Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1861-04-02
From the Albany Express.
mr. WiimOt and his PrOrfso.


The great prOvisO which gave Mr.. VIII
mot MS celebrity in the FIRST instance is
now practically abandoned. To the three
new territorial bills passed by the late re-
| publican congress not a word Ia said aI,out
slavery. the people being left free TO frame
their institutions 70 suit themselves. This
had obviously become a necessity in the
changed condition Of the country. and the
republicans acted wisely and patrioticaI;v
in giving up the prGhibitory clause. Col
orado, Nevada and Dacotah being sure for
freedom, it is idle 10 prohibit slavery in
| them. Philadelphia NORTH American ire
/ pUbiican.l
Ii Is fifteen years since Mr.. Wilmot Of
/ Tered in congress, on the occasion Of the
report of an appropriation bill for the sup
| port OF the army in Mexico, his proviso that
IN case CT any acquisition Of territory from
Mexico, slavery should be prohibited there.
! in.
The motive for imposing the condition.
was the apprehension that the Mexican
war was instigated and carried ca for the
I purpose OF extending slavery. II had be-
come the fashion to charge the democratic
| party with being 10 the interest Of the slave
/ power. Jefferson. and his two successors
from Virginia, were denounced as slave
holders and r;bald songs about " Dusky
Sally" were among the electioneering de-
vices resorted tn against the author Of the
Declaration of Independence.
jackson was assaiied in the same yav.
Van Buren, was called "a northern man
with southern principles" for no reason
except to excite against him northern jeal-
ousy.
50 full had the public mind been filed
with this idea that when the Mexican war
broke out, the cutlery that it was war for
the extension of slavery, made q deep i'm
preston and Mr.. Wilmot, as much in the
interest OF his party as from any anti-
slavery sentiment, offered his proriso. SO
as to remove this impression, and make the
war popular at the north as well as ut the
south. A majority of the southern MEM
bers of congress were willing TO ACCEPT Of
the stipulation. and the proyiso which
passed the house. would have gone through
The senate also, If it had not been talked to
death at the last hour by Senator Davis. of
Massachusetts.
The prOviso failed then, and was de-
feated when II afterwards came Tn. The
war proceeded 10 a successful conclusion
and the territory was acquired. But was
this, as alleged, a conquest for slavery p
No; not foot Of il wss opened to slaye-
holding emigration. The whole Of IL was
an acquisition to the north. California
poured unexpected wealth into New York
city. Utah drained IF, like a sewer. a
dangerous and disturbing infectious ele-
ment 10 our western population, but has
remained free from slavery as has New
Mexico, which, after twelve years expos.
ure to slave emigration, only numbers %
saves.
Arizona was afterwards ACQUIRED. and
again extended, giving Us region which
promises great mineral riches, but which
have proved themselves inaccessible 70
slavery. Yet with every one of these &C,
QUESTIONS, the outcry was raised that the
government, at the mitigation of the de-
mocracy, was secretly extending slavery.
And so, for fifteen gears, a icqr otriIs.
perdtiOn and TGncorous hate has been car.
ried on against The south, for acts ,chich
hare constituted the realfh, The pourer, and
The glory Of the noyth.S
This fifteen years war has ended In the
triumph OF the sectional party of the north
"a triumph achieved at the expense ofths
Union itself; and what is the first use
made Of their power? They throw aside
the proviso. refuse tO exercise the right of
congressional prohibition, and abandon the
territories TO themselves, on the ground
that II is impossible that slavery should
extend to themi What mixture OF nv.
pocrisy, aud rapacity, and insoience. does
not this long history, with this conclusion,
! reveal.
But this sectional warfare has been ami
mated by all the zeal and animosity of
real danger. The north has been infiamed
with resentments as If the south had been
the aggressor, and the gamer. There are
tens OF thousands of men who, this day. are
so infatuated by prejudice as TO believe that
the north has been the injured party in
these fifteen years of sectional warfare /;
and who regard southern politicians, and
the democratic administration of that peri
cd, as little less than public enemies. Yet
| at no time has the north been 50 prosper
Gus; and nothing is palmer than that it's
! prosperity has been mainly due to these
extensions of our empire, the deyel0pement
! o! wealth there and the command il has
given the north of the great products Of
southern commerce.
Cut of from us the empire on the Pacific
coast and the interior acquisition from Mex-
Ico, and what would the north be now. and
| in the future, territorially? A glance at
the map will show. Deprived of the CAL
ifornia gold, which balanced our exchanges
with Europe, and enabled us to become the
/ shippers of cotton, and the bankers of the
south, what would it be financially
When the1iistory of the last fifteen years
is written, with its melancholy conclusion,
the revolution and the overthrow of the
goyerdment, the historian will fail to find
words to characterize the folly of northern
fanaticism, which made measures framed
for its own emolument and power, grounds
Of accusation, and attempted to subvert q
government, which had done everything
for the north, because il had tolerated and
sought to let alone the institution of the
/ south.