The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-04-26


tron of the North, and enemy, instead of pro-
| tector to her.
That this is the attitude which the Government
| is henceorward to assume, we shall now proceed
| to show:
l. In the first place, let it be distinctly under
stood, that we do not charge the great body of
the N Northern people, who have accomplished the
recent revolution with being abolitiouists, in the
strict and technical sense. We are willing to con-
ceue that they have design, for the present, to
Interfere directly with slavery in the slaveholding
States. We shall give them credit for an honest
purpose, under Mr.. Lncon's administration to ex-
as iat as tne hostility of the States will let
tne, the provisions of the fugitive slave law All
this may be admitted, but it does not aect the rea
| issue, nor mitigate the real danger We know
that there are various types of opinion at the North
with reference to the moral aspects of slavery and
we have never apprehended that, under the Con
| sitution as it stands, there any likelihood of
an attempt to interfere, by legislation, with our
| property on our own SOIL
| 2 But, in the second place, it must likewise be
conceded that the general, almost the universal
attitude of the Northern mind is of hostility to
slavery. Those who are not prepared to condemn
1T as sin, to meddle with it where it is legally
maintained, yet opposed to it, a natural and
political evil which every good man should desire
to see extuguisbed. They all regard it. as a ca
lamlty, an aflliction, misfortune. They regard it
as an element of weakness, and as a drawback up
on the prosperity and glory of the country. They
pity the South, as caught in the folds of a serpent
which is gradually squeezing out her life And
even when they defend US from the reproach of
sin in sustaining the relation, they make so many
distinctions between the abstract notion of slavery
and the system of our own laws, that their defence
would hardly avail to save us, if there were anv
power competent to hang and quarter u.s. We are
sure that we do not misrepresent the general tone
OF Northern sentiment. 1t is one of hostiliiy to
sIavery-t is one which, while it might not be
willing to break faith under the present admins
tration, with respect to the express nunctions of
the Constitution, is utterly and absolutely opposed
to any furth1r extension of the system.
s. In the third place let it be distinctly understood
tnat we have no complaint to make of the opinions
OF the North, considered simply as their ouipions
They have right, far as human authority is
concerned, to think as they please. The South has
never asked them to approve of slavery, or to
cnange their own institutions and to introduce it
among themselves. The South has been willing to
accord to them the most perfect and unrestricted
right of private judgment.
A. But, in the fourth place, what we 10 complain
or and what we have a right to complain Of is
that they should not be content with thinking
their own thoughts themselves, but should under
take to make the Government think them likewise.
we OF the South have, also, certain thoughts con-
cernIng slavery, and cannot understand upon
what principle the thinking of the South is totally
excluded, and the thinking of the North made SUI
preme. The Government is as much ours as tbeirs
and we cannot see why, in matter that vitally
concerns ourselves, we shall be allowed to do no
efieetiye thinking at all. This is the grievance
The Government is made to take the type of
Northern sentiment-it is animated, in its relations
to slavery, by the Northern mind, and the South,
henceorward, is no longer of the Government but
only under the Government. The extension of
slavery, in obedience to Northern prejudice, is to
be forever arrested. Congress is to treat it as an
evil, an element of political weakness, and to re-
strain its influence within the limits which now
crcumscribe il. All this because the North thinks
SO; while the South, an equal party to the Govern
ment, has quite other thoughts. And when we
Indignantly complain of this absolute suppression
OF all right to think in and through our own Gov
ernment upon subject that involves our homes
and our tresides, we are c0olly reminded, that as
long as Congress does not usurp the rights of our
own Legislatures, and abolish slavery on our own
soil, nor harbor our fugitives when they attempt
to escape from US, we have reason to be grateful
for the indulgence accorded to US. The right to
breathe is as much as we should venture to claim.
ou may exist, says freesoilism, as States, and
manage your slaves at home-we will not abrogate
your sovereignty. Your runaways we do not
want, and we may occasionally send them back to
you But if you think you nave a right to be
heard at Washington upon this great subject, it is
time that your presumption should be rebuked.
The North is the thinking power-the soul of the
Government. The life of the Government is North
ern-not Southern; the type to be impressed upon
all future States is Northern not outhern. The
North becomes the United States, and the South
subject province.
