The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1867-07-04


than that African slavery, and the
institutions founded upon it, were
destined to perish and disappear.
The ftlnaticism of the period was its
blind refusal to recognise this DIES
tiny-its folly, the i'll advised ut
tempt to thwart its progress. EN-
ahcipation was inevitable. If the re.
cognition of this ultimate fact had
controlled the councils of the nation,
its calamity and great sorrow might
have been averted. Instead, how.
ever, blind fury prevailed, but was
successful only i'll preventing en1ati.
cipation from peaceful causes, that
it might arise from baptism OF
blood.
The indicia which pointed to this
destiny was Enthusiastically palpable.
Two centuries and a half of worse
than Jewish captivity, or Saxon vas
sallage, or Celtic oppression, had
fettered the soul and drank the blood
of the African race. .
An institutional wrong of such
magnitude had not failed in the pro
gress of these centuries to concen-
trate against it the enlightened sen
timent and active stmpathies of man
kind. It could not have long re
sisted the moral force and omnipo-
tent power OF this public opinion OF
the world.
But its fate was not dependent or
moral forces alone. Cooperating
with, and superior to them, was the
resistless agency of physical causes
Slavery was essentially aristocratiC
and manorial-freedom as essential
ly democratic and agrarian. To the
one the plantation was peculiar and
indispensable; the homestead was
the animating and vital principle OF
the other
These organic differences render
ed it Impossible for them to occupy
the same territorial limits in com
mon. The homestead invited pop
ulation-the plantation excluded it
The dominion of each was necessar
lily separate and distinct from that
of the others If fpermanent and i'm
passible boundaries could have beer
established for them, the existence
of slavery might have been indefin-
itely prolonged. But the immutable
laws of population forbid this. The
expansive capabilities of each sys-
TEN demanded a corresponding ex-
pansion of territory. A collision Of
interests and struggle for empire
was therefore inevitable, as popula-
ton drove them in quest of new
foundations.
While the opposing systems were
in their infancy, each having sep.
arate domain greatly in excess of its
immediate wants, with the boundless
range of the continent before them
apparently ample for the future o.
both, their race for empire was with
out serious collision or active
active jealousy. The constant anC
rapid growth Of numbers, increasing
with augmented ratio from the sour
ces of nature and of emigration, soor
demonstrated that the capacity of Tho
continent was not unlimited Its
exhaustion was only question OF
time When this should occur, il
could not fail to result in an aggres
sive contest for the means Of further
eXpansiOn-not mere conflict o
opinions proceeding from the agita
ton of morbid sentimentalism, bu
life struggle of compressed anG
overcrowded humanities-of the
homestead interests Of industrial
millions, against the manoral inter
ests of plantation aristocracy. /
was, therefore, palpably apparent tc
sagacious craftsmanship, that the in
eNorable laws of population mus
ultimately produce aggressive col
lision, when the teeming millions
pressed on and crowded forward by
other millions coming, would over
run and crush out slavery, and Gu
into homesteads it's manorial estates
Ultimate extinction was, therefore
the fate which awaited it in any c
vent. t
But to await the period of terrific
rial exhaustion was as irrational a.
it was unnatural. The immense in
terests of freedom could not afforC
to have slavery in the meantime aug
ment its power and strengthen it
defenses. To interpose and pre-
serve a future theater for Homestead
and industrial life, commensurate
with the interests of rapidly aug
menting free population, which, i
Welded, it would have to reconque
and repossess, was, therefore, tn
natural prompting of that feeling o
concern which ancestral regard ha
for the well-being of posterity.-
Hence the struggle of statesmanshil
and the arts of diplomacy which
preceded the recent convulsions.
But the exigencies of future popu
lation could not be controlled b.
parchment compacts or conventions
diplomacy. The farest portion 0
the continent was already under th'
dominion and suffering the curse o
manorial vassalage It's peculia
civilization and profligate social sys
tenn were contesting the dominion
Of the remaining portion with tn
more rugged systems of the North
One or the other must yield-to tn
peaceful arbitrament of material in
terests and physical laws, if the.
wisely choose to direct their coun
ellis by ito force, if blind obstin
acy made that the alternative. Sla
very, reading its fate in the foo
print of western empire, if peaceful
causes were left to work out thei
results, rashly chose to hazard tn
experiment of force against destiny
and perished in blood.
/ have REQUIRED to this stern logi
n 4 H. <.t,