Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-12-03

inhabited by the psop'e 0R the United
States, is we'll adapted to the home Of one
national family, and tbs not well adapted
for two or more. Its vast extent and its
variety Of climate and productions, are of
advantage in the age Of one people, what
ever they might have been in former ages.
Steam, and telegraphs, and intelligence,
have brought these to be an advantageous
combination for one united people.
In the Inaugural Address 1 briefly point
ed out the total inadequaey of disunion as
q remedy for differences between the peo-
pie Of the two sections. did so in Ian
guage which cannot improve, and which,
therefore, beg to repeat.
One section Of our country believes
slavery is right and ought to be extended,
while the other believes it is wrong and
ought not to be extended. This is the only
substantial dispute.
The fugitive slave clause of the Consti-
tuition and the law for the suppression of
the African slave trade, are each as well
enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be
in community where the moral sense Of
the people imperfectly supports the law it.
self The great body of the people abide
by the legal obligations in both cases, and
q few break over each. This, think, can
not be perfectly cured, and it would be
worse in both instances after separation Of
the sections than before. H
The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly
suppressed, would be ultimately revived
without restriction in one section, while
fugitives, now only partially surrendered,
would not be surrendered at all by the
other. Physically speaking, we cannot
separate. We cannot remove our respec-
tive sections from each other, nor build an
impossible wall between them. A hus-
band and wife may be divorced and 20 out
of the presence and beyond the reach Of
each other, but the different parts Of our
country cannot do this.
They cannotb but remain face to face, and
intercourse, either amicable or hostile,
must continue between them. Is it possi-
bic then to make that intercourse more ad-
vantageous or more satisfactory after sep
aratiOn than before Can aliens make
treaties easier than friends can make
laws? Can treaties be more faithfully
enforced between aliens than laws can
among friends? ? Suppose you 60 to war,
you cannot fight always, and when after
much loss on both sides, and no gain on
either, you cease fighting, the identical old
questions as TO terms Of intercourse are
again upon you.
There is no line, straight or crooked,
suitable for q national boundary, upon
which to divide. Trace through from east
to west upon the line between the free
and slave country, and we shall find lit
tie more than one-third Of its length are
rivers easy to be crossed, and populated,
or soon be populated, thiekly upon both
sides, while in nearly all its remaining
length are merely surveyors lines, over
which people may walk back and forth
without any consciousness Of their pres
enee. No part Of this line can be made
any more difficult to pass by writing it
down on paper or parchment IS National
boundary.
The fact Of separation, if it comes, gives
upon the part of the seeeeding section the
fugitive slave clause, along with all other
constitutional obligations upon the section
seeded from, while 1 should expect no
treaty stipulation would ever be made to
take its place.
But there is another difficulty: The
great interior region, bounded east by the
Alleghanies, north by the British domin-
ions, west by the Rocky Mountains, and
south by the line along which the cultiYa-
ton of corn and cotton meets, and which
includes part of Virginia, part of Tennes-
ee, all of Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Wis
consin, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa
and Minnesota, and the Territories of Da-
cotah, Nebraska, and e part of Colorado,
have above ten millions of people, and will
have fifty millions within fifty years, if not
prevented by any political folly or mistake.
1t contains more than one-third of the
country owned by the .reYolted States, GER
tainly more than one million Of surface
miles; one-haR as populous as Massachu-
sets already is, it would have more than
seventy-fve millions of people. A glance
at the map shows that territorially speak
ing, it is the great body of the
Republic. The other parts are but
marginal borders to it, the magnificent re-
gion sloping west from the Rocky Noun
tains to the Pacific, being the deepest and
also the eriehest in undeVeloped resources in
the production Of provisions, grains,
grasses, and all which proceeds from them.
This great interior region is naturally one
Of the most important in the world. As
certain from the statistics the small pro-
portion of heregion which has not as yet
been brought into cultivation, and also the
large and rapidly increasing amount Of its
products, and we shall be overwhelmed
with the magnitude of the prospect pre-
sented, and yet this region has no sea-
coast, touches no ocean anywhere. As
part Of one nation its people now may find,
and may forever find their way to Europe
by New York, to South America and Africa
by New Orleans, and to Asia by San
Francisco.
But separate our common country into two
nations, as designed by the present rebel
lion, and every man in this great interior
region is thereby cut of from some one or
more Of these outlets, not perhaps by
physical barrier, but by embarrassing and
onerOus trade regulations, and this is true
wherever a dividing or boundary line may
be fixed. Place it between the now free
and slave country, or place it south of Ken
lucky, or north Of Ohio, and still the
truth remains that none south of it can
trade to any port or place north Of it, and
none north Of it can trade 10 any port or
place south Of it, except upon terms die
tatedby government foreign to them
outlets, east, west and south, are in
to the well being of the peo-
pie inhabiting, and to inhabit, this vast in
terror region. Which Of the three may be
the best is no proper question; NIL are bet
ter than either, and allcof right belong to
that pcople and to their successors forever.
True TO themselves, they will not ask
where a line Of separation shall be, but
will vow rather that that there shall be no
such line. Nor are the marginal regions
less interested in these communications to
and through them to the great outside
world. They do, and each one Of them
must have access to their Egypt Of the
west, without paying toll at the crossing
of any national boundary. Our national
strife springs not from our permanent
part, not from the lands we inhabit not