Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-10-06
The struggle Of 1880.

:
publican host now advancing to take pos
session Of the Federal Government "Too
fast" and "1'oo slow"
You go toofar n shouts The timid wri-
ter who follows that host afar of sve too,
are hostile to the extension of Slavery bat
we cannot abide your Summers, Stewards.
Chases, Hales, Bnrlingames, who make war
on Slavery ITSELF Why do you coutin.
ually reiterate your unqualified devotion to
the Union, your iDhexible repugnance to
any interference With Slavery 10 the States
where it has legal existence, your deter.
mination to enforce the Fugitive Slave
Law, and to uphold all the rights Of the
South Thousands are expelled from you
by the vehement and sweeping auti.Slavery
inculeations Of Giddngs, Loyejoy, and Cas-
slus M. Clay; why do you not disavOw
them?"
You don't go half far enough p shout
on equally vehement If somewhat less Du-
merous crowd, composed Of earnest, thor
ough, uncompromising Abolitionists, in.
cluding the whole membership of three or
four respectable Christian denominations !:
why don't you come out squarely against
!, Slavery, dt1OGgs, eeery,oAsre? You gain
nothing by temporizing : the South hates
you and fights you no less than If you we're
not almost but altogether such as we are.
Her mercantile and political vassals eonld
not be more bitterly inimicdl to you than
they are: Then why not declare for AboIi-
tion in the States as well as prohibition in
the Territories, and strike for result worth
havingP Why not enable US to unite with
and strengthen you z"
To these last we answer
The Republican party was called into
existence by o treacherous attempt to open
to Slavery the Territories shielded there
from by the Missouri Compact. 1t en-
braced men of very diverse views and pur-
poses-Radicals, who hate oppression and
injustice anywhere Conservatives, who
condemn the violation, in the interests 0f
slavery, Of plighted faith. Outside of the
party, each follows the dictates of bis own
Judgment and conscience bat, when act
ing as Republicans, we must act with good
faith to each other and to our common pur-
pose. We are united on the basis of re-
sistence to the extension of Slavery, aud to
any measure tending to legslize or prscti-
cally establish it in any portion of the COM
mon Territories of our Union. We are
united in support of the Free Homestead
policy, which clearly tends to encircle the
dominion OF Slavery with the quarter sec
tious of free laboring whites. We believe
our opposition to Slavery is carried as far
as it should be by any National party we
know it is carried as far as it can be. Were
we to adopt your views, and follow your
suggestions, we should be divided and crush
ed out in nearly every State. So we choose
to do what good is practicable, rather than
fall 10 attempting the impossible. If you
therefore refuse to act with us, we regret
it but we must obey our convictions of
duty and policy rather than rush on ruin
by following your counsels.
But it is not true-though good men
have asserted it-that Republicans are " in
favor OF Slavery where it exists, but
against it where it does not" We arc op-
posed to il everywhere In Brazil or Cuba,
Russia or Turkey, Virginia or Texas, as
well as in Kansas or New Mexico. We
pray God in His own good time to make
ea end of it everywhere, and would gladly,
gratefully, have that time come in our day.
There is not to-day Republican in any
Slave State who is not in favor of the ear
.I |
State, and from any other. We all rejoice
at any evidence from time to time afforded
that that fabric Of Human Bondage totters
to its fall. But if you ask us to undertake
the overthrow of Slavery ia the States, we
must answer, We will each do whatever is
in his power to put speedy end to Slavery;
but we citizens Of New York or New Eng
Iaud have no power over the laws of Yir-
ginia or Alabama. We will do our best,
when opportunity shall be afforded us, to
convince the citizens of those States that
then oneht to abolish Slavery within their
respective States but if we are toattempt
its abolition there, by external or Federal
constraints we should at once usurp. power
aud repel sympathy. The Virginian who
favors emancipation by the voluntary action
Of his own State, would resent and resist
any effort to effect the same end by the vote
or other political action of New York. So
we serve the general cause by combining our
action within Constitutional limits, and act
ually accomplish more by serupuously de,
clining to attempt too much.
Republicanism is essentially defensive
conservative. 1t seeks to preserve from
the blight of Slavery the virgin soil of our
Union. But it is not merely conservative (;
for it labors to eradicate from the soil Of
Kansas, of Utah, Of New Mexico, the seeds
of slavery already planted therein. Itcon-
templates primarily the interests OF Free
White Labor, for which 1t struggles to Sc
cure the unoccupied territory Of the Union;
but il is not blind to the great truth that
the true interests of each is the Interest OF
all. and that Justice and Humanity are the
interest of each aud all alike. The Kepuo-
lican party will not. cannot abolish Slave
nv bot in preventing its further diffusion,
IL jnsures It's ultimate extinction. II is
Slave. Breeding, the rearing Of human be-
ings for the use of Avariee or Lust, that
keeps Slavery strong and vital to-day in the
border Slave States it is Slavery Exten-
sion which renders SlaVe-Breeding active
and profitable. Had Mr.. Jeiferson's sweep
ing proViso Of 1854 become law, and been
steadily upheld to this day, Slavery in our
Union would have been dead long ago /;
had Louisiana or Florida never been pur-
chased, or had they been subjected TO the
slavery prohibition Of 1887, Slavery would
no longer be formidable among as, and all