New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-01-31
SENSE I'm THE VIRGINIA LRGIsLA-
TIRE.

II is q pleasure TO meet q gent eman of fairness,
intelligence and moderation in the South, who I'm
dertakes the discussion of our domestic dissensOns
in spirit of ustice, and with IL views Of states
man-one who is decided without beiog passionate,
and who, while asserting ideas with which We disa-
gree evidently does it 10 sincerity. Such man
we find in DIR. james Barb ,ur Of Capepper County,
Virginia emter of the Legislature OF that State,
and Chairman of the joint Committee to which was
referred the investigation of the affair ct Harpers
Ferry.
Barbours Report of the Virginia Legislature is
utterly unlike in Tone and vastly superiorin ability
| to the wretcbed swash with which we have been
deluged through TIE press and in the Congressional
speeches on the same subject. After giving brief
resume of events subsequent to and connected with
John Browns captore and trial. IN which we think
he maRDi6es the danger Of Browns rescue, DIR.
Barbour addresses himself to the general subject.
He gives review of the legislative history of the
Slavery question in this country in connection with
the adoption of the Federal Constitution and down
to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to which
we have little or moth ng to object. This latter
event Mr.. Barbour recognizes as the reason for
forming the Republican party, and here commences
bis first misstatement or misspprehensOn. he says:
The fret evidence of the true design the Republican party
is found in their failure to seek the assistance and coopers
ton of those citizens OF the Southern states who are equally op
sno policy Government in TO Kansas and
Nebraska lher purposes had been such as they Teprened
the outset they would naturally have sought the
alliance Of ali who cncurred with them In sentiment without
reference to dsons n ony bs oI
exhibited of party organized on strictly sectional oasis
The objection Mr.. Barbour here makes to tse
action of the Republican party, finds it's earliest
ard best answer in the fact that almost the entire
South deserted the Northern opponents of the
Nebraska bill, while that measure was yet pending.
If the Southern national and moderate men, or
those who were supposed by their position and
sntecedents to be entitled to this sppelaon, such
as Pearce of Maryland, Clayton Of Delaware,
Mangum of North Carolina, and others, had fol-
lowed the statesmanlihe example and teachings Of
John Bell and Hunt and Etheridge and Cullom, no
Kansas Nebraska bill would have been passed, and
hence no Republican party. But whose fault is it
that they did not Surely not that Of the Northern
Ant.Nebraska men, who labored necessarily, and
with indOmitsbe purpose, TO prevent those gentle
men from abandoning national position, and from
wrecking themselves and their party upon that IA
tai measure. The miscbiefs Of the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise that have rolled thick and
fast over the country in the shape Of sectional
irritatiOns and agitations, foul play and bloody
outrages in Kansas, disgraceful Judicial action by
the Supreme Court, the ttsmpt to cram an odious
Slave Constitution down the throats of an unwilling
people, and, lastly, the foray of John Brown into
Virginia. are all palpably attributable primarily to
the reckless and Ehort-sghted authors Of that
measure; but, secondly to those members of Con-
gress in the South who, while in their hearts OPP
posed to it, failed nevertheless to stand resoutely
up to their convictions, and who have themselves
in consequence at last been swept away, as they
deserved, by the flood they themselves let loose on
that memorable occasion.
But Mr. Barbour says that if the purposes of the
Republican party were only such as they allege,
namely, to arrest the spread of Slavery they would
have sought alliance at the South with all those who
concurIed with them n sentiment Baflled az their
efforts were at the outset by Southern public men
repealed, We may say, as their legitimate advances
were, from quarters where they had reason TO ex-
pect better things, the men Of the North who 90.
posed the repeal Ct the Missouri Compromise had
Door ground indeed for further efforts in this line,
after they had been forced into new organization
10 carry out their wishes But if the Republica an
party is not in alliance with any powerful Opposition
party in the Slave States to-day, it il only because