Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1859-11-23
THE "1RREpREss1BLE CONFLICT

The "IRREPRESS1BLE CONFLICT
Much has been said lately of Mr.. Seward s
ssirrepressible conflict as if it were original,
and he is getting the entire credit for very
harmless expression, particularly when it is
taken in connection with the stern and solemn
ayowal uttered in his Rochester speech ssto
guard against misapprehension,' namely, that
he did not expect that universal freedom would
take place 'sother,cise than through the several
STATES cooperating 1Gifh the Federal Gorern-
ment, and all acting in STRICT CONFORMITY WITH
THEIR RESPECTIVE CONSTITUTIONS" So far as
the origin of the phrase, ''irrepressible con-
fict'' is to be considered, we distinctly charge
Mr.. Seward with being literary plagiarist,
for the words are only genteel paraphrase of
THE LAST DECISIVE CONFLICT of Mr.. Roger A.
Pryor, who has recently been elected ssDem-
| ocratic" member of Congress from Virginia,
by large majority. He wrote April Goth,
1852, these words:
ssThere must be a last battle bcficeen slGreru
and abolition. The struggle ciH end only with
the destruction of other of the tLrO hostile
parties. Shall the South postpone the last de-
cisire conflict until defeat is inevitable ; The
| strength of the enemy is hourly Increasing
Every ship load of emigrants discharged in
the streets of New York, AUGMENTs THE FORCES
OF ABOLITION, and every decennial count of the
| population of the country, marks the rapid de-
cline of the South.''
| So much for Mr.. Stewards originality, and
so much for comparison between what New
Yorker may utter, challenged, and a Virginia
| Locofoco may proclaim, uDchalIengedl
| Now let US listen moment to the Hon. Ed
ward Everett, who has not been supposed to
| be very violent Abolition agitator-at least
not since he was candidate for Governor of
| Massachusetts,, nearly twenty years ago. Yet
in his Grafton on the Inauguration of the Web
ster Statue, he said
ssHe TMr. Webster,1 not only confidently an
ticipated achat the lapse Of seren gears has art-
messed and is tgitnessing, that the aeUly acquired
and the neigiy organised Territories of the onion
IcOHtd grOIU up into Free States but, in common
,cth all or nearly all the statesmen Of the last
generation, he beiieUed, that FREE LABOR WOULD
ULTIMATELY PREVAIL THROUGHOUT THE COUN-
TRY. He thought he that, in the opera
tion of the same causes which have produced
this result in the Middle and Eastern States it
was visibly taking place in the States north of
the cotton-growing region. He INCLINED 10
the opinion, that thus also, under the influence
of physical and economical causes, Free Labor
rrould be found most productive and tcOuld there
fore be ultimately estd6Iished."
And little further on, Mr.. Everett saws:
s'It is true that, interpreting the fundament-
al law the Constitution on this subject Sla-
very a diversity of opinion between the two
sections of the Union presents itself. THIS
HAS EVER BEEN THE CASE, FIRST OR LAST, IN
RELATION TO EVERY GREAT QUESTION WHICH
HAS DIVIDED THE COUNTRY.
Isn't it as clear mud that Mr.. Roger A.
Prior and Mr.. Everett ought to be indicted as
instigators OF the late capture of Harper's
Ferry by John Browns fifteen white men and
four negroes? We hope the locofoco papers
will not fail to sound the alarm against these
arch traitors, when they next play upon their
''harp OF thousand stringS,'' the tune of ssIr-
rePressibie Conflict 20 Come, gentlemen, the
Union is positively in danger this time.