Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1861-01-11
Question of the Hour.

In the January number Of the Atldnti,
Monthly the Question Of the Hour is dis
cussed in a seasonablo paper by Prof j. R
LOWELL, Of which the spirit may be inferred
from the following extract
The subservience on the question of Sla
very, which has hitherto characterized both
the great parties of the country, has strength
ened the hands of the extremists at the South
and has enabled them to get the control Of
the public opinion there by fostering false
notions of Southern superiority and NOrth;r
want Of principle. We have done so much
to make them believe in their importance to
us, and given them so little occasion even to
suspect our Importance to them, that we have
taught them to regard themselves as the nat
ural rulers Of the country, and to look upon
the Union as favor granted to our weakness
whose withdrawal would be our ruin. Ac
cordingly, they have grown more and moro
cxacting, till at length the hack politicians O,
the Free States have become so imbued with
the notion of yielding, and so incapable Of
believing in any principle of action higher
than temporary expcdients to carry an cleo.
ton, or any object nobler than the mere
possession of office for its own sake, that Mr.
Buchanan gravely proposes that the Repub.
lican party should pacify South Carolina by
surrendering the very creed that called it into
existence and holds it together. the only fruit
of its victory that made victory worth having
Worse than this, when the Free States nv
overwhelming majorities have Just expressed
their conviction, that Slavery, as the creature
OF local law, can claim no legitimate exten.
sion beyond the limits of that law, he asks
their consent to denationalze Freedom and
nationalize Slavery by an amendment of the
Federal Constitution that shall make the 10.
callaw Of the Slave States paramount through.
out the Union. Mr.. Buchanan would STAY
the yellow fever by abolishing the Quaran-
tine Hospital and planting good virulent
case or two in every village in the land.
We do not underestimate the gravity Of
the present crisis, and we agree that nothing
should be done to exasperate it: but If tho
people of the Free States have been taught
anything by the repeated lessons of bitter ex.
perience, it has been that submission is not
the seed Of Cancellation, but of contempt and
encroachment. The wolf never goes for NUT
ton to the mastif. 1t is quite time that II
should be understood that Freedom is also an
institution deserving some attention in a
model Republic, that decline in stocks is
more tolerable and more transient than one
in public spirit, and that material prosperity
was never known to abide long in country
that had lost its political morality. The fault
of the Free States in the eyes of the South is
not one that can be atoned for by any YIELD
ing Of special points here and there. Their
offense is that they arc free, and that their
habits and prepossessions are those of Free
dom. Their crime is the census of $780,
Their increase in numbers, wealth, and pow
er, is standing aggression. It. would not
be enough to please the Southern States that
We should stop asking them to abolish Slave
ry-what they demand of us is nothing less
than that we should abolish the spirit Of the
age. Our very thoughts arc menace. It
is not the North, but the South, that forever
agitates the question Of Slavery. The SEEM
ng prosperity Of the Cotton growing States
g based on great mistake and great
wrong; and it is no wonder that they are ;r-
liable and scent accusation in the very air.
L is the stars in. their course that fight
'gainst their system, and there arc hose who
propose TO make everything comfortable by
ct Of Congress 9q A@ -ate. cl.-sW 4
go