Year: 1860

:. The Question Stated.

 Senator Seward at the outset of his late able, comprehensive, and unanswerable speech in the ,,,enate,, of the United States, states the vital casstion which now agitates the mind of the 's.iole country and which is the predominant and cily question at issue between the two great par $ that divides the States in majority and minority on one side and the other in the follow ing simple ndsconcise language. Wherever a raitless slave exists, be he Caucasian, Armenian, Ialay OF African, he is the subject of two dis ::nct and opposite ideas-one that he is wrongly, the other that he is rightly SLAVE" And again, that labor either of freemen or slaves is the cardinal necessity of society,""

 This is briefly the :" irrepressible conflict" doc Urine which has so deeply, of late, agtated the comprehensions and fears of large majority of cur Southern brethren, and respectable minori. ty of our fellow citizens at the North

 We will not attempt resume of all the argu inents, ably lavished in this speech of the great cxpounder of this doctrine to show that the point is we'll taken, and the question truly stated snce it seems to us to amount to an axiom and we have yet to hear or see argument opposed to 1t, which does not partake of sophistry or of dis ingenious deceit

 The first question embraces simply the moral proposition, whether the system of slavery be right or wrong; whether man has a moral right tohold his fellow man in bondage whether the laws of God and of humanity are the criterion of dr belief and conviction, or the interests of the pockets of those who dabble in human bodies and who buy or sell regardless of human rights, ex- cept the selfish right to sell and get gain. This proposition is already decided by the mass of our readers, who have the history of the formation and dgrowth of this country behind them, the present aspect of the workings of our political economy before them, and the faith and intelli- gence of their conscences and belief to guide them to the right, and to shield them from the wrong interpretation.

 The next question naturally follows the first. If slavery is morally wrong, and equality and personal freedom to all men is right, can the WRONG eventually overcome the right in the nat ural sequence of things, as we are given to trust and believe in them, or shall the RIGHT prevail, and the fundamental principles, ,enunciated by the fathers in our original declaration of indepen- dence, be finally and lastingly settled. This is the simple question. We put it upon the higher grounds and need not now descend to the lower though equally tenable basis, of whether the proposition is practicable, or demonstrable on principles of worldly ethics Certainly we need not consider the profits of free labor in comparl- son with those of slavery, since that is already settled plainly, and acknowledged to be so in fa- vor of free labor by the leading statesmen and by general opinion in the South, especially in border States, "if" as they say, "we can only once throw off the burden of the institution"

 One proposition only then remains to be con- sldered-can this Union of States be safe under the prevalence of this "irrepressible conflict which arises, and under the rule of the party en- bodying the opinions and principles to which we hold as Republicans, and which are enunciated in the addresses and speeches of the party lead ers We dismiss at once the indscriminate hum- bug of the Democratic papers in this state, who can find no lies too dirty and no false statements too calumnious to use, to ensure the triumph of their disunion doctrines-but we put it to the intelligent public whether the right shall ever produce discord and disunion, and whether any. thing that is set forth in our doctrines, breathes aught Of defiance or derision to the Southern half of our confederacy; or which does not de- nounce and condemn rather, any invasion or in. Engagement of their established rights or which ooes not proclaim peace and good will to all while at the same time they set forward the clear y established opinions upon the right and wrong of the institattepsa of slavery and freedom and their" irrepressible conffict.p

 Well did Senator Seward say, that if the Re publican party could but exhibit their principles and tenets in, the Southern States, that he would promise as many Republican votes there, as there were Democratic in the North. That time shall yet come. tapproaches even now. The leayen works; and the States of Virginia, Kentucky Maryland and Missouri, are already beginning to debate the questions of the day with opening vision. The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the dumb shall speak. The "connict' be- comes "irrepressible" and it shall never cease till our whole country shall be as free and equal as it shall then be great and glorious an asylum for the oppressed, and home for the free! May We never be backward in Connecticut to speed the tilnel