The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-12-02

The Crisis ON the Slavery Question:
Startling southern Programme or Pro-
! lection or Dissolution.
We are standing upon the threshold of the
most momentous events in the history of the
civilized world. For good or evil, for re.
newal of the bonds of peace and harmony be-
tween the North and the South, or a violent
rupture, we are entering upon new order Of
things. The late desperate and bloody aboli-
lion invasion of Virginia, its extensive ramid-
cations, the widespread sympathy betrayed
throughout the North for that wretched traitor,
cutthroat and horse thief, Old Brown (who
pays to-day the penalty of his black and
manifold crimes), and all the elements of this
black republican war of subNgation against
the South have brought Our political affairs to
crisis. 1t must be met. The leading minds
Of the South, are moving to meet it. Read our
latest advices from Washington.
The Southern plan Of operations thus dis
closed comprehends, in the first place, law
of Congress for the protection of the institu-
ton Of slavery in the slave States against abo-
lition incursions, abolition incendiaries, and
abolition interference with Southern instit,-
tons, destroying, or calculated to endanger,
the lives and property of our Southern
brethren. This law, the South will doubtless
demand, shall embrace practical enforcement
Of the object ofthe Fugitive Slave law, and such
pains and penalties against all traitorous en-
croachments upon Southern rights as may be
deemed necessary for the protection Of slavery
and the security of the people of the slave
States.
And why not? The constitution Of the United
States fully recognises and amply provides
for the security of the institution of slavery.
When the constitution was formed all the
States, we believe, were practically slave
States with the single exception of Massachu-
setts, where the soil and climate had proved
by experiment that slavery "could not be made
to pay" The recognition prospectively of the
African slave trade to the year 1SO6 the allow
ance of count of three ffths Of the slave po-
pulation in the federal ratio for Congress, the
provision for the recapture of fugitive slaves,
and the paramount recognition of the equality
Of the several States as members of the gene
raj confederacy, were the groundwork of the
constitution. We Of the North are bound by
this compact and all its concessions and CON-
promises; and when they have ceased to afford
that protection to the Southern States which
rightfully they may claim, does it not become
the duty of Congress to provide that protec.
ton under the constitution which the laws as
they stand, local and federal, have failed to Sc
cure? There can be but one answer to this
question.
Such, then, being the protection which the
South may and will demand of this Congress
the question recurs, will it be grant.
ed? We think not. The thing is impos-
sible in the present House of Repre-
sentatives, of men pledged to legislate
against slavery, and Of men Of the Douglas
school, pledged to Congressional non-interven-
ton. Anticipating the inevitable result, then,
it appears, in the second place, that in failing
to secure any measures of protection from
Congress, this Southern plan of operations
contemplates the withdrawal of the Southern
members from Congress, and meeting of them
at Richmond, or some other convenient Iocali-
! ty, to consider the ways and means demanded
| for the security Of Southern institutions in an
Independent Southern confederacy. And what
! then?
While the Southern seceders from Congress
are shaping out their measures for the general
| movement on the part of the Southern States
for independence, embracing the organization
Of military establishment, and overtures of
commercial reciprocities to the Western Powers
of Europe, II is probable that quorum suff-
cient for business purposes will still be left in
each house of Congress. We may safely con-
clude, too, that thus being left to their own
pleasure, and without serious opposition, the
republican party will adopt strong measures
for the coercion of the rebelIious South into
submissive measures calculated to precipitate
rather than avert an "irrepressible conflict"
And SO, it is possible that the close Of our i'm
penang PRESIDENTIAL campaign may be the be-
ginning OF q civil war between the federal 90
vernment and the Southern States
| Sucn are the contingencies foreshadewed
In tnis southern programme Of protection or
lndependence-of security within the Union ar
| q separate government. And when wa con.
slider the important fact that the expenses of
the Union are chiefly extracted from the South
while the benefits and profits Of the Union ara
chiefly pocketed by the North, we find verv
significant meaning in this allusion to Southern
reciprocal commercial treaties with England.
France and all other commercial foreign
Powers. The Southern States, too, as an in
dependent confederacy, could extort from the
North any amount of protection to their slave
property upon commercial basis. This idea,
At all events, has taken deep hold upon the
Southern mind; so that we must henceforth re-
member that disunion has ceased to be