The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1860-04-26

| l was born in your county of Morris, but
after the close of the Revolution, my father,
with his young family, settled in the North
/ western Territory, where it has been my ia
/ vored lot to grow up under the congenial
/ influences of that immortal ordinance which
| has wisely guaranteed liberty forever to
that beautiful region; and which her mil
lions of peaceful and patriotic people will
never cease to revere as the foundation of
| their progress prosperity, and power.
l--I 1t has been to me d source OF the deepest
regret and of the most painful apprehension
for the safety Of our institutions, to witness
the growing indifference and hostility, de-
velOped more generally during the last few
years, to this salutary principle of that
great measure of Jefferson. Some, indeed,
have ventured to question its constitution
ality, although for near seventy years it has
been the theme of eulogium with lawyers
and statesmen of the country, and has re-
ceived the sanction OF every judicial tribu-
nal in which it has been discussed, and that,
too, in the slave States. s1! 9 asa- rr-
In these latter days, Jack o'-lanterns, gen
Grated in the bottomless marshes of party
politics, seem to allure quite as many follow
ers as are found in the path illuminated by
the purer and safer lights emitted from the
precepts and examples of the sages of the
revolutionary period, and political action
seems to be directed rather by considera-
tions of conceived party necessity than by
the suggestion of reason, justice, and patri-
otto principle. ~ -;a
Occupying the position do, it is not per-
mitted TO me to speak of the transactions
in Kansas in their legal aspects but may
say with you, that | contemplate the vio-
lence, bloodshed, and civil and fraternal
war now Transporting there, with mingled
emotions of sadness, alarm, and mortifca-
ton. They are the fruits of that Al-advised
and mischievous measure-the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise, which, from the
first, have earnestly deprecated and
have no hesitation in saying that the imme-
date admission of Kansas as State into
the Union under the Constitution already
formed, commend5 itself to me as q measure
of sound policy, and well calculated to bring
peace to the Territory and to the country.
With these views have not been back
ward in advising in all suitable ways, the
adoption of that measure. There are sever
al precedents which may be appealed to in
support of it, and especially that of the adj
mission OF Michigan. II would power
fully tend to tranquilize the public mind,
allay sectional jealousies, and bring the
great mass of the people to the earnest sup
port of the Constitution and Union in their
pristine integrity
The South would have no just cause to
complain of it, and indeed ought freely and
generously to yield it upon the altar of pub
lie good. Since the adoption of the Con-
stitution, as many Slave States as Free
States have been admitted into the Union !;
and the Slave States, while they have only
about one-fourth of the white population of
the country, embrace a much larger extent
of fertile territory, with n more genial eli
mate than the Free States.
No intelligent observer can fail TO see
that the tendency of our institutions is now
rapidly downward, and all history and ex-
perience show that no free government,
with such tendencies, was ever arrested in
its declining career without a revolution
either by a peaceful change of its policy
and rulers, or by the bloody arbitrament of
the sword.
1t is an axiom in government, as clear as
all intuitive truth, that no free government
can rest npon any other than Il sound moral
basis. In this must consist its strength. -
How much of this foundation remains for
our model Republic, it will be well for the
people, yet yirtuous and enlightened, TO
ponder in season. If they do not see or
appreciate their danger, it is in vain that
they hold the power to apply the correct
i've.
With the greatest respect,
| am very truly yours,
... JOHN MCLEAN.