A great Evil "Without Foundation."
The
Philadelphia North American is perhaps the most moderate, as it is the most respectful and respectable journal that aided in the elevation of
Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency.
In order to maintain a position which is untenable on any just principle, and to support a deed which is wrong and outrageous, of course it has to be illogical and unjust in its reasonings.
We have a very fair sample of its own indefensible attitude in the remarks of its talented.
Washington correspondent upon the present excitement of the country.
This correspondent is referring to the reported resignation of
Judge Taney. In the course of what he has to say, he states that the
Court is opposed to secession in every form, and he assumes that this fact should have great moral force with the
South, as eight out of the nine Judges are against the political position of the Republican party as to slavery in the
Territories--‘"which,"’ he adds, ‘"
has now no practical faceting as a sectional issue. There is not an inch of public Territory in Dispute today, and yet the public Mind at the
South is Heated and Maddened on A Miserable Abstraction, without A Particle of Real Foundation."’
Here is an important confession from very high authority among the supporters of
Lincoln. And let us ask who has committed the very great crime of raising an issue upon this "Miserable Abstraction without Foundation," and electing a President upon it?
Who has stirred up strife between the
North and the
South upon this "Miserable Abstraction?" Who has brought this Union to the very brink of disruption upon this "Miserable Abstraction?" There is but one answer.
The editor of the
North American, in his own heart, can find but one.
The Black Republican party of the
North has done this thing.
The party which has elected
Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency has done it,
and none other.
So far as the
North is concerned it is a "Miserable Abstraction." But to the
South it is not. The Southern people, under the
Constitution, have equal rights with those of the
North in the
Territories, and when a great party, prevailing by large majorities in the
Northern States, denies to them this equality, it is not an abstraction to them.
It is a denial of their rights--and a denial by a majority which may overpower them in the national councils
whenever the question bearing upon that right may arise. Therefore it is not an
abstraction to them, however much it may be to those of the
North who have raised the issue at a time when
‘"there is not an inch of the public territory in dispute."’ Let those who have thus produced this needless irritation and excitement, answer for their own unprovoked and willful breach of the harmony and peace of the
Confederacy.
But there is yet a more serious view of this Northern issue, based on the institutions of the
South--this raising of a
‘"miserable abstraction without a particle of foundation."’ It is a disturbance of the peace and quiet of the
South--it excites, very justly, the apprehensions of Southern people.
Independent of present influences, they may very justly argue that a people who are actuated by the highest and most solemn obligations to society, the world and Heaven, to prevent the extension of slavery, will, in time — and that is,
whenever they have the power-- labor with all their means for its total abolition — an event, by the way, which is impossible, except by a revolution which must saturate the
Southern lands with blood and spread desolation every where — an event the most dreadful that could occur whether we consider the welfare of the black man or of the white inhabitants, not only of the
South, but the entire country of the
United States, and of
Europe besides.
Therefore, though it be a
"miserable abstraction" at the
North--though the issue of "no extension of slavery," raised by Northern demagogues to unite, in one body, the simply honest voters who do not favor slavery, with the fanatics and the hosts of advocates of every sort of abomination which disgraces the
North, in order to gain a party triumph, to elevate a particular individual to the Presidency, and, through him, to divide the offices and emoluments of the
Federal Government among his supporters — it is no "miserable abstraction" to Southern people, and they do not mean so to regard it. Of this, our Northern fellow-citizens who have exhibited so much kind consideration for our welfare and our rights, have, by this time, no doubt, become satisfied!
They must learn that the
South cannot submit to the free use which is made of her most sensitive and delicate relations.
She will not agree that matters vital to her shall be used as mere foot-balls in the games of Northern politicians. "Miserable abstractions," indeed, they are to the
North; but to the
South and the nation they are gross outrages; wicked and perverse violations of the
Constitution, heedless and dangerous assaults upon the peace and harmony of this Union.
If the country survives the storm this "miserable abstraction" has caused, it will be almost a miracle.
Certainly, if it does, it must be through some arrangement which will make the present "
abstraction" the last of its kind.
What a deplorable state of things, indeed, is brought upon this country ! Blessed by
Providence with perhaps more sources of plenty, prosperity, and happiness, than any other on the face of the globe — with two sections differing in social organisms, but harmonious in interests-- whose very differences are the sources of inestimable benefits to each other — and between whom there is no earthly ground of conflict, political or physical.
Yet, upon a "miserable" question of morality, raised by the
Northern section, it is about to be rent in fragments.
That North which was most active in the importation of slaves, which sold out to the
South, has raised a question against history and against religion, as to the morality of the slavery they chiefly aided in establishing, and upon it has pressed the
Union to the very verge of dissolution.
They have, by their "miserable abstractions"--their listening to false teachers of the "irrepressible conflict" between slave and free labor, brought about this deplorable exigency.--It is with them to "Trammel up the Consequences." Differ as we may about the propriety or policy of the measures of Southern States, no true Southern man can say that the blame is with the
South.
The South is innocent; and if the fairest fabric of human government that ever was raised is destined to untimely destruction, (which God, in his mercy, verify) that and fate of a glorious creation will be due to the Fanaticism, the Demagoguery, the Hypocrisy, the Willfulness and Wickedness of Northern Philosophers, Politicians, and Preachers — that Detestable "generation of Vipers."
