Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-12-22
From the Cincinnati Commercial.
TIE COMPROMISE COMMITTEE.

TIE COMPR0MISE COMMITTEES.
We 90 not look with confidence to the report OF
tho committed Of thirty-three, at the head Of which
is the Hon. Thomas CoRwlN, Of Ohio. The Com
mittee will be in session at intervals for some
weeks, and will produce three or four reports,
neither of which eau command a majority in either
House Of Congress. Yet it may be the channel
Of tho accomplishment of much good. We may ex-
pect from its organization, and the discussions al
tendant upon it, some excellent and perhaps vital
suggestions. We have already had new light
thrown upon The dark subjoc. Of the slavery inn
broglio. Mr.. SnERMAN's proposition for making
States of all the Territories, flashes upon the coun-
try as a statesmanlike inspiration, equal to the &C.
casion. 1t would tLust the question of slavery in
the Territories out of Congress forever
and the Territorial part Of the trouble
has been the most vexatious Of al.--
There is an aggregate of common sense about the
proposition, that will overbear all objections weigh
ty as they may be, which can be offered. 1t Is
popular sovereignty unshackeled aud the great
mass Of the people may DO relied upoh to stand by
that doctrine whenever honestly presented.
But WI are met on every side by the insiduious
cant Of traitors and impracticables, that the day
v OOhi flOuliotd udS bOuS wy Afhn9VN ehJc "SA
can be no more compromising-so says WIGFALL-
So says Northern ianaticism also. But all men,
whose brains have not been ~decomposed by intel
leetual dyspepsia, or Gistractedly moral insanity,
know that this cant Of the inadmissa5ility of COM
promises is false and hollow, and foolish. We OF
the third generation Of men of the American Re-
public, cannot do better than to follow the exam
pie of our fathers aud our grand fathers who were
compromisers. Compromises wero the cement of
the Constitution, and we must stand By the pTiu-
ciples of the compromisers Of the Constitution now,
or lall into political anarchy, and drive headlong
into the abyss Of civil war. Let US look the facts
OF the times in the face, and see whas can be done
which is to say, how shall we compromise. A
compromise carnOt be a one sided affair. The
North and the South are at varience. 1t would be
singular and unprecedented in the history of civil
disturbances, if there had not been some wrong
on both sides. The existence of slavery is the in
itial fact Of our great tribulstion. The prejudices,
the passions, the feelings, the principles, and pos
sibly the Interests, of the free labor end slave la
Dor States, are c~lashing, The great question has
been as to the extension or restriction of slavery.
Both parties to the controversy have desired to
employ the power of the Federal Government in
extending or restricting it. 1t is no longer prac-
ticsble to nse the Gvernment as q coeroing agent
in the matter. Half of the Republicans woull vote
against the WILMoT PRovIso to-day. Half of the
South recognizes the impossibility Of the protec-
ton of slavery in the Territories BY Congress, or
any other department of the Federal Government.
The basis Of q fair compromise of the Territorial
Department Of the vexed question, is here obvious.
Let the people alone. Organize land districts as
THAYER proposes or convert the territories into
States, as SHERNAE proposes. Don't bring Gov
eminent into conflict one way or the other with
the natural forces; and the essential thing is done.
Fugitive slaves run away-and aIs sympathized
with and helped away by people Of the Northern
States. Precisely SO. Slaves always did run away
and always will. There were always people who
assisted runaway slaves, and there always will be
people who will do that thing. The people of the
North have given less cOuntenace and help to fugi
tives from Southern service than would have been
given them by any other civilized people under
similar geographical circumstances. Why? Be
cause we remember and recognize the bond o.
Union our fathers made. They agreed to deliver
up fugitives from service and we deliver up thu
pound of flesh nominated in the bond. But tht
fugitive slave law contains provisions ~purposely
e made odious in a spirit of intolerent insolence to
ward the anti-slayery sentiment; and there are
personal liberty bills that were passed expressly
to n%ulllify the law thus framed. The remedy is tt
amend the fugitive law, so that its calculating of
fensiveness may be removed, and yet it, efficiency
" unimpaired and the personal liberty bills viii
disappear from the statute books. Here is auoth
er important point of difficulty that may be com
promised out Of the way simply by the repeal o
n sectional and "unfriendly Legislation" Legislation
which has never restored or freed a fugitive
which has accomplished no good whatever in tn
+ preservation of property or personal liberty, ant
i has aggravated every unwholesome feeling be
g. tween the sections Of the country now confronting
D eaOh other. The South wants additional guaran
le ties for the return of her f~ugitives. Complaint il
made of mobs in the North that have set upor
70 slave holders and abused them, and deprived then
of their constitutional property aud a very few
1t cases of this kind are made to do a great deal O
Ie service. The North wants additional guarantee
for her citizens, Complaint is made that Law
le abiding citizens of the North in plrsuing their lie
ut climate business, are falsely acc, sed in the Soutl
&c as enemies of the institutions Of that section, an
are assailed with in.olerable insults and murder
n Gus violence and there is surprising little sal
ir about a great many cases of this sort. The Con
Is. stitutiOn is a plain chart here. 1t provides for tn
in return of fugitive slaves, and that the citizens c
each State shall be entitled to all the privilege
~ aud immunities Of the citizens Of the sewers
Of States. How easy to compromise here on liberf
and equal terms, by granting additional legisli
ton to make operative both provisions of the Coz
IVY stitution and if it shall seem advisable that No
thern States shall pay for fugitives, rescued frol
h. the officers of the law in those States, or who sha
he be proven to- have escaped into them, and to |
harbored by citizens thereof, it should also see,
be advisable forSouthern States to compensate Norll
Mt ern citizens, who have been denied their constit
tional privileges and subjugatod to personal vi
he lence, or loss Of property. AS for the tariffs. an