New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-02-19
rHE GREAT ISSUE.

The New York Times, Of recent date, in discuss
ing the Kansas question, said:
The present is doubtless the great turning point IN
the controversy between the Tree and slave STATES
That the latter should strive to maintain the prepond
erance given, first by numbers and afterwards oy SUI
perior tactics is natural We have no disposition TO
| find fault on account of such struggles to retain
power. But there are now sixteen free TO fifteen
slave States with three more free states about TO
come in The contest is UirtaaAg ouer. Iphen there
shah be a 5ecisipe and iyrepersbe prep0nderance on
the side of the North, party erigencies 'ch not, as
heretofore, be able to compromise any Substantial
interest Of freedom.
Upon the foregoing quotation from the Times, the
Bee OF yesterday morning commented in this wise /:
The phrases in the foregoing which we have ital-
iczed, though general in tone, seem to indicate a
f0regune conclusion. Now here is the question
stripped of all DISCUSSES. The Constitution of the
United States authorizes the admission Of States
With the single Indispensable qualification of repuh
hcan constitution. Does the North, whenever it
shall obtain the requisite numerical preponderance,
intend to obey this mandate, and allow new States
to come into the Union, with without slavery as
their respective inhabitants may determine or will it,
as our contemporary vaguely threatens admit no more
slave Statesl II the former, the Union is one of
equality of yore If the latter the South is at the
mercy OF despotc and fanatica majority, which, in
its zeal for the interests oil freedom will by degrees
eDcroach on her rights rob her of them one by one,
hem her round with hostile communities, and reduce
her to degradation and vassalage. Lovers of the
Union as we have ever been, when such a contln-
gency arrives, we hHmbly think it will be time for
the South to ask herself whether the periis Of dis
union are not preferable to so vile and hopeless
servtude.
Well and manfully spoken. We are glad that the
always able and respectable Bee has defined its posi-
ton. We regard the above as an suspicious token
among the many that now manifesting them
selves all over the South. The Unon-at-any-
price gentlemen had better arouse from their Rip
Van Wrinkle slumbers or else, when they do awake,
they may find themselves in predieament as unen-
viable as it will be lamentabe.
The Bee arrives at the proper conelusion-the
only legitimate deduction deducible from the history
Of the past and the realities of the present. provided
the foreshadowings Of the New York Times are
well grounded, of which there is not the slightest
reason to doubt, the principal editor Of that jour
nal is reputed to possess more of the confidence of
Senator Seward than any other living man.
Yesterday we quoted from speech delivered by
Mr. Seward in the United States Senate, in which he
declared that he regarded the slavery battle as
already fought and that the laureis of triumph
rested with the North that the Abolitionists were
fighting for majority of free States = and that
before one year elapsed the free States would outnum
Der the slave States in the proportion of nineteen to
ffteeni This was unusually bold language for such
proverbialy prudent man as Senator Seward to EN-
ploy. But his idea-the grand idea of Northern
supremacy and Southern degradaton--is cautiously
yet explicitly set forth in the extract from the New
York Times given at the head Of this article. It is
there portrayed as follows When there shall be
decisive and i,rerersible preponderanee the side
Of the North party allegiance will not, heretofore,
be able to compromise any substantial interest of
FREEDOM
OF course not. Seward says that in one short year
the irreyersible preponderance" mentioned by the
Times will be secured, and that the South, as ma
tnral consequence viii be helpless and PROSTATE at
the feet of the North The Times is disposed to wait
for the period to arrive, instead of anticipating the
arrival of the period In this alone consists the differ
ence Of opinion between the parties. Bnt bothagree
on the main point-the only great issue now before
the Southern people, viz that no more slave States
shall be admitted into the Union under any cir
cumstanees, and he is wilfully deaf and blind who
cannot hear and seeit.
The alternative will soon be upon us, and when it
does come, we think with the Bee that ii will be
time for the South to ask herself whether the pers of
disunion not preferable to so vile and hopeless
servitude.H For our part, we go in for daring the
hazards and risking the perls.