Washington sentinel. [volume], May 13, 1856, Image 3

About Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856

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their individual characters and in the result of
their public deliberations, a decree of virtue
and a practical Statesmanship to which the
history of the world affords 110 parallel ; that in
no part of the Federal compact ia the wisdom
of our Fathers more conspicuous, than in leav
ing the whole question of slavery to the States
in their separate capacities, and that in the pro
vision for the redelivery of fugitives escaped
from labor or service, they demonstrated a
sense of justice, an appreciation of the value of
the Union, an attachment to its preservation,
an avoidance of one-sided philanthropy and
impracticable theories of government, which
present a proper example for the guidance and
imitation of us their descendants.
Resolved, That we look ouly to the Constitu
tion, and the exposition thereof which has been
afforded by the practices of Democratic admin
istrations, for the chart of our policy. That
these constitute, until the fundamental law is
changed by methods which itself provides, the
hiyliest law of our obedience as citizens; and
that we utterly discard that partial and ex
aggerated sympathy, the attempt to carry
which iuto practice is at the peril of our dear
est interests as a nation, and threatens the in
fliction of evils ofjenfold magnitude to those
which it proposes to heal.
Resolved, That the-equality of the States ia
the vital element of the Constitution itself, and
that all interference with the rights of the
States, by those who seek to disregard the
sacred guarantees of the past, and by all others,
should be rebuked with the same apirit that
would denounce and repudiate all attempts to
ercct odious distinctions between those who are
entitled to share the blessings and benefits of
our free institutions.
Resolved, That the effort to direct the power
of the government by anti-slavery agitations,
under the various names and phases of Free
Soilism, Auti-Nebraskaism, Fusionism, and Re
publicanism, and by interfering with the rights
of conscience in establishing a religious test as
a qualification for office, by the secret oath
bound society of the Know-nothings, is opposed
both to the letter and the spirit of the Consti
tution, and to the earnest teachings and prac
tice of its earliest and most houored adminis
trators.
Resolved, That we are now as ever unalter
ably opposed to the doctrines and designs of
all organizations which contemplate the over
throw of the civil and religious rights of the
citizen, like the'equality of the States, is a
sacrcd and inalienable right, never to be inter
fered with by factious parties and reckless legis
lation, without a subversion of the primary
objects of our political system, and a repudia
tion of the guarantees of the past and the hopes
of the future.
Resolved, That in the repeal of the act known
as the Missouri Compromise Act, and the pas
sage of the act organizing the Territories of
Kansas and Nebraska, free from unconstitu
tional restrictions, the last Congress performed
a work of patriotic sacrifice, in meeting the de
mands of sectional excitement by unshaken
adherence to the fundamental law.
Resolved, That this legislation cannot be
deemed unnecessary, but that it was expedient
to meet the questions of which it disposed, and
which could never admit of a more easy settle
ment than at present. That we recoguize in
it the application to the Territories of the
United States of the rule of "equal and exact
justice to all men," of all sections of the con
federacy, which was designed by the framers
of our government, and which was defined as
one of its essential principles by the immortal
Jefferson.
Resolved, That the Democracy of Pennsyl
vania, following the counsel of some of the
wisest statesmen of the North and South, were
ready on more than one occasioM in the past to
extend the Missouri Compromise line to the
Pacific, so as to make it the basis of a final
settlement of the question of slavery in the
Territories; but when this proposition was re
jected, in 1848, on the ground that it involved
an undue concession to the South, by the very
men who now clamor for a restoration of the
Missouri line, there seemed to be but one wise
alternative left, and that was to refer the whole
question of slavery in the territories to the
people thereof, to be regulated as they may
deem proper; and we, therefore, cheerfully ex
governmcut as recognized in the Compromise
measures of 1850, and embodied in the laws
organizing the Territories of Kansas and Ne
braska.
tend our hearty support
From the Pennsylvania!!.
The Voice of (h? People.
There is a great moral spectacle in the pop
ular movement* of a perfectly free people. Noth
ing U ho difficult of solution to the despots of
the earth as the relations of the people to the
government, except indeed the great demonstra
tions of the people themselves. Statesmen who
are uuable to govern empires without occupying
the masses in war, or without loading them
down with debt, or hiding from them the dan
gerous halo of the press, cannot in their phi
losophy, divine bow it is that a people should
be happy and content, who have no debts, who
tolerate no masters, who rejoice in perfect indi
vidual liberty, who are at peace with all men,
and to whom the public press is a necessity like
the light of Heaven, or their daily bread. There
is, however, in our midst at all times, a class of
men, who, knowing and understanding the se
cret of popular movements, throw themselves
in the van of such movements as if to seek the
inevitable destruction which befalls them.
I jet us take the case of the extraordinary and
wide-spread feeling in favor of Mr. Buchanan.
It cannot be ignored. It is not denied, even by
those who fear it most, it is like the air, and
penetrates everywhere. It astounds the lead
ers, as well as those who are in it as those who
are oat of it. We are not trying to point out
vhy this state of feeling has arisen. We speak
of it as an abstraction?as a fact. But this
public sentiment, so strong and so apparent,
looks for its embodiment to the Cincinnati Na
tional Convention. Many of the delegates cho
sen by the Democracy in the different States,
were chosen before this state of things became
notorious. The question is, will the Cincinnati
Convention be the organ by which this senti
ment shall be respected and responded to? We
have abundant and abiding faith in the fidelity
of the Democratic party, especially in its fideli
ty to the popular will. We are willing to trust
the delegates of that party with the selection of
the Presidential candidate. And,when the wish
of the people of the United States is so sirnally
manifested so significantly embodied ana pro
claimed,the representative bodyofthe Democrat
ic pnrty at Cincinnati, onr political Congress to
which the work already done by the people is to
be submitted,will have no trouble in coming to a
conscientious conclusion. A very few of those
who are disposed to deny that the will of the
American people has been well directed in re
ference to Mr. Buchanan, resort to arguments
which ate substantially so many confessions of
their insincerity, or else of their infatuation.
