The Portland daily press., 1864-01-28

lnafl-to whom the country owes debt of ever
lasting gratitude for his sagaeity and fidelity at
most critical iuncture of public atflirs-ZAcH-
AIRY TAYLOR 2presented herself to Congress with
a Constitution such as she had seen proper to
make for her own government; and with il,
thanks to the patriot-President whose name we
have mentioned, and whose firmness kept slay-
cry from ever polluting the waters of the peace
full ocean, after a long struggle she came into
the Union A. free State. Her thousands of brave
men in the field fight on the loyal side, and her
five votes III Congress, her regal contributions
tfor does not KING gather them iny) to the
wants of the army, and the voice of thunder
with which she speaks her mind, are given and
heard III behalf of the Union and Liberty! And
Texas, which was to darken the farthest line of
the Gulf with the frown of eternal slavery, is
ready, as we are assured by the most intelligent
authority, the moment the rebel armies are
withdrawn from her territory, or as soon az she
can be protected in acting for herself, to renew
her pledges of fidelity TO the Union, endorsed by
legal guarantees Of universal freedom.
The close of the Mexican war was sgnalized
by the breaking out of the slave power in a pit
eous and agonizing cry-so well could the shame
less Liar act part-for relief There were five
claims to be satisfied, five bleeding wounds to
be stanched; one of these claims was for more
effective law for the return of fugitive slaves
and that ten millions OF dollars should be paid
to slayeholding Texas for kindly accepting a
well-deiined portion of the (yet free) territory
of New Mexico, was another And the end was
that the slave power obtained from Congress, as
Coy. Foote of Mississippi said in the Senate Of
the United States, in December, 1851, "all that
it asked for, and more too" But the North
could be liberal, for this general settlement, this
efiectual stanching of the wounds, was to dis
pose of all sectional and slavery controversies
forever; henceforward there would be perpetual
peace and good neighborhood. All strifes were
composed, aud Concord, newly inaugurated,
with her myrtle scepter would reign from the
st. Croix to the Rio Grande. The National
Democratic Convention assembled ut Baltimore
in 1852, declared the settlement to be final and
complete, and pledged the party ii represented
to resistance of all attempts to disturb it; and
the National Wing Convention, in the same year.
accepted these compromise measures as a full
and final adjustment of all questions between
the sections. The meaning of the "Compro-
mise' struggle, and its real connection with the
procession of events put i'll motion by the slave
power, were not long in doubt. They were pre-
liminary TO the abrogation of the Missouri Com
promise; and, by making the perfdy of the
slave power a patent as it was gross and shock
ing, aided materially in opening the eyes Of the
nation to its true character, and to the dangers
that impended.
The demand for the Missouri abrogation came
III 1854. In the true interest of slavery it should
not have been made at that time nor should il
kept quietly and insduously at work as of old,
when il was less unwise, it would have made
Kansas and Nebraska its own, and by the
strength and influence thus added to its former
power, might have placed itself, probably for
many generations, in a position Of almost inn
pfegnable strength. But the gods, meaning its
early destruction, made it impatient, rash, mad.
BY this act it aroused the slow and patient
North. And when this measure seemed likely to
fail of accomplishing its object thefslave power
undertook the subjugation of these Territories
by force and fraud, thereby thoroughly alarm
ing the friends Of law and order throughout the
country.
1t wrested from the Supreme Court Of the
United States the Dred Scott decision, by which
the whole country was to be passed under its
yoke, and thus ii summoned every champion of
justice, every lover of human liberty, indeed
every freeman in the land, TO the defence of Re-
publican institutions.
1t broke up the National Democratic Convcn-
tion at Charleston in 1860, and, by so doing
said TO those Democrats who loved their country
more than the part of II whose institutions
fUunded on human bondage, that by being true
to the whole country they were outlaws in the
Democratic party. And by cffecting the over
throw of the corrupt party that had so nearly
destroyed the government, it made eertain-the
election of an earnest and loyal man TO the Pre-
sidency, while yet the patriotism and virtue of
the people were equal to the stern call that was
TO be made upon them.
Ii celebrated the event ii had itself assisted TO
bring about, by cannonadng one Of the princi-
pal fortresses of the country by striking down
the National flag and trampling it beneath its
feet, thereby saying in effect, "For the reason
that that flag does not signify slavery and dis
membered confederacy, but represents, instead,
freedom and the American Union, it shall not
float overthe South If it had stood for slay-
cry it would have been honored and upheld-as
- fxrac .pax to1 .xI 4.
the facts, that it was freedoms banner,'' that
the government it symbozed was a govern
ment of justice, and that the Constitution was
not bulwark of slavery-facts acknowledged by
the slave power, and made its justification for at
lacking them - reasons why they should be
abandoned by the true and loyal people Of the
country, The loyal people did not so under
stand it, but replied to traitors, saying, "If
you will destroy this Constitution because il
means freedom and justice, we will save it
for that reason, well as because it is
the supreme law of the land. When you de-
clare that one of three things must be--disun-
ion-the Union with slavery everywhere--or,
the Union with slavery nowhere,-we make our
own election; and as slavery has been set up
against the Union, one or the other needs must
die. 1t shall not be the Union Madness herself
never rendered such an issue before.
Ia its short-sighted cunning, the slave power
had provided beforehand for long and exhaus-
ting war. 1t knew not what it was about when
il secured the means for such contest, for it
thereby was preparing the ingredients of
deadly chalice to be commended to its own few
erish lips. short war would have left slavery
substantially unharmed in every State. Ii was
not to be a short war. Slayery's blind instru-
ments-the blind leading the blind, again--had
been otherwise directed. They were to be the
architects of its destruction. Gods methods
are inscrutable but they are always logical
His mills may grind slowly but they grind ex-
ceedingly small, =" and in the grinding of slavery
TO powder it should not seem strange if slave
holders are employed as the milerr. That it
might be great war, taxing the full energies
of the parties, and ending only with the remoy-
al of the cause in whose interest it was begun,
these men got early possession of many of the
strong fortresses of the country-they robbed
the Federal Arsenals-plundered the National
Treasury, and sent into remote seas nearly ev-
cry effective ship belonging to the Government.
More than this, the arch conspirator had been
at work for many years in attempting to de-
moralze the public sentiment of the North-to
make il if not actively disoyal, low-toned and
unpatriotc, ready at all times to give moral if
not material encouragement to treason Great
pains were taken To inst Southern principles
and prejudces into the minds of Northern Off
GERS of the Army and Navy. Secret Societies,
binding their members by pledges and oaths to
the practice Of treason. and embracing even mil
itary and civil officers Of the Government, were
organized in all the Northern States.
The chief of the rebellion, while Secretary Of
War of the United States, had layished his fav-
ors and praises upon those officers of the Army
EAem he hoped 10 make useful whenever an oc-
casan shoEd aecBr in Shieh be might need
their services, and So we'll directed were these
Efforts that when the blow was struck at Sum-
ter, large numbers of Army officers were found
arrayed against the Government that had fed
and honored them. And, still worse. men In
sympathy with the rebellion sought and OBJ
tained important positions at Washington, and