Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1860-02-07


ing peril It is to these four States therefore
that the decision of the national aspects o.
these impending perils emphatically appertains
20 far as that decision appertains to the slave
States at all; and every wise and every gener
Gus impulse ought to prompt the people OF the
other eleven States to forbear whatever course
of action is disapproved by these four border
States. And these four great States are bound
by the highest considerations both Of patriotism
and of interest, to throw their united weight a.
gainst all sudden, rash and unconstitutional ac-
ton on the part of the slave States and, If the
worst comes, to secure for themselves position
compatible at once with their honor, their free
dom, and their safety. In like manner the
border free States, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
Ohio Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, ought to re.
member that their borders are as much exposed
as ours, and that multitudes of considerations,
besides numerical force, enter into all warfare.
and above all, into border war. So that on
them, with reference to the numerous free States
behind them, rest the duty and the right of de-
Gliding the national aspect of the subject of sla-
very the free side of the line, just as it rests
with the border slave States on the other side
1t may be confidently asserted that posterity will
hold these six border free States and these four
border slave States responsible for the fate ol
this Dation at the present crisis; and they will
deserve it's lasting contempt il, with their cen
tral position across the Republic, and their ire.
sistible force, they permit the country to be
ruined and disgraced, and themselves thrown
into position of endless mutual hostility, along
a common frontier of fifteen hundred miles,
And for what reason; and for whose benefta
By what blindness and by what violence ol
political parties, by what incompetence of pub
lie men, or by what madness of the people, the
country has been brought to the verge of public
violence upon a topic which has been familiar to
every one since the first settlement of this con-
tinent are questions which this generation will
have to answer to generations which are to
come. The questions we should answer to our
selves are, What is the precise nature of the diff
iculty now, and in what manner may that diff
Guilty be surmounted If certain people of the
North come feloniously among the people of the
South and are put to death for their crimes; and
then if other people in great numbers, gorify the
telons as martyrs, but take care not to commit
any overt act and be hung, it seems to me that
the most futile of all proposals against such
dangers and annoyances is the overthrow of the
Federal Government. 1t may be possible that
Government can never do all that needs to be
done; it may be possible to pervert it to the doing
| Of intolerable mischief; but in the former case
the lack of power in the Federal Government
results from the very nature of our institutions
aud its intolerable abuse of power in the latter
case would necessarily be followed by the uni.
versal arning of all slave States. The real diff
Guilty does not lie in any such grounds as these
| nor its remedy in anything that can be done
touching such aspect of the case. In like man
ner those great questions of the rendition of fugi
tive slaves by the North and of the foreign slave
trade at the South are finally settled, so far al
the Constitution and laws of Congress can settle
them, and it remains for the legal tribunals and
the executive authority to enforce the laws il
both respects. That during periods of unusual
excitement those laws touching both subjects
may be imperfectly administered is extremely
probable; but that the North will openly defy
the power OF the nation and permanently refuse
to execute the fugitive slave law, and that tht
South will act in similar manner with respec
to the foreign slave trade, is what no man il
justified in asserting. admit that the perma
nent continuance OF the Union would be Inn
| possible if the North Or the South should de-
liberately persist in such revolt against the
| Constitution and laws, if at the same time, the
Federal Administration should be too feeble OF
too timid to coerce obedience But surely nc
such revolt either North or South, and no such
imbecility in the Federal Government, as justi
lies the overthrow of our national institution:
can be alleged to exist. If the minds of mer
We're calm, or if their thoughts would be di
rected steadily to the results that must follow
the dissolution OF the Union it seems impossible
| OF belief that adequate motives for such an ac
could be found in the existing state of any o
| these questions.
| | know it is alleged that the settled doctrines
and deliberate purposes of that great party ir
the North which was formerly called Abolition
ist, and is now called Republican, amount te
nothing short of an organized and fanatical cru
| sade against the institution of slavery as it ex.
lists in fifteen States of this Union; that there il
the utmost probability that it will ultimately
perhaps speedily, acquire controlling influence
over every department of the Federal Govern
ment, and that the slave States cannot, consist
emily with honor, with prudence, or with safety
continue members of a Union controlled by such
party, or subject to a government admins
tered by them. To this let me say, first of all
that if every word were true aud certain. the
wise, manly and successful alternative would be-
not the dissolution of the Union, but the re.
| oovery OF the country, by force if necessary
nom those who shall have subverted its Con
stltutOn. Nor can there be any doubt that the
| united South and the minority OF the North will
be always and to every intent, without arms O,
| with arms, more powerful in the Union than the
united, much less the divided South. can ever bf
out of it. Nor does it appear to me to be Iowa
| to the people of the North who ara faithful te
the Constitution, even if they were the small 81
number, for the South to withdraw and leave
| them subject to domination as intolerable te
them as it could be offensive to US. But this i.
an extreme statement, responsive to still more
extreme suggestion.
The history of political parties iu this country
Tor many years past is not creditable to us; anl
their present posture is such that no one car
toretell what single year will bring forth
II the whole North could act in concert perlna
nently, they must have the permanent control O
the Federal Government; and the wide con.
viction OF the North, that the whole policy o
the General Government has been for some
years dictated by the slave States and the whole
policy OF the slave States dictated by the coCtor
States, has come very near to casting the major.
lty OF every Northern State Temporarily into
the Republican ranks. 1t would be an abuse
o1 the Federal power, not less atrocious Ger.
talnly, to extend than to curtail slavery by the
systematic use OF it; and the North has believed
that this was done, and the rise and extension
OF the Republican party is the fruit of this con.
yctlon. Disabuse the North of this delusion-
do it fairly, truly-and the Republican party
will shrink at once to the comparatively in.
significant faction OF radical aboiitionists upou
whom it was originally based. On the other
hand, the united South never cou;d fail TO carrv
with 1t, In all It's just demands, and in all It's
temperate utterances, sufficient number of the
states OF the North to make the rights and in.
erests OF the slave States perfectly secure in the
Union. Ihls Is all the coDtrol any minority