Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-12

Administration, supplied ammunition. The
course of the Opposition is usually easy; and
it ought to be especially so against Mr.. Bu-
chanan's Administration, since his own party
finds it necessary to denounce him. But
now the Republican party has to pass the
trying ordeal of success and the history of
formeranti. Democratic Administrations does
not furnish any great encouragement. The
first and greatest difficulty which a Repub-
lican Administration will encounter will be
to satisfy its own party. 1t is very well to
talk about Cancellation and o conservative
course, but no course will secure Repub-
lican Administration any support outside its
own party. What the Opposition want is the
control of the Government and the offices,
not conciliation nor conservatism. They
will hail with delight any mistakes of the
Administration, no matter how injurious to
the public welfare. No matter how con-
ciliatory, or patriotic, or humble and timid,
the Lincoln Administration may be- it will
meet an opposition as savage and relentless
as that which pursued far purer Admins
tration than it will probably be-that of ohm
Q. Adams; and it will have to depend for its
support, and for a reelection, entirely on the
party which placed it in power.
A difficulty in the case, or an advantage
according as it may be used is that an Ad-
ministration comes into the Executive with
the most brilliant expectations on the part
of the party, while there is no positive policy
either laid down or that can be proposed or
carried out. The platform is as blind as q
Delphic oracle, SIS to performance; and there
are really no positive measures practicable or
needed. The party itself can not propose
any. The party comes in as an Anti-slavery
party-that is, believing slavery to be very
bad where it is not though tolerable and to
be endured where it is-and opposed to its
extension into Territories. But it is not
agreed on the measures for preventing its.
extension; and if it were, there is no Terri
tory now which needs their application, nor
is there likely to be; nor could it pass any,
if the first two conditions existed.
Nor is Republican Administration going
. to resist the admission of slave States. A
Confederacy made up of States half slave and
half free, will not set up exclusion against
the admission of another slave State. The
abolition Of slavery in the District of Co
lumbia, which used to be great object in
Wing times, and which is part of the Abo-
lition capital now, is the merest bagatelle, of
no sort of value as an Abolition feat, even if
it were practicable, which it is not. Slavery
can not be abolished in the District without
compensatipg the owners. This, like all
Government purchases, especially in the Dis
trict, would be at fabulous prices, and the
Government would find most fabulous in-
crease in their numbers. 1t would only be
offering great premium on all the worthless
negroes of the surrounding States. And
when bought, what would the Government
dc with them2 Most of the States exclude
aree negroes. What State would take them
if they were exiled2 and what right have
States which exclude free negroes to put
them on the District? The proposition is an
absurdity; and, even if it were not totally
impracticable, both from the nature of the
case and from the impossibility of carrying
the necessary legislation it is not desirable.
No man can really believe the play worth
the candle, even if it could be played.
There is nothing that Republican Admin
istration can do against slavery. What can
it leave undone for it? To suppose that it
will refuse to execute the laws is folly. Even
were President so disposed, a hostile Con-
gress and Judiciary would find means to
bring him to it. The Fugitive-slave Law
was never so zealously executed as by Mr..
Fillmore, who, when he entered the Execu-
tive, was as much an anti-slavery man as
Mr.. Lincoln or Mr.. Seward are now. So
were the Northern members of his Cabi-
net. Much Of the hostility to the law will
disappear when Republican Commissioners
and Marshals execute it; and it will be exc
cuted just as faithfully, though probably with
less violence and show of fraud than now.
And it may be found that with decent ad-
ministration of the law, all danger of resist
ance will vanish.
There is no influence so conservative as
Office. People are always law abiding when
they are the officers to execute the laws
History is a very unpleasant "reminiscences
in American politics. but it may be remem-
bered that the most heart-rending outcries
ever made against the Fugitive-slave Law
were made by the Northern Democracy,
when it was passed and put in operation
under Wing Administrations also, that it
was under Northern Wing Administration,
which went into Office just as much anti
slavery in sentiment as Mr.. Seward or Lin
coin, that the army and navy of the United
States were ordered into the service of re-
capturing negroes and that then, when the
Democracy was filling the air with its out
cries against the inhumanity of the law,
companies at Boston and Detroit
turned out to aid Wing Commissioners and
Marshals in returning fugitTes. .
And we might refer to another fact, not
20 generally known, but which a few in
his State win remember, that under that
Wing Administration the severest penalty |
,ver yet administered for resisting the law,
vas imposed in Ohio, under the ruling of a
Federal Judge who has since been talked
If as Republican candidate for the Presi-
ieney, on lawyer who, it was claimed on
his pat, acted only as attorney for the fugi-
lives, and did no m,re than advise them
what their rights were.
80 far as slavery is concerned, there is
nothing which Republican Administration
can 90 or leave undone. Its policy must
I.