The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-11-28
Corresponding DevelopR Of Aatagonis
tic Ideas, North and South. Oh the Sub
iect of Slavery.

1t is often said here at the North that's great
change has come over the people of the South
ern States, within the last twenty years, on
the subject of slaveholdipg. But a change
equally great. perhaps greater, has taken place
within the same time at the North.
Twenty and thirty years age: siaveholding
was mainly justified l. at the South on the ground
of the necessity of its continuance, owing to
the almost insuperable difficulties that lay i'm
way of getting rid of it. But the propriety
and economy of emancipation were freely dis
cussed, and. strong expectations were entertain
ed thar tic k0rdar Slsze States ,woKla, in a
few years, be added to the list ef npu-slave-
holding communities. t
The mass of the people in the North took
the same view of the Subject as our Southern
brethren. They were not only disposed to
concede to them every constitutional right,
but to shield them from persecution, obloquy
and abuse. This was manifested by the way
in which the AbeGtiepists were treated on
their first appearance as 2 Political party.
1t was the rise and progress Ct this party
which put the South in the position eff self
defence. When it first appeared AND began,
thro' the agency OF the press and public meet
ings, to soy the seeds of alienation between
the two great sections of our common country,
the Indignation of the people, particularly in
Ohio and other Western States, was unbound
ed, and manifested itself even 1r mabs .and
personal abuse Our Northern .nen felt as
Southern men do now, and conducted them
selves toward AbOiitionists as southerners now
treat Republicans who come amongthem to dis
! seminate Abolition doctrines. 1t would be wall
for som Of our Republican friends, who COM
plain so bitterly of rhe treatment that some
Northern men receive at the South, to remem
Der how those very men would have been
mobbed and, perhaps, taSred and feathered
here in Central and Southern Ohio, twenty
and twenty five years ago, for propagating the
same doctrines which they now seek to disemi-
nate in the South. .--. Z.
The old Abolitiap party, that formed the
nucleus of the present Republican party, was
small at the beginning. Its first Presidential
Convention was held Nov. ID, 1889, at " ar
saw, N. Y. when it. nominated James G. Bir-
ney, for President, whe, at the election in He-
40, received, in all the States, 1900 votes.-
But in 1843, the Abolitionists gave themselves
the name of "The Liberty Party" held a
Convention, August 80, at Buffalo, and again
nominated Birney for President. His vote
was increased at the election in 1874 to g.
300. In 1S4S, the "Liberty" or Abolition
party was for the time merged in the Free
Soil movement, which nominated Van Buren,,
at Buffalo. But in '52, the same old Aboli-
| ton party, under the name of Free Soil"
re.appeared in a Convention at Pittsburgh,
and nominated Jonu p. Hale for President
Hale received 155,s25 popular votes, but no
electoral vote. The party which had success
lively assumed the names of "Liberty" and
"Free Soil" to take away the popular. odipm'
which attached end still attaches to rthe old
nap.e "Abolition," in 1856 assumed tthe name
of Republican" and nominated Fremont as
its candidate for president
We THUS see a political Abolition party form
ed in the North, and progressing through sue
c~essive stages, until it has at length. succeeded
in electing a candidate for President. The vi
tai principle of this party, through all the
stages.of its progress and under all its, differ.
ept, names, has been the same, namely, that of
q sectional hostility TO the institution Of sla-
very. 1t has thus arrayed itself 4aapd stands
to day arrayed as the political antagonist of
the South. 1t has, so faE as could influence
public opinion at the North, changed the feel
ing of sympathy and .fraternal regard for the
constitutional right, of the Southern people
into one of opposition and hatred. It pro-
nounses the Institution of slavery a political