Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-08-20

that the government shall be in the future, as
in the past, the servant instead of the master
of that unpopular system?
Slavery is to be protected by new guaran.
ties, if asked for, and all fugitives are to be
surrendered. Is that the proposition? Well,
we will consent to it when jeff Davis gives
back to the United States her two hundred
thousand manly sons who have lost their lives
in quelling this henous rebellion against free
government. Never until then! Nc advise
our friends to be quiet on the subject of
slavery protection. The country has had a
little too much of it already. The day for
such protection is past; we have paid heavy
price in blood for that sort of work already,
and do not care to repeat the exhaustng
process.
There is one broad, elevated basis of restor-
alton, which is strong as adamant, and on
which the people may all securely stand. 1t
Is the principle which underles our govern
ment and all its institutions. That principle
Is freedom. Everybody admits that freedom
is right as principle, and nearly everybody
admits that slavery is wrong as Il principle.
Now freedom and slavery are the warning
elements which have brought about this con-
test! Each is struggling for the mastery.
What shall we take as the basis of harmony
N''' ANF''l tttlOii3 tliS IiIhNliiN "itASl CNClg-
body approves, or the principle which hardly
anybody approves? Shall we adopt the meth
cd Of an olIgarchy, and let slavery rule?
Shall the many yield to the few, or the few to
the many? Whose interests, tastes and
preJudlceS are to he consulted, those OF three
hundred thousand persons, or those Of twenty
seven millions? 1t is not in the nature of
slavery to be at peace with anything !. is
like the pike which is said to deyour
all other fishes. Suppose slavery be
reinsated in its Old authority what
then? Win we have peace, or war, in con-
sequence? Let us take Tennessee for an ex-
ample. a restoration OF the state upon the
slavery basis would instantly revive an ultra
pro-siavery party throughout the middle and
western divisions. No candidate could be
elected, or appointed to any utfice, who was not
intensely pro-slavery. Slavery would be the
only topic discussed in the newspapers, or on
the stump. The odious laws of the old slave
code, the more summary rules of Judge Lynch
would be enforced against every writer or
speaker who would venture to question the
justice or policy of slavery. 1t is also certain
that every man who supported the present re-
publican administration, either dire city or in
directly, in civil or military capacity, would
be forever excluded from all positions of trust
and profit by the slavery faction.
Now, does any sensible loyal man desire to
see Tennessee restored to the Union in any
such way as this, in which the elements of
dscord are all increased, and their fury ag-
grayated instead OF being lessened? One
might as well try to cure patient
OF raging fever by making him drink
boiling water, and hold red hot iron.
The lust OF power, the thirst for gain,
the distrust of all interests except its own,
ID it, II
political power, would grow out Of slavery in
future, just as they did before, and would in
brief space engender another rebellion more
dangerous, because better planned, than the
present one. We see but one safe basis OF
restoration. 1t is the basis of freedom in
corp0rated in our national cditice, approved
by sage experience, and heartily applauded by
the immense majority OF the people
1t may be asked, why attach much inn
pUTtance To the ilnai adjustment OF the slave
ry question in restoring the Union? Because
1t Is the only point of difference between the
n" other aaest5 19I 1fe$eHEIs az mGy significance
union of the diScUrdant states. 1t is for slave
~ only that the southern states can be united,
and 1t is against slavery only that the northern
states can he united. Remove this cause OF
the controversy, and the several portions Of
the republic Will spring together and Ueconc
firmly consolidated. California and Oregon,
far oil ON the Pacific, though surrounded by
vast wiiderne5ses and lofty mountain ranges
from the sister states, and over two thousand
miles distant from the national capital, are
bound fast to the fortunes OF the republic by
the golden chain of freedom, whose links,
consisting OF education, morality, and pro-
grcSs, are stronger than Jupiter's
Golden everlasting chain
Whose strong embrace holds heaven and earth and
man'
But faint those noble states with the curse
of negro bondage, and they too would fall as
South Carolina into the black and seething
whirlpool Of dsunOn. Yes, carry out hon
estly the great principle OF freedom on which
this government was founded. Make the states
free, and thus congenial in feeling. 1t is
step forward in the path of virtue. Free
speech, free schools, free newspapers, free
labor, and free institutions these are the
agencies by which all internal diSsensions will
be virtually removed, and this best Of govern
ments rendered perpetual.