The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1859-10-27
The Egarper's Ferry Tragedy.

public press. As yet we have not seen
single Journal containing a syllable in ex-
cuse or justification Of even the motives of
the misguided men whose acts have sent
a thrill Of horror through the land. The
wild insanity Of the attempt proves OF 1t
self the total loss Of the last ray of reason
on the part Of the immediate actors -
Madness, utter madness, could 40 farther
90.
No event could teach more significant
", or more eloquently, the wisdom ofthat
government policy to which the Republi
can party has been committed from the
very day of It's first Inauguration. The
doctrines preached by its founders were
the same conservative principles which,
from the formation OF the Constitution
down to 1854, the era Of the infamous Kan
sas-Ne Nebraska bill, had met the approval
of all parties. The cardinal idea that leg
islation for the territories should belong
Of right TO Congress, as the Constitution
expressly provides, was the fayorite doc
trine of HENRY CLAY and the Whig par
ty. This idea fell by right of succession
to the conservative Opposition Of the coun-
try Had the firc-brand Of squatter SOW
ercigntv never been flung into Congress
by DOUGLAs-had the unwcarying eXer-
tons Of the Opposition to keep the Mis-
souri, Compromise intact been successful,
the Pandora's box Of evils which lay con
cealed in the specious provisions Of the
Kansas-N ebraska act, would never have
cursed the country. But the insane NOV
ers in that scheme OF wrong would listen
TO no utterauce of Reason or Of Right
They were blind to every idea save that
Of selfish ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and temporary
Not one who moved in it, not
even Stephen y. Douglas himself, the
contriver in-chicf. at this day, with the
fearful experience since, would do the
same deed over again.
The dragons teeth were first sown in
Kansas. Peace, that was to hover like a
protecting angel over that fair and sunny
garden-spot. folded her wings in dismay
DiScord and her dark and damning brood,
entered the devoted State. and scenes that
indignant detestation. Peaceable men
from the North, unofending citizens, who
on their arrival in Kansas were hooted at
by the Missouri rufiians. as d race Of i'm
potent towards, found their homes inyad-
ed by the knife OF the assassin. their
wives and children outraged, tLeir dwell
ings lit by the torch Of the incendiarv.-
/ hese were .'thc first fruits" Of the great
peace measure" Of 1851, offered to the
eXpectant country rs sovereign panacea.
by Senator Douglas. Those peaceful en-
igrants, who had exiled themselves from
the land Of their early associations, were
maddened to revenge The Missouri
borderers had taught them, by lesson OF
blood and fire, the catechism OF warfare.
They were, in selt-defence, obliged to pro
tect their firesides, or else consent to sac
rlfce all that they had come to secure
namely, peaceful rcsting-place upon the
common territory of the nation.
The catalogue OF wrongs the reon!e Of
Kansas We're called on to con, has never
all been tod. Those who suffered in per
son, IN the sanctity of their homes, be
came, Ike Brown Of Osawatomic. frenzied
with the scenes Of diabolical horror thro'
which they had passed. Reason fed her
throne, and the idea Of resistance 10 the
supposed cause Of all the tumult and out
rage became a religious fanaticism. The
idea Of constitutional barriers never more
had place in such disordered brains. and
bloodshed and civil war became to such
distracted minds as things OF right. The
affair at Harper's Ferry, insane, utterly
mexcusable as it is, may well be credited
as the legitimate consequence of the false
policy invoked by the authors and contri-
vers Of the Nebraska bill.
1t is even higher madness, more absurd
and glaring folly to charge such terrible
outbreak upon party OF reasonable men.
All parties alike condemn it, and the Re
publican party, above all others. is COM
mltted point blank against the policy that
could breed such excesses. We seek to
make no war upon the South, or its rights.
We believe only in working under and
through the Federal constitution. Tbro'
legal means, and caEg legal means, can anv
social errors in the political fabric be cor
rected As proclaimed by the leaders Of
Lhe party IN the canvass of 1856. we have
nothing whatever to do with slavery in
the States To the people of the South
ern States alone belongs the settlement Of
tins social evil within their own borders
This doctrine the Republican party has al
ways undeviatingly maintained, and will
maintain it to the end. Our only aim i
to keep all the Territories free from the
eVlI OF slavery, free from system whose
directly tends to the incitation
ana realization OF a crop of bloody trace
iles like to this through which We have
passed. The attempt, therefore, on the
part OF the hireling journals of corrupt