Union County star and Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1859-1864, 1860-05-18

a settlement which has proved to be not
final one and which, as is now seen
practically left open all the great pol,ica
issues which were involved. Missouri aut
Arkansas were admitted as capital States
while labor obtained, as a reservation, the
abridged but yet comprehensive field Of
Kansas and Nebraska.
Now, when the present conditions oi
the various parts Of the Lousianian Terri
tory are observed, and we see that capita
retains undisputed possession of what il
then obtained, while labor is convulsing
the country with SO hard and so prolonged
a struggle to regain the lost equivalent
which was then guaranteed to it under cir.
eumstances Of SO great solemnity, we may
well desire not to be undecciyed if the
Missouri compromise was indeed unneces-
sarily accepted by the free States, iDfu.
enced by cxaggerations of the dangers Of
disunion. The Missouri debate disclosed
truths Of great moment for ulterior use:
FIRST. That it is easy 10 combine the capi-
tai States IN defence of even external interests
while II is hard TO unite the labor States in d
common policy.
Second. That the labor States have a natu-
raj loyalty TO the Union, while the capital
States have a natural facility for alarming
that loyalty by threatening disunion.
Third. That the capital States do not prac.
tically distinguish between legitimate and con.
SuIulIunal resistance 10 the extension of sla-
very IN the common Territories of the Union
and unconstitutional aggression against sla-
very established BY local laws in the capital
States.
The early political parties were orga-
nlzed without reference to slavery. But
since 1920, European questions have left
US practically uuconcerned. There has
been great increase of invention, mining,
manutacture, and cultivation. Steam, GU
land and on water, has quickened commerce.
The press and the telegraph have obtained
prodigious activity, and the social inter
course between the States and their citi-
zens has been immeasurably increased /;
and consequently, their mutual relations
affecting slavery have been, for many
years, subjects OF earnest aud often excited
discussions. 1t is in my way onl y to show
how such disputes have operated on the
course of political events-not to reopen
them for argument here. There was a
slave iusurreciion in Virginia. Virginia
and Kentucky debated, aud TO the great
sorrow of the free States rejected, the sys-
tenn Of voluntary labor. The Colonization
Society was established with much favor
in the capital States. Emancipation soci.
cites arose in the free States. South Car
olina instituted proceedings to nullify OBJ
noxious Federal revenue laws. The capi-
tai States complained of courts and Legls-
laturcs in the labor States for Interpreting
the constitutional provision for the surren-
der Of fugitives from service SO as to treat
them as persons, and not property, and
they Disseminated against colored persons
of the labor States, when they came to the
capital States. They denied, in Congress,
the right of petition, and embarrassed or
denied freedom of debate on the sub
jecs of slavery. Presses, which undertook
the defence of the labor system in the cap
ital States, were suppressed BY violence;
and even in the labor States, public assem-
blies, convened to consider slavery ques-
tions, were dispersed by mobs sympathiz.
ing with the capital States.
The Wing party, being generally an
opposition party, practiced some forbear-
ance toward the interest of labor The
Democratic party, not without demonstra-
tions of dissent, was generally found sus
tanning the policy of capital. \ disposi-
ton towards the removal of slavery from
The presence of the national Capital, ap-
peared in the District of Columbia. Mr.
Van BureD, Democratic President,
aunched a prospective veto against the
measure. A Democratic Con-
,ress brought Texas into the Uuion, stip-
ilaiing practically for its future re-organi-
.ation in four Slave States. Mexico was
ncensed War ensued. The labor States /
Isked that the Mexican law of liberty, |
which covered the Territories brought in
" the treaty of peace, might remain and
,e confirmed. The Democratic party re-
used. The Missouri debate of 1920 re-
urred now, under circumstances Of heat
nd excitement, in relation to these con-
Iuests. The defenders of labor took alarm
est the number of new capital States
night become SO great as to enable that
lass Of States to dictate the whole policy
{ the Government, aud, in case of con-
titutional resistance, then to form new
laveholdiDg confederacy around the Gulf
f Mexico. BY this time, the capital
tates seemed to have become fixed in a
etermination that the Federal Govern
lent, aud even the labor States, should
,cognize their slaves, though outside of
,e slave States, and within the Territor-
S of the United States, as property of
hich the master could not be in any way
, by any authority divested; and the la
Or States, having become now more es-
ntially Democratic than ever before, by
'ason of the great develOpement of free
Dor, more firmly than ever insisted on {
Ie constitutional doctrine that slaves, {
'luntarily carried by their masters into s
e common Territories, or into labor I
ates, are persons-men.
Under the auspicious influences of a q
'hig success, California and New Mexico
,pearcd before Congress as labor States.
be capital States refused to consent to q
cir admission into the Union; and again t
reats Of disunion carried terror and con. '
ernation throughout the land. Another