Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-01-05
Ths Trial of the north.


Have the Free States been governed by
Principle or by Interest in their resist ance
to the Extension of Slavery 7" Such is
the grave question about to be decided by
their acts, in the face of the civilized world.
! Doubtless, there have been individuals
perhaps many tbousands-who had no sub
stantial, heartfelt basis for their professed
opposition to the diffusion of slavery under
the flag Of our Union. 1t was easier to
float with the current than to breast it II
was reputable to cherish and avOw a mod
crate, rational, conservative disapprobation
of the National shame--and some wanted
! Office in localities where an avowal Of dis
sent from the predominant idea would have
proved bar to political aspiration So it
was virtually agreed, ten or fifteen years
ago, that all the people of the North were
| opposed to extending slavery, only they had
| different views as to the proper mode Of
evincing such opposition aud rendering it
effectual Then the anxiety to give no
needless pain or annoyance to "our South
ern brethren" had weight with many, and
was deemed valid excuse for reticence and
silence. .r.
Daniel Webster, more than twenty-five
years ago, made speech on National Poll
tics at Niblo's Garden in this city The
| "yeasty waves" Of the great struggle had
long before exhausted their fury and lullei
themselves to rest the project of Texas
Annexation had not yet appeared above
the horizon. There has been no time with
in the last half century when the Northern
| mi ind tro rfanr r,.,tnr Al l. -
slavery than in that same 1898. Yet in
tbatsspeeeh Mr.. w sew ft to give expres-
sion to the universal northern repugnance
to the Extension Of slavery, putting 1t dis.
tihctly on the true ground of conseien-
tious conviction which could not be over
ruled and must not be defed. No voice
in all the free states was then raised to con-
trovert or cnvil OF Mr.. Webster's position.
In l84T, Mr.. James Brooks, editor Of
The Neao York Express, was a delegate
from this city TO the Wing State Cenven-
ton at Syracuse, which assembled about
the lst Of October. In that Convention,
he moved the Committee on Address and
Resolutions, and was of course made its
Chairman. AS such, he reported an Ad-
dress drafted by him, widely known as the
| Churnbusco Address. wherein he took deci-
ded, emphatic ground against single foot
of federal territory being thereafter con-
signed to slavery "No more territory un
less it be free" was his emphatic declara-
ton. And it was sustained by that Wing
| (not republican, Convention, by a unani-
nous and thundering vote. That address
was but an echo Of the vote just taken in
the House on Mr.. WiImots resolution, now
well known as the Wilmot ProviSo, affirm
ing the same doctrine, every Wing and
nearly every Democratic vote from the
free states being recorded in the affirmative.
The issue was presented, moi once only,
bat many times, during the proceedings Of
the two Houses on the organization Of Ore
gon Territory, and on certain kindred mea-
surcs The friends of slavery repeatedly
proposed to run the line of 36o 80 straight
through to the Pacific Ocean, and the Sen
ate always assented, but the House refused
by nearly uubroken northern vote. No
single Northern Wing, and not one North
ern Democrat in ten, assented to the scheme
Of apportioning all our territory south of
So 80 to slavery.
In 1850, the idea of such partition was
emphatcally repudated by Henry Clay, in
defending his proposal which finally ended
in what is called the Compromise of that
year. "If the people Of any territory
choose TO establish slavery, said Mr.. Clay,
in substance, 'that is their own affair but
| will never consent to fasten slavery upon
any territory by act Of Congress"
Mr.. Webster. in 1851, after be had for
feiled much Northern confidence by bis
speech of March 7, 1850, and his course in
the Senate and in Mr.. Fillmore's Cabinet
thereafter, made speech in Buffalo, where.
10 he repelled with indignant eloquence the
imputation that he had surrendered aud
compromised his lifelong opposition to
Slavery. Extension He dared any ad7er.
sary to state wherein and when he had done
so, treating the charge as all Impeachment
of bis personal integrity. And thus, down
to very recent period, whatever there
was or is of moral sense or conscientious
conviction 10 the free states, stood inAexibly
opposed to any concession or compromise
that involved the extension of slavery The
Washington Hunts and William Duers who
have from time to time apostatized from the
old faith have done so on the assumption
not that slavery extension was right or tol;
erabe, but that it was not really in issue-
that there was no danger Of such extension
Now the north is soon to be tried by a
general rally of the border slave states on
the line of SO 80, with demand that i
shall be run straight through the territories
to their western limit, and all south of I
made slave soil either by positive act o
Congress or else by Constitutional provi
sion Not by the nullifers the freeaters
the avowed disunionlsts but by the avowet
champions of Union and Peace is this par
tition TO be pressed, with the secession
of all the slave states threatened in case o
its rejection. Such is the trial OF their in
tegriiy now forced upon the free states
Will they succumb Shall it be trnly sail
that we love Liberty and Justice much, bu
Ease and Profit more2 Shall It be record
ed that we were for free soil so long as
cost US nothing SO TO stand, but fiinche,
when hidden to choose between the die
tates of our cohscences and the require
ments OF our customers Is God TO b
obeyed only when Cotton consents 7 Thi
r question is now forced upon us. and must b
| daoiJad Woe To the north il she ia tenlnl