so as to keep pace with the growth of the Free States. The Constitution is not sufficient for their protection now, and must be amended so as directly to recognize the right of property in man which its noble framers, though themselves slaveholders, were unwilling to do .The Free States are called upon to prevent the dissolution of the Union and the probable horrors of civil war, by an abandonment of their most cherished principles, and what they deem the common rights of man. It is a fearful alternative and let the result be what it may, the sacrifice will be terrible. On the one side are arrayed Peace, Prosperity, Patriotism, and Public Policy; on the other side, Principle. The odds are tremendous. The prominent actors in the Secession movement are violently opposed to any compromise or to any conciliation. They are determined to form a Southern Confederacy and knowing how dependent England and the North are upon their cotton, they have exaggerated the ideas of their power. Intoxicated by visions of future greatness and territorial aggrandizement by conquest of Mexico, Cuba etc., they spurned the idea of returning to their allegiance to the Federal Government and being subjected to the policy of the madsills of the North. But the moderate and Union men, of whom the number is not small even in the Cotton States and the large majority in the Border States are making eloquent and forcible appeals to the North, to save the country from dismemberment and from the most awful Civil War that ever raged. Mr. Seward, the leader of the party that elected Lincoln, and Mr. Adams, son of the “old man eloquent,” now a member of the House, have met these appeal in a magnanimous spirit, and showing a determination to abandon old party spirit, and go to the very extreme of concession to save the country and there is no doubt but that the North will sustain them by an overwhelming majority though the extreme anti-slavery party, like the secessionists of the South, are opposed to all compromise. But if the Slave States demand more than they have offered, and insist upon the cleaning everything and yielding nothing, I see no alternative but separation and civil war, for I fear that Webster will be proved a true prophet that "there can be no such thing as peaceable secession.” The South are contending for a system which the whole civilized world has deliberately condemned, and it can hardly be that in this enlightened age such a step backward can succeed. A few days will decide the fate of our country; but even though this glorious Republic should fall under the assaults of the Slave Power the experiment of self-government will not thereby, as has been falsely asserted, to prove a failure. The destruction of the most noble system of government the world has ever known will because not by any inherent defect in itself, but by the machinations of the only section of our country where the democratic principle has never been allowed to prevail. The London News, speaking of this change, says:
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Waifs from the Bay State: February 1, 1861
Source: Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu: Thursday, April 11, 1861.
MY DEAR COMMERCIAL:
The dark cloud in the political sky of this hitherto favored nation, which but so lately arose “no bigger than a man's hand,” now overshadows the whole horizon, and from out its lowering blackness sharp flashes are seen, all the muttering thunder as yet indistinct and distant, gives gloomy passage of the fearful storm about to burst upon our devoted country.
Hardly a hope remains that the impending danger would be averted. State after state has been swept by this mad whirlwind of secession from the Confederacy, and though in all of them perhaps, except South Carolina, there may be a majority in favor of the Union, yet, such is the violence of the secession excitement, that the conservative portion of the community, not knowing their strength, have to bend to the blast, or be carried along with the mob. It is as dangerous for one in the seceding States, to avow himself opposed to the movement, and an adherent of the Federal Union, as it was during the election to avow himself an abolitionist. Many whose sympathies are all with the North, are compelled by their peculiar position to act with the secessionists. A friend of mine, who has been domiciled at the South for some 20 years, has belonged to a military company of the State of Alabama; and though a strong Union man in his feelings, was obliged to march with his company against the Navy Yard at Pensacola, commanded by Commodore Armstrong, an old acquaintance and former townsmen who surrendered to the overwhelming force. Doubtless many who are compelled to take part in these violent proceeding are similarly placed. The great question now is, whether the Border States will join the Cotton Confederacy, or remain in the Union. The Crittenden plan, erroneously called Compromise, which is offered by the Border States to the North, as the only basis of settlement acceptable to the South, not only yields the whole question at issue, but is more pro-slavery then the platform of the ultra proslavery party of the last presidential contest. This proposition but only yields to Slavery all the territory in United States where Slavery can be made profitable, but also stipulates that it shall be allowed and protected in all Southern territory hereafter to be acquired. Even if the acquisition of more territory was the avowed policy of the United States, the injustice of fastening upon that the inhabitants of such territory the curse of slavery, without allowing them a voice in the matter, is too obvious to require argument. One of the grievances of Texas is which led her to throw off the Mexican rule was the prohibition by Mexico of Slavery. And yet the North are asked to consent in advance that Slavery, shall be legalized and fostered in any portion of that dismembered country which by filibustering or conquest or negotiation maybe acquired by the United States.
