The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-04-28
WASHINGTON. d. c..
SIGNS OF PROGRESS.

We are grati6ed to observe in that large
wing Of the Pennsylvania Democracy repre-
scented by Messrs. Forney, Hickman, and Gov
ernor Packer, unmistakable signs of a return
to the true principles of Jefferson. In another
column we insert copious extracts from the re-
cent speech of Mr. Hickman at the Boilers
Convention, which, while it clings to the idea
OF popular sovereignty" is decidedly Anti
Slavery in It's tone. Colonel Forney, in his
able newspaper, the Philadelphia Press, speaks
in a similar vein. In recent article upon the
slave trade, he says:
"The serviity of the Administration to the
naughty and arrogant demands of the slave
power has thus apparently reached its climax.
Not content with endeavors to force Slavery
upon the soil of Kansas against the will of her
citizens not content with advocating theory
designed to force Slavery, by positive law, into
all the Territories yet unsettled, against the
wishes of those who are to inhabit them not
content with squandering the money of the
Federal Treasury with reckless extravaganza,
20 purchase In the North venal white slaves to
obey the behssts of Southern ultraists not
content with the thrty-million bride bill for the
acquisition of Cuba, the Administration has
crowned its pyramid of infamy by shamelessly
neglecting It's official duties for the purpose of
oonniving at the revival of traffic, so odious
that, but five years ago, scarcely single human
being In America would have dared to advocate
it-a trade Justly ranked in the same category
with the blacklist of human crimes-which has
no parallel in its hendish iniquity, but piracy
in its most horrid forms, and which has been
Justly denominated the sum of all villainies.'
" If the statements we have taken from South
81. AZ,
cient barrier TO the revival of the slave trade.
The whole drama has been played out, and the
existing laws completely set at defiance. When
a cargo Of slaves land upon our shores-no
matter if the guilt of the murder of hundreds
OF human beings rests upon the souls of her
crew-a Southern jury will ignore bill of in
dictment against them. If deputy marshal,
in the centre of a Southern State, has enough
old fashioned integrity, notwithstanding his
Southern education and prejudices, to suppose
that faithful execution of existing laws is Just
and proper, we have at Washington President
TO thWart his legal and humane efforts, either
by his silence or by his direct orders, and thus
TO sanction and confirm the inhuman, illegal,
and bloodstained right by which the slave
trade pirates claim to hold the unfortunate
victims Of their merciless avarice."
In this connection, while praisiug the indie
pendent tone of the Pennsylvania boilers, we
must express our hearty concurrence in the fol-
lowing article from the Pittsburgh Gazette, in
which the folly of the boilers, in attempting to
carry Douglas with them, by main force, against
his earnest entreaties to be left in the slough of
Slavery, is pointed out. The Gazette says:
q Craet.-At a late meeting of the Packer
wing of the Democracy of Berks, of which Con-
gresham SwartZ was the chairman, a resolution
was adopted, among others, that the treatment
which Senator Douglas received from the ma
tional Administration, within the last year, has
been cruel We fear our Berks county neigh
bors are speaking without the record. Senator
Douglas, who should be the best Judge of the
kind Of treatment be received, evidently does
not agree with them. Has he not since that
alleged cruel treatment literally crawed into
the Democratic caucus, and when there, has he
not in the most abject manner begged the priv
ilege OF humbly supporting the most obnoxious
measures wbicR Mr. Buchanan could place be-
fore him Did he not write whining letter
10 Connecticut, telling the anti-Lecomptonities
there to stultity themselves, and and swallow
Lecompton even as 1t is dished up BY his for
mer prosecutor. If there is any cruelty con-
nected with the matter, it must refer to the
treatment which Senator Douglas has bestowed
upon himself and his followers. There is no
doubt that the latter have been cruelty be-
trayed by cowardly captain, whom they sup
posad had nerve and heart enough to be man.
In that expectation they have been wofully
mistaken, ard have found themselves at sea
without a nationa' leader. The dissenters OF
Berks must book themselves up afresh as they
are evidently behind the tin..es IN their knowl
edge of certain political events.