[
152]
...
To us the path of duty is plain.
Henceforth, to the end of the struggle, we shall know how to resist the imposition of that fraud on Kansas as brethren, while we regard those who support that fraud as deadly enemies, not merely to Kansas and to the Republican party, but to the principles of American independence — the inalienable rights of man! . . . All other issues will be postponed or subordinated till Kansas shall have been fully delivered from her oppressors and added to the galaxy of free states.... Slavery condemned by the clear-sighted political economy no less than by the enlightened morality of our age, is doomed to decline and vanish. ... It needs only to be confronted by a quiet, steady, and determined but constitutional resistance to insure and hasten that benignant consummation.
We cherish joyful hopes that 1860 will make this plain to many who now disbelieve it. ...
Finally, planting themselves squarely on the doctrine of the “higher law,” as announced by
Senator Seward, they ended all argument on that point with the lofty declaration:
... We recognize no right in one man to enslave his fellow-man! ...
On this platform they kept the
Tribune to the end, dodging no issue however small, but meeting every question as it arose, bravely and squarely, without any visible shadow of selfish or personal bias.
The death of
Senator Benton, in April, 1858, was followed by an appreciative editorial in the
Tribune analyzing his character, pointing out both its weak and its strong points, praising his courage, his integrity, his morality, his fidelity, and his great personal force, but giving him small credit for real statesmanship or mental ability when compared with
Clay,
Webster, and
Calhoun.
During the entire period of
Buchanan's administration
