The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1860-01-26
TERMS. S...sl.25 PER ANNUM.


t. We do net mean that aeloion OF free
and slave States is impossible under o no
tional government. The experiment of
cur oonfederated Republic, i'm spite ofna-
meroas jars, and collisions. and threats Of
dissolution, has been one of the NEST sac
cessful in the worlds history, and in i'm
less danger Of failure to day than during
many previous periods of gloom and fere-
Fboding. The union between the north
and south may still continue anbroken,
and each section may increase i'm wealth.
and power, by adhereing to the social in
stitutions to which they have been accus-
toned FROM the foundation of the nation
al government. The North need not mo-
lest the South; it has no power, by the
Constitution, to interfere with slavery i'm
any State of the confederacy. A few ad-
venturers, like John Brown, with m in.
sane philaRthropy, may make an iucar
sion into Virginia, as Gen. Walker has
made repeated forays into foreign State,
but the great body ct aHti-slavery man
of the North condemned the former move
mcnt far more strongly than the South
ern advocates of slavery condemn the lat
ter The North cannot abolish slavery
in Southern States it has no wish to in
termeddle with it; 1t comedies without
reserve to every State the sole right to
maintain or to modify its own institutions,
without foreign interference There in
no danger of any 'irrepressible conflict "
against the rights of property in Virginia
or South Carolina, as set forth in the
laws, and recognized in the local customs
Of these Commonwealth. If our South
ern citizens cherish such fears or fore
bodings, they may dismiss them as Who'll
ly without foundation.
But there is an inherent and irrerres.
sible conflict between fres and slave IN
situations, which no union meetings can
put out Of sight, and no compromises
can allay. This conflict is most conspic.
nous and most inevitable in the Southern
States themselves. They are compelled
in selfdefence, as they claim, to Danish
frec-labor and its advocates beyond their
limits The two cannot subsist, side by
side, without undermining slavery, and
fastening its fall Presses that advocate
free-abor must be silenced +; citizens that
defend free labor must be exiled free
laborers themselves must be driven away
by force, at great loss Of property and
peril of life. These are not mere theories
but facts, attested by the experience Of
the past few months. A peaceful com.
munity in Kentucky, guilty of no viola.
lions of law, blameess of all offense, ex-
cept for preference of free over slave
labor, are compelled to leave their homes
aud property, under threats of violence,
and the Governor of the State confesses
his inability to succor them. A poor
Irish laborer, in South Carolina In tarrcd
and feathered, and subjected to every
indignity, for his boldness in saying that
labor is dlshonorable in a slave State
Northern emigrants have been driven
from their chosen homes, and northern
travellers arrested and turned back, SIM
ply On suspicion of unfriendliness to slav-
ery Such acts indicate either semi
barbarism which is the natural fruit of
slavery, or an inherent opposition be-
tween free and slave institutions, which
will not permit the two to subsist and
flourish side by side. As the power of
Northern sentiment, and, we may add,
the sentiment of the Christian. world,
penetrates into the hearts of slayehold-
ing communities, the conflict will become
of necessity, more general and appalling,
until slavery is exterminated and free in.
situations become universal.
In new territories, also this conflict
will continually repeat itself. The free.
labor of the North struggles for expan.
sion it needs for its healthy growth and
development larger area; 1t presses
forward continually to take possession of
the virgin soil of the western .prairies.--
Where it goes, slavery cennot flourish.
The experiment has been tried in Kan.
sas, and wealth and organization, and
frauds and violence, prot cted by the To-
cal authorities, and unrestrained By the
National Executive. were utterly ilnpo-
tent to secure the new State for the South.
A second experiment, with the same ad-
vantages, is impossible, and by the sheer
force of free emigration, slavery must be
shut out of all our western Territories,
growing up into great commonwealths.
The ncture of this ''irrepressible oon-
fict," therefore, needs to be understood.
1t does not spring from the prejudicea OF
enmities of Northern men. Ii is net due
to the ambitiour schsemings of Northern
politicians. 1t is the result of antason-
ism between two systems of social insti-
tutions, which cannot flourish side by
side. Slavery cannot exist where free H.
Dor is honored, and its superiority iS
nnap1v dafopJol ln1~m