Worcester daily spy., 1860-12-14
THE ANTIporEs TO SECESSION,

If1E ANAAAS~@~ ~ ~~@S~~~~~~~'
IT is not many months since the country
was in state OF comparative peace, The lr.
repressible conflict OF opinion had not percep
tbly affected the stability of the government
Few snalconteuts cared 50 ihuch tor secession
as TO meet the storm with which public opin-
ion would be sure TO visit than. Few enthu-
siasts, contemplating only the faults OF The
government, cared SO much for disunion as %
have the mark of fauaticism burned into thelr
foreheads Only few months have passed
in which the dew, and rain, and sunshine,
have descended upon the induigent earth with
benefceut tullness and regularity, and the
country is shaking with the threatened danger
OF dissolution. The only public event which
is alleged to have contributed directly to this
imminent disaster, is the election OF new
president, perfectly in harmony with the forms
of fhe constitution, against which no instance
of corruption has been ever charged, and
by the honest agency of the ballot,
which it has been customary to believe
would execute a 1reemans will as lightning
does the will of God. The manifestations of
danger appear in the deliberations of ag
creved states in the menaces and threats OF
their representatives in The public counsels,
in the singular frenzy of their popuace, and
in the base and apologize attitude of that
portion ot the citizens of the free states who
perpetually complain of the triumphs of the
sentiment which made and preserves them
free. 1t is laudabe that those who have been
charged with the obligation to see that the re.
public receives no detriment should seek soma
safe and speedy means OF reliet. 1T is deslra
Bile that the Union should still stand together,
sto present to the nations of the earth the evil
dence of an historic triumph that self-govern'
ment is the best government. 1t is most de-
voutly to be desioed that every state should
encourage such institutions as will harmonic
with the general purpose Of the govern
ment, and such relations with each 9th.
er as will make separation impossible.
But what are the remedies proposed
Mr.. Wigfall, speaking ior the rabble, says
they (the free states) shall declare slaves
are property, shall deliver them up when
fugitiyes, shall abolish abolition societies, shall
suppress abolition presses, and silence abolition
speeches. The conservative merchants OF
Philadelphia, standing at the other end Of the
social scale, and at vast distance, suggest
that the statute books OF the free states shall
be searched for provisions Objectionable to the
slave states, which shall be summary ex.
plunged, that the obligations OF the fugitive
slovo 10 oI,ol bo off ad and aptOrpe6
and that the rights OF Shareholders in the ter
ritores, and all other disputed questions, shall
be submitted to the supreme court for final
jurisdiction and settlement. While between
these two social and geographical extremes,
who propose substantially the same basis
of settlement in language regulated and
refined by their social status, are a multi.
tude of political doctors whose remedies
vary with their peculiar and eccentric dag
noses of the disease These are solemny the
best propositions which have been made in the
interest of the disafieced states. Though
they are impossible as schemes of pacfcation,
the audacity with which they are urged may
lead TO some less offensive but still MUST
compromise, which, while seeming fair shall
yet iail to recognize the inevitable distinction
between tie institutions of the free and slave
statce, and the convictions by which they are
sustained. The free states are indebted to the
government to the extent TO which they have
infringed upon the constitution, and to the
slave states to the extent to which they have
violated their just rights under it. Nothing
more certainly can be asked of any state. If
the institutions which the slave states have
nursed till they are overshadowed by them,
are such that new constitutional guarantees
are required, then it becomes the rest of the
country to pause and reflect. There is on the
other side permanent and controlling instinct
of selfrespect. There is the historic evidence
that this country was made for the institutions
of freedom and uot slavery. There is the
high moral conviction of the rightfulness of
free institutions, and the profound moral
repugnance to the wild and guilty fan
tasy, that man can hold property in
man. All these rise in unmisakeable
and determined protest against conced-
ing to this destructive power privileges
which are not made imperative by the consti-
stituton. The result might be grievous for a
time, though that even is doubtful; but in the
end it would be great gain.