Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1861-03-23
Kitsap County Correspondence.
TEEKALEr, March II, 1856

IEEkALET, Nlarcn IL, IOUO.
Ed. STANDARD The all-absorbing
question now is, the extension of slavery
throughout the Territories, or the sew
ering Of the Union of these States.
While the people of the North will do
all they can honorably to prevent tho
spread OF slavery throughout the Ter
ritories, they will do equally as much
to prevent the separation of these Con-
federated States. Let us look at Kan
sas. The repeal of the Missouri Com
promise, and the attempt to force
slavery upon an unwilling people, have
done more to distract the councils of
the nation and the confidence of the
people, than any other transaction the
government has ever undertaken. The
whole history of that unfortunate Ter
ritory is tale of unmitigatcd fraud.
Territorial officers were appointed, and
withdrawn or compelled to resign for
even attempting to do justice. Frauds
were practiccd at the elections, of which
no notice was taken except to encour-
age. Houses, stores, and barns, were
burned; printing presses destroyed,
and peaceful citizens murdered. Wo-
man and children were driven from
their homes, without shelter from the
wind and storm. Such were the cold
bloodcd and brutal crimes committed
on the early settlers of that Territory.
The usual tolls, harlships, and priva-
tons, of the pioneers of new coun-
try are quite sutficicnt-but add to
them all that has been inflicted on the
early settlers of Kansas, with the hor-
rors of the assassin, and You have inhu-
manity without a cause, together with
Il long catalogue of crimes that would
equal if not outstrip the pirate. What
was the occasion for all the crimes and
destruction of property in that Terri
tory? Simply to establish slavery there,
and nothing else. Establish slavery
throughout the Territories of the Uni
ted States, and you have country with
no safety in the future. Enslaved men,
whether white or black, when their
numbers become sufficient, when their
physical force is adequate to the task,
will loosen their shackles and throw
off the chains that bind them. The
people of the North are a Union abid-
ing and conservative people. The Tn
ion of these States is valuable to them,
and if valuable to the people of the
North, it is doubly so to the South
They know and feel the value of their
own personal safety. They know and
feel it too scnsibly to rush madly into
such a wild and disastrous scheme with
out cause. Although several of the
Southern States have declared their
separation, still their interest, their
safety and their Happiness will, in the
sober second thought, preponderate in
favor of their remaining quietly within
the circle of the Union of these States.
Although slavery is so abhorrcnt to Il
majority of the people of the free States,
still l would not touch so much as the
hem of its garment to interfere with il
in the States where it now exists. The
people of the old Southern States found
the institution with them at the close
of the Revolution, and adopted it as
their own offspring. 1t now exists
there by force of local law. and can
only be removed by the same process
unless they have insurrcction, and that
is more revolving than slavery itself
It was never intended or expected by
those that brought together the mate.
rial, for our Government that slavery
should spread throughout the entire
domain. 1t was expected that the lin.
its it then had, was the final extent OF
its boundaries. Is the Union of these
States to be broken up? Are the walls
and the bulworks that have surrounded
us and protected us, the arches through
which we have safely passed, and the
canopy that has overshadowed us, and
sheltered us from the wind and the
storm of the enemies of freedom, to be
broken down and demolished with the
battcring-ram of slavery? Is that which
cost the blood and the treasure of our
ancestors, that which outweighs all
other events and all other considcra.
rations, and mocks the loftiest flight OF
human eulogy-is it all to be laid
aside and forgotten in the struggle oi
the task-makers for more power?
May we hope, Notwithstanding all we
hear from time to time, that the sore,
awful calamity will not take place; that
the storm that has been gathering will
not burst upon us to the destruction OF
the Union but that the clouds that
have been 80 ominous of evil will clear
away, the fine blue sky will appear, and
the sun with his midday splendor will
send forth his rays of life and beauty,
and the use of our seXtant. will reveal