The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1861-01-30
ENGLISH VIEWS OF AMER
CAN QUESTIONS.

If we translate these communications
into plain English, they seem to amount
to this,-that, in order to preserve the
institution of slavery, the United States
are bound to reuounce the freedom of
the platform, the assembly, the pulpit,a and
the newspaper. In the South we all
know freedom of discussion on the sub
ject of slavery has long been prohibited
under penalties, amounting in many IT,
sta ces to death, preceded by torture;-
and we are now told, on the authority Of
the President of the United States, that
the Union cannot be preserved unless
the North not merely abstains from ac-
tive interference with the domestic iEsti-
tutions of the South but imposes upon
itself an eternal silence on the snbject. 1t
is q 8 gnificant symtem of Il g RE nature
of slavery that it draws after it, by the
admission Of its warmcst advocates, the
prescription of that freedom of tongue
and pen which we are in the habit of
connecting with popular sovereignty, and
seeks to establish in the midst Of demo-
cracy censorship on what is written
aud an espionage on what is spoken, for
fear that the very echo of free discussion
should generate in the minds of bonds
men "vague notions Of freedom" Mr.
Buchanan has discovered the evil, and
has only to propose the remedy. The
remedy we should have supposed would
have been simple enough. The mischief
has been done by the liberty of speech
and action in the North. The remedy
would seem, therefore, to be to prohibit
speech and to fetter action. If the mat
rol ofthe South can never feel them
selves safe so long as the North IS allow
ed to talk and write, to quote the dee
laration of independence, and appeal to
the anti-slavery opinions Of Washington
and jefferson, the case will be very lit
tie mendod by the remedies the President
proposes. Let us assume that Congress
can be prevailed upon 10 vote by the re-
quirel majority of two-thirds, and that
tbree-fourths of the several states are
prepared to ratify, and express recog.
milton of the rights Of property in slaves,
the right Of bringing slaves into any ter
ritory, aud the validity Of the fugitive
slave law; what will all this avail, on
Mr.. Bucbanan's own showing, if the
North Re still allowed the right of free
discussion, and nothing be done to check
in the bosom Of democracy the propaga
ton of vague notions of freedom! 1t Is
much as ifa physician should declare his
patient to be sick of one disease and al
minister to him the remedies adapted t.
dnOlncr. Ii tneSc InehouicS 10 HoI q"
opted, which, considering the large ma
jorities required, is very probable, Mr.
Bucl anan makes the strange announce
ment that revolutionary secession will be
justified, "a matter on which we should
have though he, as the chief magistrate
of the federal Ua;on, to whose care that
Union is more especially intrusted. ought
to have been the last person to offer an
opinion. But, according to Mr.. Buchan
ans own view, even in the case he sup
poses, what good will secession doa II
will not prevent that discussion which he
! treats as the root OF the evil: it will not
assist masters in recovering their fugitive
slaves; it will not open the territories to
slave owners; it Will not induce rec ogni-
ton Of the property of man in man, MOI
| clear the heads of the slaves in the South
from vague notions of freedom. On the
contrary instead Of the present liberation
of tue system, secession would certainly
raise up in the North eonfederaey
more hostile than ever to slavery, plcdg
ed to ignore the rights of the master, t.
assist the fl ght of the slave, and to keep
up an active propaganda no longer con-
trolled by political and party consi!era,
tons. The question is, not whether the
South would be justified in plnnging it
self into sucE an abyss, but whether such
a step would not show degree of i'm
prudence almost amounting to insanity
London Times.
An old soaker being found in the gut