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Show Apprndix. would it be, for we do not covet our neighbor's lnnds, nor would we make of himself a chattel. Examine the matter, thercf,)rt', as we may, the balance of profit and loss seems to us to be in fa\·or of permitting our Southern friends to exercise their own judgments as to the time, manner, and extent of secession. The case, as it now tand:;, is thus stated by the Charleston E vening .News: "It is vain to dis~uiso ir, the :rreat issue of our day in this co•mrry is, Slavery or no Slavery. Tho present phase of that issue is, rho exteusion or non-extension of tho in stitution, tho fouudations of which arc hroad and solid in our midst. vVhatevor the general measure- whatever tho politi cal corn hi nations- whatever tho party nrovour eut- whatE'ver the action of sections at \Vashiul!tou, tho ouo sin~r l o do111inant, and pervading idea, solving all loading qucstious, insin uatin" it:<elf i~il~ ~very polity, drawin~ tho lwroscopes of all aspirants, servinl! as a lovCI:'or ful rrum for ove~y interest, .class, .and in.dividualiry- a ort of dir.·octing- fatality, is that master rssue. As, 111 de prte of n ght and reason- of organr sm and men- or' interests and otlorts, it has horomo 71/'r sr political destiny- why not IIIC'Ct it ? It corttrols th.e North, it controls the :::!outh- it l_>rcclud ~s cscap~. It is at_ Ia ·t nnd s iurply a ~u estiOl1 bct~vee.n the Sot~ r I~ ~nd the rcmar.ncfor ot t 1.10 U 11 r.on, as srrt10ns and aspro 1 r.·e. At! efforts to grve rt other dtVi>'ions, to solve 11 hy cnrumloratrons other than rhos~ whicJ pertain to !hem in their locnl r.haracter and fates, to divert it, to confound ir with oh1 Jecr,s ~nd dosiprs of a ,::oncr;~l n~turc,, is rendered futile .. It has tu IJo dctcnuincd hy the:so 1eal parttes, lJy thea acttou m their charnctor a::; sccttons- inchoate cou 11 trios." Such are the parties to this great question of the enlargement or contraction of the Freedom of man-" sections- inchoate countries." How soon they will become really different countries- enemies in war, and in peace friends- depends upon the South, which has for thirty years threatened secession, and has thus far been conciliated only by the exercise of almost unlimited power to buy land and create poor lave States, with small population, as offsets to large, populous, and wealthy Free States a t the North. The cup of conciliation has, howe,·er, been drained and if the ,.I. ' ' .Ll ~ssouri Compromise be now repealed, even the dregs will scarcely, we thmk, be found at its bottom. That the monstrous Nebraska Dill can become a law, we do not believe, nor can we bclieYe that. outhcrn <TCntlemen will generally be found advocating such an extraordin ary violatio~ of faith; but should we err in this, and should the failu re of this new attempt at the enlargem_ent _of sla.ve t erritory and extension of sla Yc po,\·er be followed by a determmat10n on the part of the South to insist on their ri O'ht of secession, why the only answer to be made will be in the words of Senator Fessenden, "They need uot put it. off a day on our account." VIRGI~IA. For thirty years, the South has threatened to dissolve the Union unless permitted to control its commercial policy, to tax the Northern pe1ople for the _purchase of land and the maintenance of fl eets and armies r equired for Its own use, and to manufacture States like Florida and Arkansas to be used as a set-off against the rapidly-growing States of the North-wcst7 ; and now we arc threatened with dissolution unless we yield up Kansas and Nebraska, on one hand, aud pay a hundred millions for Cuba on the other. \Vhat is the profit and what the loss likely to result to theN orth from tho practical enforcement by the South of its right to secession, we have here- Appendix. 