Weekly Trinity journal., 1864-02-27
The self-Killed Institution.

To the candid observer of affairs at the present
epoch of American history it must seem that
there &c motive in the madness of those
who originated the present rebellion, and that
that m, tive was none other than a desire to hear
the death-knell of slavery sounded. Whether or
not it be true, that endis well nigh accomplished
and the signs of great change in the public
sentiment of the country, North and South, to-
ward the peculiar institution grow gradually
more and more unmistakable. Men who have
groped all their lives in political blindness are
beginning to see with eyes. Of sudden
they have sense enough to acknowledge that one
of the 81 twin relics of barbarism ~ is being
sapped in its foundations by power against
which it is worse than useless to contend.
To better illustrate the progress made by this
class, we propose to copy from few of the
prominent conservative speakers and writers Of
the nation. In speech at Nashville, Tenn, on
the sth of January, Governor Andrew Johnson
made the following reference to the progress of
opinion in Tennessee:
% Before the rebellion we could discuss all in
stitutions, all subjects, all measures except
write or print, except the side of the slave
aristocracy. Now thank God, the time has
come when the press is unmuzzled-when the
press aan discuss this aud all other subjects. The
time has come when this institution is dead
when the chains broken and the captive set
free. The institution is dead and slaves are not
worth a quarter of dollar a dozen. Being
dead, let us, in a becoming manner, prepare for
the funeral. Now is the time to dispose of this
great question. 1t is great question, and one
which must be settled upon the great principle
of human freedom not by Abolitionists in the
North nor by Secessionists in the South, but by
that great law of self-rreserEaton which governs
all men alike. Slavery is cancer upon the
body polite, which must be rooted out before
perfect health can he restored. The great law
refer to is now at work, and negroes and all
things else which may be in the way, to impede
its course must get out. Don't go to inyenting
but find out the principles of that law, and con-
form your actions thereto"
Next in the list is DR.. Hunt, formerly of the
Buffalo Commtrcial and q great light y among
those who used to be so anxious to rvpect the
sympathies and prejudices of {" our Southern
BRETHREN The Doctor has been to the war,
and his experience forces him to say this much
about - The Union as it Was .
~ End the war how? In the Union as it was :?
The Union of lickspittles North, and insulting
tyrants South? Union in which Northern
man dare not speak his mind when he crossed
the Ohio or the Potomac? =? The Union in which
all politics were degraded because there
success for any man unless he belied his con-
science and denied his God by becoming the
apologist of the greatest crime of all ages? The
Union which, procaiming Freedom, nursed
Slavery as the apple of its eye? No Not such
a Union. ssThe old Union . was better than
none. 1t was better than war and all its devas-
tations. But it was not perfect Union, because
it held within itself constant cause of quarrel,
and that cause was crime so shameful, so false
to all protestations of humanity and free
dom, that the minds and words of good men
could not be smothcred down to apathy"
Here is something from the Pttsburg Post, a
real copper concern, which bears as motto at
the head of its columns, .sthe Union as it Was" +:
awe feel satisfied that the future peace of this
now bleeding and distracted country, requires
the total extinction Of slavery among us. We
not aIude to its eradication this year or next or
whether it shall disappear in this generation or
in the next our idea is that its final abolition,
at some fixed period, is necessary for the future
peace of this Republic. One of the results of
the present rebellion will be the weakening, or
perhaps, destruction of one of its causes-slavery
in the South: With that, will follow the death
of Abolition among ourselves"
Equally refreshing, the source considered, is
the following extract from the Newburyport
Herald, paper which spoke as lightly of the
Emancipation Proclamation as the most glib
tongued secessionst could have done;
If we read Alright the signs of the times, the
popular decree thus: First, that this coun-
try shall be one nation /; that not an acre rod
of it is to be given up if the war must go on for
ever and eternaly for its unity, and though we
shall have to lay waste State after State till a
territory bigger than all of Western Europe shall
be turned to desert-depopulated and denuded-
for that end. Second, that slavery shall be
wiped out. The cause of the war shall be re-
moved more completely than the human
race destroyed by the great food, not eight per-
sons surviving in servitude to tell the story of
the past. Thirdly, that the present Administra-
tion-the Governments to continue in power
as long the war lasts Abraham Lincoln. who
was constitutionally and properly elected to be
President of all the States, to be President till
his authority is recognized in every State that
was within the Union at the time OF his election
II this is not the meaning of present history, 1t
is written in characters that we do not under
stand; if this is the decision of the late cleo
tions, fail to appreciate them if this is not
the popular voice. then the people misuse the
words they utter.
After reading these extracts one can scarcely
avoid the conclusion that the leayen of q radio
alism " is working with industrious force in the
old Democratic party. We hope to see the time
come when this gigantic wrong will not have
one single defender on this continent; we expect
to live long enough to see some trimming dema-
g2gues we wot of talking themselves breathless
In demonstrating that they were original Abo-
nuonists. Then the people will look back over
tne eventfui history Of the past quarter of
century and wonder that the national life and
conscience could ever have been so firmly bound
with the withes of slavery.
PROVOKING ERRoR.-In an article entitled
Light Ahead which appeared in the JorRyAI
of February 13th, we said. sneat;nr &c .ho VI
ley resolutions in regard to Indiane -: G - -.