Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1859-11-10
From the Free South.
How To Oppose slavery with
Effect.

How to Oppose slavery with
Effect.
We are more and more convinced
that the most effectual mode OF oppos-
ing slavery is by attacking it where
it exists. indeed of warning upon it
where it may possibly exist at some
future period. In the first case. we are
fighting an actual. tangible enemy. IN
the second. we expend our strength
against mere shadow, leaving the
cause Of the evils of which we COM
plain, unframed.
No enemy can be conqured until his
stronghold is taken and overthrown.
The stronghold to slavery is in the
slave states. AS long as it continues
to exist and flourish there. it will be a
powerful and unappeasablc foe to free
government and the rights of man in
tho Federal Administration. and in
all the states aud territories of the
Union.
The slave power has such a firm foot
ing in the slave states. and has ac-
CURED such privileges and immunities
that it can control the action of the
Federal Government in all its depart
ments. and 10 a great extent, bring
the free states into subsection to its
will. The champions of freedom can
never succeed against slavery as long
as they suffer it to remain unmolestcd
in its citadel. If they demand that
there shall be no more slave states
formed out of territory originally free.
the slave Power insists upon the
constitutional rights of an embryo
State to be admitted into the Union
with such domestic institutions as its
people may choose to establish; and
carries its point. If the friends of
freedom urge that no foreign territory
shall be acquired by or annexed to the
Union without a proviso against sla-
very and involuntary servitude. the
slave Power demands the territory
without any restriction, and their de-
mand is finally conceded. If the pro-
hibition of slavery in all the terri
tories belonging to the Union insisted
on. Congressional slave code for the
protection of slavery in all those ter
ritories is demanded. Ii the people of
the free states oppose the execution of
the fugitive slave law within their lin
its, the slave Power re-opens the slave
trade by way of retaliation.
The fathers of our Republic at
tempted to put an end to slavery by
prohibiting its existence in any terri
tory then belonging to the Union. and
by the abolition of the slave trade,
without seeking to "interfere" with
the system where it then existed. and
was likely to continne to exist. if let
alone. After the lapse of seventy
years, we have seen the result of this
course. Slavery has continued to in
crease, the original slave states proper
have been more than doubled; it has
invaded the territories of the Union, in
all of which exists to-day, and the
trade in slaves from Africa to the
Southern coast of the United States
is now carried on in defiance of FEEDER
al law and of the Federal Government.
Combining the war upon slavery to
mere opposition to its further spread,
is like attempting to cure a cancer by
applying the corrosive sublimate to
parts where the roots might be sup
posed would extend. instead of apply
ing it to the cancer ITSELF the result of
which would be. that the sound flesh
would become irritated, and the cancer,
untouched, rage with encouraged ma
Lightly and spread its destructive fangs
throughout the whole system. So it
is in the attempt to confine slavery;
the outside opposition only gives it
more life and energy, and really tends
to increase the effects it seeks to over
come.
Shareholders buster about the OPP
position to the introduction of slavery
into the territories: but they have no
fears on that account. On the con-
trary, they are at heart rather pleased
with it, as it serves to divert the at
tention of people in the free States
from slavery itself, and afforded food
for the malcontents in the south
who might otherwise stir up a dis
cussion at home on the question of
the policy of sustaining the "institu-
ton" They are content to argue the
question of the propriety of extending
slavery where it does not now exist,
so long as no interference is attempted
with their "slave property" nor no
encouragement given to free labor.
But touch that property-attempt
in ever so slight degree, and ever so
mildly, to restore that property to its
original rights of manhood and free
dom. and You touch the apple of
the Shareholders eye; you inhame not
merely his avarice. but You arouse the
fierccst and darkest passions Of the
human soul. He fails to find lam
guage in which to portray the enor-
nifty of your crime. or with which
to define the terrible punishment that
should fall upon your devoted head.
This shows distinctly what and
where the tree is. at the foot of which
the axe should be laid. The tree is
Chattel Slavery. which grows and
hourishes in the Slave States The
axe must not be struck at the branches
or at the trunk. but at the root
The root is the holding of man as
property. That is the thing-the