We have been amazed at seeing how men, em
inently sagacious have allowed themselves to
become the endorsers of the logic pat forth in
depreciation of the choice of the A merican peo
ple. In after years when they come to exam
ine the gronnd upon which they now stand,
they will be heartily ashamed that they should
have so betrayed themselves.
One or two instances may be quoted with ef
fect. What man, North or Sooth, who will sit
down calmly and revise the past, will say to
himself that James Buchanan is not to be trust
ed as an ardent defender of the rights of the
States, whether those rights relate to the insti
tutions of the South, to the civil and political
franchises of the adopted citizen,or to any other
grave and important interest? There is not
now living that man whose own heart would
not rebuke the expression of such an opinion as
that Mr. Bnchanan wonld be unfaithful to such
a trust. Again, we have it hinted in other quar
ters, that because Mr. Buchanan was not in the
Nebraska conflict, therefore he ooght not to be
/
made the President. Thin is absurdity intenai
tied. Mr. Buchanan was not in the Compro
mise contest of I860, and yet the entire Sdlith
supported him heartily and devotedly. General
Pierce was not in the Compromise contest of
1850, and yet the South supported him, and the
whule country supported him in 1852. He was
the candidate ot the Democracy?nominated
and elected by them. 80 illogical and ridcu
lous it this objection, that we do not stop to re
fute it. We allude to it alone because it is an un
conscious tribute to the individual and political
strength of Mr. Buchanau, and to the masses
who prefer him; in other words, it is saying to
him and to them?"see how strong you are
when we have no objections but weak devices
ofthis kind to urge against you." To contem
plate the contingency of Mr. Buchanau's rejec
tion on either of these grounds would be to con
template an outrage and an insult which we dis
miss as utterly unworthy of decent regard.
There is a common and very unjust procliv
ity among the friends of various Presidential
candidates to denounce politicians, to say that
the politicians are intriguing against the peo
ple. We read every day, that gentlemen elect
ed to Congress, by contiding constituencies, are
at work in their committee rooms, caucusing
night and day to circumvent the popular will.
Names and places are even given wnere these
conventicles assemble. It is alleged that these
politicians are blind and deaf to the singing
waves of public opinion which surround
them in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania
and Ohio, and which are heard from every
corner and extremity of the country. We
believe none of these charges. Our expe
rience of public men has been extended, and
we can say unhesitatingly that those called
politicians, at least in the Democratic party,
are, with rare exceptions, disinterested and up
right men ; above all they are men who have
made it their study to sound the depths of pub
lic opinion when any great question or contest
is to be decided. A politician, so to speak,
must be one who follows and does not lead
public opinion; at least he must be one who
seems to do as if he desires to remain in public
service. Can he hope to advance himself by
betraying the wishes of his constituents oq any
question, no matter how slight. But to attempt
to outmanage the known and the spontaneous
wish on the Presidency, of those who send
him to Washington, would be an assumption
that would stain and wound for more than a
deliberate insult?for what else would this be
but an arrogation on the part of one roan to
control the suffrages, it may be of fifty or sixty
thousand ?
Let such a man, for instance, be a Southern
politician. What a spectacle it would be to
see a States' Rights Democrat from the South
?we care not for what purpose?putting him
self to work to begrime the reputation of such
a man as James Buchanan, who has been the
beau ideal of States' Rights Democracy in the
North for twenty long yearsl What a specta
cle to see a Southern Democrat, who, during
his life, may have asserted his want of confi
dence in national conventions, because they
were not the representatives of public opinion,
but the mere registry of the decrees of mana
agers, in bis turn attempting to make his ac
cusations good as his own acts. We are not
of those who have threatened that if public
opinion formed by and formally announced
and known, should be deBed, there will be an
end of national conventions hereafter. We do
not say that the Democracy in the North will
be paralysed by the rejection of one preferred,
because he has been true, and the Democracy
in th%South are to be cut off from association
with those who have stood by.them. We say
none of these things; we anticipate no such
evil; above all, we make no threats. We only
.nay that it would be one experiment at least
daugerous in its tendencies for politicions to
commit the offence of trampling down an ex
pression, no matter how they may differ from
it, which is entitled to their respect. The city
of Washington, which is the great political
centre of our Republic, is visited by men from i
all parts of the Union. Public opinion is con- ;
stantly operating there. There are many,
very many patriots to be found in that city
among those who represent the people, as well
as among those who are going to and fro be
tween the Capitol and their own homes. It is
probable that among such may be found some
men whose personal ambition may induce them
to attempt to out-mauage popular sentiment; but
to the large and patriotic remainder, we would !
be willing to commit this question without '
another word.
It it, as we have said at the beginning of this ,
article, a very different thing between the wil
ful and characteristic ignorance of foreign
statesmen in regard to popular demonstrations
in this country, and those pablic men here who
know when the people speak, and who can see
the voice of the American masses moving
as it were like a spirit upon the waters.
The latter can feel it in the atmosphere j they
can read it in the signs of the times ; they know
its approach an well as the mariner does the
approaching storm, by the single speck that
appears in the otherwise cloudlets sky. Never j
hat a public man ventured to tet himtelf up
againtt a just public opinion that he has not
been crushed. Never has an infatuated intellect
dared to aspire against the honest declaration
of the masses in favor of a good principle or
a good man, that be has not fallen, like Luci
fer, to rite no more. Along the pathway of i
political history we find the memories and the i
wrecks of such men stream like admonitiona to |
the present political era. It hat been to the
Democratic party, this obedience to the Demo- !
cratic will, the soul of its existence, the pillar of
its power, the watchword nnder which it has
triumphed, and which has enabled it, even wh?n
falling before a deluded popular demonstration, i
to retain that inextinguishable vitality which j
soon restored it to confidence and to power. 1
Upon this rock we fflfko our stand ; here we |
plant our banner, and calmly await the issue of I
the Democratic National Convention.
Tk? Whigs.
