Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1862-12-04

E0nsesection of our country believes that
lavery. Is right, aud ought to be extended
While the other believes it is ,oropg, and
ought not 10 he extended. This is the only |
dispute. The fugitive slave |
,lause of tho Constitution, and the Law for |
he suppression ofthe foreign slave trade,
IRE each az well enforced, perhaps, an any
aw can ever be in community where the |
moral sense Of the people imperfectly sup
ports the law ITSELF The great body Of the
people abide by the dry legal obligation in
both cases, ,asd { few break over in each. =
This, thibh, cannot DO perfectly cured;
and ii would ba worse in both cases after
the separatiou'of the sections than before. :
The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly
suppressed, would be ultimately revived
without restriction in one section; while
fugitive slaves, nov only partially surrcnd-
cred at an by the other. '''' l.'j i' a'f
physically speaking, we cannot separate.
We cannot remove orr respective sections
from each other, nor build an impassabIe
wall between them A husband and wife
may be divorced, and go out of the presence,
and beyond the reach Of each other but the
different parts Of our country cannot do this.
They cannot but reirian face to face; and
intercourse, either amicabIe or hostile, must
continue between them. Is il possible, then,
to make that Intercourse observation-disclosures,
or more satisfactory, utter separation than
befors? Can aliens make treaties. easier than
friends make lawsp Can troatis. be more
faithfully enforced between aliens. than laws
can among friends? Suppose you 60 to the
war, you cannot fight always, and when,
after much loss on both sides, and no gain
on either, you cease fighting, the identical
old question, as % teruK OF intercourse, arc
again upon you.
There is no line, straight or crooked, suit
able for a national boundary, upon which to
divide Trace through from east TO west,
upon the limo between Che free aud slave
country, and We shall finds little more than
one third OF its length are rivers easy to be
crossed and populated thickly upon botl,
sides; while nearly all it's remaining length,
are merely surveyors lines, over which
people may walk back and forth without
any consciousness of their presence No
part ofthis line can be made any more diff
cult to pass, by writing it down on paper, OF
parchment, as national boundary. The
fact of separation, if it c)mes, gives up, on
the part Of the seeding section, the fugitive
slave clause, ,long with all other constitu
tional obligations up,n the section seeded
from, while | should expect no treaty strip
ulation would ever be made TO take its p3hco
But there is another difficulty The great
interior region, bounded east BY the ALE
ghenies, north by the British dominions
west by the Rocky mountains, and south BY
the line along which the culture OF corn and
cotton meets, and which includes part o
Virginia, part Of Tennessee, all of Kentucky
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illi
nois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota,
and the Territories OF Dakota, Nebraska,
and part Of Colorado, already has above ten
millions Of peopl,. and will have fifty mil
lions within fifty years, II not prevented by
any political folly or mistake 1t contains
more than one.thrd Of the country owned
by the United States--certainly more thar
one million square miles. Once half az
populous as Massachusetts, already is, i,
would have more than seventy five millions
Of people. A glance at the map shows that
territorially speaking, it is the great body o
the republic. The other parts are but mar
ginal borders to it, the magnificent region
sloping west from the Rocky mountains to
the Pacific, being the deepest and also the
richest, in undeveloped resources In the
production Of provisions, grains, grasses
and all which proceed from them, this grea
interior regimis naturally one Of tho most
important in the world Ascertain from tn,
statistics shs small proportion Of the region
which has, a. yet, been brought into cult
walton, and also the large and rapidly in
creasing amount Of its products, and ",
shall be overwhelmed with the magnit,id.
of the prospect presented. And yet thi
region has no ssa-ccast touches no ocear
anywhere. Az part Of ono nation, its peo
pie now find, and may forever find, thei
way to Europe by New York, to South
America and Alrica by New Orleans, anc
to Asia by San Francisco. But separate Ou
common country into two nations, a,
designed by the present rebellion, and ever,
man Of this great interior region is thereby
Cut off from Some one or more Of these out
let's, not, perhaps, by ply barrier, bu
by embarrassing and onerous trade regula
hOns taA
And this is true, phererer dividing, O.
boundary line may be fixed Place it be
tween the now free and slave country, O
place ID sonth of Kentucky, or north o.
Ohio, and still the truth remains, that non,
south OF ri, can trade to any port or place
north oft, and none north of il can trade
to any port or place south of it, except upor
terms dictated by a government foreign tC
them. These outlets east, west, and south
are indispensable to the well being Of til,
people inhabting. and TO inhabit this vast
interior region. Which Of the three may be
the best, is no proper question. All, ar,
better than either; and all, Of right, belong
to that people, and to their successors for.
ever. True to themselves, they will not asl
,ohere line of separation shall be, but will
vow, rather, that there shall be M such line
Nor are the marginal regions less interested
in these communications to, and through
them, to the great outside world, They too
and each of them, must have access to, this
Egypt Of tbe West, without paying toll q,
the crossing of any national boundary "'
Our national strife springs not from oul
permanent part; not from the, land we in
habit; not from our national homestead :
There is no possible seveing Of this, but
would multiply, and not mitigate, evil,
among us. Ii all It's adaptations and ap
titudes, it demands union, and abhora sep
aration. In fact, il would, ere long, forc,
re- Union, however much Of blood and trea
sure the separation might have cost
Our strife pertains to ourselves--to tn,
passing generations of men; and it can
without oonvulsion, bs hushed forever will
the passing ofons generation. ..., y. '.'.
In this view, | recommend the adoption
\ NJ the fnlIowino resolution AMI nrf;cla,