Daily national Democrat., 1860-03-17
Important.

We find the following little paragraph in
letter to the New York Herald, dated at
Washington, Feb. 10Th:
A Nav SLAVE CoDE.- Senator Brown, of Mis-
! ssSippl, has prepared bill, which he viii Offer
on Monday next, providing for slave code for
the Territories.
This little item is brief one, and it does
not look large upon pnper; but it hath Sc
rious import, and it strikes upon the ears Of
Union.loying men. Ito use startling figure
of Jefferson's) like the knell of fire-bell in
the night 1t threatens danger to the I'm
ion,-it is n first vibration us it we're, of the
coming throes which are to couvulse the
country, as with an earthquake. The more
dangerous is it to the Union that it threatens
to destroy forever and forever the unity Of
that great party upon whose successful efforts
alone the preservation of that Union depends
Of course, we mean the National Democra.
cy.
When Senator Brown and certain other
senators avowed, at the last session Of Com
gress, their belief in the power and duty of
Congress to enact slave code for the Terri.
tories, it was hoped that they would not insist
upontheeXercise of that alleged power at any
veryneary approximate period, and hat in the
meantime the Judiciary Of the country would
have settled the question of Territorial Sow
ereignty. But vain, it seems, has been the
hope They could not even wait until the
Presidential contest, which is Just at hand,
wrs over They must proceed deliberately
to split the Democratic party in two or at
any rate to harass and distract it, at a period
when, Of all others, it should be harmonious
and unit
We grieve to see this note of discord struck
at such a time The hand which makes such
speedily. knowing as Senator Brown well
does, that the Northern Democracy have de-
clared their full determination never to give
their consent to so gross departure from the
principles of the Kansas Nebraska Bill as
the enactment of o slave code for the Terri
tories would be; knowing that the Demo-
cratic Senator from Ohio, Mr.. Pugh, and the
Democratic Representative from Illinois, Mr..
Morris, have both defantly proclaimed their
! resolution, never, never, so help them God,
to surrender the doctrine of popular sover-
eighty TO the doctrine of the slave code par
ty, though the entire South should rise to its
support; knowing that the great leader of
the Northern Democracy, who goes into the
Charleston Convention with Illinois, Indiana,
Ohio, Maryland Massachusetts,, Connecticut
Rhode Island, Maine, and the general body |
of the Northern and Western States at his |
back, has planted himself in direct conflict |
with the principle of Congressional Inter-
vention on the subject of slavery, and that
the masses of the Northern Democracy, to
say nothing of the masses of the Northern
people, will never agree to such doctrine as
long as grass grows or water runs; in the
face Of all this array of antagonists, Mr.
Brown and his confreres step forward with
a slave code Till, and throw it like a bomb
she'll into the very middle of the Senate. 1t
is to be hoped that the explosion will only
damage himself and his adherents, but we
greatly fear that it will have far wider and
more disastrous consequences.