Year: 1860

llCC anu CholdfCu3 VI ltICSC lIlttu OldtCo
Our condition and peculiar position, the
many ugly things said about US, and the
many propositions for our final disposal, all
attract attention towards US, and render it
necessary for US who are free, if not to
proclaim, certainly to mark out a policy
that will direct us through every obstacle
and over every barrier to the highest at
tainable goal within the pale of the Re
public.


1t should be borne in mind that much
that is written and said Of us is for political
effect, and of no further value. The thou
sand and one lies sprinkled through the
newspapers daily are but the chief circu-
lating medium Of political capital. 1t hath
this extent-nO more.


While on this point we may remark
that it has become quite the fashion, now
that the country is just on the eve of
Presidential contest, for assumed friends
we mean political ones-as we'll as open
enemies, to say all manner of hard things
about US. As, for example, once well
known anti-slavery and now good Repub-
ican journal--we mean the National
Era'-the other day sadly bemoaned the
fact that in half a century hencethe blacks
in the United States would foot up to the
number of forty millions, and this by nat
ural increase alone, and calls on the South
and the country generally to say if it is
prepared for such state of things, and
even Indirectly intimates the necessity for
oppressive laws in the free. States against
free blacks. In the Senate chamber and
in the House of Representatives we hear
staunch Republicans saying their say
against the people of color. awe do not
place the blacks on an equality with the
free white citizen, and we regard him as
an inferior being" is the continual cry Of
this political party. "We are not guilty of
the purpose to introduce the doctrine of
negro equality into American politics, or
to make it the ground of positive legiSla-
ton hostile to the Southern States" is the
language of one whom we had once been
taught to regard as a good anti-slavery
man, and is today one Of the chief expo
nents of the Republican party, (Cassius
M. Clay in his great speech the other day
in New York. He further says, awe did
not want any such subject introduced into
politics, because there was odium enough
attached to us as being the defenders of
the rights Of the negro against the white
man."


Mr.. Beecher, too, has gone SO far over
to the pro-slavery side as to say, among
many other hattering things to the South,
that slavery is not in itself SINFUL" and
Mr.. Bates, now the most prominent candi-
date for the Republican nomination for the
Presidency, has said in his bid for such
nomination that "the negroes, free and
slave, are a nuisance, and should be got
rid Of"


These are but samples of volumes which
are daily issuing from our hitherto imag-
ined political friends, and should serve
to open our eyes to the real condition of
things, and assist us to map out our true
policy in the country. There are other
things, also, that press us to the same end.
Ill., rol;r,o,, oe tl,o Io,,J ,xJ
shaken like reed by this simeon of
American slavery, and in its feebleness
bears hard down upon US.


But it is not possible-neither is it ne
eessary-to name either the amount or
variety of operations brought to bear un-
Justly upon US We have instanced enough
to show their intent and spirit, and to call
attention to our true policy; and first, we
must unitedly and ssdeterminedly feel that
all that either Church or State may heap
and press down upon US does not degrade
us-that all that they may rob us of shall
not break us down-but with rigid front
and firm step we viii onward. Our pres
ent true path lies neither in Church or
State.


Secondly, We must eschew politics as
business, and politicians-that is, pro-
fessional ones-for be assured that the one
is hollow and the other deceptive, and both
minions to all who daily with them; and,
in addition, we have but little to gain from
even rather favorable present political re-
suits, since we have no hand in the opera
tions that lead to them.