Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1861-01-17

4 from the Cnnfederdcy at Its pleasure, III
peace or war, constitutional liberty is imper-
illed, revolution is meditated, and treason is
/ justified. - AAstt - Az stLy J T.
We may well pause to inquire, why these
! discontcnts, those hostile demonstrations a.
gainst the Federal Government.
| Ambitious mon in Republics who lind
their aims thwarted by the regular and
peaceful workings of government, always
seek pretexts to disturb its easy progress,
however prosperous. Party, sectional, per-
| sonal prejudices, the growth of diversities in
local institutions, habits, and pursuits, are
| seized upon by such men to create h0stiities
between the various classes ofa country,
strongly united by common interests, but
whose union gives them grandeur too inn
posing to be erasped by malcontents who,
without merit to reach the highest author
ity in a great Commonwealth, woull reduce
i 10 to fragments " become masters in u part.
Such conspirators never disclose The secret
motives OF their discomfort, but fabricate
pretenses for dissatisfaction among the mass-
es they would move, by appeals to their
pride, their Jealousy, their envy, qnickened
by narrow, mistaken, yet honest patriot
ism for the lo.dty Of its birth, which, from
peculiarly in loneitic institutions, has lost
the vantage gro,nil of superior political in
fuence once h:lj ID tho Confcdsraey. The
vast disproportiOnate increase Of political
power Of the free States over that of the
! slave States, especially of those where the
wealth flows from nm industry and . species
Of agriculture which expels the white race,
and accuinulates another fatal to oil prog
ress, has created a rprepondcrance in the
Northern, Western aud Middle States
which has secured 10 them the permanent
. rnnirnl of tho (tnvarnnnuf
During the FIRST 4S years of the Republic
it had iti impulse, for the most part, from
: the great heart beating in its central region
: Except the two from Massachusetts, all it,
n Presidents may be said to have been Vir
, ginia Presidents, for jackson aud Van Burcr
were chosen through her influence During
the administration of the elder Adams, hcI
star dominatedOve the Congressional coun
= sells in the person OF Vice-P President Jeiicr
! son. During that Of the second, il rose a.
, gain in both branches of Congress through
a the prestige impaired to her candidate, Jack
son, by the commanding eloquence of hel
. Senators and Representatives,
= Throughout the almost half century O.
!. Republican rule, under the auspices of Vir
4 GINA, the free States were not merely con
tent, but with The exception of paroxysu
growing out of the commercial difficulties
contrivcd by Great Britain, dissipated by
, the war she provoked, and the momentary
panic quieted by the Missouri Compromise
' gave it that jealous support which rendered
t this this era 50 happy and prosperous to tn ;!
our institutions, was looked upon through
: out this period as distressing excresence
the result of a yoke, we fad worn in our in
4 fancy, and which the strength Of our Con
1 stitution would in time throw off -
n ID was not until the Premiership of Mr.
i Calhoun, Openedt the designs of SLAYER,
. propaganism, that serious alarm arose among
the friends of Republican government, tina
= the power OF a sectional interest, founded OF
+ slavery, was meditating the means Of con
a testing its supremacy over the continent
The free States accorded to the South oil tn,
\ territory in which slavery previously existed,
to open up aud drain off the sources of it
/! malaria by tho African labor it possessed
h They trusted that as the Anglo-Saxon rae,
q Of freemen multiplied and overlowed from
/ the north and middle regions, the inferio
race would recede further South, and make
I this whole continent the abode Of freedom
But the demand that acquisitions of FREE
! territory should beconsigned to slavery tina
J California should be rejected from the Unior
because she came with q free Republican
al NoiStiVutiOii HOI hhIut uuNcuCu tlIt u0
, ception practised is the pledge, given b,
leading advocates Of the annexation of Texas
i that il would open che way for the with
drawal of Slavery from the temperate zone
on its march to mingle with. the freed black.
in the tropics Of Central America. The
J, Compromise Of, 1859, providing for the ad
mission Of four additional slave States from
Texas, consecrated that portion added from
tho New Mexican conquest east of the Ric
z Grande and north ofMissouri Compromise
line to freedom-although claimed by Texas
) and loft oil the rest Of the, Territory ac
quired, TO / he construction of the Mexican
, law which had abolished Slavery at one time
existing there. This was the second hard
won publication by which Mr.. Clay hoped
to lay forever the spectre of disunion, foun-
ding it on the principle of the Ordinance Of
1851, which had resigned to Slavery all the
Territory which properly appertaincd to the
domain Of tho Slave States, reserying ,tha
belonging to the United States fos settlement
by freemen exclusively. The leading partie.
in their Presidential platforms. IN which
they submitted their claims for the sanction
Of tho popularyote at H. Immediately en-
: suing election, ratified this settlement o.
1850, adding a new sanction to the Missouri
Compromise. But doth these compacts be-