The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-02-23
Disunionists and Union Savers.

DisuniOnists and Union Savers.
To the observant mind, the Disunionists of
the South and the Union savers of the North
. have both been engaged in active rivalry to
, see which can render themselves most ridicu-
lous in the eyes of the American people,
That the slaveholding portions of the South
are smitten with certain degree of moral
) and political blindness, we readily admit.
) the whole world sees it, in the fact that they
, perseveringly hug and cherish an institution
which, in every other civilized nation on
earth has either perished in blood, or been
peacefully abolished, or is now in the pro-
cess of being abolished. Nevertheless we are
not yet prepared to believe them such fools
as seriously to contemplate withdrawal
from the Union under any circumstances
whatsoever. True, they have heretofore
found it profitable to buster and threaten,
that class whom John Randolph called orth-
ern doughfaces get alarmed and yield the
point the southern baby cries for.
Let us look at the matter little, and trace
the position Of the South, should the free
States humor her madness and let her slide
out of the csnfederacy.
I In the first place the great point on which
the two leading political parties have Joined
issue, (the extension of slavery into the Ter
ritories) would be decided against the slnvoc-
racy at once. This could not be otherwise.
Tbo hold .,fo, A.:
wealth, in skill, in intelligence, and in pop
ulation, could not be permitted to dictate the
terms of divorce. Freedom would see that
the slavery adultress should 60 forth to the
world without any endowments without any
adornments, without any superfuous apparel
and wholly shorn of power for future mis-
chief. No public territory should be, or
would be, accorded to her, over which she
might hereafter spread her loathsome m oral
plague spot. Thus shut up within her own
present limits, slavery would lose, at her first
move, everything for which she now con-
tends, viz: 'room for expansion room to
pour herself out without restraint" ..
In the next place our southern brethren
must not, cannot suppose that the new north
ern republic will allow its fair fields to be
hunting ground for FOREIGN slave catchers
No fugitive slave laws will disgrace the pu-
rifed statute books of the purified republic
What follows then? Something very seri-
Gus folows-with 700 miles of slave frontier
bordering on free Mexico, and about 5000
miles bordering against the new republic
North, freedom would be fairly pitted face
to face, in an 'irrepressible" physical con-
fict with slavery. No treason laws, no con-
stitutional restraints would interpose to
shield the naked institution. The active
restless, enterprising arms of freedoms sons
would be an overmatch for sleepy, toil-de.
spising slavery, and raids INTO, and slave
stampedes OUT OF the slave republic would
be constantly occurring on a scale hitherto
unimagined. No cost, no effort, no vigilance
could prevent this, and the border slave
States, wearied and begcared by predatory
and guerilla warfare of this kind, would be
found shedding tears of repentance, and
turning in bitter agony to the despised Uni
",
exclaim in snpplicating tones, "we have
sinned against Heaven and against thee" Sc
By this process, process which we may de-
plore, but which from the very nature of
things would be inevitable the unity and in
tegrity of the boasted southern confederacy
would be shivered to atoms.
>Let us suppose, if you please, that none of
all these things should happen to the slave
republics there danger nowhere else p
There is indeed, there is an awful danger,
and God alone can tell how narrow has been
the Shareholders escape in times gone by.
In 1887 an incident occurred which par
TALLY lifted the curtain Of fate, and revealed
to the southern eye future full of gloom
and dread, AMI danger. In ls36-37 the peo-
pie of the Canadas made an effort to detach
themselves from the Empire of which they
formed a part, and establish nationality o f
their own. The patriots possessed them
selves of Navy Island, small British island
in the Niagara river, lying between Black
Rock and the Canadian shore A little
steamboat, (the Caroline) owned and manned
4 by United States citizens, was engaged in
carrying men, provisions, and munitions of
war to the patriot insurgents on this island,
in direct violation of our laws of neutrality.
The British authorities manned some boats
and under cover of the night came over to
our side, cut out the ''Caroline," put her crew
on shore, raised the steam, lashed the helm,
and sent the steamer under full headway
down over the falls. Here was clearly a
MUTUAL INVASION, a mutual and fagrant
breach of our international neutrality laws,
and angry negotiation followed between the
two governments, but ended in no apology,
no reparation on either side.
In the meantime what were the British
doing? In view of o possible war, that
government raised two regiments of colored
men Fugitive slaves) each 1000 strong,
drilled them, and rendered them perfect in
military discipline, and kept up that force
for period of three years. Why were those
2000 negroes embodied Surely not to
bring across the lines and contend with our
Federal troops. Oh no! it was scarcely con-
cealed that they were designed for operations
in the South.
i II must be remembered the position of
things had materially changed since the war
: of 1872. Great Britain had abolished slave
ry Throughout her Empire, and, in common