Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-07-24
For tbe DaiIv Sta,s sentinel
For the Daily State Sentinel.
Articles ON the origin and History of
the Differences between the North.
ern and Southern Sections of the
United states which have resulted
i'm IN Sectional Civil War.

u
i'm N Sectional Civil War.
No. ".
Speaking of the supposed termination of the
effort to exclude slavery from the Territories by
the Missouri Compromise, Mr.. Jefferson said in
a letter to John Holmes of Maine: at is hush
ed indeed for the moment. But this is a reprieve
only, not the final sentence;" and so it was. On
the 9Th of February, lo41 n bill was pending in
the House of Representative of the United States
for the appropriation of three millions to enable
the President of the United States to pay Mexico,
If necessary, sum of money in a treaty of peace
whereby territory might be acquired by the
United States.
To that bill Mr.. WilmOt of Pennsylvania,
offered as an amendment the following proviso,
which has since borne the name ofits father:
"PTOUided, That there shall be neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude in any Territory on the
Continent of America, which shall hereafter be
acquired" &c. l6 Deb, "a.
Thus was the apple of discord again thrown
among the sisters. Thus was found another op
portunity of attacking the Institutions, exaspera-
ting the feelings, and, they believed assailing
the rights of the South.
The South stood upon the same platform they
had adopted in the Missouri controversy, viz:
That they had an equal right with the North in
the territory to be won by common blood and
treasure; and further, that the proyiso was in
spirit, If not in letter, violation of the Missouri
COMPROMISE, by which slavery was to be allowed
in territory south of Sc deg. 80 min, in consider
alton of its being excluded in all north of that
line.
The proviso as an amendment to the loan bill,
was defeated; but enunciating principle to be
applied to all territory, it should come to be
organized under territorial government, it con-
tinued 10 be discussed Congress became ex-
cessively heated upon the question, and so did the
country, particularly the Southern States, who
looked upon it as a threatened exclusion of them
forever from the right to enjoy with the North
the common property of both sections. They
declared that their patience was worn out by
these constantly occurring hostile attacks, and
that it was time to finally end them; that if the
principle of the provisO established, they
would secede from the Union.
They were willing to settle the controversy
upon either of two propositions, viz: a division of
all the common territories by the line of SO, 80,
or by the application to them all of the doctrine
Of popular sovereignty-that is, leaving them all +,
without any provision either way by the General
Government, on the subject of slavery, to the
common settlement of the people from both sec
tons of the Union, with the right to the settlers
to adopt or reject slavery as they chose, on form
ing State Constitution. Calhoun's w orks,
p. sos.
In profound speech of Mr.. Calhoun, delivered
in the Senate, June 81, lS4S, and which Mr.. Ben
ton has strangely omitted in his abridgment of
debates, he says: "But l go further. and hold
that Justice and the Constitution are the easiest
and safest ground on which the question can be
settled, regarded in reference to party. 1t may
be settled on that ground simply by non action
by leaving the territories free and open to the
emigration of all the world, so long as they con-
tinue sO-and when they become States, to adopt
whatever Constitution they please, with the sin
gle restriction to be republican, in order to their
admission into the Union. If a party can not
safely take this broad and solid position and sue
cessfully maintain it, what other can it take and
mantan?' Calhoun's Works, p. SOC.
Mr. jefferson Davis of Mississippi, said: "If
the spirit of the Missouri Compromise was to be
invoked, as was proposed by his friend from In
diana, Mr.. Bright, he had right to ask that the
South should be placed on basis of perm lnent
security, so that there may be hereafter no new
agitation of the subject. He was willing to &C
far, as far as his principles would admit, to meet
the North. But if nothing would satisfy the
North short of the destruction of this institution
then was the time for dissolution come; but let u:
separate peacefully, and with good feelings to
wards each other-let not the battle fields of oul
country be stained with the blood of brothers
fighting against brothers. He trusted the DANCES
would pass away, and that this agitation would
turn out to be nothing more than the temporary
struggle between politicians" (le48. l6 Deb
22l.
Again he says: 81 understood the honorable,
Senator from Michigan as standing upon th'
ground of non-intervention. If we could have
that it would give the South the most we have
claimed-thnt is, an equal right to go into all the
territories-all property being alike protected In
default of this have said that would take tn,
Missouri Compromise line, and that was my ul
tmatum." l6 Deb. 445. Qe50)
Mr.. Calhoun reiterated the same proposition
just sixteen days before his DEATH in his grea
speech of March 4, 1850, read for him in the Sen
ate by Mr.. Mason. l6 Deb. 403.
During the pendency of this controversy ol
the Wilmot proviso, General Taylor was electec
President of the United States; and, in his frs
annual message (it was also his last; he died JUL
9, 1880 he recommended the doctrine of popula
sovereignty in the government of the Territories
He said:
"The people of New Mexico will, it is believed
at no very distant period, present themselves 70
admission into the Union. Preparatory to the ad
mission of California and New Mexico, the peo
pie of each will have instituted for themselves
republican form of government, laying its foun
datons iii such principles and organizing its pow
ers in such form, as to them shall seem most ike
ly to effect their safety and happiness.
"By awaiting their action, all causes OF uneasi
ness may be avoided, and confidence and kim
feeling preserved. With the view of maintaining
the harmony and tranquility so dear to all, W
should abstain from the Introduction of these eS
citing topics of sectional character, which hav
hitherto produced painful apprehensons in tn
public mind; and repeat the solemn warning @
the first and most illustrious of my predecessor
against furnishing any ground for characterizin
parties by geographical determinations" l6 Deb
| p. 3U.
The recommendation was carried out. Th
struggle of the South against the unjust provis
| of WilmOt was terminated in its defeat by th
passage of the great compromise measures reG
commended by the committee of thirteen, of whic
| Mr.. Clay chairman, and in which the doctriu
of popular sovereignty was adopted as the settle
policy for the future government of the Terrific
ries of the United States. Both the great Viii
and Democratic parties, then the ruling parties
| the country, almost unanimously agreed to then
and the acts were approved by Mr. Fillmore, the
the President of the United States. Peace Wa
again restored to the country. 1t was only til
Abolition party who seriously opposed the con
| promise, and kept up disturbance in the nation
In the election of 1852, both General Scott
the Wing candidate, and General Pierce. til
| Democratic, stood squarely upon the compromis
| of 1880. It was only Hale and Julian, now bot
Lincoln members of Congress. then the abolitio
| Presidential candidates. that run upon the Wi
mot Proviso exclusion policy; and their follow
ers were not suihclently numerous 10 cause ser
Gus alarm. The country was harmonious, pro
porous and happy.
What next will disturb its repose
In an evil hour, the great body of the old VIII
party of the North broke faith with the Soui
upon the compromise OF 1850, to which they ha
agreed, went over to the Abolition party, and un
ting with them under name. that of RI
publican. adopted at Philadelphia in 1856 ii
prOviso exclusion platform of the Abolitionist
(that distinct party has not been heard of sine
the merger,) nominated sectional Presidents
ticket from the North, Fremont and Dayton
and thus against the warning of Washington m
jefferson, and of Taylor, inaugurated n sections
party upon single sectional idea, of all othe
the most dangerous to the peace of the cOuntr
and followed up the organization and experimel
at Chicago in 1860. In the nomination of cand
dates in 1860 the most offensive to the Soul
were taken. Hamlin had voted to abolish SLAYER
in the District of Columbia, and Lincoln had d
clared war against the South in announcing tn
the States must be all free all slave; that the