SLAVERY AGITATION.
The great object of the Democracy has been, for years
past, to put a stop to slavery agitation. - This was not to be done by any
physical means, nor by shutting their eyes and closing their ears to the
fierce encroachment of fanaticism at the North; but they have
endeavored to do so upon great Constitutional principles of equality and
fairness - principles on which the good men of all parties could unite.
There has been but one thing that has prevented the Democracy
from consummating this great end, the want of a cordial co-operation
of all parties in the South. But for the distraction produced by
Know-Nothingism, we would easily have made a complete crush
of it long since. Let the entire South, and all national men of the
country, unite cordially with the Democracy on this
question, however much they may differ as to others, and we can in a
little time rid ourselves of this unceasing agitation, and turn the
attention of our public men to more healthy subjects of national
interest.
Instead of pursuing this course, it has been the policy of unscrupulous
politicians, who desired to figure in the lead of faction, to turn their
batteries against the Democracy and keep up the unceasing cry
that it was they who were producing all the agitation in the
country. They have persisted in this until they have made many honest
people of their party seriously believe it.
The recent opinion of the Supreme Court of the United
States -- that great tribunal of the country before whose decisions
all parties and all factions must give way - fully and completely
vindicates and sustains the Democratic party in the
patriotism and wisdom of its course throughout the entire history of
slavery agitation. From this decision there is no appeal except to
revolution. We might well infer, therefore, that the agitation would
cease. But not so, if we are to credit the New York Post, a journal
of high authority with the Black Republicans. It says:
Some of the journalists who support the cause of
the administration are pleasing themselves with the fancy that the
decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the
Dred Scott Case will put an end to the agitation of the
slavery question. They will soon find their mistake. The feeling in favor
of liberty is not so easily smothered; discussion is not so readily
silenced. One specific after another has been tried, with the same view
and with the same success. The Fugitive Slave Law, we were
told, was to quiet all agitation, but it did not; the Nebraska
bill was to stop all controversy on the slavery question, but it
proved to be oil poured on the flames. The usurpation of the
government of Kansas by the inroad from Missouri, was thought for a time to be a blow to the
friends of liberty which they could not survive, but it only roused them
to greater activity. The election of Mr. Buchanan as
President in November was to put an end to the dispute, but since November
the dispute has waxed warmer and warmer. It will never end till the cause
of liberty [Abolitionism] has finally triumphed. Heap statute upon
statute, follow up one act of Executive interference with another, add
usurpation to usurpation, and judicial decision to judicial decision, the
spirit against which they are levelled is indestructible. As long as the
press and speech are free, the warfare will be continued, and every
attempt to suppress it, by directing against it any part of the machinery
of the government will only cause it to rage more fiercely.
The country is thus informed through this authorised organ of
Abolitionism that the efforts of the Democracy to settle the
slavery agitation will prove fruitless, and that fanaticism is to wage its
war of aggression, reckless of the Supreme Court, the
Administration, and every thing else; and yet the Louisville
Journal and such papers will continue to prate about the persistent
agitation of this question by the Democracy!
It is time that the honest members of the Know-Nothing
party of the South had their eyes open. It is time
that patriots everywhere were beginning to see that there is no safety for
the country, in connection with this question, save in a cordial
co-operation with the Democracy. Especially in the
South must they awaken to this consciousness, where they have
such interests to stimulate them, and such practical manifestations of its
truth.
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