Delaware State journal and statesman., 1863-03-17

The abolition of slavery in the District of CO.
lumbia if the greatest event in the history Of tue
American Republic. 1t suits the policy of Ger
tain parties IN this country TO conceal the mpor-
lance of the fact. il they caunot conceal the mct
itself; but not the less will wise men now, and
all hereafter, recognize in the event of April
lG, 1862, the closing Of period Of guilt aud
danger aud the entrance upon one Of genuine re-
publicanism. In the fewest words the case is
this The District of Columbia, a space of ten
miles square, is the only portion of territory sub.
jtct to the Federal Government All the people
Of the Republic are, 10 Il specified extent, the
subjects OF the Federal Government; hut the in.
huhited lands are under State rule, with the one
exception of this STANDPOINT for the National
Legis AZURE and Executive. While slavery exis-
ted there it was a national institution now that
it is abolished re, slavery becomes State in-
sitHtion, and the National Government is as free
to denounoe and condemn it us the Government
of any other country. 0no more, ami the gren-
test, Of the few Powers of Christendom, which
have been reckOneh US slayehoiding nations, has
come over from the wrong side to the right. The
same sort of people who would have called Luth-
ers Theses piece Of paper with writing on it,
and the shipmoney controversy n question of n
few shillings, may now point ont that the District
of Columbia is only ten miles square, and that
there were not nearly so many slaves MS former
y but not the less will one of the great chap
ters of history close, and forever, at the date
Of April the 10Th. 1862 because on that day the
American Republic ceased 10 be n slaveholding
Power.
For the same reasons hat the magnitude of
the event is concealed in England, the tokens of
its approach have been denied We still see it
assumed that the civil war in America was some
thing sudden, unexpected and EVIL absurd and
revolving in its needlvssness. So far from this
being true, II would be diffcnlt to point TO any
great event in history more d stiuctly and conf
IDENTIFY anticipated by all well Informed observers
abroad From George Washington to Abraham
Lincoln, every statesman has seen what must
happen, and has done his part in bringing OH the
catastrophe and, as the time drew near, per-
sons Of any political insight knew and said that
the range OF uncertainty lay within five yeats II
the disruption did not take place in 1856, il must
in 1860. As it would be serious Justification
of history to say that the civil war was unneces-
sary, sudden, unexpected, and the like, it may
be worth while 10 record what one person eau
testify 70 the contrary.
of the fist generation Of the public men of the
Republic, four laud believe no more) were liv-
ing When was in the United States und knew
them all, more or less They were Madison,
Gallaitln, Cnief-Justice Marshall, aud the ven
cradle Bishop White OF these four, three were
uuQuestionably aware that the existence of the
Republic depended on the extinction of negro
slavery, in one way or another; aud no one Of
them saw auy probability of the thing being done
in time.
Chief Justice Marshall was Virginiau, tho son
Of planter, who found it difficult TO make his
small estate support his fifteen children. Father
and son fought in the revolutionary war and ia
coutending almost hand to hand with Lord Dun.
more. they felt their pride in their own State
grow into passion. When / knew the Chief
Justice he was eighty-tbree-as bright.cyed and
warm hearted as ever, while as dignified Judge
MS ever filed the highest seat in the highest
Court Of my country.-But his love for his own
Virginia was not the proud alteration 1t had been
a half a century before it was mOurnful love,
tenderest in adversely. lie said be had seen Yir-
ginia tile leading State for half his life he had
seen her become the second and sink 10 be Il
think the fifth. Worse than this, there was no
arrestlng her decline, if her citizens did not put
an end to slavery and he saw no signs Of any
intention TO do so, east of the mountains ut least.
lie had seen whole groups of estates, populous
in his time, lapse into waste. lie had seen anri-
culture exchanged for human stock breeding (;
aud he keenly felt the degradation. The forest
was returning over the fine old estates, and the
wild creatures which bad not been seen for gen
erations we're reappearing numbers and wealth
were declining, and education and manners were
degenerating 1t would not have surprised him
TO be told that on that soil would the main bat
ties be fought when the critical day should come
which he foresaW "Where else could the hat
tie be fought" he would have asked, ''if the