Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1863-01-31


the fundamental idea of the Constitution
is the perfect and eternal compatibility of
union of States part slave and part
free" else the Constitution would have
never been framed nor the Union founded;
and seventy years of successful experiment
have approved the wisdom of the plan -
In my deliberate judgement, a conledcracy
made up of slaveholding and non-slave-
holding states is, in the nature of things,
the strongest of all popular governments,
African slcvery has been, and is eminently
conservative. 1t makes the absolute po.
Iitical equality of the white race every
where practicable. 1t dispenses with the
English order of nobility, aud leaves ev-
cry white man, North and South, owning
slaves or owning none, the equal of every
other white man. 1t has reconciled uni.
yersal suffrage throughout the free States
with the stability of goyernmen. speak
not now of its material benefits to the
North and West, which are many and
more obvious. But the South, too, has
profted many ways by union with the
non>slaveholding States. Enterprise, i'll.
dustry, self reliance, perseverance, and
the other hardy virtues Of q people living
in higher latitude and without heredi.
tary servants. she has learned or received
from the North. Sir, tits easy, | know,
to denouncc all this, and to revile him who
utters it. Be it so. The English is, of
all languages, the most copious in words
of bitterness and reproach. "Pour on: l
will endure
Then, sir, there is not an "irrepressible
conflict" between slave labor and free ia.
Dor. There is no conflict at all. Both
exist together in perfect harmony in the
South. The master and the slave, the
white laborer and the black, work together
in the same field or the same shop, and
without the slightest sense of degradation.
They are not equals, either socially or po
litically. And why not, then, cannot
Ohio, having only free labor, live in har-
mony with Kentucky which has both slave
and free Above all, why cannot Massa.
chusetts allow the same ight OF choice to
South Carolina, separated as they are a
thousand miles, by other States who would
keep the peace and live in good will -
Why this civil war? Whence dsunion !?
Not from slavery-Dot because the South
chooses to have two kinds of labor; but
from sectionalism, always and everywhere
disintegrating principle. Sectional jeal
ousy and hate-these, sir, are the only
elements Of conflict between these States,
and though powerful, they are yet not at
all irrepressible. They exist between
families, communities, towns, cities, coun.
ties and States and if not repressed
would dissolve all society and government.
They exist also between other sections than
the North and South, sectionalism East,
many years ago, saw the South and West
united by the ties of geographical position,
migration, intermarriage, and interest, and
thus strong enough to control the policy of
the Union. 1t found Us divided only by
different forms of labor; and with consul
mate but most guilty sagacity, it siezed
upon the question of slavery as the surcst
and most powerful instrumentality by which
to scperate the West from the South, and
bind her to the North, Encouraged ev-
cry way from abroad by those who were
jealous ofour prosperity and greatness, and
who knew the secret of our strength, it
proclaimed the "irrepres,ble conflict" be-
tween slave labor and free labor. 1t
taught the people of the North to forget
both their duty and their Interests; and
aided by the artificial ligaments viii
money and enterprise had created between
the sea-board and the North west, it per-
suaded the people of that section, also, to
yield up every tie which binds them to the
great valley Of the Mississippi, and to join
their political fortunes especially, who ly,
with the East. 1t resisted the fugitive
slave Law, and demanded the exclusion of
slavery from all the territories and from
this District, and clamored against the ad-
mission Of any more slave States into the
Union. 1t organized sectional anti
slavery party, aud thus drew to its aid as
we'll political ambition and interest as fan
atheism and after twenty five years Of
incessant and veheme ent agitation, it OBJ
tanned possession finally and upon that
issue, of the Federal Government and of
every State Government North and West.
And to day, we are in the midst OF the
greatest, most cruel, most destructive
civil war ever waged. But two years, sir,
of blood and debt and taxation and incip-
lent commercial ruin are teaching the
people of the West, and trust of the
North also, the folly and madness of this
crusade against African slavery, and the
wisdom and necessity of a union of the
States, as our fathers made it, "part slave
and part iree.'
What, then, sir, with 50 many causes
impelling the reunion, keeps US apart to
day? Hate, passion, antagonism, revenge,
all heated seven times hotter by war
Sir, these, while they last, are the most
powerful of all motives with a people, and
wi th the individual man; but fortunately
they are the least durable. They hold a
divided sway in the same bosom with the
nobler qualities Of love, justice, reason,
placability and, except when at their
hei ht, are weaker than the sense of inter