The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-03-15

} whole policy Of the Government, and in case
of constitutional resistance, then to form
new savehoding confederacy around the
} Gulf of Mexico. BY this time the Capita
States seemed to have become fixed in de-
termination that the Federal Government
and even the labor States, should recognize
their slaves, though outside of the Slave
States and within the Territories of the Uni
ted States, as property Of which the masttl
could not he in any way, or by any authority
divested, and the Labor States, having be-
come now more essentially Democratic than
ever before, by the great development offree
labor more firmly than ever insisted on the
Constitutional doctrine that slaves voluntari
ly carried by their masters into the common
Territories, or into Labor States, are persons,
men. .....
Under the suspicious influences ofa Whie
success, California and New Mexico appeared
before Congress as Labor States The Capi.
tai States refused to consent to their admis-
sion into the Union; and again threats OF
Disunion carried terror and CONSERVATION
throughout the land. Another compromise
was made. Specific enactments admitted
California as Labor State, and re,nanded
New Mexico and Utah TO remain Territories,
with the right to choose Freedom or Slavery
when ripened into States, while they gave
new remedies for the reception of fugitives
FROM service, andabofsh the open Slave mar
ket in the District of Columbia. These new
enactments, collated with the existing stat
ues, the Ordinance Of 1887, the Missouri
Prohibitory law of 1920, and the articles of
Texas annexation, disposed by law Of the
subject Of Slavery in all the Territories CT the
United States. And so the Compromise of
1850 was pronounced a full, final, absolute,
and comprehensive settlement of all existing
and all possible disputes concerning Slavery
nnder the Fedora. authority. The two great
parties, fearful for the Union, struck hands
in making and presenting this as an adjust
inent, never afterward to be opened, disturbed
or even questioned, and the people accepted
it by majorities unknown before The new
President, chosen over an illlstrious rival,
unequfvocally on the ground of better ability,
even if not more reliable purpose to maintain
the new treaty inviolate, made haste TO Justify
this expectation when Congress assembled
He said:
"When the grave shah have closed over
all who are now endeavoring to meet the OBJ
Egations of duty, the year 1850 will be re-
ferred to rs period filled with anexitv and
apprehension. A successful war had Just
terminated; peace brought with it a great
augmentation of territory, Disturbing ques-
tons arose bearing upon the domestic insti-
tutlons ola portion of the confedracy, and
involving the constitutional rights of the
States. But, notwithstanding differences of
opinion and sentiment, in relation to dot ills
and specific provisions, the acuuiescei ce OF
distinguished citizens. whose devotion to the
Union can never be doubted, has given re-
newed vigor to our institutions, and restored
sense of security to the public mind
throughout the ConfedIaey That this re-
pose is to suffer no shock during my Off
cial term, IL / have the power to avert it.
those who placed me here may be assured"
Hardly, however, had these inspiring souds
died away, throughout a rcassured and de-
lighted land, before the national repose was
shocked again-shocked, indeed as it had
never before been, and smtten this time bv
a blow from the very hand that had Just
rplna cn,lt oh nf tha h., E,o,
their uttrance of that exalted symphony OF
peace.
Kansas and Nebraska, the long-devoted
reservation of labor and Freedom, saved in
the agony of national fear in 1920, and saved
again in the panic of 1850, were now to be
opened by Congress, that the never-ending
course of seed-time and harvest might begin.
The slave-capitalists of Missouri, from their
own well secured homes Oh the eastern
banks of their noble river, looked down up
on and coveted the fertile prairies of Kansas
while sudden terror ran through all the
capital States, when they saw a seeming Ger.
tainty that at last new Labor State would
be built on their western border, inevitably
fraught, as they said, with near or remote
abolition of Slavery What could be done .
Congress could hardly be expected to inter
/ vene directly for their safety so soon after
the Compromise Of 1850. The labor hive OF
the Free States was distant, the way new
unknown, and not without perils. Missouri
was near and watchful, and held the keys o
the gates of Kansas. She might seize the
new and smiling Territory by surprise, il
only Congress would remove the barrier estab
lished in 1920. The conjuncture was favor
able Clay and Webster, the distinguished cit
zcns whose unqucstionable devotion to the
Union was manifested by their soquiescenct
in the Compromise of 1850, had gone down
already into their honored graves. The la
Dor States had dismissed many of ftheir rep
resentatives here for too great fidelity t.
Freedom, and too great distrust Of the eff
cacy of that new bond of peace, and had re
placed them with partisans who were only
timid but not unwilling. The Democratic
President and Congress hesitated, but no
long. They revised the last great comprom
Use, and found, with delighted surprise, that
it was so far from confirming the law of free
dom of 1920 that, on the other hand, it ex
actly provided for the abrogation of that ven
Grated statute; nay, that the compromis,
itself ACTUALLY killed the snirit ofthe N;sSour