Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1858-12-03

q State. In States where the slave systeI
lie prevails, the masters, directly, or ind
" rectly, secure ell political power, and co,
stitute a ruling aristocracy. In the State
II where the free labor system prevails, Ut
e versal suffrage necessarily obtains, AID .h
IS State inevitably becomes, sooner or latel
e a republic or democracy.
Russia yet maintains Slavery, and is
despotism Most of the other Europea
States have abolished Slavery and adopte
the system of Free Labor 1t was tn
antagonistic political tendencies of th
Q two systems which the first Napoleon wa
, contemplating, when he predicted tina
, Europe would Ultimately be either " al
! Cossack or all Republican" Never di'
human sagacity utter more pregnan
truth. The two systems are at once per
| ceived to be incongruous. But they art
, more than incongruous, they are incum
pa;ible. They never have permanently
existed together in one country, and they
never can. Itwould be easy to demon
strate this impossiblity, from the irrecon
cilable contrast between their great princi
pies and characteristics. But the expert
ence of mankind has conclusively es.ab,
lishcd it. Slavery, as | have already in,
timated, existed in every State in Europe;
Free Labor has supplanted it everywhere
except in Russia and Turkey. State ne
cessties, developed in modern times, ere
now obliging even those two nations to
encourage and employ Free Labor, and
already, despotic as they are, We ind them
engaged in abolishing Slavery. In the
United States, Slavery came into collision
with Free Labor at the close of the last
century, aud fell before it in New England,
New York, New.Jersey aud Pennsylvania,
but triumphed over it effectually, aud ex-
cluded it for period yet undetermined,
from Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia.
Indeed, SO Incompatible are the two sys-
tens, that every new State which is v'Sa-
nized within our ever extending domain
makes its irst political act choice Of the
one and an expulsion of the other, even
at the cost of civil war if necessary. The
Slave States, without law, at the last na-
tional election, successfully forbade, within
their own limits, even the casting Of votes
for candidate for President Of the United
States supposed to be favorable to TIE
establishment CT the Free Labor system
in new States.
Hitherto, the two systems have existed
in different States, but side by side within
the American Union. This has happened
because the union is confederation of
States. But in another aspect the United
States constitute only one nation. Increase
of population, which is filling the States
Ont +" abeiruys;yH krdfzh CAT uHith,a
which daily becomes more intimate, is
rapidly bringing the States into higher
and more social unity or consolidation
Thus these antagonistic systems are con-
tinually coming into closer contact, ard
collision results
Shall tell you what this collision means?
They who think that it is accidentel, unne-
cessary, the work Of interested AID fanat-
ical agitators, and therefore ephcUeral,
mistake the case altogether. 1t ig an ire
prcssible conflict between opposing and
forces, and it means that the
United States must and will, sooner or
later, become either entirely Slavehold-
ing nation, or entirely Free Labor nation.
Either the cotton and rice fields of South
Carolina and the sugar plantations Of Lou
isiana will ultimately be titled by Free
Labor, and Charleston and New Orleans
become marts for legitimate merchandise
alone, or else the rye and wheat fields of
and New York must again
DC surrendered by their farmers to slave
culture and to the production of slaves,
md Boston and New York become oIce
more markets for trade in the bodies and
ouls of men. 1t is the failure to appre-
lend this great truth that induces SO many
attempts at final compromise .
the Slave and Free States, and it
$ the existence of this great fact that rem
lers all such pretended compromises,
when made, vain and ephemeral. Startling
IS this saying may appear to you, fellow
itizens, it is by no means an original or ,
ven modern one Our forefathers knew I
t to be true, and unanimously acted upon |
t, when they framed the Constitution Of
he United States. They regarded the c
xistence of the servile system in so many
f the States with sorrow and shame, which f
hey openly confessed, and they looked S
pom the collision between them, which f
'as then just revealing itself, and which 5
re are now accustomed to deplore, with a
,vor and hope. They knew that either b
be one or the other system must exclu- "
lively prevail.
Unlike too many of those who in modern e
me invoke their authority, they had a a
hoice between the two. They preferred d
he system of free labor, and they deter b
lined to organize the Government, and so o
, direct its activity, that that system n
lould surely and certainly prevail. For n
lis purpose, and no other, they based the r'
hole structure of the government: broadly 81
D the principle that all men are created I
Iual, and therefore free-little dreaming p
lat within the short period of one hun Il
red years their descendants would bear d
be told by any orator, however popular, te
Iat the utterance of that principal was W
erely rhetorical rhapsody; or by any III
ldge, however venerated, that it was at. D
nded by mental reservations which rem b'
II it hypocritical and false. BY the or tt
nance of 1877 they dedicated all Of the th
.tional domain, not yet polluted by Sla- e