Onr neighbor of the North American, whose
earnest sod most effective co-operation in the
municipal election we would most highly ap
preciate, is disposed to ignore the national
importance of the result. He thinks, or tries
to think, that it has no relation to the coming
event of the Presidential canvass: and we
unders tand why be thinks so. But a revolution
such as has occurred here, in the great Whig
city of philadelphia, rnuti have great conse
quences in every direction. There was?and
oar neighbor in his inner heart feels it?a local
sentiment, a Pennsylvania feeling stirring the
popular mind. Mr. Buchanan's welcome of
week before last, his ill-treatment at the hands
of the Know-nothing dynasty, and the good
sense and good feeling expressed in every
word he uttered on his return home, and
the indication* as to the future, pointing un
erringly to his nomination, all this had it*
effect; and Philadelphia cordial adhesion to
conservative Democracy is meant to enlighten
the ascending path before him. 80 we accept
the omen. So it seems others less cautious,
-but not more sincere than our neighbor, accept
it. At the late hour of the night of Tuesday,
a large concourse of Citizans visited the resi
dence of the district Attorney, Mr. Reed. To
him and for him the cheers were earnest and
enthusiastic. In a few words of acknowledg
ment which Mr. Reed made, he said (and we
are happy to say that it met with the most
enthusiastic response,) that he hoped that the
next occasion of patriotic rejoicing would be on
the Election of a Pennnylmnui President of
the United State1. The allusion to Mr. Buch
anan was tumultuously checred. It touched the
right cord. It was a oisinterested tribute?and
what always has its effect, it was bold, dirtct,
and manly.?Philadelphia Pennxylvaman.
-t a Tiyrmw BUOIZ^lN A.N
ON TUK
Conipruiulsc Mvature* of 1H5()<
Proceedimjs of the Great Union Meeting held
in the la rye Saloon of the Chinese Museum,
Philadelphia, on the2\st of November, i860,
under a call siyned by upwards of five thou
sand citizens?Hon. John Sergeant in the
chair.
Letter from Hon. Jaiuca Un?lian?u.
Wheatland, nkab Lancahteb, Nov. 19, 1850.
Gentlemen?I have been honored by the re
ceipt of your very kind invilatiou, "in behall of
the friends of the Constitution and the Union,
without distinction of party, resident in the city
and county of Philadelphia," to attend a public
meeting, to be held on the 21st instant, at the
Chinese Museum. I regret that engagements,
which I need not specify, will deprive me of
the pleasure and the privilege of uniting with
the great, patriotic, and enlightened community
of your city and county in manifesting their
attachment for the Constitution and the Union,
in the present alarming crisis Qf our public
affair*.
On a recent occasion, at the celebration of
the opening of the Eastern portion of our great
Central Railroad from Philadelphia to Pitts
burg, I said that the cordial support of that
magnificent improvement was a platform on
which all Pennsylvanians, of every political
denomination, could stand together in harmony.
The sentiment elicited an enthusiastic resuonse
from all present, whether Democrats or \V higs.
I now say that the platform of our blessed
Union is strong enough and broad enough to
sustain all true-hearted Americans. It is an
elevated, a glorious platform, on which the
down-trodden nations of the earth gaze with
hope and desire, with admiration and astonish
ment. Our Union is the Star in the Wefet,
whose genial and steadily increasing influence
will, at last, should we remain a united people,
dispel the gloom of despotism from the ancient
nations of the world. Its moral power will
prove to be more potent than millions of armed
mercenaries. And shall this glorious star set
in darkness before it hfts accomplished half its
mission? Heaven forbid! Letusall exclaim,
with the heroic Jackson, "The Union must and
shall be preserved."
And what a Union this has been! The his
tory of the human race presents no parallel to
it. The bit of striped bunting, which was to
be swiftly swept from the ocean, by the British
navy, according to the prediction of a British
Statesman previous to the war of 1812, is now
displayed in every sea and in every port of the
habitable globe. Our glorious stars and stripes,
the flag of our country, now protects Ameri
cans in every climc. J"I am a Roman citizen!
was once the proud exclamation which every
where shielded an ancient Roman from insult
and injustice. "I am nn American citizen!" is
now an exclamation of almost equal potency,
throughout the civilised world. This is a tri
bute due to the power and the resources of
these thirty-one united States. In a just cause
we may defy the world in arms. We have
lately presented a spectacle which has aston
ished even the greatest Captain of the age. At
the call of their country an irresistable host of
armed men, and men too skilled in flie use of
arms, sprung up like the soldiers of Cadmus,
from the mountains and valleys of our great
confederacy. The struggle among them was
not who should remaiu at home; but who
should enjoy the privilege of braving the
dangers and the privations of a foreigu war in
defence of their country's rights. Heaven for
bid that the question of slavery should ever
prove to be the stone thrown into their midBt
by Cadmus to make them turn their arms
against each other and perish in mutual con
flict! .
Whilst our power as a united people secures
us agaitiBt the injustice and assaults of foreign
enemies, what has been our condition at home?
Here every citizen stands erect in the proud
proportions bestowed upon him by his Maker,
and feels himself equal to his fellow man. He
is protected by a government of just laws in the
enjoyment ol life, liberty, and property, lie
sits down under his own vine and his owh fig
tree, and there is none to make him afraid. A
vast confederacy composed of thirty-one sove
reign and independent StAtes is open before
him, in which he feels himself to be every
where at home, and may any where through
out its extended limits seek his own prosperity
and hapiness in bis own way. The most per
fect freedom of intercourse prevails among all
the States.
Here the blessings of free trade have been
realized under the Constitution of the United
Stales, and by the consent of all, to a greater
extent than the world has ever witnessed. Our
domestic tonnage and capital employed in this
trade, exceed, beyond all comparison, that
employed in our trade with all the rest of the
world. The mariner of Maine, after braving
the dangers of the passage around Cape Horn,
finds himself at home in his own country, when
entering the distant port of San Francisco, on
the other side of the world.
