republican Government, like this, nOtwith.
standing all its constitutional checks, cannot
lO0g resist and counterfeit the progress of soci-
ETY.. Slavery, wherever and whenever, and in
whatsoever form it exists, is exceptional, local,
and short-lived. Freedom is the common right,
interest, and ultimate destiny of all mankind
All other nations have already abolished, OF
are about abolishing Slavery. Does this fact
mean nothingI All parties in this country that
have tolerated the extension of Slavery, except
one, has persisted for that error already. That
last onc-the Democratic party-is hurrying on
irretrievably, toward the same fate. All Adj
ministrations that have avowed' this policy have
gone down dishonored for that cause except
the present one. A pit deeper and darker still
IS opening to receive this Administration, be-
cause it sins more deeply than its predecessors.
There is a meaning in all these facts, which it
becomes us to study we'll The nation has ad.
vanced another stage; it has reached the point
where intervention by the Government, for Sla-
ted. Free-labor has at last apprehended its
rights, its interests, its power, and its destiny,
and is organizing itself TO assume the
government of the Republic. It will
hencefOrth meet you boldly and reso.
resolutely here; it will meet you everywhere in
the Territories or out of them, wherever YOU
may go to extend slavery. 1t has driven YOU
Lack in California and in Kansas; it will invade
you soon in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Mis-.
souri, and Texas. 1t will meet you in Arizona
in Central america, and even in Cuba The in
vasion will be not merely harmless but benefi.
cient, if you yield seaSonably to its lust and
moderated demands. Improved so in New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the other Slave
States, which have already yielded in that way
to its advances You may, indeed, get start
under or near the tropics, and seem safe for
time, but it will be only a short time. Even
there you will found States only for free labor
to maintain and occupy. The interest of the
white races demands the ultimate emancipation
of all men. Whether that contamination shall
be allowed to take effect, with needfu and wise
precautions against sudden change aud disaster
or be hurried ON by violence, is all that remains
for you to decide. For the failure of your sys-
tenn of slave labor throughout the Republic, the
responsibility will rest not on the agitators you
condemn, or the political parties you arraign
or even altogether on yourselves, but it will he
due to the inherent error of the system itself
and TO the error which thrustS it forward to op-
pose and resist the destiny not more of the
African than that of the white races. The white
uan needs this continent to labor upon. His
head is clear, his arm is strong and his neces-
stiles are fixed. He must and will have it, To
secure it, he will oblige the Government of the
United States to abandon intervention in favor of
slave laborand Slave States, and go backward for
ty years, and resume the original policy of inter-
vcntion In favor of free LABOR and Free States
The fall of the castle of San Juan dUloa deter
H. Sc. r \ -
and severe pitched battles interviewed before the
capture of the capital of the Aztecs. The de-
feats you have encountered il California and in
Kansas determined the fate of the principle for
which you have been contending 1t is for
yourselves, not for US, to decide how long and
through what notifications and disasters the
contest shall be protracted, before Freedom
shall enjoy her already assured triumph
would have it ended now, and would have the
wounds of society bound up and healed But
this can be done only in one way. 1t cannot be
done by offering further resistance, nor by any
evasion or partial surrender, nor by forcing
Kansas into the Union as Slave State, against
her will, leaving her to cast off Slavery after
wards, as she best may: nor by compelling
Minnesota and Oregon to wait and wear the
humiliating costume of Territories at the doors
of Congress, until the people ofKanSas, OF their
true defenders here, shall be brought to dishon-
orablc compromises. 1t can be done only by
the simple and direct admission of the three
States Free States, ,oithOut qualifications
condition, reservation, or eomprOmise, and 6v
the abandonment of all further attempts to e.
tend S2Gvery under the Federal Constitution.-
You have unwisely pushed the controversy SO
far, that only these broad concessions will now
be accepted by the interest of free labor and
free States. For myself, see this fact, per-
haps, the more distinctly now, because / have
so long foreseen it. can, therefore, counsel
nothing less than those concessions. l know
the hazards l incur IN taking this position.
know how men and parties, now earnest, and
jealous, and bold, may yet fall away from me as
the controversy shall wax warm, and alarms
and dangers, unlocked for, shall stare them
i'll the face; as men and parties equally earnest,
bold, and jealous, have done in like circumstan.
ccs before. But it is the same position took in
the case of California, eight years ago. 1t is
the same maintained on the great occasion of
tile organization of Kansas and Nebraska, four
years ago. Time and added experiences have
vindicated it since, and assume it again, to be
maintained to the last, with confidence that il
will be justified ultimately by the country and
by the civilized world. You NAV refuse to
weld it now, and for = short period, but your
refusal will only animate the friends of Freedom
with the courage and the resolution, and pro,
duce the union among them which alone ~.