The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-01-05
BUTLER COUNTY. PENN.

TO the Editor Of the National Era.
When our fathers, in their wisdom, laid tn
foundations of our present Government, thei
chief care was to lay them so deep, and to bull,
superstructure thereon so permanent tina
time with all its corroding influences woul,
rather strengthen than deface Those were tn,
times which called forth the energies of thos,
whom God had created after his own image
men with souls so great that they could forese,
hat there were others living and to live in tn,
country as well as themselves and who woul,
one day be called upon to take hold of and ad
minister the affairs with which they were thei
instrusted. In those times, demagogues wer,
but little, if at ali, known, and brainless bah
oers were left at home to pursue those calling
for which their intellectual inferiority most Ger
tainly best fitted them. But times and season,
change, and so do men and things; and it il
very clear to the mind of any thinking mai
that the changes which have taken place among
oar statesmen have not been for the better, in :
national point of view.
When Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Hayne
a Cass, and their compeers, occupied the Senate
Chamber, their conflicts of mind with MIND
were such as to instruct mankind, and of which
any country might well be proud, Butshow il
1t now? Nought is to be heard, morning, noon
and night but the Singer" and "disunion -
the "nigger and "disunion," from one end
OF the National Capitol to the other.
On the first day that Congress met, Mr.. Ma
son, a Senator in his place from Virginia, al
most the first motion made, certainly the first
resolution offered, was one to inquire into the
security and safe keeping of the negro. The
same may be said of the House. Mr.. CLARK. nj
Missouri, at the very threshold of the proceed
ings, introduced the "nigger" with Helper's
book upon his back, and to this lay has STONED
the wheels of the National Legislature.
Here we have it, then these Representatives
from the slave States, and who alone are inter
ested in the maintenance of Slavery, keep the
country in an eternal broil on the question OF
Slavery, and then howl like whipped spaniels
about the agitation of the slave question, and
threaten to dissolve the Union if Northern
man opens his mouth on the subject. Now.
there is one thing l can tell these gentlemen
whose mouths are always full of the negro and
that Is, that if they would keep their own mouths
shut, they would not hear the one-hundredth
part they do on the subject. And there is
another thing can tell them-it is this fthey
are so anxious for dissolution of the Union,
why do they not go at it? The North are not
anxious we do not ask a trial of the expert.
ment indeed, we should be sorry to see it but
we wish our Southern friends to know that if it
must be so, that they will find freemen enough
IN the North as ready to try the experiment as
they are. We ask no sympathy from them.
We can live well without them as they can
without us. We have listened to this hypocriti.
cal cant long enough. and we are now deter
minHd to speak OF it just as our people think
and feel.
If they can elect Pro-Slavery President in
1901, which think they cannot, we will sub
init with as good grace as we can; and should
he not pursue reasonably straightforward
course, we will endeavor to find means to bring
BIN to his senses. We will not "dssolve the
Unisn," nor even talk of it /; bat we will teach
the President to know that he is expected to
do his duty to the Constitution with fidelity
and we ask no more Of any man. If the Re.
publicans should elect the President in 1860
aud L think we will, we shall expect the sun
and moon to rise and set, just as they do under
the Administration of James Buchanan and
cursed be the hand that would rise to sever
this glorious Union The rights of every
State would be scrupulously protected, and that
State or that people who would ask more, would
bring them to a knowledge of their true posi-
ton.
This is a subject on which our Southern
friends should be given to understand the
exact position that we of the North are pre-
pared to assume, whenever an emergency arises
to call our energies into action. We do not
desire dissolution of the Union, as have al.
ready said we should regret it but we want
1t distinctly understood that no right of ours
shall be trampled upon by bombastic assump-
tons from any quarter. The Southern States
have their rights. We acknowledge them,
aud will aid in their maintenance; but this is
not enough we must do more. We must be-
come bloodhounds, to pursue their game; we
must permit them to extend their Objectionable
institutions at will the North is not to exer-
else any choice or voliton in the matter; we
are not asked, but required to stand passive, as
the whole panorama passes before us, while
they OF the South lord 1t over US, as they do
over their slaves. phis, | say again, we will
not do; and if it should cost the disruption of
ten such Governments, we say, let the worst
come, If come it must; we are as well prepared
for it now as we ever can be. For the last
thirty years, or more, this cry Of disunion has
been sounded in our ears, while we have yield.
ed dishonorably to appease the cry, and still
the cry is, T" Give, givel" We of the North
have rights, too; and, if it must be so, we have
the manhood as well as the numerical force,
to sustain them. 0.w.G.
TIE DEALH OF De QUINCEY.-The Asia brings
intelligence of the death of Thomas De Quincey,
which happened on the 9Th of Decem Der, at
Edinburgh, having considerably passed the
term of three score years and ten. For many
months past he has resided in Edinburgh,
preferring the town to his house in Lasswade,
mainly for the convenience of experimenting
the passage through the press of the collected
edition of his works now issuing by Messrs.
Hogg, and Of which the fourteenth and last
volume is nearly ready for publication. The
deceased was principally known by the graphic
Autographed sketches which, under the title |
of Confessions Of an English Opium Eater"
while under the influence of that pernicious |
drug.
HOLIDAY EXCURSION OF SLAVES. - The |
Charleston rs. c. Courier of Wednesday an
the arrival there of large number of
slaves in a steamboat, on a Christmas excur- |
sion, en- route for Wilmington, North Carolina. |
The Courier says:
MANY other servants from railroad contracts |
will accompany them on their annual return |
for Christmas. 1t is q stipulation insisted on |
ny MANY masters III nifing ous 'heif Servants,
that they shall return to spend and enjoy the
Christmas holidays at home. The stipulation |
Is faithfully observed, and is beneficial to both
parties, for such masters generally have SER
wants that prove acceptable to hirers and con-
ractors."
SINGULAR CAUSE OF DEATH.-Benjamin |
Thurman, late sheriff of Hawkins county, Ten |
,essee, died recently from the following sim
,ular cause While throwing on his overcoat,
10 struck his hand on the door knob, and slight
, abraded the skin he then put on a wet glove
md rode several miles, took a chill---gaa0rene