The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-03-18
THE DEFEAT or THE POSTAL APPROPRIATION
A PAR OF A GENERAL SCHEME.

republican speaking of Mr.. Grows ~indignity resolu-
ton. The same earnest gentleman expresses deep
regret that his friends in Congress did not succeed
in defeating all appropriations, and thus stopping
the wheels Of government. And we confess to once
realizing that there is in the House of Representatives
and in the country a partisan spirit thus destructive
and unappeaseable. In some points of view it
may be a matter of regret that the republi-
cans did not succeed in their contemplated scheme
of revolution. They would have forced on an
issue, and one which, we fear, is destined, in
spite of the efforts of sober minded men, to test
the patriotism of the American people. Partisan
ship, it seems, has not yet done its worst and
the people are not yet prepared to see in its labors
a purpose to overthrow the government, and not to
correct it's abuses. For more than twenty years a
class of politicians have labored zealously and sleep
lessly to create an irreconcilable antagonism between
the free States aud tho slave States. This has been
done by persistent and malignant Misrepresentation
at the two extremes and has been successful to
this extent, that the two sections are positively
more ignorant of each other than they were when
the controversy commenced.
1t has been repeated on every stump in tho
North that it was the settled purpose of the
slave States to force slavery into every State
and Territory of the Union. Mr.. Seward uttered
this solemn warning" two or three years age
at Columbus, Ohio, and it has been said and
printed a thousand times since. Tho South has
been charged with monopolizing the government,
when in truth, 80 far as general laws are concerned,
the benefits thereof have largely accrued to the
North. All revenue laws act benefcially upon north
ern interests, and, with the exception of a small ag-
ricultural class in Louisiana, the South is taxed by
such laws. 1t is charged that the South are unduly
and unjustly represented in Congress, three-ffths of
the negro population being counted as a basis of
representation as if representation in the North was
fixed upon the voting population. Every species of
population, white and black, male and female, wo-
men and children, are counted as a basis of repre-
sentation in the North whereas the South are re-
stricted to three-ffths of their black population,
two-f fths Of the latter being excluded. This is GER
tainly a limitation upon the slave States. But it is
said the blacks are not permitted to vote. The
blacks and the women and children are not permit
ted to vote in the free States. Foreigners are not
permitted TO vote; but all these are counted a basis
of representation. 1t is not possible in the federal
SoScI hHcHt, uHici any HoHcS; duIhluislallOn Oi ltB
affairs, for one section to encroach upon the rights
of another. Each State is fortified by constitutional
limitations and restrictions, SO that all that is re-
CURED is integrity in the Legislative and executive
departments, to insure perfect protection to all.
That the South cannot encroach upon the North in
reference to slavery is evident from the fact that
that institution is one which requires the support of
the popular Judgment of the place. Slavery is not a
fortifcation charged with hostile and deadly weap-
ons, to be turned at the will of engineers against
whatever it shall regard as inimical to its welfare.
1t is not a pirate vessel depending upon its fast
sailing and its murderous crew for the power of
successful assault and retreat. 1t is as certainly
conservative in its nature, cautious and ~circumspect
in it's conduct, as interest can make it and as it is de-
pendent upon law for its support.
Then, on the other hand, the South have been led
TO believe, taking the language Of a few crazy aboli-
tionists as their authority, that there is a settled pur-
pose in the North to override every constitutional
barrier, and to use its power to strike down the in
stitution of slavery that the northern people have
been banding together for years, in regular siege,
against the rights of the South. The latter are point
e1 to the common territories and their occupation
by the northern people as proof of this. They are
referred to the Burns rescue, and to a thousand other
political tricks of the kind practised in the free
States. They read northern papers as testimony of
the same nature and now they will receive the efforts
of Mr.. Grow and his republican associates to defeat
leading executive measures, and to PROSTATE the gov
eminent as conclusive evidence of q settled purpose
on the part Of the abolitionists to break up the
Union,
1t is not to be disguised that many Of the tricks
p~raotised by the abolitionists have received too much
countenanco from the people of the free States. In
deed, it is true that the anii-slavery sentiment has
settled deeply into the public mind. 1t has dis
qualified many for the exercise Of sound judgment
upon questions Of federal politics. 1t has filed them
with prejudices until they have become fanatics, and
conceive that all reform in religion and morals is
bound up in the question of slavery. But we do not
believe that any portion Of the Union has risen to
that point Of consummate madness which would JUS
tfy an assault upon the federal constitution to graft
fy their hostility to slavery. New York has no more
right to touch the question Of slavery than Great
Britain. 1t is completely foreign to both govern
ments. New York is bound, it is true, by tho con-
stitution to surrender fugitive-slaves as England is
bound to surrender fugitives from justice. Those
are regulations appertainiDg to the organic system,
or to the treaty-making power, which presupposes