Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-12-28
south Carolina.

| South Carolina.
The telegraph informs US that the Sous
Carolina Convention has passed secessio
ordinance, and that State considers herself OF
of the Union. This is the point she reache
, n Jackson's time. O, that We had q Jackso
, for President now!
The Review ApOlOg izing for Dil
union - 1t 70 Condemned by II
own Standard-Bearer.
! Our cotemporary in this city publishe
what purports to be law of Massachusetts
multiplying the Fugitive Slave Law; also
synopses of similar laws said to be on tn
statute books of Maine, New Hampshire
Vermont, Connecticut, Wisconsin and Iowa
He hasn't the candor to tell his readers tina
the most Objectionable features of the Massa
chusetts law were some years since repealed
and that none of these laws have yet beel
decided unconstitutional by the U. S. Supreme
Court.
Our neighbor publishes all this trash In
order to apologize for the treason of South
Carolina in seeding from the Union. He has
professed to be great admirer of Mr.. Douglas,
and we therefore refer him to the remarks
made by the Little Giant, in the Senate, on
the 11th inst:
He denied the charge of Iverson that the
Fugitive Slave Law is not enforced in the
Northern States. He supposed all laws of
Congress were sometimes violated or not
vigorously executed. The North enforced the
Fugitive Slave Law quite as faithfully as the
South enforced the laos against the A trican
slape trade. Nine-tenths of the complaints
against the North are unfounded. In regard
to Illinois, majority of the fugitives are
arrested and returned without any judicial
process whatever. But no notice is taken or
credit given for these renditions. In all cases
where there happened judicial arrest, the
slave was returned-except in two instances
of rescue, in one of which the rescuers have
been punished, and in the other they are
awaiting trial. What was true of Illinois was
equally true of other border free States. He
thought there was but trifling ground of com-
plant against the North on the subject of
fugitive slaves, and that any man ought to be
to bring up that thing as one of the
reasons to justify dissolution of the Union.
He never knew of an instance in which a
STAKEHOLDER lost a slave on account Of Personal
Liberty Bills. The bills exist only in States
where the fugitive rarely goes, and the fuss
about them proceeds from the States sohich
nsvsr lose any negroes. The greatest excite.
ment is found in proportion as you recede |
from the line between the free and slave
States. The border States, on each side of
Mason and Dixon's line, are the only ones
really interested in the question ofrecapturing |
fugitives, and they are the only ones who
have no quarrel with each other on the subject |
They don't threaten to dissolve the Union for |
any such flimsy pretexts. Those who have
no interest in the matter magnify this thing |
from mole-hill into mountain. When you |
get down South into Georgia and Alabama,
where they never lose a slave, you find them /
terribly excited and disturbed by the outrages |
and losses under the on-fulfllment of the
Fugitive Slave Law, exactly in proportion as
they have no interest in it. If the law don't
operate smoothly, it is no fault of the free
States. For eight years, it has been in the
hands of its friends. Pierce and Buchanan
are Democrats; the Government has been
Democratic. No one at the South charges
those administrations with being derelict in
duty. Why should the Republicans be blamed,
who had never been responsible for its
execution?
All this Mr.. Douglas said, and much more
to the same purport. 1t is complete refuta
ton of the gabble of those who apologize for
treason at the South because of the Personal
Liberty Bills of the North. We say plainly
and unequivocally that, if any of these laws
are unconstitutional, we are in favor of their
repeal. We are willing to give citizens Of the
South all the rights guaranteed to them by
the Constitution, and at the same time we
demand that the rights Of free speech and free
voting shall be guaranteed wherever the flag
of our country floats.
BUCHANAN AND JAoKsoN.-"Looh on this
picture, and then on this.'-The Boston
Transcript compares Mr.. Buchanan's soft
soaping reply to Mr.. Cobbs resignation, with
Jackson's language to Souh Carolina men,
Der in 1880 who called to take leave. On
retiring he asked Jackson if he had any
commands for his friends in that quarter.
Eyes, have," replied the General, "please
give my compliments to my friends in your
State, and say to them, that if q single drop
of blood be shed there in opposition to the
laws of the United States, I aoiA hang the
first man can lay my hands on engaged in
such reasonable conduct upon the first tree
I can reach
The EADs DEFALoATIox.-We learn from
the Desmoines Register that the referees in
the Eads case came to an amicable decision.
They fix the amount of the Eads defalcation
at FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS.
Their decision has been submitted to and
confirmed by theSupreme Court. We may,
therefore, regard this vexed case as about
settled. 1t is expected that the securities of
Eads willmakegood this defalcation. Those
who have professed to doubt whether Eads
was defaulter, and received with credit his
pretences that the State was in debt to him,
will now do we'll to acknowledge their error.
| ---o~>
PACIFIC RAlLRoAD.-The Pacfic Railroad
| Bill which passed the House last week pro-
vides tor start from the Western borders
of Missouri and Iowa. the two con .ginQ