The national Republican., 1861-01-10
THE USE MADE OF MR.. CRITTENDEN.

out Of respect to the age and services OF Mr..
Crittenden, the duty of commenting upon the
attitude into which he has recently been in.
weighed. But 1t is too apparent that no man
in Congress, during its present session, has
been made the instrument Of more senseless
and unmitigated mischiefs and ii present
complications have an unfavorable issue, no.
body will be more responsible for it than those
who have advised and controlled the extraor.
dinary course of Mr.. Crittenden.
OF course, when Congress assembled, it
would be in the line Of the tactics Of the dis
unionists TO make demands in behalf of the
South, of such a nature as to preclude the
possibility Of their acceptance by the North.
All this would be obvious to anybody; but
something more than this occurred to these as.
tute men, who have made politics the study Of
their lives, who think of nothing else from one
end Of the year to the other, and who are as
apt for stratagem as they are for treason and
strife. Inadmissibe propositions were matter
of course; but such propositions from Jeffer.
son Davis, or Mr. Toombs, would have be.
trayed what it was important to conceal a pre-
determined purpose to be satisfied with nothing,
and to break down the Government at all events.
What was wanted in this piece Of disunion
craft, was some man who had a reputation for
moderation, and whose personal attachment to
the Union was undoubted, to be the mouth.
piece of terms Of accord, which would be the
basis of helpless and hopeless discord. Such
a man pre-eminently was Mr.. Crittenden of
Kentucky, the influence of his name with the
general country not being weakened by the
knowledge Of the fact well understood here
but in respect to which a tender silence has
been observed, out of regard for his long pub
lie services, that he has outlived the period of
possible usefulness in matters of moment and
difficulty.
We do not propose to spend any unueces.
sary time in pointing out the incendiary, revo-
lutonary, and preposterous character Of the
basis of compromise of which Mr. Crt'enden
has been made ihe bearer, with so cruel dis
regard Of what was due to his reputation, by
men too intent upon the great object Of break
ing down a Government, to care much about
the mere incident of damaging the personal
position of man.
The extension of the Missouri Compromise
line, as fixed by the legislation of 1920, to the
Pacific, having always been heretofore rejected
by the North, it might be supposed that the
disunion plotters would have felt sufficiently
sure of its continued rejection, as to have stood
upon it as the basis of disruption. But to
make assurance doubly sure, and to close out
the remotest possibility of accommodation,
these men made Mr.. Crittenden the bearer Of
proposition infinitely worse than the rejected
compromise of 1920.
That compromise established slavery no.
where, and contained no covenant of protection
to it anywhere. 1t prohibited slavery north OF
$50 30>; and the utmost that can be made of it
is, that it involves an agreement that slavery
should not be prohibited south of that line, and
so, by implication, permits slavery to 60 there,
but upon its own strength, and not under any
special aid from the National Government
During the thirty -four years Of the undisturbed
existence of that compromise, nobody ever pre-
sumed to apply to Congress, or to any depart
ment of the Federal Government, for protec
ton to slavery south of 36o 3O>. The Missouri
compromise tied the hands of the North agains
interference, if slavery should get in below tha
line. That is all there was of it, and all tha
was ever claimed for it.
But the proposition, Of which Mr.. Crittender
was so shamefully betrayed into being the ap
parent author, absolutely establishes slavery be
low certain geographical line, and pledges, il
advance, the whole power of the Government
in all its departments, to protect it during tht
indefinitely long period which may precede th'
formation of States in Territories of great ex
tent.
And that no repulsive feature of "distin
guished dye" might be lacking, the PROPOSE
ton of which Mr. Crittenden was made th,
mouthpice instead of being vonGned to exist
ing territory within our jurisdiction, as was The
legislation of 1920, covers all future acquisi
tions, by a constitutional provision as enduring
as the Government itself, thus consignng Mex
leo, and perhaps Central America, by an ire
pealabe edict, to Africanization. 1t declare
war, uncertain only in time, against peoples wht
have not offended us. 1t menaces the faires
portions of the continent with the most terrible
of social and political evils. 1t is an attack
upon humanity itself, and would justly draw
upon us the opprobrium of the civilized world
Mr. Clay declared that "no po,oer on earth
should ever compel him to carry slavery int,
regions where it did not exist. How would tina
great man thunder in the Senate, if he had livet
to witness the scenes Of this day
AS illustrating, by few out of innumerabl
instances, the use which the disunionists maxi
of their triumph in seducing Mr.. Crittenden int