New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-11-08
PEACE AND HARMONY.

still pertlnaciOusly cal tnemstNcS DcmocrhtS, uD-
dertake TO set Themselves up, alike in Tammony
Hall speeches and Fifth avenue addresses, rs the
sbecial guardians and advocates Of pence and
harmony Of the Union, and as its special eonseUa-
tors. 1t il, we may say, exclusively on this ground
that the good people Of New-York are asked to
come forward to-day, and BY their votes, to
give TO these men not only the control Of our
State affairs. but q helping hand toward retain
ing that influence at Washington 30 long pos
sessed by these men that they have come to regard
it as something that belongs to them.
According to the journals and orators which urge
the claims of these politicians, It is especially on the
question of Slavery and the conflicting sectional
claims connected with it, that they have exerted
their powers Of paci6cation, question which has
only been prevented so they tell u.s. from dssolying
the Union time and again by the oil which they
have contriyed to pour upon the troubled waters,
and which certainly will dissolve it the moment
they and those with whom they act are discharged
from the possession and control of the powers Of
the Federal Government
So far as the past is concerned these pretensions,
as we shall proceed to show, are not only utterly
groundless, but outrageousy false. AS to the
future, the only means we have of penetrating that
is by reference to the past. Nothing is more cer-
tain than that this very clique Of politicians has for
the last quarter of century sustained itself in
power by agitating the Slavery question. The
peace, if not the harmony, of the Umon-for
Slavery is one of those questions on which harmony
is scarcely to be attained-has been over and over
again sacrificed to the cOnyeniences and exigencies
of these men, always ready for agitation when
anything is to be gained by it. If the Slavery
question has come to be the great question of our
national politics, it is precisely the policy OF the
men who have controlled the Democratic party
which has mainly contributed TO make 1t so. We
know that the AbOtionists claim the credit OF
having brought about this state of things; but with
out the early and continued cooperation of Demo-
cratic politicians, who make bugbear OF the Abo-
ltionsts for the promotion Of their own political
ends it is probable that the AntiSlayery Societies
would like most similar associations and ike their
predecessors, the MaDumission Societies, have gra-
dually died away without any marked results
These Anti. Slavery Societies first made themselves
known to the public by presenting petitions to Con-
gress for the abolition of Slavery in the District of
Columbia. Such petitions we're not new. No party
was then disposed support them, and had they been
allowed to take the ordinary course OF reference to
Committee, no political agitation would have
grown out of them. The question was first made
political by the attempt of our Doni0O'"fi" %"
SENATORS of the peace and harmony OF the Union
TO curry favor at the South by suppressing the
right of petition, and to impose gag upon Con-
gross itself. Thus was raised a new question:
poltical question of the most serious magnitude
quite independent of the question of Slayery-and
in this way fuel was thrown upon fire very small
at fret, and which if left to ITSELF would, in oil
probability. have soon burned out.
The whole number of petitioners whose appear
ance before Congress had been the occasion for
this unconstitutional measure was hardly a,OOO,
of whom large propOrtiOnwere women. The pas
sage of the gag resolutions not only called out pet-
tionstentmes as numerously signed but they excited
protests ON the part of State Legislatures, and a
general uprising of popular sentiment, against
This despotic interference notwithstanding
1t was not long before the Anti-Slavery societies
became involved in internal dissensons their funds
fell of and, if the agitation of the Slavery question
had depended solely on them, it would have remain
ed amatter of very little importance but the Pohtca
questions superinduced upon it by Democratic poll
ticans a. to the right of petition and free discus
sion in Congress continued to agitate the country
for ten years, and was only quoted when Congress
abandoned its gag-rules.
Meanwhile however certain Democratic Pohti-
clans. struggling to advance their own personal
interests. and utterly regardless of the peace ana
harmony Of the Union, gave o new MP 70 Tue
Slavery discussion by taking up as party war
CRY the Annexation Of Texas-a project started BY
TYLER and Calhoun for the ayowed purpose Of
strengthening the institution of Slavery, but WDlch
certain Democrats fastened to snatch out oil their
hands Mr.. Van Buren, and others OF the more
consderate members of the party, well aware OF
what the consequence must be, declined 10 counte'
nance this movement But they were overruled.
Mr.. Van Buren, was ousted Of his nomination as
the Presidential candidate of the party, and the
peace and harmony of the Union was again saeri-
feed to the exigencies Of Democratic policy.
The Annexation Of Texas brought on the Mexi'
lean War, and the Mexican War led to the Wilmot
Proviso, new occasion for discussing the merits
of Slavery, due entirely to the policy Of the Demo
cratic party in acquiring additional territory
from Mexico. Even after this and other
connected questions had been finally disposed OF by
the Compromise measures, so called, and the
country, after violent agitation had again subsided
Into comparative quiet, who was it that revived