Heaven seems to have bound these States
together by adamantine bonds of powerful
interest. They are mutually dependent on
each other, mutually necessary to each other's
welfare. The numerous and powerfnl common
wealths which are spread over the valley of the
Mississippi must seek the markets of the world
for their productions, through the mouth of that
father of risers. A strong naval power is ne
cessary to keep thia channel always free in
time of war; and an immense commercial
marine is required to carry their productions to
the markets of the world, and bring back their
returns. The same remark applies with almost
equal force to the cotton growing and planting
States on the Onlf of Mexico, and on the At
lantic. Who is to supply this naval power and
this commercial marine ? The hardy and
enterprising sons of the North, whose home haw
always been on the mountain wave. Neither
the pursuits nor the habits of the people of the
Western and the Southern States, fit them for
such an implovment. They are naturally the
producers, whilst the Northern people are the
carriers. This establishes a mutual and profi
table dependence upon each other, which is
i one of the strongest bonds of our Union.
The common sufferings and common glories
j of the past, the prosperity of the present, and
1 the brilliant hopes of the future, must impress
I every patriotic heart with deep love and uevo
I tion for the Union. Who that is now a citizen
of this vast Republic, extending from the St.
Lawrence to the Rio Grande, nnd from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, does not shudder at the
idea of being transformed into a citizen of one
of its broken, jealous, and hostile fragments
What pntriot would not rather shed the last
drop of his blood than see the thirty-one brilliant
stars which now float proudly npon her countrj's
flag, amid the battle and the breeze, rudely
torn from the national banner, and KCattered in
confusion over the face of the earth ?
Rest assured that all the patriotic emotions
of every true-hearted Pennsylvanian, in fnvot
of the Union and tbe Constitution, are slmred
by tbe Southern people. What battle field In*
I not been illustrated by their gallant deed*; am!
when, in onr history; have they ever shrunk
from sacrifices and sufferings in the cause of
their country? What, then, means the mot
tering thnnder which we hear from the South?
The signs of the times are truly nortenton*.
i Whilst many in the South openly advocate the
i cause of secession and union, a large majority,
j as I firmly believe, still fondly cling to the
I Union, awaiting with deep anxi#ty the action of
| the North on the compromise lately effected in
Congresa. Should this be disregarded and
nullified by the citizens of the North, the
Southern people may become united, and then
farewell, a long farewell to our blessed I nion.
I am no alarmist; but a brave and^ wj*? man
looks danger steadily in the face. This is the
best means of avoiding it. 1 am deeply im
pr#R8cd with tho conviction that the North
neither sufficiently understands nor appreciates
the danger. For my own part, I have been
steadily watching it* approach lor the last fifteen
years. During that period T have often sounded
the alarm : but my feeble warnings have been
disregarded. 1 now solemnly declare, as the
deliberate conviction of my judgment, that two
things are necessary to preserve this Uniou
from the most immediate dauger:
1. Agitation in the North on the subject of
Southern slavery must be rebuked and put
down by a strong, energetic and enlightened
public opinion. *
2. The fugitive slave law must be executed
iu its letter and in its spirit.
On each of these points 1 shall offer a few
observations.
Those are greatly mistaken who suppose that
the tempest which is now raging in the South
has been raised solely by the acts or omissious
of the present Congress. The minds of the
Southern people have been gradually prepared
for this explosion by theevents of the last fifteen
years. Much and devotedly as they love the
Union, many of them are now taught to believe
that the peace of their own firesides, and the
security of their families, cannot be preserved
without separation from us. The crusade of
the abolitionists against their domestic peace
and security commenccd in 1835. General
Jackson, in his annual message to Congress, in
December of that year, Bpeaks of it in the fol
lowing emphatic language: "I must, also, iu
vite your attention to the painful excitement
produced iu the South by attempts to ciJculate
through tho mails intiamatory appeals, ad
dressed to the passions of the slaves, in prints
und various sorts of publications, calculated to
stimulate them to insurrection, and produce all
the horrors of a servile war."
From that period the agitation in the North
against Southern slavery has been incessant, by
means of the press, of State Legislatures, of
State and County Conventions, Abolition Lec
tures, and every other method which fanatics
and demaogues could devise. The time of
Congress has been wasted in violent harangues
on the subject of slavery. Inflammatory ap
peals have been sent forth from this central
point throughout the country, the inevitable ef
fect of which has been to create geographical
parties, so much dreaded by the Father of his
Country, and to estrange the Northern and
Southern divisions of the -Union from each
other.
Before the Wilmot Proviso was interposed,
the abolition of slavery in the District of Co
lumbia had been the chief theme of agitation.
Petitions for this purpose, by thousands, from
men, women, and children, poured into Con
gress, session after session. The rights and the
wishes of the owners of slaves within the Dis
trict, were boldly disregarded. Slavery was de
nounced as a national sin and a national dis
grace, which the laws of God and the laws of
men ought to abolish, cost what it might. It
mattered not to the fanatics that the abolition
of slavery in the District would convert it into
aoitadel,in the midst of two slaveholdiug States,
from which the abolitionists could securely scat
ter arrows, firebrands and death, all around. It
mattered not to them that the abolition of sla
very in the District would be a violation of the
spirit of the Constitution and of the implied faith
pledged to Maryland and Virginia; because the
whole world knows thftt those States would
never have ceded it to the Union, had tbey
imagined it could ever be converted by Con
gress into a place from which their domestic
peace and security might be assailed by fanat
ics and abolitionistst Nay, the abolitionists
went even still further. They agitated for the
purpose of abolishing slavery in the forts arse
uals and navy yards which the Southern Slates,
had ceded to the Union, under the Constitution,
for the protection and defence of the country.
Thus stood the question when the Wilmot pro
viso was interposed, to add fuel to the flame,
and to excite the Southern people to madness.
President Polk was anxious to bring the war
with Mexico to au honorable conclusion with
the least possible delay. He deemed it highly
probable that an appropriation by Cougress of
$2,000,000, to be paid to the Mexican Govern
ment immediately after the conclusion of peace,
might essentially aid him in accomplishing this
desirable object. He sent a message to this ef
fect to Congress in August, 1846; and whilst
the bill granting the appropriation was pending
before the House, Mr. Wilmot offered his fa
mous proviso as an amendment, which was
carried by a majority of nineteen votes. This
amendment, had it even been proper in itself,
was out of time and out of place; because it
bad not then been ascertained whether we should
acquire any territory from Mexico: and in point
of fact, the Treaty of Peace was not eoncluded
until eighteen months thereafter. Besides, this
Proviso, by defeating the appropriation, was
calculated, though I cannot believe it was in
tended, to prolong the war.
