Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1859-11-24
"The Irrepressible Conflict"

These words have formed the caption of nu
merous articles in the democratic newspapers
during the last month or two BY misrepre
senting what Mr. Seward really said. they
have sought to make it appear-indeed they
have directly charged-that he argued that
there was An Irrepressible Conflict" between
the Northern and Southern states, and thai
the one must snbdue the other What he die
say was that there was danaica between the
two systems of labbr-freg IN slave--that
both could not permanently endure in the same
country, and that either the states would al
become free or all savehoding states This
when spoken by Mr. Seward is, we suppose
little better than treason, in the estimation o.
Lecompton democrats but what do they say
to the following from the Richmond Examiner.
in which paper it appeared editorially, as long
ago as lS49, when it was published in a re-
view Of lectures delivered by Professor William
A. Smith, in Western Virginia:
Systems formed on such opposite princi
pies as slavery and universal liberty cannot
both be right. CANNOT BOTH ENDURE" "Tht
announcement has met with no contradiction
Much less with any serious attempt at refuta
ton, and now, one of our ablest professors
and most gifted lecturers openly maintains
and promulgates the doctrines in public ad
dresses
The North evades and shirks the question
but it will not be able to persist in eyading il
much longer"
Similar language apd similar arguments
have been used hundrS&sASf tihes, not only
by Southern newspapers, but by Southern pol
itcians and Southern statesmen, from Gov
Nc Dufie and John C. Calhoun, down to JEFF
ferson Davis. Here is a specimen South
Carolina Democratic journal:--
Slavery is the natural and normal cond
ton of the laboring man, whether white OF
black. The great evil of northern free soc
ETY. is, that it is burdened with a servile class
of mechanics and aborers, unfit for self-gov
ernment, yet clothed with the attributes and
powers of citizens. Master and slave is a re-
!ation in society, as necessary as that of pa
rent and child; and the Northern States will
yet have to introduce it, Their theory of free
government is a delusion.n
While Democratic newspapers are abusing
Mr.. Seward for arguing that the two systems
of labor were in conflict, and that one or thu
other must eventually give way, and 'eithe
| lNNNOu u OtoNOly UOCOluG JuG Iulo III tFCl
State, let them bestow little of their atten
ton upon the herisies of their Southern breth
rem. Even the RsiieeAhRaeaa an sc
knowledged leader among Democratic jour
nails, said, in an article on the subject 20
slavery, two years before Mr.. Stewards Roch
ester speech, that " Two opposite and conflict
ing forms of society cannot among civilized
men, co-exist and endure. The one must Civ
way and cease to exist-the other become uni
versal. If free society beunnatural, immoral
unchristian, it must fall and give way to slav
society-a social system old as the world, uni
yersal as man."
| Perhaps it would be unfair to accuse Mr.
Seward of plagiarism but it really looks as
he had borrowed the idea Of his Irrepressi
BILE Conflict" and almost the language from
the Richmond editor We are not defending
the New York Senator, Or attacking thu
Southern newspapers, but only showing tina
our democratic friends, in striking at Mr. Sew
ard, are wounding the heads of their Southern
allies, friends and leaders.