Year: 1859

Winthrop and others former leaders. ~ to drive
them INTO the retirement Of private life.


1t has bee from the beginning impossible, and it
will continue to BE- Impossible. TO escape the iocv-
liable consequence Of the existence in the Federal
Union Of two elements 50 essentially and fnnda'
mentally differ, ut as the s stem Of Free Lsbor which
prevails at the North aud the system Of Slave Lsbor
which prev sls at the South. Our politics have
always been sectional They were so, and to
very marked degree. even during that period when
the external relations Of the country absorbed the
principal share Of public attention. They were 50
even a, the tine when the opinions Of the North
and South upon Slavery, in the abstract, were
pretty nearly identical when all agreed that Slavery
Was social and political evil, and when al looked
forward to some Proyidential Intervention whereby
it might come TO sn end. But within Q short
period past the South has adopted a new creed
on this subject, which makes the gulf between Free
State politics and Slsvs-State politics 9 thousand
times wider and deeper than before. They have pro-
claimed their adhesion to Slavery as permanent
institution, blessing instead Of curse, aud they
Insist upon its recognition as such By the National
Government, and the full exercise Of the powers Of
the Federal system to sustain and extend it. Hence
the scheme for the revival Of the African slave
trade. which even Mr.. Winthrop himself cannot
dery ia beginning to assume very serious aspect.
He appears to foresee that its revival will be in
sisted upon and that--like the annexation Of Texas
sDd the overthrow of the protective system-it will
be carried, too; ard he generously sets himself at
work TO sbif, of the blame Of its revival upon its
Northern opposera II certainly is paying but q
poor compliment either to the morals or the intel
lects Of the Southern majority which he assumes to
be opposed to it, to intimate, he does, that they
msy be driven BY the vigOr Of oPpOsition at the
North into becoming it's advocates.


The truth is that the tendency Of this single
que ston furnishes 10 itself alone abundant reason
for the existence Of thst Republican organization
sganst which Mr.. Winthrop's letter is so evidently
levesd that, ss the Journal Of Commerce remarks
with chuckle, it might BY dropping few
phrases, be easily mistaken for q Democratic epis-
tie Nothing but the triumph Of the Republican
party can afford any sure guaranty that the laws
against the African slave trade will not be repealed,
or at least suf, red through enforcement to be-
come mere dead letter. The larger shareholders,
at least in those OF the States where Save eding
is chief source Of profit, may regard the revival
of the African slsvetrade with disfavor; but the
fear Of being sigmatized as monopolists aud aris-
tocrats will oblige them to bold their tongues and
they will be compelled to make this concession to
the Democratic masses Even professed opponents
Of the revival Of the tisde will vote for the repeal
of the prohibition acts, on the ground that each
State can still Judge for itself and admit or exclude
slaves from Africa as it thinks proper.


Mr. Winthrop may write letters till doomsday,
but so long as the actual administration of the Fed
eral Government is in the hands Of party which
s reither more nor less than the humble servant Of
the slavehoders, it is impossible but that opposi
ton to slayeholdina influence should be the rally
cry Of the Opposition.