The Wilmot Proviso, until near the termina
tion of the last session of Congress defeated
every attempt to form territorial governments
for our Mexican acquisitions. Had such gov
ernments been established at the proper time,
California would have changed her Territorial
into a State Government, and would have come
into the Union as naturally as a young man
enters upon his civil rights at the age of twenty
one, producing scarcely a ripple upon the sur
face of public opinion.
What consequences have resulted from the
Proviso? It placed the two divisions of the
Union in hostile array. The people of each, in
stead of considering the people of the other as
brethren, began to view eacn other as deadly
euemies. Whilst Northern Legislatures were
passing resolutions instructing their Senators
and requesting their Representatives to vote for
tbe Wilmot Proviso, and for laws to abolish
slavery in tbe District of Columbia; Southern
I .legislatures and Conventions, prompted and
sustained by the indignant and united voice of
the Southern people, were passing resolutions
pledging themselves to measures of resistance.
The spirit of fanaticism was in the ascendant.
To such a height had it mounted, that a bill in
troduced into the House of Representatives, by
Mr. Giddings, during the last session of tbe last
Congress, authorizing the slaves in tbe District
of Columbia to vote, on tbe question whether
they themselves should be freemen, was defea
ted on the motion of my friend, Mr. Brodhead,
of this State by the slender majority of only
twenty-six votes. ?
Thus stood the question when the present
Congress assembled. Thin body at first pre
sented the appearance of it Polish diet, divided
into hostile parlies rather than that of the rep
resentatives of a great and united people, as
sembled in the land of Washington, Jefferson
and Jackson, to consult and act together as
brethren in promoting the common good of the
whole Republic.
It would be the extreme of dangerous infatu
ation to suppose that the Union was not then in
serious danger. Had the Wilmot Proviso be
come a law, or bad slavery been abolished in
the District of Columbia, nothing short of a spe
cial interposition of Divine Providence copld
have prevented the secession of moet, if not all
of the slaveholding states.
It was from this great and glorions old Com
monwealth, rightly denominated the "Keystone
of the Arch," that the first ray of light emanated
to dispel the gloom. She is not conscious of
her own power. She stands as the days man,
between the North and the S<Tt?th, and can lay
her hand on either party, and say, thns far
shalt thoa go, and no farther. The wisdom,
moderation nnd firmness of her people, calcu
late her eminently to act as the just and eqni
table umpire between the extremes.
It was the vote in our State House of Repre
j sentatives, refusing to consider the instructing
resolutions in favor of the Wilmot Proviso,
whieh first cheered the heart of every patriot in
the land. This was speedily followed by a vote
of the House of Representatives at Washing
ton, nailing the Wilmot Proviso itself to the ta
ble. And hern I ought not to forget the great
, meeting held in Philadelphia on the birthday
of the Father of his Country, in favor of the
Union, which gave a happy and irresistible iin
puLw to public opinion throughout the State,
aiftl I may add throughout the Union.
The houor of the South has been saved by
the Compromise. The Wilmot Proviso is for
ever dead, and slavery will never be abolished
in the District of Columbia whilst it continues
to exist in Maryland. The receding storm in
the South still continues to dash with violence,
but it will gradually subside, should agitation
cease in the North. All that is necessary for us to
do is to execute the Fugitive Slave Law, and to
let the Southern people alone, suffering them to
manage their own domestic concerns in their
own way. A Virginia farmer once asked me
if there were two neighbors living together, what
I would think if one of them should be eter
nally interfering in the domestic concerns of
the other! Could they possibly live together in
peace?
Without reference to the harmony and safety
of the Union, what a blessing would this policy
of non-interference be, not only to the slaves and
free negroes, but even to the cause of constitu
tional emancipation itself!
Since the agitation commenced, the slave has
been deprived of many priviligcs which he for
merly enjoyed, because of the stern necessities
thus imposed upon the master to provide for his
personal safety and that of his family.
The free negro, for the same over-ruling
reason, is threatened with expulsion from the
land of his nativity in the South; and there are
strong indications in several of the Northern
States that they will refuse to alford him an
asylum.
The cause of emancipation itself has greatly
suffered by the agitation. If left to its conatit u
tional and natural course, laws ere this would
most probably have existed for the gradual ab
olition of slavery iu the States of Maryiand, Vir
ginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. The current of
public opinion was running strongly in that di
rection before the abolition excitement ?om
menced, especially in Virginia. There a mea
sure having directly in view the gradual abolh
tion of slavery, offered too by the grandson of
Thomas Jefferson, came within one vote, if my
memory serves me, of passing the House of
Delegates. Throughout Virginia, as well as in
the other three States which I have mentioned,
there was then a powerful, influential,and grow
ing party in favor of gradual emancipation,
cheered on to exertion by the brightest hopes of
success. What has now become of this party/
It is gone. It is numbered with the things that
have been. The Interference of Northern fa
natics with the institution of slavery in the
South has so excited and exasperated the peo
ple, that there is no man in that region now
1 bold enough to utter a sentiment in favor of
gradual emancipation. The efforts of the
abolitionists have long, very long postponed
the day of emancipation in these States.
Throughout the grain growing slave States,
powerful causes were in operation, which must,
before many years, have produced gradual
emancipation. These have been counteracted
by the violence and folly of the abolitionists.
'1 hey have done infinite mischief. T hey have
not only brought the Union into imminent per
il, but they have inflicted the greatest evils
both on the slave and on the lree negro, the
avowed objects of their regard.
