Weekly Trinity journal., 1861-02-02
The Journal.
prentice and the DIississippian.

Inst at the present time it becmes men to think
..ou and argue calmly, the matter of separating
,.is Union of States or preserving it unbroken,
,ot future generations may enjoy the glorious
,rvileres we have enjoyed. Prentice, of the
7 ouisville Journal, philosophises well, as the
allowing from that paper of Dec. 26th shows:
We met at a railroad depot the other day a
rorv agreeable Mississippi gentleman, who asked
no What Kentucky would do in the present extra
"rdinary condition of political affairs. We told
Ain, that Kentucky was earnestly devoted to the
montenance of the Union. and that she of course
aisonnroved, regretted, and condemned the vio-
,enf movements made in a portion of the Cotton
States. He said that the Union would of course
be dissolved and that Kentucky would be the
iost State which the seeding States would be
Wiling to give up, inasmuch as her bale-rope
ond bacging, her bacon, and her beef were es-
nociallv necessary to them We asked why if
tbp seeding States were so anxious for the COM
many of Kentucky, they showed no disposition to
take council with her as to their action. He said
that nearly her whole political course had been
snch that they lacked confidence in her and chose
10 secede by themselves in the hope that
their movement would drag her after them. We
veptured to intimate that dragging was process
10 which Kentucky might not very cheerfully
submit-that if any dragging was to be done she
might like to do little of it herself
We asked our Mississippi friend what his State
wished to dissolve the Union for He replied
that it was chiefly on account of the refusal of the
free States to send back fugitive slaves and their
refusal to let Southern men travel with their
slaves through their territory. We asked whether
Kentucky and the rest of the border slave States
did not suffer more, hundred times more from
both these causes than Mississippi or any other
State that talked of secession did. He answered,
l,,t,r c,n1f fnn fIo inf nd hp
of the border slave States as deeply and kecnly
as we do for our own. We haZarded the sugges-
tion that, if he and his friends felt more deeply
and keenly for our honor and our interest than
we ourselves did, they probably felt more deeply
and keenly for them than they did for their own.
"Yes," we added, "you feel so deeply and keen
" for our honor and interest, that, for their
alleged protection, you would force us, against
our own will and earnest remonstrances. into
revolution, knowing. as you do, that we should
have to encounter all or nearly all of the terrible
consequences of the movement, while you, with
our hundreds Of miles Of territory nterposed be-
tween you and the new made enemy, would be
comparatively safe"
Ard how, we asked, could the dissolution of
the Union remedy the evils you complain of?
Would masters then be able to travel through
the free States with their slaves or would fugitive
slaves be sent hack to the slave State more than
they are now? All said he, let the Union be
hivid into two COniederncics and then II the
North which will he foreign country, shall re-
fuse to return to us the slaves that escape into
her territory, we will, for each and every offence
of the kind punish her with the military arm
indeed, said we, would you be very fcrcc and
bloody minded as that Woll, now, there's
Canada. foreign tO1ntry, chock full of escaped
slaves that she refuses to surrender up why
don't you punish her with yonr military arm
He replied, the fact is the Yankee States are
between us and Canada and they would oppose
us in any attempt we might make to invade her.
Oh, said we then it is the Yankees after all, that
YOU are afraid Of aud il is not at least barely
possible that a salutary fear of them might, II
the Union were dissolved, restrain you from in
Vading their territory on account Of their refusal
10 surrender fugitive slaves just as eh'ctually as
it now restrains you from marching through their
territory to punish Canada?
The fact is, even the most sensible OF the ultra
scecssionists have permitted their passion, cspecl-
ally tn" passion Of sectional hate. to become so
aroused that they take false and absurd view
Of almost everything they look at. Unqu"stlon,
ably there are sectional grievances that call
loudly for redress, but the subject should he ap
preached in a spirit of candor and patriotism
and conciaion. and certainly no two or three
or half Il dozen States should be so unjust and
insane as to act rashly 10y themselves in IA case
involving the desinics OF other States incOmpar-
ably more than their own.