497 tofore endeavored fairly to place before our render::-, and if the balance has been largely against the Uuion, the fault lies in the facts themseh·es. aud certainly not in ns. There i:s, however, as we nrc told by the H.ichmond Enquirer, "another and n1,0st important r elation in which we must contemplate tho drcarlful contingen cy of eli union;" and that is, as to the manner in which it wonld afl'ect the social condition of tho North and the South. The statesmen of the former, as the E 11quirer informs its rr·aders, 11 have ne,·er displayed any high order of ndmini trativc talrnt;" and it greatly fears that, deprived of the aid of the latter, tho North must fall into anarchy, and fail entirely in every dl'ort at self-government that may be made. " Conservati m is," as we nrc a sured, "the controlling element in the social system of the South," and to such an extent that "Thoro is not now and th ere has ucver hecu a comnruuiry in whirh the principles of self I!Overnutcnt wore !>O ahundanrly dcl·clopPd as in tile l"ot rtltcrn !:'itates of rltis confederacy. The necc~:<sary cfl'crt of tho iu s t irnt ion nf :-ila1·pry is to illipart a di~nity, il ~;ohrie ty , and a f' t' lf-pm•srssion to rlu3 character of t ile do111inaut r ill'('. Tang-lit froni cltildltond to g-ovuru ll intsclf and to rulo otiH•rs, tltc s lavultoidL·r hl'::iu:; lifo With all the qualities o:sscn tial to tho character <.fa safe anti ctlicieut lltember uf society." Unfortunately, h owever, l\fr. JciTers0n, himself not only a Virginian, bttt also a slaveholder, tells us jn~t the r everse of all this, in the following p.lssage from his },Totes un 1 'irginia : "Tho whole commerce between lllil~lt'r and slave is a perpetual exercise of tho mo~t hoi!'ltcrous pass ion~', thn rn ost tJ nre111it1i ug dP:-opor i:-otll 0 11 the orto part, and dugradiH!! suhruiHsiou 011 tho other. Our ch ildreH f.ieo th is, anrl learn to illtita!L' ir for ntilll is a11 i111 itarivc auim;tl; th is quality if' rho g<'nn of <til cclucatiou i11 hint; frOill his cradle ro his gra ve, Ito is lc:tn llug to do what he sees or hers do. H a p<•rent could tint! no lliOtive, either in his philanthropy or his Rr lf' lo\·c, for rcsrraiuing tho intcmp<.' ranre of' pa ·:;ion towards his s lave, it ;.:ltoultl always he a !:lufliriunr one that his child is proscnr. But generally it is llOt sutlicicnt. Tlte par<.'nt !<lorms, thr ('lti l1l looks on, catches tlto lincaruenrs of wrath, put;; 011 th <' sar11o airs in the !'i rrlc of snrallcr f'lavcs, uivcs loose to his wor,;t pass roJr>;, a11d ·thns llllrsorl, etlur<tletl, aurl daily exercised in tyranny , caanot hut he sta rnpt•d with its odious peculiarities. Tho lll<tll nlust he a prndi;.!Y who can retain Iris llialln cr::~ a11tl lnoral:; uudcpravtJd 11 ud er such ci rcUill l> tancc:; ." 'Which of these authorities is entitled to be bclie \·cd ou r readers will determine for themseh·cs. On the one side they have a Virginian of 177G, a lover of the Union, and one who held that Gocl had crea ted all men free and equnl; and on the other a Virgi nian of 18·31, an active member of the Pro-Sla\'ery Party, that has for the last th irty years governed the Union by means of threats thnt, if in te r fe red with, they woulcl certainly sececir, and thus uring about what the Rnquirer i. llOIV pleased to ,tylo "the dreaclfnl contingency of disunion." On the one side th <·y haYc tl!o rrprescntati\·e of that Yir0c ~inia which tc'r) aye to the Union its 'Vashin gton, its Henry, its JeA'erson, and its l\Iadison, and on the other the reprc~cnta tire of the • tate which has placed in it · Governor's chair Virginians like Extra Billy Smith -which g ives John Tyler to the Union, and aids in placing Franklin Pi ~rco in the Chief Magistracy to tho excl usion of such a Vir~inia_n a::; the gallant Scott. Between the two, there is no great doubt which Is to be respected. R eleased from the contrd of their" conservative" friends - or master. -of the South, who tax them for the extension of the al'ea of Slavery, aud 42~ |
