The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1861-02-26
For the Guardian
No Compromise With Treason

alone, concerning the duty Of the Republican
party at this crisis. | do not suppose that vou
will agree with me in all my positions. and
perhaps many OF the party with whom met,
will consider my opinions too radical but it is
only by comparison of different views that
those can be selected which are best. make
this explanation that no individual, or party,
may be held responsible for my views. Meth
er in politics or religion can any two persons
be found whose sentiments erdctly agree and it
would be strange if my estimation of the ends,
aims and duties of the Republican party did
not find dissentients. / hope, however that
among the Republicans of Buchanan County
there are none willing to fall down and
Let bloody treason flourish over u.s."
For one, l say let the laws be enforced-let the
United States show that it is indeed nation
No concessions whatever should be made to
/ the Carolina slave holders and the cotton oil
garchy. Any Northern Member of Congress
"Who yields concession, or but wills to Weld -
will fail to carry out the great principle which
animated the masses who elected Abraham
Lincoln. The Chicago Platform, like all Ma.
tlonal platforms, was constructed SO as to sup.
port men of extreme and of moderate opinions
but yet was to coalesce all enemies of the exten-
sion OF that portentiOus evil which disgraces
our country, and threatens to destroy it, if it
| cannot have unlimited power. Therefore all
the anti-slavery in the Chicago Platform was
the exclusion of slavery from the Territories
There is, then nothing to compromise
In acting with the Republican party did SO
with conviction that it was progressive party,
another would be inaugumted, until slavery
was "crushed out" If the Republicans falter
they will be demorlzed and like Samson
shorn of his locks, their strength will have de-
parted from them. Then new party will be
organized. Then the contest for freedom will
be fought anew. Slavery must go down. If
in exercising our Constitutional rights in rela-
/ ton to it, secession and treason come up, we
may as we'll meet southern insolence now as at
any other time. Whether the present commo-
ton results in the sutjugation of South Caro-
lima, or in disunion, let those who hate slavery
stand firm--determined never to abandon any
just principle.
J Rights always right, therefore to follow right
Is wisdom, in the scorn of consequences.
says Tennyson somewhere, or something like
it; but in this case the consequences resulting
/ from frmness will be good. The Republicans
cannot go back without dissolution of their
party Now is the time for unfinching and
nnyielding devotion to the cause of liberty for
all. A backward step now will be of great dis
service indeed. The personal liberty bills re-
gard as necessary for the protection of freemen.
and should deplore their repeal. / believe
they are constitutional and imperatively de-
manded do hope all the Free States who
have enacted them, will be true to such right
eous legislation, and that those who have not
yet passed such laws will speedily do so. Con-
cession will only give life and vigor to the South
Carolina Gascons, and no compromise can be
made with honor, and with that infiexible re.
gard for liberty from which ture men cannot
/ 4h e
principle, for humanity's sake let them stand
| firm.
Abraham Lincoln spoke the truth when on
the 18th of June, 1858, he said Il believe
this government cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free. 1t will become all one
thing, or all the other" William H. Seward,
however he may speak now, uttered an impress
sive truth when he said in Rochester, on the
/ 25th day of October 1858:
! Our country is a theatre, which exhibits,
in full operation, two radically different po-
! itical systems the one resting on the basis Of
servile or slave labor, the other the voluntary
| labor of freemen. These antagonistic
systems are continually coming into closer
contact, and collision results. Shall tell you
what this collision means! They who think
that it is accidental unnecessary, the work OF
interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore
ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. IL Is
an irrepressible conflict betpeen opposing and en-
during forces, and means that the United States
must and tciH, sooner or later, become either en-,
tirely stapeh0tding nation, or entirely free
labor nation. 1t lis the failure to APP
prehend this great truth that induces so many
unsuccessful attempts at final compromise between
the slave and free States, and it is the existenc,
of this great fact that renders all such pretended
compromises, mhen made, cain and ephemeral."
These enunciations of Lincoln and Seward
consider TO be the same as if they had said that
freedom must ultimately preraa throughout Mes
United States. In this nineteenth century wha
Republican can believe that slavery can over
run Iowa and New England? exclaim with
Charles Maekay:
"Nol never truth has been DESTROYED
They may curse it and call it crime
Pervert and betray, or Islander and shay
Its teachers, for time.
But the sunshine, aye, shall light the sky,
AS round and round We run,
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And Justice shall be done"
SO slavery must go down everywhere. Il
must go down whether this Union continues
or whether it is dissolved. If we enforce tn,
laws. and prove that this government can sus
tain ITSELF and that treason even il il receive
"aid and comfort" from Presidents and Cabi
nets, cannot divide these States, TINT must lead
to the extinction of slavery. II the mad de
signs oil Soutnern uespefadOes Snoulu END In tlt
formation of slave confederacy-in the estab
lishment Of hideous government, where " the
sum of all villainies" was all in all, that would
also extinguish slavery-thaf would annul the
fugitive slave law-that would leave those in
bonds to work out, perhaps straightway, a
bloody annihilation of their bondage. Be our
course at the North what it may, let there be
no sacrifice of anti.slayery prncple-no " pal
tering in a double sense'--no dilution Of JUS
tice and right--no recreancy to tho cause Of
human equality and the brotherhood OF
man.
| Ihnve never advocated disunion. / have ev-
err believed that without violating State rights,
or infringing on State Legislation, that Congress
had power to kill ultimately and constitution
ally the cruel and dsgraceful opprobrium Of
our country. Ii slavery was absolutely exclud-
ed from all territory belonging to the United
States if it was abolished in the District Of
Columbia If the slave trade was utterly pre-
vented if no more slave States were ever ad-
mi.ted ii the government and the Supreme
Court We're always on the side Of freedom il
personal liberty bills, worthy of the name, were
passed in all the free States If the infamous
fugitive slave law was repealed If the suprem.
acy of the laws was enforced throughout that
Barbary of the Union where the cotton oil
garchy and lynch law bear sway--ifthese things
were done. slavery would not last long. j believe
that all these measures are constitutional.