The Slave States are unyielding in their demands that Slavery shall not only be forever permitted where it is now, but that it shall by extension be enabled to increase its area and political power,
so as to keep pace with the growth of the Free States. The Constitution is not sufficient for their protection now, and must be amended so as directly to recognize the right of property in man which its noble framers, though themselves slaveholders, were unwilling to do .The Free States are called upon to prevent the dissolution of the Union and the probable horrors of civil war, by an abandonment of their most cherished principles, and what they deem the common rights of man. It is a fearful alternative and let the result be what it may, the sacrifice will be terrible. On the one side are arrayed Peace, Prosperity, Patriotism, and Public Policy; on the other side, Principle. The odds are tremendous. The prominent actors in the Secession movement are violently opposed to any compromise or to any conciliation. They are determined to form a Southern Confederacy and knowing how dependent England and the North are upon their cotton, they have exaggerated the ideas of their power. Intoxicated by visions of future greatness and territorial aggrandizement by conquest of Mexico, Cuba etc., they spurned the idea of returning to their allegiance to the Federal Government and being subjected to the policy of the madsills of the North. But the moderate and Union men, of whom the number is not small even in the Cotton States and the large majority in the Border States are making eloquent and forcible appeals to the North, to save the country from dismemberment and from the most awful Civil War that ever raged. Mr. Seward, the leader of the party that elected Lincoln, and Mr. Adams, son of the “old man eloquent,” now a member of the House, have met these appeal in a magnanimous spirit, and showing a determination to abandon old party spirit, and go to the very extreme of concession to save the country and there is no doubt but that the North will sustain them by an overwhelming majority though the extreme anti-slavery party, like the secessionists of the South, are opposed to all compromise. But if the Slave States demand more than they have offered, and insist upon the cleaning everything and yielding nothing, I see no alternative but separation and civil war, for I fear that Webster will be proved a true prophet that "there can be no such thing as peaceable secession.” The South are contending for a system which the whole civilized world has deliberately condemned, and it can hardly be that in this enlightened age such a step backward can succeed. A few days will decide the fate of our country; but even though this glorious Republic should fall under the assaults of the Slave Power the experiment of self-government will not thereby, as has been falsely asserted, to prove a failure. The destruction of the most noble system of government the world has ever known will because not by any inherent defect in itself, but by the machinations of the only section of our country where the democratic principle has never been allowed to prevail. The London News, speaking of this change, says:
America is a signal illustration of the worth of representative government. The people of England neither believe nor wish to believe in the ruin of the great Commonwealth of their kindred beyond the ocean; but whatever perils be in store for it, arising out of the schism of the Southern States, they will know that these perils originate, not from the application or mis-application of the democratic principles in South Carolina, Georgia, or Virginia but conspicuously and only from its absence in those states. The Southern States are not and never were democracies in any sense of the word. The simple truth is and it cannot be too often reported that Virginia, Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida, were each and all expressly founded with oligarchic care and oligarchic aim upon an oligarchic model. All power and privilege was concentrated in the planter caste; and a servile multitude was provided by regal and aristocratic policy, by whose unrequited for the governing few were to subsist.
We grieve to be obligated to say that in our estimate of the possible future of America we see calls for the deepest anxiety as to the fate of civilization, social, and political, in the devoted regions whose fanatic oligarchies are striving to sever them from the wise and enlightened rule founded by Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Jay. For the destiny of the free North with its intelligence and industry, its wealth and invention, its love of equal liberty, and it's a love of equal law, there is no cause for fear. Inferiority of soil, seaboard and streams, of mineral wealth, and of mountain pasture, of sweep and domain, and enjoyable climate- the vigorous, fearless, self-reliant North can afford, with a laugh, to admit it all, and yet feel how consequently stronger and richer, nobler and happier is its place among the nations. If a permanent severance there must be, the world will soon comprehend the difference between a complete nature of educated, free, and self-dependent citizens, and a community of indolent and insolent proprietors of land living in hourly dread of a herd of slaves.
I have filled my letter with the all absorbing subject of the American political crisis. But as it is a question in which the whole civilized world is just now deeply interested, I make no apology. Among the candidates for the commissionership to the Islands, Mr. Bunker formerly consul at Lahaina, seems prominent. It is too soon however, to predict who will be the successful applicant, and it is very likely that foreign appointments may be delayed by pressing emergency of home matters which will engross the attention of the incoming administration.
MAIKELA.
so as to keep pace with the growth of the Free States. The Constitution is not sufficient for their protection now, and must be amended so as directly to recognize the right of property in man which its noble framers, though themselves slaveholders, were unwilling to do .The Free States are called upon to prevent the dissolution of the Union and the probable horrors of civil war, by an abandonment of their most cherished principles, and what they deem the common rights of man. It is a fearful alternative and let the result be what it may, the sacrifice will be terrible. On the one side are arrayed Peace, Prosperity, Patriotism, and Public Policy; on the other side, Principle. The odds are tremendous. The prominent actors in the Secession movement are violently opposed to any compromise or to any conciliation. They are determined to form a Southern Confederacy and knowing how dependent England and the North are upon their cotton, they have exaggerated the ideas of their power. Intoxicated by visions of future greatness and territorial aggrandizement by conquest of Mexico, Cuba etc., they spurned the idea of returning to their allegiance to the Federal Government and being subjected to the policy of the madsills of the North. But the moderate and Union men, of whom the number is not small even in the Cotton States and the large majority in the Border States are making eloquent and forcible appeals to the North, to save the country from dismemberment and from the most awful Civil War that ever raged. Mr. Seward, the leader of the party that elected Lincoln, and Mr. Adams, son of the “old man eloquent,” now a member of the House, have met these appeal in a magnanimous spirit, and showing a determination to abandon old party spirit, and go to the very extreme of concession to save the country and there is no doubt but that the North will sustain them by an overwhelming majority though the extreme anti-slavery party, like the secessionists of the South, are opposed to all compromise. But if the Slave States demand more than they have offered, and insist upon the cleaning everything and yielding nothing, I see no alternative but separation and civil war, for I fear that Webster will be proved a true prophet that "there can be no such thing as peaceable secession.” The South are contending for a system which the whole civilized world has deliberately condemned, and it can hardly be that in this enlightened age such a step backward can succeed. A few days will decide the fate of our country; but even though this glorious Republic should fall under the assaults of the Slave Power the experiment of self-government will not thereby, as has been falsely asserted, to prove a failure. The destruction of the most noble system of government the world has ever known will because not by any inherent defect in itself, but by the machinations of the only section of our country where the democratic principle has never been allowed to prevail. The London News, speaking of this change, says:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment