The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-08-28

LILO compromise measures Ol 1OOV udU
produced. In 1855 he again went as a
delegate from the State Of Alabama to
the Cincinnati Convention, with his old
uhimatuns in his pocket. Contrary to
his wishes and expectations, it was incor-
porated into the Cincinnati platform, and
being thus left without an excuse, he sup
ported Mr.. Buchanan for the Presidency
in the fall of that year. In the meantime,
however, that fatal measure, the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise, had been con-
summated. It was brought about by the
extremists of the South, aided by few
partisan Democrats at the North. The
avowed object of its author was to open to
slavery The territories north of the Mis-
souri, Compromise line, notwithstanding
the agreement Of 1920, that said line
should forever divide the territories be-
tween the Free and Slave States. 1t is
said, however, that the compromise of
1920 was unconstitutional; but what is
that to the purpose? 1t was a most
solemn compact between the two sections
of the country, made for the settlement
of most perplexing question, and with
out any reference to It's cOnstitutionality,
should have been regarded as an organic
law, and observed as sacredly as the Con-
stitution itself a. @f 'a
The effect of this measure was great and
rapid, and there can be but little doubt
that it was such as majority of its au-
thors contemplated. The result was the
formation of a great party in the North
opposed to the further extension of slavery,
and which party very nearly succeeded in
electing their candidate for the Presidency,
Mr.. Fremont, in 1856. After the election
this party seemed to be on the wane, until
the anti-slavery spirit of the whole North
was reused to madness, by the attempt on
the part of Mr.. Buchanan's administration
to force the Lecompton constitution with
slavery upon the people of Kansas, in OPP
position to the known and expressed wish
of three-fourths of them. But for this
most upjusti6abie measure the Republican
party would undoubtedly have dwindled
down to moderate proportions; and even
after this it is doubtful if they could have
succeeded in the Presidential election of
1860, if the secessionists, with Yancey at
their head, had not determined that they
should succeed. After Mr.. Yancey and his
party had, against their wishes, succeeded
in getting their uhimdtuno of nOn-inter-
vention incorporated into the Cincinnati
platform, they went to work to conjure up
another to present to the Charleston Con-
vention. Abandoning their doctrine of
non-intervention, they went to the other
extreme and demanded that the interven-
ton of Congress for the protection of sla-
very in the territories should constitute a
part of the Charleston platform.
This demand they well knew would not
be complied with, nor did they desire that
it should be. Their object was to procure
the secession of the delegates of the cot
ton States from the convention, and thus
by defeating the nomination of Mr. Doug
las, and rending asunder the Democratic
party, to ensure the election of Mr. Lin
coin, and thereby forge for themselves a
grievance which would seem to Justify
them in the execution of the long medita-
ted designs of destroying the Union. All
of this they accomplished, and the cleo
ton of Mr.. Lincoln was perhaps hailed
with greater joy at Charleston than at
New York. l will do them the justice to
state that they also claimed to have some
other grievances; among them, that some
OF the Northern States by their statutes
obstructed the execution of the fugitive
slave law; but the only States that could
complain much on that score were willing
to remain in the Union, while South Car
DINA, the State which set the ball in mo-
ton, perhaps never lost slave, But it
must be borne in mind that no act of the
national government constituted any part
of their grievances. They did not pre-
tend that any act of Congress infringed
their rights, and the decisions of the Su-
preme Court were mainly such as they
would themselves have made. Nay, even
at the time of Mr.. Lincoln's inauguration,
if the cotton States had allowed their rep
resentatives to remain, they would have
had decided majority in both houses of
Congress in favor of the extension of
slavery, and in opposition to the policy of
the party which elected him. 80.
The greatest cause of complaint was,
that man opposed to the extension of
slavery in the territories had been elected
President of the United States, according
to the forms of the constitution which he
was sworn to protect and defend, and
who disclaimed any other than constitu-
tional means in the accomplishment of its
objects. Under such circumstances it
seems that if they had labored under any
real grievance, their course was plain.
They should have taken the course Of our
revolutionary fathers, When the States
assembled in convention, instead of pro-
ceeding at once to declare their indepen-
dence-for the idea of secession, peacea-
BILE if right, seems, as ,Publius says, to
have exploded and given up the ghost
should clearly and concisely have stated
what their grievances were, and demanded
redress in respectful, yet firm and decided
terms. They should have exhausted every
constitutional means Of obtaining guaran-
tees-if any were ,needed-by represen-
tation, by remonstrance, by petition and
failing in all these, they should have done
as our revolutionary .sires did, a. e.. fight
in the Union for their rights until thew
We're driven out of it. Such a course
would have procured for us, as it did for
our fathers, the respect, the sympathy.
and annd the assistance of other nations. In
stead Of that, we have not a friend in Eu-
rope. But such was not the course which
these-in their estimation-wise states
men choose to pursue. =, When such "a
course, was suggested or recommended to