The national Republican., 1861-01-04

f0rtn.
Will any one propose gravely to rush on such
ruin, because a few negroes have run away.
and not been caught because some liberty
because mob, once in while, has resisted an
unpopular law because Maryland has been in
q minority in a Presidential election7 Or are
there any other grievances for which revolution
is considered the only adequate remedy? Is it
the personal liberty bills .. } .r.I
They exist in only few Of the free States.
They do not exist in any one Of the free States
coterminous with the slave States. They are
all remote from us-where a negro hardly ever
goes. 1t is not known that they ever aided q
single negro to escape. The courts Of the Uni.
ted States ave always declared them void, and
it is only in the courts that free country en-
forces any law. 1t is probable that they will
soon be repealed, and vanish with the tempo.
rary excitement which occasioned them.
They have been sufficient to exist more than
two administrations, without any one in Mary.
land dreaming Of revolutionary redress.
Is it the failure to enforce the fugitive slave
law?
The States are not charged with the duty at
all. 1t is imposed on the United States Gov.
ernment, and the right to claim fugitive slaves
exists only so long as the Constitution exists.
1t is certain that the dissolution Of the Govern.
ment repeals and annuls the law; and that is,
therefore, no redress.
If mobs have occasionally interfered to res.
cue fugitives, they have been successful only
occasionally; the guilty parties have frequently
been punished by both State and Federal
courts, and it is probable that they can be en-.
tirely avoided by reasonable change in the
law itself. Is a Government to be destroyed
because mob makes q rescue? Are we to
make revolution because we cannot catch q
fugitive in free State, whom we have already
failed to catch in slave State2
But the Territories. They must be adjusted.
| The rights of the South in them must be &C.
knowledged.
Are the people of Maryland dreaming of q
revolution, in the event Of failure to re settle
the territorial question to the satisfaction of
Southern secessionistsf Is Maryland so dis.
contented with the actual condition of the Ter.
ritories, that she will aid in destroying the Gov.
ernment, unless it be changed? will not be.
lieve in such madness.
No change has taken place since Mr.. Clay's
| adjustment of 1850, but at the instance of the
slave States that change was the Kansas Ne.
braska act of 1854, which repealed the Mis-.
souri, line, in order to substitute what was
called the principles of the act of 1850; and
at that time all the Territories were in fact free.
Slavery has, in point of fact, been introduced
into New Mexico by the people, under the act
of 1850.
Slavery has not been introduced into Utah,
nor Kansas or Nebraska, under the law of 1854.
The only Territory south of 360 30/ is New
Mexico; all the residue of the Territories are
north of that line. Now, we are in danger
of civil war, unless by an amendment of the
Constitution we establish slavery south of $50
30>-not merely in New Mexico, but in all ter.
ritory hereafter to be acquired.
No man who values the peace of the couu.
try can assent to that bribe to ilibustering.
But touching the territory now to be disposed
of, while the people of the free States will re.
fuse the proposed amendment, because it makes
them establish slavery, they will probably agree
to make New Mexico State, and that removes
it beyond the meddling Of Congress.
The committee of thirty. three have, on mo
ton of Mr.. Adams, agreed to recommend it
and New Mexico includes all the territory south
of 800 3O>.
Shall we break up the Government because
the free States refuse to do what Mr.. Clay re
fused to do touching this territory?
Fellow citizens, the Territorial question is o.
no practical importance to you. 1t is merely
the pretext, to entangle you in the plots agains,
your peace. II, by common consent, any change
can be made, which will silence clamor, OF
soothe the sensibilties, satisfy the jealousie,
excited by recent contests, let that change be
made. But that is the only interest you have
in any change, and, if none can be obtained OF
that character, it is our policy to let the ques
ton alone, and to make others let it alone. The
existing condition of the Territories is bettel
than agitation for any change.
If discontented men attempt to destroy thu
Government because it is not changed to sui
them, the right and the duty, the highest inter
est and the loyal honor Of Maryland requir,
her TO sustain the laws of the United State
and the Constitution, which are her only safe
ty. Let US not countenance revolutionary VIC
lence to redress imaginary wrongs by impossi
BILE measures.
Mr.. Adams's proposition to admit New Mex
leo as State, and to amend the Constitution
so as to prohibit any change in it hereafter by
which slavery in the States can be affected, un
less upon the proposal of a slave State, con
Cured in by all the Statf s; the repeal Of tht
liberty bills, and just modification Of the fu
gitive slave law, ought to close the slavery con
troversy forever-certainly till some rash con
quest shall reopenit
Or are we to destroy the Constitution becaus
Mr.. Lincoln has been elected according to it
provisions?
The existing prostration of commerce an,
, industry, the idle ships, the accumulated mel
chandise and produce, the unemployed artisans
, laborers, and mechanics the stinted alowanc
| of their families, and the desolate prospect Q
the winter-these are the points, not of the act
of South Carolina, nor of the threatened revc
luton in two or three of the Gulf States, but Q
the doubtful loyalty of the central States, of tn
threats of designing politicians to resist tn
| Government unless their extreme pretension
) are acknowledged, of the agitation of men
/ minds occasioned by extraordinary elections
/. the assembling of Legislatures, the meeting 9
State Conventions, and the menace of Cor
3 vention of the central slave States to ARA
| them in opposition to the United States. Mary
a land alone is guiltess of this great error He