Let me then call upon your powerful and in
fluential meeting, as they value the union of
these States, the greatest political blessing ever
conferred by a bountiful Providence unon man;
as ibey value the well-being of the slave and
free negro; as they value even the cause of reg
ular and constitutional emancipation, to exert
all their energies to put down the long contin
ued agitation in the North against slavery in
the South, la it unreasonable that the South
should make this demand? 1 he agitation has
reached such a height that the Soutbern people
feel their personal security to be involved. It
has filled the minds of the slaves with vague
notions of emancipation, and. in the language
of General Jackson, threatens "to timulate
them to insurrection and produce ?.ii he hor
rors of a servile war." Although any t- uch at
tempt on their part would be easily and speedi
ly suppressed, yet what horrors might not in
the mean time be perpetrated! Many a mo
ther now retires to rest at night under dreadful
apprehensions of what may befal herself and
her family before the morning. Self preserva
tion is the first instinct of nature; and, there
fore, any state of society, in which the sword of
Damocles is all the time suspended over the
heads of the people, must, at last, become in
tolerable. Toiuage correctly of our relative
duties towards the people of the South, we ought
to place ourselves in their position, and do unto
them as we would that they should do unto us
under similar circumstances. This is the gold
en rule. It was under its benign influence that
our Constitution of mutual compromise and con
cession was framed, and bv the same spirit alone
can it be maintained. Do the people of the
North act in this Christian spirit, whilst stig
matizing their brethren of the South with the
| harshest epithets, imputing to them a high de
gree of moral guilt, because slavery has been
entailed upon them by their forefathers; and
this, too, with a knowledge that the conse
quences of these assaults must be to place in
peril their personal safety, and that of all they
hold most dear on earth. 1 repeat that this con
stant agitation must be arrested by the firm de
termination and resolute action of the vast ma
jority of the people of the North, who are
Known to disapprove it, or the sacrifice of our
glorious Union may and probably will be at last
the consequence.
2. I shall proceed to present to you some
views upon the subject of the much misrepre
sented fugitive slave law. It is now evident, from
all the signs of the times, that this is destined
to become the principal subject of agitation at
the next session of Congress, and to take the
place of the Wilmot Proviso. Its total repeal
or its material modification will henceforward
be the battle cr? of the agitators of the North.
And what is the character of this law? It was
passed to carry into execution a j?lain, clear,
and mandatory provision of the Constitution,
requiring that fugitive slaves, who fly from
service in one State to another, shall b*> de
livered up to their masters. This provision is
so explicit that he who runs may read. No
commentary can present it in a stronger light
than the plain words of the Constitution. It
is a well known historical fact, that without this
provision, the Constitution itself could never
have existed. How could this have been other
wise? Is it possible for a moment to believe
that the slave States would have formed a
union with the free States, if under it, their
slaves by simply escaping across the boundary
which separates them would aconire all the
rights of freemen ? This would have been to
offer an irresistible temptation to all the slaves
of the South to precipitate themselves upon
the North. The Federal Constitution, there
fore, recognizes in the clearest and most em
| pbatic terms, the property in slaves, and pro
tects this property by prohibiting any State, j
into which a slave might escape, from dis
I charging him from slavery, and by requiring
that he shall be delivered up to his master.
Dot, say the agitators, the fugitive slave law,
framed for tho very purpose of carrying into
effect an express provision of the Constitution,
is itself unconstitutional. I shall not stop to
argue such a point at length, deeming this to
be wholly unnecessary. The law, >n every one
of ita essential provisions, is the very same
law which was passed in February, ITfS, by a
Congress, many of whose members had come
fresh from the convention which framed the
I Federal Constitution, and was approved by the
I Father of his Country. If this be so, it may
be asked whence the necessity of passing the
present law/ Why not rest upon the Act of
1793? This question is easily answered. The
1 Act of 1793 bad entrusted its own execution
j not only to the Judges of the Circuit and Div
' trict Conrts of the United States, but to all
i State magistrates of any county, city, or town
j corporate. The decision of the Supreme Court
I of the United States, in the case of Prigg ?. the
Com moil wealth of Pennsylvania, deprived these
State magistrates of the power of acting under
the law. What was the consequence? Let us
take the State of Pennsylvania for an example.
There were but three individuals left in the
whole State who could judicially execute the
provisions of the Act of 1793?the Circuit
Judge and the two District Judges. Two of
these Judges reside in Philadelphia, and one
of them at Pittsburg, a distance of more than
three hundred miles apart. It is manifest,
therefore, that the law in many, indeed in most
cases could not have been executed for want
of officers near at hand. It thus became abso
lutely necessary for Congress to provide L1 nited
States officers to take the place of the State
magistrates who had beeu superseded. With
out this, a constitutional right could have ex
isted with no adequate means of enforcing it.
The fugitive slave bill was passed chiefly to
remedy this defect, and to substitute such offi
cers instead of the State magistrates, whose
powers had been nullified under the decision
of the Supreme Court.
It is worthy of remark, that several of our
Northern Legislatures, availing themselves of
the decisiou of the Supreme Court, and under
the deep excitement produced by the agitation
of the Wilmot Proviso, passed laws imposing
obstacles to the execution of the provisions of
the Constitution for the restoration of fugitive
slaves. I am sorry, very sorry, to state that
Pennsylvania is among this number, liy our
act of 3d March, 1847, even the use of our
public jails is denied for the safe custody of the
fugitive; and the jailer who shall offend against
this provision is deprived of his office, and is
punishable with a heavy fine and a disqualifi
cation ever again to hold a similar office 1
The two principal objections urged against
the fugitive slave law are, that it will promote
kidnapping; and that it does not provide a trial
by jury for the fugitive in the State to which
he has escaped.
The very same reasons may be urged, with
equal force, against the Act of 1793; and yet
it existed for more than half a century without
encountering any such objections.
In regard to kidnapping;?the fears of the
agitators are altogether groundless 1 be law
requires that the lugitive shall be taken before
the judge or commissioner. The master must
there prove, to the satisfaction of the magis
trate the identity of the fugitive, that he is the
master's property, and has escaped from his
service. Now, 1 ask, would a kidnapper ever
undertake such a task? Would he suborn
witnesses to commit perjury and expose him
self to detection before the judge or commis
sioner, and in presence of the argus eyes of a
non-slaveholding community, whose feelings
will always be in lavor of the slave? No,
never. The kidnapper seizes his victim in the
silence of the night, or in a remote and obscure
place, and hurries him away. He does not ex
pose himself to the public gaze. He will never
bring the unfortunate object of his rapacity
before a commissioner or a judge. Indeed, I
have no recollection of having heard or read of
a case, in which a free man was kidnapped
under the forms of law, during the whole period
of more than half a century, since the act of
1793 was passed.
