Year: 1861

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the Southern people, that it might well be
supposed that considerate men everywhere
would combine to repress it so far as it did not
necessarily arise from some pending, practical,
and unavoidable issue. And to this view Of
prudence, applicable in all localities, one would
expect to find operating by way of addition,
the apprehension Of special dangers, in those
sections Of the country in which slavery is a
leading domestic institution.


But if such expectations would seem to be
reasonable, they are not realized in what is
going on at Richmond, the capital of the lar
gest slaveholding State in the Union, and in a
Convention in which are assembled so many
Of its able, distinguished, and leading M n.
On the contrary, there seems to be precisely at
that point where caution should be most looked
for, an utterly reckless and wanton disposition
to unloose all the (otherwise) composed ele-
ments Of agitation and disturbance.


With nothing in the condition Of the na.
tional Territories to call for any action, with
everything in respect to them settled, and, in
most particulars, just as the South would desire
to have them settled, the Virginia gentlemen
assembled at Richmond, Of all shades Of poll.
tics, land nowhere does the spirit Of faction
run higher,) concur in the policy Of starting
the whole slavery agitation anew, and upon
issues which must compel everywhere the same
discussions of the merits of their peculiar in
stitution, Of which they have always heretofore
complained.


Unless the absolute establishment Of slavery
in the Territories by Congress is desirable, as
every Senator from the South, with three ex.
captions, voted last summer that it was not,
there is nothing to be desired, even from the
Southern point of view. Congress has not
prohibited slavery in the Territories, and no.
body is asking Congress to do anything Of that
kind. The Supreme Court has given an opin.
ion, either judicial, or e1traudicial, that slave.
holders have a constitutional right to take their
peculiar property into the Territories, and to
be there protected in the possession and enjoy.
ment of it. And as to all the territory south
| Of the parallel Of 370, that is, as to all the
territory into which slavery can possibly enter,
it is specially protected by a Territorial slave
code, which is pronounced to be the most per.
feet and comprehensive thing of that kind in
America.


But still the Virginia gentlemen insist
upon agitation, and they insure agitation by
demanding that the Constitution of the United
States be SO changed as to afford an express
and irrepeaabe protection Of slavery in all
aus Tarr;tor;oo oouth ort tha nm arallal nf 2ro an


The demand they make requires the whole
subject of slavery to be discussed, including its
moral, social, political, and economical effects.
That discussion we should prefer to have avoided,
but only because we believe it to be unneces.
sary and uselessly irritating, and not because
we have any apprehensions that Republican
views will not triumph in the discussion, not
only in the country at large, but, at no distant
period. .in Virginia itself.


1t may just as well be understood first as
last, that the people of the United States will
never consent, at the dictation, and for the in.
terest Of shareholders, to extend slavery by the
national authority, either through acts of Con.
gress or by amendments of the Constitution,
whether in direct terms, or under any specious
and fraudulent phraseology of recognition.


In the fixed judgment of the people of this
country, slavery is q moral, social and political
evil, to be endured where it exists, but not to
be dfused over new areas and this judgment,
instead of being shaken by current events, has
been immeasurably strengthened by them. 1t
is not when we are witnessing the effects of the
institution in dsorganizing and revolutionizing
seven States of the Union, that they will be
persuaded to spread further an element of
such unmixed and virulent mischief.


Itis proper to be added, that it is not believed
here, that the men who are agitating the slavery
question at Richmond, represent the wishes,
as they certainly do not represent the interests,
Of the people of Virginia. There is, on the
contrary, the best reason to believe, that what
is going on at Richmond, is merely contest of
tactics between two factions, manevreng to
get an advantage over each other, for the ap.
preaching elections of members of Congress
and Of the Legislature. The difficulty is, that
the slavery question is dangerous one to play
with, and that demagogues may arouse popular
passions which they may not be able hereafter
to control.


This legal recognition and establishment of
slavery in the Territories, upon which Mr.. Sum-
mers, the Messrs. Rives, and others of that
stamp, enter with as much apparent zeal as
Governor Wise, is, in ITSELF an impracticable
abstraction. Mr.. Summers and the Messrs
Rives know it to be so; and yet they seem to
be rushing Virginia headlong into making this
abstraction the ultimatum upon which she shall
place her continued adherence to the Union.
That is dangerous position, not to be perse.
vered in without running the State, nor to be
retreated from without mortifying loss of
honor.