The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-04-25


ket as well as the planting interest.
wheat, Indian corn, beef, pork, wool
butter and cheese are produced with d
view to foreign trade, no less than cot
ton, rice and tobacco. Ohio. Illinois
and Wisconsin are as dependent on
free trade as South Carolina, Alabama
or Mississippi. The agriculture inter-
est of free labor is then Identical with
the agriculture interest of slave labor "
The antagonism of sentiment Mr..
y Flanagan admits" remarked Diefen-
zach, originates in the real and rad
ical antagOnism of interest between the
north and the south You have adopt
ed two mutually hostile systems, nei-
Their of which can develop itself with
out displacing the other The free
labor system will not tolerate the slave
system, and the slave labor system
cannot tolerate the free labor system.
they can co-eXist in a state only by
the subsection of the one to the other
This, take it, is the simple naked fact.
Either the one system or the other
must be in the ascendency. and dictate
the policy of the government. or your
Union is no real union, and you are,
Whatever your pretenses, two distinct
and hostile peoples. You are now in
the crisis of the struggle between these
two antagonisttc systems. Hitherto
you have proceeded in comparative har-
mOny, for ever since the election of Mr.
Jefferson the slave system has for the
most part of the time been suffered to
govern the country. 1t has done So
as Mr.. Hammond, the senator from
South Carolina, boasted in his place in
the senate, for the last sixty years.
But the interest of free labor, so de-
pressed in all the slave states, where
1t dares not even complain. seems now
resolved on asserting its independence
and its supremacy Mr.. Seward has
well said that it makes no difference
whether you regard the action of con-
gress on the Kansas imbroglio as the
last defeat or as the first victory of the
free state party; no new slave state can
be admitted into the Union. Free la
Dor, it seems to me, is destined to no
more defeats. What, then. viii the
slave interest do? Submit it cannot,
Tor it must rule the government or be
ruined Slavery is so interviewer with
the habits and manners, the whole So
cial and private life of the south, that
is out of the question
and, moreover, is not at present desira-
bic for the mass of the slaves them
selves; and under a government that
conSultS the interests of free labor
alone, slavery becomes ruinous to the
masters. The contest for ascendency
has come, and the battle cannot any
longer be evaded by declamations,
either against the abolitionists of the
north, or the so-called 'fire-eaters' of
the south. These extremists, as you
call them, are extremists only because
they better represent the real tenden-
cies of their respective parties than the
via-media or So called Union
men. l see no alternative but seces-
SIGN of the slave states from the Union.
They are separated already from the
Union in feeling, in interest, and in
policy, and a union against these can
not much longer be maintained even in
THE dissolution of the Union is an
event" remarked Father John, that
nave never allowed myself to contem-
plate even as possible. I know no
light that a state has in or out of the
constitution to secede. for it cannot
;ecede without a breach of faith-cer-
ainly not, unless it has the formal con-
sent of the other states, parties to the |
Union. That consent will never be OBJ
aimed. Only the weaker and defeated |
party will ever dream of seeding, and |
being the weaker, it will not be suf- |
cred by the stronger to secede. Threats !
# secession may be thrown out to stay !
he encroachments, or assumed en- !
of the ruling interest, but |
do not think there is a state in the |
Union that would not shrink from the J
difficulties of carrying them into eff |
ect. There are only about three hun |
lred and fifty thousand owners of slave !
in the Union; at least such |
S the statement made; and it is GER !
ain that but a small minority of the |
mia bitants of the slave states are
eally owners of slaves. The non
laveholding population of the slave
folding states have even less interest
han the free population of the north !
n Sustaining slavery. The slayehold-
RS constitute an aristocracy, a very
aristocracy, if you will:
Ugh spirited, generous( hospitable, and
Who are loved the more the better they
re known, but still an aristocracy,
which brushes the hopes and aspira-
ions of the poor laboring white popu-
alton of the slave states. This free
White population has really no SYM
athy with slavery, for it reduces them
o a condition below that of the free
in any of the states of Eu-
ope. These, when assured of the sup
ort and sympathy of the free states,
|
7hen secession has for its object the
of slavery, which brushes
hem; and it is possible that every Sc
eding state would find a powerful
nemy in its own bosom. Secession
annot be effected peaceably, and I do
OF believe it can be by force, or
gainst the force that would inevitably
e brought to bear against it, espec-
ally as the army and navy would re-
lain under the command of the fed
raj government. 1 regret that threats
secession should be thrown out, or
opes of it INDUCED. but as yet L do not
egard it as probable, hardly as pos
bile.
Then, proceeded Father John, II do
OF agree with my friends as to the
elative weakness of the slave system.
he slave states furnish not only the
est market for a portion of our i'm
but also the best market
Dr. our domestic manufactures, and
lus greatly soften the hostility even
northern industry. Their produce
ons supply the larger portion of the
for imported luxuries con-
Imed to a far greater extent in the
zee than in the slave states. The free
'ade policy of the government has, as
II. O'Flanagan has suggested, turned
lie attention of the great farming
.ates of the center and the west to
reducing for a foreign market, and
entitled their interests, for the present
least, with the interests of the slave
1lding states. All your railroads, ca
ais, or artificial means of commune
ltion are constructed with a view to
reign as well as home trade, and are
esigned to connect the seaboard with
lie interior Slavery is directly or in
rectly interviewer with the interests
the whole country, and its abolition
ould derange the business and social
cations of the free states hardly less
ian of the slave states themselves.
oston, New York and Philadelphia