The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1859-11-02
Fixing the Responsibility.

We extract from the Philadelphia Euen.
ing Journal, the following portion of Wig.
orous article, inquiring who were al the bot
tom of the Harper's Ferry insurec,ion. The
Journal is an independent newspaper, but
lis repeated assaults upon the Democratic
party, bears testimony that its opinions up
on this momentous occurrence are not dis.
,urbed by partizan feelings.
After some Introductory remarks, it says
"Ot course, IN this, as in all like questions,
vengeance will not reach 1.-THE of those
who are really guilty of this atrocious busi-
ness-it will tall on the few who were act
lively and overly employed in the conspi-
racy-on the miserable tools Of those high
apostles of Abolitionism, who preach, from
pulpits and from rostrums, and from the
desk of the Journalist, treason 10 the law
and institutions OF the land, in the specous
name of freedom, and yet take precious
good care to keep their own necks clear of
the halter into which :hey would willingly
thrust other peoples heads, and TO which
they have, morally, forfeited their own
We hold the Abolition party responsible
for this last of three attempts to provoke an
insurection of the southern slaves. and TO
enact, in all that region, the horrible afro.
cities of St. Domingo. We here and now
solemnly indict Messrs, Greeley, and Sew
ard, and Wendell Philips, and Lloyd Garr-
son, and Henry Wilson, and Joshua Gid.
dings, and the whole fraternity of the anti
slavery agitators, as the real instigators Of
Tho Per,entous rebellion which was-per-
haps premalurely-begun at Harper's Ferry,
and happily, for the peace of the land and
the cause of humanity, speedily suppressed.
They have "taught the bloody Instructions
which will always find enough ignorant and
insane minds in which TO engender their
natural progeny and ripen into diaboical
acts of negro-stealing, murder, and even
plots of sanguinary revolution.
"The shocking scenes which have just
transpired upon the banks of Potomac,
within short distance of the national capi-
tai, are the proper fruit of their long and
industrious sowing OF the seeds of servile
war and insurrection. Their persistent and
vehement promulgation of incendiary and
disloyal doctrines respecting the wrongs
endured by the southern negro, and his di-
vine right 10 redress them at any cost and
in any possible way-their bold assertion
of the principle of higher lava law
above all human law, which every man
may make and interpret for himself, and the
declaration that slavery and freedom, as .e-
lated in this country under the Constitution,
are engaged in an 'irrepressible conflict,
which can only end in the final triumph of
one over the other-are duly fructifying in
just such fearful turmoil and contention as
stained the soil of Kansas with blood, and
now by The forcible occupation of a town in
Virginia, the seizure of the national armory,
and threatened war of the blacks and their
black allies of the free States for emancipa-
tion, has terrified the people of the South
and outraged The humane and patriotic in
stincts of the whole land To show that we
do no injustice, in wha! we have said, 10 the
anti-slave-y party, or its individual mem
bers, we quote here what their leading or.
gan-the New York Iribune-printed yes.
terday, in double-leaded editorial type, with
all the evidence of an internal scheme oi
treason and civil war before il. Speaking
of the ringleaders Of the insurrection, il
pours forth this maudlin strain of compass.
ion and sulogy upon their martyred souls
"fhere will be enough 10 heap execration
on the memory of these mistaken men. We
leave this work to the fit hands and tongues
of those who regard the fundamental max
imums of the Declaration of independence
as 'glittering generali,ies.' Believing thai
the way 10 universal emancipation lies mo-
through insurrection, civil war and blood
shed, but through peace, discussion, and
the quiet diffusion of sentiments of human.
ity and justice, we deeply regret this out
break, but remembering that if their faul
was grievous, ,grievously have they aaswer
ed it. zoe will not, by ore reproaehtul vord, dis.
turb the bloody shrouds wherein John
Brown and his eompdtriots are sleeping
They dared and died for what they felt TO be
right, though in manner which seems tc
us fatally wrong. Let their epitaphs remain
untDritien until The not distant dug ,rhen no
slave shall elank his ehains in the shade of Mon
tiesIto or by the graves of Mount Hsrnon.'
Snow, what is this but a cowardly palter.
ing, in which sympathy with the object OF
devlish conspiracy is qualified by feeble
condemnation of the means for its achieve.
ment? Is it not the thin ambiguity through
which traitor would excuse treason, YET
seem 10 denounce it? The substance of the
whole paragraphs is-and we hold it as the
sentiment of the entire ant-savery party
that Brown and his confederates were right
in their purpose, but imprudent in the mode
of executing it, and that abolitionism, trl.
umphant through safer ways of reaching its
aim, will yet shout hallelujahs over their
noble sacrifice in the cause of universal
emancipation.