The Falls City tribune., 1909-08-27
The Fall Of the House Of WASHINGTON.

shall not perish from the earth.
The memorable year of which par.
ticular mention Is made in my last
three papers. dragged its slow length
into mighty history and died. The
events of its last two months. without
the people being aware of the fact.
changed the current of history. alter
ed the face of the world. and deter
mined tho fate Of popular government
among men. When it was definitely
known on the night Of November 9Th,
1860, that Abraham Lincoln had been
elected president of the United states,
there "a rejoicing among the people
of the non-slave holding suites In the
north, and deep disappointment and
chagrin among those of the south.
For the first time I'm the history of
the nation, then only e~ighty-fiye years
old, a president had been elected on
a distinctively anti-slayery platform,
and by a distinctiyoly sectional vote,
The South had INDUCED in repeat.
ed threats to dissolve the Union If
assaults on It's peculiar institution,
slavery, were not stopped, and its peo-
pie allowed Il go into the common
territories of the nation with their
human chattels, the same ms others
were allowed to go with their horses,
cattle or other recognized chattel
property. Forty years of such men
aces had brought success to the ad-
vocates of the peculiar institution.
Though, nothing was said about it in
the cession of Louisiana by France
in 1908, nor of Florida by Spain in
1919, yet out of the first, three slave
states were carved; Florida was al
ready a slave community before we
got II, and of curse remained sc
without an effort.
Texas was seized by our people
who had zone there in an early day
(mostly to escape punishment for
crimes committed in the states north
and east), and without the consent
of its nominal owner, Mexico, pro
ceeded to erect a state government of
their own, and slavery became one of
its constituent institutions. precise.
ly as though IL vas one of the prin-
cipal features of American liberty
our July Fourth spread-eagle speakers
delight to talk about on such oc-
casions; and when 1t was finally an
nexed to the United States, we found
ida, and 1t stayed there till the war
and Lincoln's emancipation proclama-
ton destroyed it.
The truth is, this slavery question
presents one of those strange contra
dictions with which our history
aboundss When the constitution was
adopted about 120 years ago, every
state but n was slave holding. The
institution was never established by
authority of law, but 1t was the crea.
ture of universal custom; and when
those states north of what is known
as Mason & Dixon's line, which in
fact was the line established by sur
yeyors of those names, between Mary
Land and Pennsylvania, ceased to be
slave-holding, 1t was not the result
of local law abolishing it, but was
rather because the institution would
not pay so far north, and 1t gradual
ly died out, the people selling their
slaves down south, where such labor
could be utilized profitably.
1t never occurred to the northern
Puritan that the man of the black
skin was as much entitled to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness
as he was, and being no longer use
full might as well so free like other
people. Oh. no, not while he could
get q dollar for him in a Southern
market; and so the north was made
free by selling its slaves to the cot
ton planters in the south. But turn
the kaleidoscope of time forward a
couple of generations, and listen tc
the frantic denunciation of the des
cendants of those pious old sinners
who sold the ancestors of many oil
the then slaves in the south, against
their owners for the awful crime
accursed of God and humanity ac
cording to them. of %enslaving a down
trodden and an inferior race. The
devil r%eproving sin could hardly hole
a candle to such a spectacle, but the
spectacle was, and the hypocrisy thai
went with it, as well. Time, cir
cumstances, environment and the dol
lar, have much to do with the con
duct of men, no matter what churcl
they belong to, nor what code of NOR
ais they may affect.
That, however, is not the purpos'