The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-01-20
Mr.. Senator Hale on the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Rln-The TUE InterpreaasiOh

IL ~ VII tAAC AoAAs
Bnl-The True interpretation
Mr.. Senator Hale, of New Hampshire, in his
speech of Monday last, upon Kansas affairs,
contended that as the real purpose of the Kan
SIS Nebraska bill was to make Kansas a slave
State, che was inclined to think that in the con-
II oversy between MI. Douglas and the President
tie palm of victory ought to be awarded to the
President" And so think we; for while the
President is pursuing the Kansas-N Nebraska
policy to its legal and logical conclusion, Mr..
Douglas has abandoned it on the first available
opportunity, simply because it has ceased to pay
expenses
II is true as gospel, that, with Mr.. Douglas and
poor Pierce, the repeal of the Missouri Compro-
mise was a sort of burnt Offering to the South;
burnt their fingers in the sacrifice, it was their
own fault. If the object of their bill was not
to make Kansas a slave State, why abolish the
Missouri Compromise line; and why establish
two Territories over the area which the origin
al bill embraced in ones PROFESSIONALLY
the object in aboiishing the Missouri line of pro-
hibition was to open Kansas to slavery;
ALL " Us cuutl}S uuOcuidolt tuot Vic OUJcCt
of dividing the original Territory of Nebraska
into two Territories was that the North should
have the one and the South the other. We
have no doubt that all this was as clearly un-
derstood between the high contracting parties
as the plainest provisions of q commercial
treaty. These high contracting parties were
Jefferson Davis, Senator Mason, General Atchi-
son and others on the one side; and Mr.. Doug
las and Mr.. Pierce on the other. The terms of
the compact were that the said Douglas and
Pierce were by this operation to secure Kansas
to the South as a slave State, in consideration
of the shining probability that the South would
enforce the nomination of Pierce or Douglas at
the Cincinnati Convention.
Nor was it considered that the popular
sovereignty p%roviso Of this Kansas-Nebraska
bill would interfere, in any serious degree, with
the project of making Kansas a slave Sta tie.
The proviso vas understood at the Sutb as a
tub thrown out to amuse the silly whale of the
North, and nothing more. To be sure, this pro-
viso declared, in so many words, that 'the true
intent and meaning of this act is not to legis-
late slavery into the Territory, nor to exclude
it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof
perfectly free to regulate their domestic
institutions in their own way, subject
only to the constitution Of the United States
But these fine words were fifty denominated by
Col. Benton as 1.-THE stump speech in the belly
of the BILL, y for they were intended for nothing
more. The ''true intent and meaning of the
act was to make Kansas a slave State, and the
great equivalent with Mr.. Douglas and Mr..
Pierce was the support Of the South for the
Presidency.
The thing was overdone. The reaction in the
North was so tremendous that the South. at
Cincinnati, were compelled to drop both Pierce
and Douglas; but in nominating Mr.. Buchanan
they still bound the nominee and the party to
make good the compact of the Kansas-Nebraska
bill. And so it is, that, having failed to secure
his share of the bargain, Mr.. Douglas has re-
pudiated the "true intent and meaning of the
act and has fallen back upon a literal appli-
cation of his "glittering generalities'' of "popu-
lar sovereignty" Not so with Mr.. Buchanan.
The regular local authorities which he found
in Kansas at his inauguration he has promptly
recognized, and their proceedings all the way
through, including that ratification of the Lee
compton constitution which makes Kansas a
slave State.
Mr.. Senator Hale, therefore, is quite right,
touching this controversy between Mr.. Douglas
and the President, in yielding the palm of vic.
tory to the latter.
Here, however, We part company with the
Nnpv IUnv,.aI,ra C-,u II. ALL - -
Kansas Nebraska bill was an infamous crime:
we hold that it was the repeal of an unconstitu-
tional act. He thinks that the giving ND of
Kansas to the South, upon any terms, would be
an outrage upon God and man; we contend
that the nominal surrender of Kansas TO the
South would be a happy compromise in behalf
of the peace and harmony of the Union. Mr..
Hale looks upon Southern slavery as a mon
strous overshadowing political, moral and So
cial evil; or, as old John Wesley called it. the
sum of all villanies." We regard il as the
most benefcent system that has ever been
adopted for the good o. both the white aud
black races living together in the same commu-
nifty. We also contend, from the facts of his
tory and experience, that the African race are
incapable of self government, and that an ex-
clusively negro community, with all the advan-
tages of civilization to start upon, will, if left
to itself, rapidly degenerate back again into
African barbarism.
The great ultimatum Of Messrs. Hale, Sew
ard, Chase, Giddings, Garrison and the black
Douglass is the extinction of Southern slave
ry, at all hazards; the present necessity
of the white Douglas il to keep on the
right side of the Illinois Legislature; but the
harmony and perpetuity of the Union are the
paramount Considerations with every truly pat.
riotic American, North or South. We believe
that the Union, Southern niggers and Southern
cotton have paid and continue TO pay such
handsome dividends to the North that wa can. |