But it is objected to the law that the fugitive
is not allowed a trial by jury in the State to
which he has escaped. So it has always been
under the act of 1793, and so it is under the
present law. A fugitive from labor is placed
upon the very same footingj under the Constitu
tion, with a fugitive from justice. Does a man
charged with the commission of a crime in
Maryland fly into Pennsylvania, he is delivered
up, upon proper evidence, to the authorities of
the State from which he fled, there to stand his
trial. He has no right to demand a trial by
i jury in Pennsylvania. Nay more; nnder our
! extradition treaties with foreign powers, does a
man charged with a crime committed in Eng
land or France fly to the United States, he is
delivered up to the authorities of the country
from which he fled, without a trial by jury in
this country. Precisely the same is the ca6e
in regard to a fugitive from labor. Upon satis
factory proof, he is delivered up without a trial
by jury. In the Constitution he is placed upon
the very same footing with fugitives from jus
tice from other States; and by treaty,he is placed
upon the very same footing with fugitives from
justice from foreign countries. Surely the fugi
tive slave is not entitled to superior privileges
over the free white man. When he returns to
the State from which he has escaped, he is
there entitled to a trial by jury, for the purpose
of deciding whether he is a freeman. 1 believe
every slave State has made provision by law
for such a trial without expense, upon the peti
tion of the slave; and we have heard it an
nounced from the highest authority in the
Senate of the United States, that such trials are
always conducted in mercy, and with a rigid
regard to the rights of the slave.
Why should an act of Congress cast such a
.reflection upon the judicial tribunals of a sister
State as to say they shall not be trusted with
the trial of the question whether an individual
is entitled to his freedom under the laws of the
State from which he has fled?
Hut to allow the fugitive slave a trial by jury
in the State where he is found, would, in many
instances, completely nullify the provisions of
the Constitution. There are many, I fear very
many, in the Northern States who place their
conscience above the Constitution of their coun
try, and who would, as jurors, rescue a fugitive
slave from servitude against the clearest testi
mony, thinking at the same time, they were
doing God's service. The excited condition of
public feeling in many portions of the North,
would disqualify honest and respectable men
from acting as impartial jurors on such a aues
tion. Besides, the delay, the trouble, ami the
expense of a jury trial at such a distance from
home, would, in most cases, prevent the master
from pursuing his fugitive slave. He would
know that should he fail to obtain a verdict,
this would be his ruin. He would then be per
secuted with actions of slander, of false impris
onment, and every kind of prosecution which
ingenuity could devise.
The defeat of the Wilmot Proviso, and the
| passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, are all that
I the South have obtained by the Compromise.
They asked for the Missouri Compromise, which
it is known that for one I was always filling to
concede, believing this would be the most just,
equitable, and satisfactory arrangement of the
Territorial question between the North and the
South. But that has passed away. California
ha? Iwen admitted as a State into the I'liion.
with a positive prohibition of Slavery in her
constitution; and whether the Mexican law
abolishing slavery be in force or not, in the re
mainder of our Territorial acquisitions, does
any man believe that slavery will ever prevail
among the Mormons in Utah, or among the in
| habitants of the snow-clad hills and mountain
valleys of New Mexico? Besides, the slave
| trade has been abolished in the District of Co
lumbia. What then of the Compromise prac
j tically remains for the South but this Fugitive
- Slave Law, passed to carry out a clear consti
tutional provision! It is the only compensa
tion which they have received for what they
believe to be the great injuries they have sus
tained. Will they then patiently submit to
! have this law repealed, essentially modified, or
1 nullified? Before its passage, the Constitution
had become, in regnrd to fugitive slaves, almost
j a dead letter. It is a notorious fact, that all
along the bonier which separates the free from
i the slave States, every facility *as afforded for
the escape of slaves from their masters. If
they could pass the line, their safety was almost
certain. They were scarcely ever, in the lan
guage of the Constitution, "delivered up on the
claim of the party to which such service or
, labor may be due ' In many instances, the
master or his agent who pursued them was in
sulted, assaulted, beaten, and imprisoned; and
few men could be found hold enough to incur
the hazard of such a dangerous undertaking.
In this manner the Southern people were an
j nually deprived of their property, guarantied
to them by the Constitution, to the amount of
hundreds of thousands of dollar*. The Consti
tution was nullified, and this l.w wL pZed
for he protection ol their constitutional rights!
Will they tamely surrender it? Let the voice
which speaks in tones of thunder from the
United South answer this question. They will
"t last, 1 trust and believe, submit to all the
provisions of (he Compromise, provided the
fugitive slave law be faithfully executed in the
Worth; but they will go no further. All the
resolutions even of the Union meetings in the
south speak this language. Future agressions
d&Ter**** ?r lhe Uuiun wiH bu in >?mineat
M "f, l',en re80'*e to put down agitation at
Anii * !*? ^ slave 9??8tion, hy the force of
enlightened public opinion, and faithfully exe
Sholld iJ Pr7m,?,"8 of the ,u?itiT" sla? '*??
[Should_ this be done, it will eventually extin
guish those geographical parties?go dangerous
F?tJ fUk?nr a 80 m,K'h dre?ded by the
b ather of bis Country-which have sprung into
existence; it will ameliorate the condition of
the slaves, by enabling their masters to remove
the restrictions imposed upon them in self de
fence, since the commencement of the present
troubles, and will restore the natural and con
stitutional progress of emancipation which has
in several States, been arrested by the violence
of tne Abolitionists.
