The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-10

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| From the New York Day-Book.
SECTIONAL CoNFLICT-IS 1T REAL
! OR is IT FACTITIoUS2
Senator Seward might very well repeat the
saying of Daniel O'Connell, and declare that he
was the principal stock in trade of his political
opponents, and indeed we doubt if the Tories OF
England ever fourished as extensively on the
sayings and doings of the great Irish orator as
the enemies of Mr.. Seward have done on the
"higher law, " "rrspressible conflicts" and other
equally important or non-important declara-
tons of the New York Senator. The latest OF
these Delphic andsominous givings out of Mr..
Seward is just now in full flush and vigor of
successful experiment, and the changes rung on
1t by numerous class of political pundits and
learned scribularios are absolutely deafening.
Well, we will not complain of this, if the public
will stand it-indeed, we are willing to accept
it in the place of popular sovereignty" mon
intervention" the great principles of the Ne
braska bill, and other brain-splitting inventions
of the day, and we fancy that the public gener-
ally iotU consider the arguments against the
"irrepressible conflict" decided improve
ment on the former
But what is this terrible I" irrepressible con-
fiet," or this assertion of it, that so alarms and
distresses the New York Herald and the nu-
merous class of politicians and writer's who
seem to draw their inspirations from that pure
and classic fountain? Mr.. Seward says there
is san irrepressible conflict between Freedom
and Slavery" and who, pray, will deny this
self-evident TRUTH or venture to say that these
utterly irreconcilable things can ever be har-
monized Has not this confict-or what is
supposed to be such conAict-existed for ten
years past? Does it not exist now? And
will kb<1o
| posed principles have an existence in our
midst Senator Seward was addressing the
| politicians - among them the very class so
| shocked at his Northumberland he told them
that their efforts to reconcile irreconcilable
things must fail-that all their schemes for set
! ting =" the Slavery question were humbugs-
| that the conflict between Freedom and Slave
ny " was in its very nature and necessities 81 IT.
repressble." Again, we ask, who will deny
| this assertion? What are the results of the eff
forts to represS it. to put down the "Slavery
agitation TO settle the "Slavery question u
First on the list Of these patriotic efforts is
the compromise Of l850-Mr. Foote'S grand
panacea, which in one week that profound phi
losopher declared would bring peace to the ma
ton, which Mr.. Clay deemed essential for the
cure of the five gaping wounds" and which
even Mr.. Stewards friends believed in after the
! ten millions were added to the " Union saving -
! contrivance. Is there now a single man in the
nation that will say the compromise Of 1850
did any good, or had any effect whatever in set
ting the Slavery" question, or silercing the
! the Slavery agitation Then "non inter
.vention " was invented, which, as nobody was
| to intervene, of course there would be no con.
! fict; but the people paid no regard to this pro-
! Ject of the politicians. Finally, the Nebraska
bill, which should take the question out of Con-
| md zrA Al.
! tories, was thought to be safe and certain cure
of the body polite, but after its trial in Kansas
causing civil strife and bloodshed, Congress was
! compelled to take back its own bantling to save,
/ perhaps, the nation itself from the horrors of
civil war; Here we are, then, as Mr.. Seward
! declares, with this " irrepressibe conflict y
! strong as ever indeed this "conhict is vastly
more potent and pressing than ever before, and
made so by the political quacks, Just as bodily
disease is always increased and rendered dan
! gerous by the tampering of ignorant pretenders
to medical science.
Whatever the world has believed to be real it
has treated as real, and as long as it is believed
that Slavery exists at the South, the "irrepress-
! ible confict" between Freedom and Slavery
must and will go on. Mr.. Seward, therefore,
/ states simple, selfevident, but most pregnant
| truth and while political infdels and base and
mercenary politicians, who believe in neither
truth nor the intelligence of the people, will
raise great clamor over it, and appeal to vul-
gar prejudice instead of replying to the Sena-
tors argument-the manly, the Intelligent, and
/ patriotic portion of the people will seek to in
quire into the causes of this conflict" in order
to apply the true remedy to the disease that
threatens the peace Of the country and the
safety of the Union. And it is equally certain
that the irrepressible conflict" must finally
farv Il, 1 Il
dom of the South or the "Savery" of the
North-in the permanent success Of the can
ti-Slavery" or the " Pro-Slavery" idea.
WHAT THE Rev. Mr.. BEECHER THIYKs.-The
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, on Sunday even
ing, was crowded to repletion by a numerous
congregation, to hear the pastor, Reverend Mr.
Beecher speak upon the present state of the
country. He introduced his subject by an al
fusion to the difference between right and wrong.
The awful outbreak at Harper's Ferry, and the
agitation which seventeen white men, holding
captive two thousand brave Virginians, while
the sun had gone laughing twice around the
globe, had caused in the minds of the people
and press, were dwelt upon at length. On the
occasion of the Kansas struggle, he said, the
United States had no troops to send out, but
when seventeen men came out and took up
arms for the purpose Of setting slaves free there
was no want OF assistance to put them down.
While he deplored the misfortune, and sym.
pathized with the old man who had come out
and openly avowed his principles, he could not
but condemn his madness. There was right
and a wrong way of freeing slaves, and to un-
deTtake an emancipation with the sword was
entirely wrong. He considered it wrong to
treat the South with enmity and bitterness.
because it upheld Slavery
He would like to see all men enjoying Free
dom, but the right way to bring about this de-
sired result was not to excite in the minds of
the slaves feeling of discontentment, but by
preaching to them duty and Christ 1t was
wrong to excite slaves to run away from their
masters but where a man was in bondage, it
was his right to break away, and to such he
would give shelter. An escaped slave sbould
be as welcome as his own child. 1t would be
hopeless to undertake to seek emancipation by
the shedding of blood. 1t was bad for the
slave, bad for the master, and bad for the State.
but for people to free themselves was undoubt
eddy right. A black man in the North did not
have the privileges of white man he couldn't
work at any mechanical business, for the white
man would not work with him. In church and
at other places, they were set aside by them
selves. The example of the right spirit has
first to be set in the North, and the South
must be treated with kindness. Love, truth,
honor, and fidelity, would tend to make the
slave free. After dwelling upon the subject,
in connection with emancipation, the congre-
cation were dismissed with prayer.
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