The Washington herald., 1911-07-30
What do you mean?"
He win be with US on the boat:'
CHAPTER II.
The Gatewny and Some Who Pass,

The Gateway and Some Who Passed.
/ When Capt Edward Carlisle made
casual reference to the weakened
compromise" he simply voiced a per-
sonal opinion on a theme which was in
the mind of every American, and one
| regarded with as many minds as there
were men. That political measure Of
the day was hated by some, admired by
others. This man condemned 1t. that
cried aloud its righteousness and in
fallibility; one argued for it shrewdly,
another declaimed against It loudly. 1t
was alike blessed and condemned The
Southern States argued over It, many
! of the Northern States ragged at IT, 1t
ruined many political fortunes and made
yet other fortunes. That year was a
| threshold time in our history. nor did any
see what lay beyond the door.
III there existed then a day when great
men and great measures were to be
born, certainly there lay ready a stage
| fit for any mighty drama-indced, com
manding it. 1t was a young world with
| al, indeed, world not even yet ex-
plored, far less exploited, so far as were
concerned those vast questions which, in
| its dumb and blind way, humanity both
sides of the sea then was beginning to
| take up. America scarce more than a.
| half century ago was for the most part
a land of query, rather than of hope.
Not even in their query were the new
! er lands OF our country then alike. We
| lay in a vast chance-medley, and never
had any country greater need for care
and caution in its councils. BY the grace
! of the immortal gods We had had given
into our hands an enormous area of the
| earth's richest inheritance to have and
to hold. if that might be; but as yet we
were not one nation. We had no united
thought, no common belief as to what
was national wisdom. For three-quarters
of a century this country had grown:
for half a century it had been divided,
one section fighting against another in
all but arms We spoke of America even
then as a land of the free, but it was
not free; nor on the other hand. was
it wholly slave. Never in the history
of the world has there been so great a
land, nor one of so diverse systems of
government
Before these travellers, for instance,
who paused here at the head of the Ohio
River, there lay the ancient dividing
line between the South and the North.
To the northwest, between the Great
Lakes and the Ohio, swept a vast land
which, since the days of the old North
west ordinance of 17S7. had by national
enactment been decreed forever free
Part of this had the second time been
declared free, by State law also. To the
eastward of this lay certain States
where slavery had been forbidden by
the laws of the several States. though
not by that of the nation. Again, far
out to the west, beyond the great water
way on one Of whose arms our travellers
now stood, lay the vast provinces bought |
from Napoleon; and of these, all lying
north OF that compromise line of Sc de- |
grees 80 minutes, agreed upon in 1870 |
had been declared forever free by ma
tional law. Yet beyond this, in the ex-
treme northwest, lay Oregon, fought |
through as free soil by virtue Of the old |
Northwest ordinance. the sleeping dog |
of slavery being evaded and left to lie |