Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-10-14
Henry Clay and the "Irrepressible
&C. Conflict N@ g9

1A.AA OAsSy G4hAN2 ING S~AxTCDECSSnWlC
NJ Conflict l a%
Senator Douglas and his followers have
bsyed on the track Of Senator Seward ana Mr.
Lincoln, for expressing the opinion That here
was an irrepressibls conflict going 81 betHeen
freedom and slavery, and heaped maledictions
on their heads for the heresy.
Senator Douglas has made it the staple of
his speeches, and it has become the burden
of the song Of his adherents. But it appears
the opinion is not original with either Mr..
Seward or Mr.. Lincoln. Daniel Webster had
before enunciated it, and as long ago as 1927
Henry Clay, in speech, eloqucntly portrayed
the progress of that "conHict," as follows:
1--WE are reproached with doing mischief
by the agitation of this question. The
society goes into no household to disturb its
domestic tranquility; it addresses itself to no
slaves, to weaken their obligations of obedi-
ence. 1t seeks to affect no mans property.
1t neither has the power nor the will to affect
the property of any one, contrary to his con
sent The execution of the scheme would
augment, instead of diminishing, the value Of
the property left behind. The society, com
posed of free men, concerns itself only with
the free. Collateral consequences We are not
responsible for. 1t is not this society which
has produced the great moral revolution which
the age exhibits. What would tiey, who
thus reproach us, have done? If they would
repress all tendencies towards liberty and
ultimate emancipation, they must do more
than put down the benevolent efforts of this
society-they must 60 back to the era Of our
liberty and independence, and muzzle the
cannon which thunders its annual joyous
return; they must revive the slave trade, with
all its train of atrocities they must suppress
the working Of British philanthropy, seeking
to ameliorate the condition of the unfortunate
West Indian slaves; they must arrest the
career of South American delverance from
thraldom; they must bloc out the neral
lights around us, and ertinguish the greatest
torch Of all which america presents to a
5eaighted aeorld, pointing the way to their
rights, hcir liberties, and their happiness.
And when they have achieved all these pur-
poses, their work will be yet incomplete.
They must psretyats the human soul, and
eradicate the light Of reason and the lore OF
| liberty. Then, and not till then, t0hen AM
csrsal darkness and despair precaat, can you
perpetuate slarery, and REPRESS all SYM
pathies and all humane and benevolent efforts,
among freemen, in behalf of the unhappy por.
| ton OF our race who are doomed to bondage
We submit to "Old Line Clay Wings"
with whom Douglas so likes to coquet
whether there is anything more heretical in
| the speeches of the Republican leaders Of the
present day than in the words of the lamented
Harry of the West? For expressing the
same sentiments, Douglas has grown hoarse
in dsnunciatng Messrs. Seward and lincoln.
While affecting to revere the memory of Mr..
Clay, he has held them up as traitors, and
called upon Wings to abandon the support of
the party of which they are distinguished
leaders, because of it.
The KANSAS ELEcrIoN.--From the Leaven-