New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-07
REuEIlREE 1920 I:

The signs of the times are full Of danger; dan
ger not of dsunon, but Of surrender; danger not
from Southern rashness, but from Northern cow
ardice. The real hazard Of this crisis is not Of
civil war, but of the naturalization OF Slavery.
The only organization to avert this present shame
aud future ruin, is the RePablcan party, and that
party totters as some of its chosen leaders blench
and tremble Triumphant bJ the quiet verdict of
the people it ia apparently aboat to bcray its trust
at the demand of it, foes. The cities, whence
the humblng mandate proceeds, cast their vote for
Slavery, and were defeated. They now clamor
for surrender, and because the voice OF the
busy farmers throughout the country is unheare,
the clamor may be- able TO nufy the ballot. II
so, this precious proyidential moment Will pass
away, aud an opportunity such as Heaven but
seldom gives, viii be lost.
In 1870 the Slave Power demanded a reversal
If the old policy Of Freedom, an abandonment Of
the ordinance of ~, the monument OF the terrific
rial policy Of our earliest statesmen in the nobler
DAYS of the Republic. After brief, fierce strug-
gle. to maintain the national idea of Freedom, the
Free States, betrayed bg few false friends, sue
cumbed TO the close pholanx Of the Slave Power
They yielded, they admitted Missouri with Slay;.
cry, they guaranteed so far as Congress can, the
spread Of Slavery on natonal soil below given
line. What q harvest forty years has ripened
from the fatal seed Of surrender in 1920 What
on immense aggrayaton of the National Evil,
what an expansion of IN, area aud consolidation
Of the power of Slavery The Slave Power was
a cIamorous mendicant in 1870; il is an imperiOus
armed Dictator to day.
The lamentabe error of lS20 could only re-
taId the certain march of fate. Bat it did re-
press for a generation tho indostructible witness
for kreedom and Justice, made constitutional by
God in the hearts of men. Forty years Of ebul-
lition, agitation, discussion organization, and the
bruised and buried germ has broken the hard
earth again. Why should We repeat the error,
vanly fighting against destiny!
Cannot men, though their experience is brief
and their associations are with transient things,
yet see from history, and from the handwriting in
their own bosoms, that the love of Freedom must
rend away the poor wisps of compromise Ii
surrender now should give the upper hand to
Slavery again. and keep Freedom under ban,
protesting, agitating, for few years more, until
q new party of Liberty shall achieve the mas
terry now to be flung away by timid hearts and
yenal ones in the hour Of victory, where will be
the gain The conflict will be incidentally inten-
sifed, the wrong and suffering, as well as the
Generalization consequent on Slavery, bearing
deadly fruit meanwhile.
Our children will be born to heritage OF
conflict, fear, AMI peril instead Of permanent
peace and enduring growth. Now, frmness and
moderation only are needed, with Freedom for
our guiding principle in order to save everything
! that should be saved. Possibly an undivided,
I certainly united, powerful glorious and free
cOnfedcrncy will be ours and our children's for
centuries to come. Into it in the course OF
years, the seeding States, if such there shall be,
redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled, viii again
successfully return and be joined with us in an
honorable, equal indestructble fraternity, to be
torn from us no more. To this end nothing is
Necessary but Courage and Fidelity. But Cour-
age and Fidelity are by no means so abundant
as they should be in such crisis as the present.
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