The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1860-02-08
WHOLE NUMBER 6lS

and night under threatened invasion! Can
you expect people to be composed when
they dare not lie down to sleep at night
without first, like sentinel on duty, march.
ing around their houses and buildings, to
Gee il band of marauders are not approach.
ing with torch and pistol. Sir, it requires
more patience than freeman should ever
show, to submit to state OF constant an.
noyance, irritation and apprehension. II
we desire to preserve this Union, we must
remedy every evil within the Union, and in
obedience to the Constitution. If the Fed.
eral Government fails to act, either from
choice or from an apprehension OF want Of
power, it cannot be expected that the States
will be content to remain unprotected.
see no hope, therefore, of peace, of frat.
eruity, of preserving good feeling between
the different portions Of the Union, except
| by bringing the power of the Federal Gov.
ernment, to the extent authorized by the
Constitution, to protect the people of all the
States against any external violence or az.
gression. repeat, that if the theory of the
Constitution shall be carried out, and the
right OF the people of every State upheld to
have just such institutions as they choose,
there never can be conflict, much less an
irrepressible conflict, between the free and
the slaveholding States. Then, sir, the
mode Of preserving the pence is clear
This system of sectional warfare must
cease. The Constitution has given the
power, and all we ask Of Congress is to give
the means. By indictment and conviction,
in the courts of our several States, of these
consprators, we will make such examples
of the leaders as will strike terror into the
hearts of the others, and there will be an
end Of this excitement. You must check
it by crushing out the conspiracy, the com.
bination, and then there can be safety
When this is accomplished we will be able
to restore that spirit of fraternity which in.
spired our Revolutionary fathers upon every
battlefield, and which presided over the de.
hberatons of the convention which framed
the Constitution. Then we will be able 70
demonstrate to you that there is no evil un.
: redressed in this Union, for which the Union
> furnishes a remedy. Let US execute the
: Constitution in the spirit in which it was
made; let Congress pass all the laws neces.
sarY and proper to give full and complete ef-
feet to every guarantee of the Constitution;
let it acthoriZe the punishment Of combina.
> tons or conspracies in any State or Terri.
tory against the property, institutions, peo.
- pie or government of every other State or
- Territory, and there will be no excuse, no
O' desire for dissolution. Let US leave the
IL people of every State perfectly free to form
't- and regulate their own domestic institutions
u in their own way; let each of them retain
ne slavery, just as long as it pleases, and abol.
H. ish it when it chooses; let US act upon thai
as good old golden principle which teaches all
ia men to mind their own business and let theiI
ne neghbors alone, and then this Union can
Ii endure forever as our fathers made it, divis
te ded into free and slave States, just as the
a. people of each may determine for them
ne selves. d,
e. Mr.. Feesenden, OF Maine, said he wal
u somewhat at loss to imagine the necessity
'h for the resolution introduced by the Senator
H. from Illinois. A committee had been ap
D. pointed to investigate the Harper's Ferry
al outbreak, and he was willing to await theil
ne report. The Senator, however. apparently
on distrusting their capacity, had undertaken t
in Infu nd aI hsra
re- self of the opportunity to make politica
OF speech for political effect. His argumen
Us as to the power of Congress was nothin
es' new. On that point he agreed with th
ere Senator from Illinois, but would awai. th
as report Of the committee. He denied thu
IN the Republican party was responsible fe
lth the Harper's Ferry invasion. There wa
nst nothing new in that charge. 1t had bee
IN made repeatedly here and in the newspaper
sh' 1t had got to be dogma of the Democrat
the party, aud part OF their scheme for the ne.
rn' campaign. 1t was intended to affect Il
lrry fall election. Prior TO 1854, the slavel
law agitation had been quilted. Both parties b,
en- declared for peace, when the exciteme
the was renewed by the introduction of {
that Kansas Nebraska bill, and kept up by {
sing eubseCuent attempt to force slavery unon
ssed free Territory by force of arms. Then
pen was that John Brown learned the less
tors which he taught at Harper's Ferry. The
the is nothing in the practice or teachings OF {
&C. Republican party to authorize the char
mis- made against it. To call upon the Repu
heir licans not to agita'e came with bad gra
Can from those who had been counselieg a
out erosion from the beginning. He referr
Fer TO the declaration Of the former Senat
e!- from South Carolina, that the object of Il
nbo repeal of the Missouri Compromise line N
sue to extend the area of slavery. The Sehat
do from Illinois had attempted to sustain /
ame charge BY reference to the speeches
1t Messrs. Lincoln and Seward, but none
and the extracts bore him out. The langua
'er's of the Senator from New York had bet
re- misnterpreted. He had had the msfortui
ut to become the author Of phrase, which,
1t is expressed in two or three phrases. would q,
un- have attracted attention. II had never bee
the said that the free and slave States could ii
n L Ne -