Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-03-03

claimed and with impunity, among our Planta'
tions. /
For this policy, so far as the Government
has sanctioned Il, the Democratic party sgoYs
itself responsible. Everywhere complaint
againsi it is denounced, and its opponents
prescribed When Kansas was Writhing under
the wounds of incipient seryilo war, because |
of her resistance, tho Democratic Press den
dinply said, LET her bleed" Official integrity |
mas been cause for rebuke and punishment, /
when it resisted frauds designed to promote the |
extension Of slavery. Throughout the whole /
Republic there is not one known dlssenter from
that policy remaining in place, if within reach /
of the Executive arm. Nor ever the face OF
the whole world is there to be found one repre- |
sentative of our country who is not an apollo
gist for the extension of Slavery.
Il is in America that these things have hap |
pened. In the nineteenth century, the era Of
the worlds greatest progress, and while all
nations but ourselves have been either abridg- /
ing or altogether suppressing commerce in men; !
at the very moment when the Russian serf is
em ancipaied, and the Georgian captive, the |
Nubian prisoner and the Abyssinian savage are
lifted up to freedom by the successor Of Mos
hammed The world, prepOssessed in our be- |
half by our early devotion to the rights of human
nature as no nation ever before engaged its
respect and sympathies, asks, in wonder and
amazement, what all this Generalization means!
It has an excuse better than the wcrld can
imapine-better than we are generally conscious
OF oufseves-a virtuous excuse. We have
loved not Freedom so much less, but the Union
of our country so much more. We have been
made to believe, from time to time, that, in a
crisis, both Of these precious institutions could
not be saved together; and therefore we have,
| from time to time, surrendered safeguards of
freedom to propitia:e the loyalty of capital and
stay its hands from doing violence to the
Union The true state of the case, however,
ought not to be " mystery to ourselves
| PrescienCe, indeed, is not given to statesmen
but we are without excuse when we fail to ap-
| prehend the logic of current events. Let par
| ties, or the Government, choose or do what
they may, the people of the URited States do
not prefer the wealth of the few to the liberty
Of the many, capital to labor, African Slaves
to white freemen, in the national territories
and in future States. That question has never
been sufficiently recognized or acted on by
them. The Republican party embo1ies the
popular protest and reaction against a policy
| which has been fastened upon the nation by
surprise, and which its reason and conscience,
| concurring with the reason and conscience OF
mankind, condemn.
The choice of the nation is now between the
Democratic party and the Republican party
Its principles and policy are, therefore, justly
and even necessarily examined. l know OF
only one policy which it has adopted or
avoWed, namely The SGUing of the Territories
of the United States If possible, By constitutional
and Iatsjitl means, from being homes for SLdUeTg
and POLygamy. Who, that considers where
this nation exists, of what races it is composed
in what age of the world it acts its part on the
public stage, and what are its predominant in
/ habf oud
doubts that the Republican party can and will,
if unwaveringly faithful to that policy and
Just and loyal in all beside, carry it into tri-
umphal success To doubt is to be uncertsin
whether civilization can improve or Christianity
save mankind.
may, perhaps, infer, from the necessity Of
the case, that il will, in all courts and places,
stand by freedom of the speech and Of the
press, and the constitutional rights of freedom
everywhere it will favor the speedy improve
ment of the public domain by homestead laws,
and will encourage mining, manufacture, and
internal commerce, with neediul connections
between the Atlantic and the Pacific States
for all these are important interests of Freedom.
For all the rest, the national emergencies. not
individual influences, must determine, as so>
cicty goes on, the policy and character of the
Republican party. Already bearing its part IN
legislation and in treaties, it feels the necessity
of being practical in its care of the national
health and life, while it leaves metaphy sical
speculation to those whose duty it is to cult
vate the enobling science Of political Philoso-
ply.
But in the midst of all these subjects, OF,
+ rather before fully reaching them, the Republi-
can party encounters Unexpectedly, new and
, potential issue, one prior, and therefore para
mount to all others, one of national lie and
death Just as If so much had not been already
conceded; nay, lust as il nothing at all had
+ ever been conceded to tho interest of capital
, invested in men, we hear menaces of disunion,
/ louder, more distinct, more emphatic than ever
with the condition annexed that they shall be
executed the moment that Republican Admin
istration, though constitutionally elected, shall
assume the Government.
do not certainly know that the people are
prepared to call such an Administration to pow
+ er know only, that through succession of
floods which never greatly excite, and ebbs
which never entirely discourage me, the vol
ume of Republicanism rises continually higher
and higher. They are probably wise whose
! apprehensions admonish them that it is already
/ strong enough for effect.
4 Hitherto the Republican party has been con
, ! tent with one seIf-interrogatory-h many
votes it can cast These threats enforce an
, other-has it determination enough to cast
, them! This latter question touches its spirit
and pride am quite sure, however, that, as
, lit has hitherto practiced selfdenial IN so many
. other forms, it viii in this emergency lay aside
! all impatience of temper, together with all am
i btion, and will consider these extraordinary
decIamations seriously, and with Just moder
! ton 1t would be a waste Of words to demon
+ strate that they are unconstitutional, and
equally idle to show that the responsibility Tor
disuniOn attempted or effected, must rest not
, with those who In the exercise Of constitutional
authority maintain the Government but with
! those who unconstitutionally engage In the mad
work of subverting it. -.-
What are the excuses for these menaces =
= They resolve themselves into this, that the
Republican Party in the North is hostile to the
South. Bot it already is proved to be ma
ioritv in the North; it is therefore, practically
r the people of the North. VIII it still be the
f same North that has forebOrne with you so
long and conceded tn you so much Can you
, Justly assume that affection which has been so
complying .csn all at once change to hatred
intense and inexorabie
You say that the Republican party is sec
tional one Is the Democratic party less
: sectional! Is it easier for US to bear your
sectional sway than for you to bear ours! Is
it unreasonable that for once we should alter
nate! But is the Republican party sectional
Not unless the Democratic party is. The Re-
: publican party prevails in the House of Repre-
sentatives sometimes; the Democratic Party in
; the Senate always Which of the two is the
most proscnptivel Come, if you will, into the
Free States, into the State of New York. any
where from Lake Erie to Sag Harbor, among
my neighbors in the OwascO Valley, hold your
conventions, nominate your candidates, address
the people, submit to them fully, earnestly,
elequenty, all your complaints and grievances
of Northern disloyalty, oppression, perhdy;
: keep nothing back, speak just as freely and as