Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-10-03

winch can Jake away properly DegfnS 0nly MIeh
constitution is formed and then it may abolish say
cry, because they can provide q remedy. SOC
This they cannot do while they are Territory.
And every honest man will see that this is the rea
son why they should not have power to abolish
slavery-because they cannot make any recompense.
territorial legislature cannot spend dollar with
out law of Congress authorizing the expenditure,
by specific appropriation; they cannot appoint an
officer but by consent of Congress; they cannot pay
salary without the approval Of the President; they
cannot settle the per diem of their own body with
out the order of Congress, and all accounts of ex
penditures must be audited by the petty accounting
officers at Washington. Is that popular sovereign
ty? Is such an infant Government to take away
private property without the power of compensa-
ton
THE REAL ISSUE IN THIS ELECTION.
But, after all, these issues arc not the real issue
that is before in this presidential election. Why
don't statesmen leave off wrangling and look 1t in
the face?
The real issue is, Shall the Federal Government
be recognized upon the principle of hostility to the
social organization of fifteen States of this Union?
Why, then, are the friends of the Union disputing
all the day long where there is grand, national Is
sue upon which all conservative men should unite
as the paramount ssue-"THE COUNTRY, the Con-
stituion the Union" and these to be preserved only
by "the equality Of the States"
THE BATTLE OF THE STATES
That is what is coming, if Mr.. Lincoln assumes
the government We have had the United States
contending with single State as in the case Of
Rhode Island, when she refused to come into the
Union We have had two States coming in>almost
mortal conflict about boundaries. We have had
single State contending with the United States, as
in the case of notification in South Carolina, when
she undertook not secede State but to resist
a single law of the Union as individuals The Union
has stood all these shocks. But now we are threat
ened with severer test than all. Irepeat, the true
issue is 1.-THE battle of the States" The pretended
issue of slavery extension in new Territories is not
the real issue. 1t is this "irrepressible conflict
which is assumed by the one great northern party,
which is the common enemy of US all, and of the
the Constitution and the Union.
Mr. Lincoln, their candidate, was the first to af-
firm that this conflict does exist, and he has just
pledged himself if elected President to carry it on
while he lives and leaves 1t to others, after he is
dead to continue it until all the States free
slave.
Mr. Seward, his great Mentor, affirms that the
Missouri compromise was the first departure from
the abolition policy of the Federal Government and
we must 60 back to the Federal Massachusetts
School," and establish policy he pledges himself
that Mr. Lincoln, if chosen President will inaugu-
battle Of the States; the array of one section of
States against another section of States. And when
a section of States say to this Union that they
not in the Union, do not know where the power
of peace is to call them back. 1t is civil war it is
revolution; and there is the end of the Government.
And if the. republicans, with Mr.. Stewards and
Mr.. Lncons policy of irrepressible conflict between
States, do take possession of the Government do
not know that they have a power under this Con-
stitution which have heard some of their acute
men talk Of, and which is an awful and dangerous
power?-and wish could ring this in the ears of
every man in the South, VINO is weakening the
union and strength of the South by this local diver
sion to the impossible support of Mr.. Bell and Mr..
Douglas, whether separateNpr united.
Do we not know that there is, in the tenth Sec
ton Of the first article of the Constitutions aprovis
ion which declares that, with the consent of Con-
gress, any number of States may lay duty of tom
nage keep troops and ships of in time of peace
enter into agreements and compacts with other
States or with foreign power and engage in war
With the consent Of Congress they can do all that
Let these Northern States elect Mr. Lincoln let
them secure, as they then may in very short peri
cd, the Senate-the House of Representatives they
already have-and to the possession of the Senate
they are progressing fast between the divisions of
their opponents. Let them get Congress and the
President, and what has Congress to do but to au-
thorze these States to confederate together for the
very purpose of doing what Mr.. Seward says it is
the duty of every man to assist in doing-putting
down the institutions of the Southland then to say
to the South with the army and navy of the United
States to back them, "Now, surrender your slaves,
or we take them from you by force? Where will
the South be then Where will the country be
then? That is djsunion by the force of the Consti-
tuition. 1t will be constitutional war on the nstitu-
tons of the South. 1t will be Northern abolition
confederacy under the Constitution
And yet we are told that the South is hesitating
and dividing, like the North, between three candi-
dates, and preparing to made itself easy prey for
the aboltionists Gentlemen, that there should be.a
doubt of the selfreliance eft the South, doubt of
her unity on the vital issue, is the strangest of all
the phases of this strange canvass. Whatever may
be done in the North do not see how the South
can consent to weaken her position in the Union by
the diversion from Mr.. Breckenridge to Mr. Bell
Certain it is that the distinctive doctrine of that
party North as far as they any, is opposition
to the admission of slavery into the Territories and
the admission of new States with slavery Now, if
there is anything that the South dstinctively de-
mands, it is that they shall have the right to settle
in the Territories with their slave property unds-
turbed and that any State shall be admitted with
or without slavery, as its people may desire The
| Bell and Everett party is opposed to this in the
| North. don't know what their doctrines are in
the South; if they not opposed to it there they
have two faces. And therefore it is that echoing
with my feeble voice the noble appeal made by my
eioqueht anu proiouhu predecessor (>Ien. CuShlng)
to the men Of the South, say in adding nv humble
warning, that this is them the struggle for their
very existence. If, now, they desert themselves
and desert u.s. they utterly fallen, utterly and
hopelessv conquered; and unlesss the South stands
unitedy upon Breckenridge and Lane-for it can
unite nowhere else-unless it presents the moral
force of undivided councils; when this irrepressi-
BILE party comes into power, if it does come into
power, what sort of South will it be? Instead OF
the chvalrous South the nvincble South, the pa.
triotic South, the proud South, it will be the divided
and weak, the mserably divided South, and it will
not have even strength left to crawl out Of the
Union, let its position be SO intoerable or hui
initiating -
That say to the South here as Northern de.
mocrat; that every national democrat of the North
says to them; and if they have deceived themselves
when they said, as they did in that Convention,
that they could never go into successful election
on the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas-if they