1 he Union cannot long endure, if it be bound
together only by paper bonds. It can be firmly
cemented alone by the affections of the people
of the different States for each other. Would
to Heaven that the spirit of mutual forbear
ance and brotherly love which presided at its
birth, could once more be restored to bless the
land I Upon opening a volume, a few days
since, my eyes caught a resolution of a Con
vention of the Counties of Maryland, assem
bled at Annapolis, in June, 1774, in conse
quence of the passage, by the British Parlia
ment, of the Boston Port Bill, which provided
for opening a subscription "in the several
counties of the Province, for an immediate
collection for the relief of the distressed in
habitants of Boston, now cruelly deprived of
the means of procuring subsistence for them
selves and families by the operation of the said
act for blocking up their harbor." Would that
the spirit of fraternal affection which dictated
this noble resolution, and which actuated all
the conduct of our revolutionary fathers, mi.'ht
return to bless and to re animate the boso'ms
of their descendants! This would render our
Union indissoluble. It would be the living soul
infusing itself into the Constitution and inspir
ing it with irresistable energy.
I am not one of those who can ever concent
o calculate the value of the Union. Its benefits
and its blessings are inestimable. God forbid I
that fanaticism should ever apply a torch to
this, the grandest and most glorious temple
which has ever been erected to political freedom
on the face of the earth I Whilst the friends of
human liberty throughout the world would
forever deplore the irreparable loss of our ex
ample to the nations, this catastrophe would be
the prolific source of evils to all the States?
North, South, Last and West?from theenume
ration of which ray mind recoils with horror.
Would any or all of the injuries which the
South have suffered, or which they suppose
they have suffered, from the agitation at the
-Nort.i, and from the Compromise, justify a re
sort to the last dread extremity of disolving the
Union? I believe not; and after the sober
second thought, the patriotic people of the
South will, I have no doubt by a larye
majority, arrive at the same conclusion.
tor Such causes, they will never forfeit
all the innumerable blessings of the Union
and subject the country and the lovers of ra
tional freedom throughout the world to the
most astounding political calamity which has
ever befallen the human race.
It is not every wrong?nay, it is not every
grievous wrong?which can justify, or even
palliate, such a fearful alternative. In this age,
and in this country, there is an incessantfiuxand'
reflux of publicopinion. Subjects which but a few
y. ars ago excited the public mind to madness,
have passed away and are almost forgotten. To
employ the eloquent lauguage of Mr. Burke,
they are "Volcanoes burnt out?and on the lava
and ashes and squalid scorim of old eruptions,
grow the peaceful olive, the cheering vine, and
the sustaining corn."
The agitation at the North on the subject of
domestic slavery in the South, like every thing
human, will have its day. We have already
^ trust, past the dangerous crisis.
Should this prove to be the case, the tempest
which has lieen raging will purify the political
atmosphere, and impart new and healthful life
and vigor to the body politic.
Hut, if, in the midstof such a temporary excite
ment, the Union should be dissolved, the mis
chief will then be irreparable. "Nations un
born, and ages yet behind," will curse the rash
ness of the deed. Should "the silver cord be
loosed, and the golden bowl be broken at the
fountain, human power will never be able to
re unite the scattered fragments. If the Al
mighty Ruler of the Universe has, in his Provi
dence, destined the dissolution of the Union as
a punishment for the sins of the Nation, I hope
before that day, I may be gathered to my
fathers, and never witness the sad catastrophe.
Yours, very respectfully.
t xr r .. ?JAME& BUCHANAN.
To Messrs. Josiah Randall, Isaac Hazlehursf,
John 8. Riddle, John W. Forney, C. Ineer
?oll, and Robert M. Lee.
LAND WAMRANTM.
11HK Bubacribera, having made iddltlon
to their active capital, are now prepared to
purchaae an unlimited quantity of Land Warrant*,
not only at the very higheat market prices, but at
times will pny more than any houae in th\? city,
^Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York, and cer
tainly always an much ; and will deal very liberally
with correspondents, forwarding Warrants by
mail, always allowing tbem more liberal rates ia
consideration ot the loss of time necessary lor their
transmission to this city, and our return drafts on
Northern and Southern citieaia payment. Address
J. M CLAKKE 8c Co., Banker*, and
Dealera in Land Warrant*, Washington, D. C.
REFER TO?
C?lonel James G. Berret, Postmaster, Wash
ington, D. C.
Sitter, Lea, St Co., Rankers, Waahingtoa, D. C.
All the Officers of the Banks in Wheeling,
Virginia.
I$eebee St Co., Bankera, New York.
Peters, Si>ence, St Co, Bankers, Lynchburg, Va.
Paul It Hinton, Bankers, Peteiaburg, Va.
R. H. Maury & Co., Raukers, Richmond, Va.
Cashier Bank of Virginia, Richn ond, Va.
Csahier Farmers' Bank ofVirginia. Richmond, Va.
Caahier M and M. Rank, Parkcrsburg, Va.
James Robb & Co., Bankers, New Orleana.
J. W Clark Co., Bankers. Boston
W. M. & I.C.Martin, Bankers, Charlestoa,S. C
P. Ac A. Vinton. Bankers, New Philadelphia, O
Jan. 10?la -
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JQj Forks, Spoons, See?M. W. Gilt It Bro.
have just received a beaatiful assortment of?
Extra Plated Tea Sets, latest styles
Castors, Cake Raskets, Card Traya, Jr<
Also, superior Albata Forks and Spoons.
The above are of the very best quality, and tia
usually low.
M. W. OALT St. BRO.
R. F. HIBBARD'8 WILD CHERRY BITTERS
AN KKCEI.LKNT REMKOr.
HIBBAMDf* Wild Cherry Bitter* la the
heat Purifier of the Rlood and the best anti
dote for Dyspepsia we have ever found. It is the
beat Strengthening Bitters for all who are debili
tated by sickness or whose nerve* have been
ahattered from excitement or overworking them
selves that can l?e ftmiid in any other purgative in
the world. It is perfectly harmless and gentle in
its nature, and when once used will be found
highly beneficial, especially to females. Try it
and become convinced; our word tor it, you will
not regret it.
Prepared and sold by HtaaARivdt Whkiler, S3
Spruce street, New York; and J. Gtaas, corner oi
5th and K street*; A. Babbitt, 208 D *lre?H; and
E. II. Wrrhkr, Pennsylvania avenue, Washing
ton, D. C.; and by dealers and druggist* gener
ally. July 10 -3m