Year: 1860

Journals of the North are now calling upon those
States which have passed Personal Liberty Bills,
whereby the Constitutional right of reclaiming
fugitive slaves is nullified, to repeal the same in
order to appease the disunion sentiment of the
South. And even some of the Abolition papers,
including that most bitter of all of them, the
Springfield (iass.) Republican, are doing the same
thing 1t is stated furthermore, that petition is
in circulation in Boston, signed by leading Black
Republicans, asking the Legislature Of Massachu-
setts to repeal that obnoxious law on this subject
which has SO long disgraced her statute,book.


All this is simply trfing with graveia and mo-
mentous issue. It is the merest chlds play. For
the fidelity with which the New York Herald has,
on many occasions, combatted the mischievous
doctrines and policy Of the Abolitionists the South
owes that ournait its thanksbut IT is little short of
an insult to Southern sentiment to suppose that a
repeal Of the Personal Liberty bills by Northern
legislatures, under an impulse Of fear, would be
sufficient cause for an abandonment, by the South
ern States, Of their present attitude of resistance
to Northern encroachment and domination.


Those Personal Liberty Bills were passed soon
after the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted by Con.
gress in 1850, and they have remained upon the
statute books ever since. They were not altogether
intended for practical efficiency, because South
ern slave rarely escapes to most of the States which
have passed them. OF what use was Personal
Liberty Bill in Vermont, to which State Southern
slave rarely if ever escapes? The Legislature of
that State, when it passed the bill, knew that it
would be of little practical application; and that
only makes the matter worse-for we are thus
driven to the conclusion that it was the insult to
the South, alone, which prompted its enactment
hat IL ;z
loss of slaves considered with reference to their
value in money, which provokes the resentment Of
the South towards these Personal Liberty. Bill
States, they are very much mistaken. It is the
spirit of hostility to the south-of hatred Of the
South--of resistance to clear Constitutional obli-
gation-which has been displayed by these people,
which has driven the South to the conclusion that
it is impossible to live with them any longer in har-
mony and peace.


If this spirit Of hatred towards us still exists Of
what use will it be for the Northern States to re-
peal those particularly when such repeal is
not prompted by patriotism not prompted by a
regard for Constitutional obligations, not otprompted
by sense justice and Of the comfy which the citi-
zens Of one section owe to the other not prompted
by a consciousness of the infamous character Of
the bills themselves, but simply by a base and
cowardly fear that the South will secede from the
Union unless the repeal be made? We would not
give silver for justice, unless it be full free and
absolute. Justice that is wrung from reluctant
people, and which has fear only for its parent, is
not the sort Of justice which the South wants but
it is precisely the sort which she will spurn with
indignation and contempt.


To suppose that an unwilling repeal of these
bills will satisfy the South and cause her to rush
back into the Union with joy and gladness, is
supposition altogether wrong, and mistake which
no one thoroughly acquainted with Southern senti-
ment would make. These bills do not constitute
all-nor even an insignificant portion-o of that
which the South complains Of. To repeal these
bills, and expect the evil to be remedied would be
like applying a poultiee where nothing but the
knife would save the patient. 1t would be admins
tering broth and water cruel to strong man
famishing for beef and bread.


No, there must be revolution in the sentiment
of the North, and not in her legislation only, be-
fore these troubles can be settled. That section
must come to the conclusion that as we make no
war upon dle1' system Of labor and their social in
stitutions, they must make none upon us. They
must conclude to let us alone, even as we have
always let them alone. If they cannot be con-
vnced of the demonstrable fact that our system of
labor benefits them in the Union, even as much as
it benefits us, let them at least leave the existence
of slavery to those alone who are responsible for
it, Repeating their Personal Liberty bills is not
the remedy that will be acceptable to the South
of that let them be assured. The remedy consists
in rGeducating the masses of the peope-n instill-
ing into their hearts the divine virtue of Justice
in teaching them to observe that golden rule which
requires thatthey should treat others as they would
themselves wish to be treated under similar circum-
stanoes-and that other golden rule of attending
exclusively to their own business and letting other
people attend to theirs, free from all outside inter-
ference. With their present feeling of hatred to
thesouth, it is impossible for us to get along TO-
gether, even should they repeal every law they
have passed. 1t is this feeling which constitutes
perpetual standing insult to our section, and this
feeling must be disodged from their hearts before
the Union can ever be rgestablished upon its old
hash