Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1860-09-12

ietHe solemn truth, and the history of the LIE
compton struggle proves it beyond contradic
tion.
And here 1 must stop to say a few words a
bout this matter of slavery. know very wei
that IN this city there are great many peopl
VINO dislike TO meddle with it, and who honest
~ believe that if all of US would only consen
TO stop talking about it, and to shut our eye
SO as not to see it, then the country would bt
perfectly happy. To all such persons hav,
only to say this in answer: There are some
Things which men can do, and it is right ant
proper in all such cases for them to try. Sue
cess Will, perhaps, compensate for the exer
ton. But whenever they undertake to con
troll power that is entirely beyond theil
reach, then they are wasting both their time
and pains. They may as well give it up first
as last. For anybody to insist that an evil
does not exist, when everybody knows that il
does, is pure folly. If my neighbours house is
burning, and the flames are already throwing
their red glare into my windows, of what use
IS 1t to me to shut my eyes and say there is no
hre VIII that save my house? Ii heavy
flood is covering the roofs of the smaller tene-
ments around mine, and is rapidly rising to
my third story, how will it benefit me to keep
my eyes fixed straight up in the sky, and say
that there is no rain ? Will such course.stay
the water For my part, [ consider IL proof
OF great feebleness of character to insist upon
Ignoring the pressure of an evil, because it is
unpleasant to be forced to think of a remedy {;
to suffer it to grow without molestation, be-
cause any attempt to check it may be attended
with difficulty. II has been very clear to my
eyes for many years, that this subject of slave
ry in America has got TO be met by the people
of the United States sooner or later-that there
is no way to escape its baneful influence, and
that the only thing left for us is to take right
hold of it, examine it calmly, quietly, in a
statesmanlike manner, to fix its relations to the
government of the country at the minimum
rate of its disturbing force, and there to keep
it for the future forever. l do not believe in
the wisdom of the policy that has been adopt
ed along back, which is. to let 1t have its full
swing, under the pretence that it is the safest
plan to let it entirely alone. l do not believe
it is right to pretend that it does not gain
strength in the Federal Government, when we
see with our eyes how completely the Senate,
the President and the Supreme Court are con-
trolled by it. l do not believe in the proprie-
ty of holding still about the attempt to saddle
upon US wicked policy, because if we do not,
we may run the risk Of driving the slavehold.
ing States to desperate and suicidal extremes.
Ny notion may be wrong. but l hold it from
conviction, that the way to deal with this mat
ter is in no respect different from that which
common sense teaches us to deal with every
other critical question in life-that is, to ex-
anime it patiently, firmly, boldly, and, after a
full and satisfactory investigation of its politi-
cal bearings, and of the bad effects it may pro-
duce to us, a nation, to adopt and to exc
cute plan of counteraction, in no bad spirit,
but purely to save the whole country from be-
ing unnecessarily and injuriously affected by a
thing which ought to be strictly confined with
in the limits in which it actually exists. In
my mind this is, or ought to be always known
as Cover inment favorable to human freedom ;
and SO far as any influence or any exertion that
L. ,,ad hCyr
feeble that is, it will remain such. And when
ever the institution of slavery appears to me
to be endeavoring to undermine the policy of
the Government, as to turn it against free
dom and for slavery, shall take citizens S
liberty to speak out about it, Just the same as
should about any other doctrine or policy
that hold to be mischievous or dangerous to
the public good.
Now let me go back moment to where
first touched this matter of slavery. l was
saying that no reform could be at all thorough
in the General Government which did not be-
gin by changing the spirit in which it was ad
mimistered, in connection with this particular
interest. Nobody who is not willing to blind
his eyes and to close his ears to what has been
going on during the last eight years can fail
to understand the use that has been made OF
the Federal authority to the maintenance and
extension of the slave power in that time.
istration acted after the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise in favoring the various desperate
attempts to force slaveholding Government
upon the free Territory of Kansas. These
facts have gone into history, and are beyond
the possibility of contradiction. So we all
know how assiduously the present Administra-
tion continued and enlarged that policy by
the abuse of its influence over members of
Congress from the free States in the case OF
the Lecompton Constitution and the English
bill, as well as by its indefatigable exertions
to palm off the extra judicial opinions OF a
slaveholding bench of Judges of the Supreme
Court in the Dred Scott case upon the country
as being established and recognised by law. We
all remember this. We all feel the use that has
been made of the Executive authority in these
cases, to discourage the doctrines of liberty
and to extend the influence of slavery. Now
1 maintain that this sort of action should be
all of it reformed by the voice of the people.
1t is all wrong from the beginning and ought
to be made right. But nobody will be likely re-
ally to make it right unless it be Abraham Lin
coin and his friends in the Republican party.
Mr.. Bell certainly will not, and Mr.. Douglas,
if we are to judge by the submission to take
any slaveholding decree that the same judges
may hereafter make. and an ultra slaveholding
for Vice President on his back in
advance, will not be likely to get very far.
There is, then, no other choice for the true
believers in reform. All efforts made in any
other direction will be in great measure was
ted. If you honestly mean to restore tree
dom as the rule of action for government
protesting to be founded on the principles Of
the Declaration of independence, Lincoln is
your man.
Even in the secondary light Of money trans
actions, let us now see the connection which
slavery has had in fostering the corrupt prac-
tices of the present government. I do not
know whether you have been made fully a
ware of the fact, which appears toerably well
by the testimony given before the
Ceyode Investigating Committee of Congress,
that the peoples money-yes, your money