Now, we say that this is a state of things not to
be borne. free people can never consent to
their own degradation. We say boldly that the
Government has no more right to adopt Northern
subject OF slavery Juan those OF the
South. 1t has no more right to presume that they
are true. 1t has no right to arbitrate between
them. 1t must treat them both with equal respect,
and give them equal chance. Upon no other
| footing can the South, with honor remain in the
Union. 1t is not to be endured for moment, that
fifteen sovereign States, embodying, in proportion
| to their population, as much intelligence,
virtue, public spirit and patriotism, as any
other people upon the globe, should be
quietly reduced to zero, in a Government
which they framed for their protection! We
rfL the Question again to the North " the tables
We're turned, and it was your thoughts, your life
your institutions, that the government was hence
forward to dscountenance: if non-Savehoding was
hereafter to be prohibited iu every territory and
the whole policy of the government shaped by the
principle that slavery is blessing, would you en-
dure it? Would not your blood boil, and would
you not call upon your hungry millions to come to
the rescue? Ana yet this is precisely what YOU
have done to us, and think we ought not resist.
You have made US ciphers, and are utterly amazed
that we should claim to be any thing.
But, apart from the depreciation which it inhicts
upon the South, it may be asked, what real injury
will result from putting the government in an atti-
tude of hostility to slavery?
The is, in the first place. that it will GER
talnly lead to the extinction Of the system. You
may destroy the oak efectually by girding it as
| by cutting it down. The North are well assured
| that if they circumscrbe the area of slaverr
if they can surround it with a circle of nou-save-
| holding States and prevent it from expanding
nothing more is required to secure its ultimate alb
clifton '.Like the scorpion girt by fire." it will
plunge its tangs into its own body and perish. II,
therefore, the South not prepared to her insii
tutiOns surrounded by enemies and wither and de-
cay under these hostile influences, if she means to
cherish and protect them, it is her b0unden duty
to resist the revolution which threatens them with
| ruin. The triumph Of the principles which Mr..
Lincoln is pledged to carry QUO, is the deathknell
! Of slavery.
| In the next place. the state of the Northern mind
which has produced this revolution cannot be ex-
/ I'D tn pINoI
| 1t will hasten to other triumphs. The same spirit
which has prevaricated with the express provisions
OF the Constitution, and resOrted to expedeuts to
evade the most sacred obligations. will hesitate
for moment to change the Constitution when it
finds itself in possession of the power. 1t will only
be consistency to harmOnize the fundamental law
of the government with its chosen policy the real
workings of its life. The same hostility to slavery
which numerical ma iority has impressed upon
the federal legislature, it will not scruple to i'm
press upon the federal Constitution. If the South
could be induced to submit to Lincoln, the time we
confidently predict will come when all grounds of
controversy will be removed in relation to fugitive
slaves, by expunging the provision under which
they are claimed. The principle is at work and
enthroned in power, whose inevitable tendency is
to secure this result. Let crush the serpent in
| the egg.
Frgm these considerations it is obvious that moth
ing less is at stake in this controversy than
| the very life OF the South. The real question is,
| whether she shall be politically annihilated. We
| are not struggling for heeting and temporary in
! terests. We are struggling for very being
! And none know better than the Republican party
itself, that if submit to their type of gov
ernment, our fate slayehOding is forever sealed.
They have already exulted in the prospect of this
glorious cOnsummation. They boast that they have
| laid mine which must ultimately explode in
ruin. They singing songs of victory in ad-
vance, and are confidently anticipating the auspi-
cious hour when they shall have nothing to do but
to return to the field and bury the dead.
The &nn of what we have said is briefly this:-
We have shown that the constitutional attitude of
| the government towards slavery is one of alb
! solute neutrality or indifference in relation
to the moral and political aspects of the
subject. We have shown, in the next place,
| that it is hereafter to take an attitude of
hostility; that it is to represent the opinions
and feelings exclusively of the Norh that it is to
| become the Government of section over ano-
ther and that the South, as South, Is to sustain
| no other relation to it but the duty Of obedience.
| This is thorough and radical revolution. 1t
| makes a new G0vernment-it proposes new and
| extraordinary terms of union. The old Govern
men is as completely abolished as if the pt ople of
| the United States had met in Convention and re-
pealed the Constitution. 1t is frivolous to tell
| that the change has been made through the forms
of the Con titution. This is to add insult to injury.
| What signify forms, when the substance Is gone
| OF what value is the shell, when the kernel is ex-
tracted =? Rights things, and not words; and
when the things taken from US, it is no time to
be nibblng at phrases. If witness under oath de-
| signedy gives testimony, which, though literally
true, conveys false impression, is he not guilty of
| perjury? Is not his truth lie? Temures kept
the letter of his promise to the garrison of Sebastia
| that if they would surrender, no blood should be
| shed, but did that save him from the scandal OF
treachery 10 burying them alive? No man objects
to the legality of the process of Mr.. Lncons cleo
tion. The objection is to the legality OF that 10
| which he is elected. He has been chosen not 10
| adm tnt to ravolutioniye. the Governments.