Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-08-23
The RepressIbIe Conflict.

We are aware that q speech made by man
from the balcony of a hotel, to street audi
ence. after fatiguing days travel in TIE
month of August. should not be subjected to
a searching criticism; but with this qualfca-
ton, we are free to say that Mr.. Stewards re-
marks on Monday evening, to the eXtempOra-
neous audience which hung upon bis lips,
were not exactly in the strain which we
should have expected from man of his tried
experience, clear head. and cautious tempera-
ment. They were defiant, naughty. jublant
we had almost said, staggering. The voice
was the voice of Seward. but the language
was such as we have been accustomed to hear
from Wilson. He reminded us of an Irish
man, full of fight and whiskey at Donnv-
brook fair. begging some gentleman to do
him the favor to tread on the tail of his coat.
He spoke not as the great intellectual leader
of his party-the commander-in-chief of the
armies of Republicanism-bu rather as
dashing and daring young subaltern, burning
for promotion and paragraph in the Gazette.
He again promulgated his doctrine of 1.-The
higher law" and again announced that the
issue before the people was ''the irrepressibe
conflict between freedom and slavery" He
told the people of Boston that they had ar
rived at the last stage of this conflict. before
they reached the triumph which was "to inau-
gurate this great policy" (what policy0
Into the government of the United States"
He further told them that ''with this victory
comes the end of the power of slavery in this
country"
This speech illustrates the curious incon-
sistency-always observable in Mr.. Stewards
course-which has damaged him no little as
public man-between what he says in the SEN
ate aud what he says before the people. In
the Senate he is measured, wary, discreet,
disclaiming; on the stump he is bold, aggres-
sive and assailant. In the Senate we feel
only the velvet touch: before the people he
protrudes the sharp claw. All his strong eX-
pressons have been used in his popular har-
argues. He always keeps civil tongue in his
head when addressing the Senate. To our
mind, this marked discrepancy is not only
bad taste but bad policy. 1t leads to grave
suspicion that Mr.. Seward is deficient in
plucb-that he is cock that dares not to
crow loudly, and erect his neck feathers, eX-
cept upon his own dunghill. Mr.. Sumner, at
least, is not afraid to say in the Senate what
he says anywhere.
For ourselves, we are not sorry that the
great and rejected leader of the Republican
party has spoken thus boldly aad explicitly
here in Boston. We accept his statement of
the ends and aims of that party as an auth
oritative exposition, OF higher value than
the convenient generalities of that platform
to whose dead letter their editors and speak
ers are so constantly appealing in defence of
the moderate and constitutional character of
their creed and policy. He announces with
out reservation that the contest between
Republicans and anti-Republicans is an I" ir-
repressible conflict between freedom and sla-
very" We commend this declaration to the
special and particular notice of the editor of
the Duly Advertiser, who, at about the time
Mr.. Seward was saying it, was inditing-or
might have been inditing-an editorial in
which he affirmed it as san important and
cardinal principle of the Republican party,
that has nothing TO do ach slduery an the STATES"
the italics are theirs. If this be so, will
some bulge doctor of the Republican fur
have the goodness to tell US what is the
meaning of the phrase, ''irrepressible conflict
between freedom and slavery" 1t surely
means something. Mr.. Seward is not man
who uses words without meaning.
1t means Just this: it means a sectional
contest for political power between the North
and South in which the worst passions OF
both sides are aroused, and kept in the fer
cest activity, by the most CALLING and exas-
perating language, and language, too, delib-
erately chosen for its CALLING and exasperat-
ing character. 1t is a contest in which
malice, hatred and revenge stalk abroad,
wearing the garb and assuming the name of
philanthropy And we tell MIR. Seward that
this is REPRESsIBLE CONFLICT, and that the
virtue, the intelligence, the patriotism OF the
country are arousing themselves, with a
determination to repress it; and they will
repress it; and Mr.. Seward, we trust, will
live to see it represSed. We only gather
courage from his confident predictions and
sweeping tone; our blood is stirred by his
words, as we'll as that of those to whom they
were addressed; in listening to him we are
conscious of