upon undertakings from which France would recede as soon as she has lost the remarkable man who now directs her counsels. long any bloody War of the Succession, by worse as regards the European difficulty, by which he strove to establish a Bourbon dy- the secession of Spain to the cause of Absonasty and regime in Spain; it was a similar lutism and Legitimacy. The Emperor Napofeeling that made Napoleon dethrone the leon's is a life as precarious as it is valuable, Spanish Bourbons, and attempt to establish and it behooves us to take care how we enter his own family in their stead; and finally, it was the same cause (a regard for his own safety) which compelled Louis XVIII. to invade Spain in 1823, to put down the revolu- Such is the dilemma in which Europe and tion, and re-establish the tottering cause of the cause of freedom are now placed by the Legitimacy and Absolutism. If, then, a Car- ambition of the American Republic. And if list revolution be accomplished in Spain, the we believed that this were all the truth, if we effect upon France cannot fail to be most de- believed that nothing remained to the Westtrimental to the fortunes of the French Em- ern Powers but an appeal to the generosity peror. Legitimacy-backed by the priests, of America, we should indeed consider the who at heart support it to a man-is still dilemma a most hopeless one. But the case strong in France; and should anything befall is not so; and it is clear to us that if the Louis Napoleon (which may Heaven forbid), Americans persevere in their present design a Bourbon will certainly re-ascend the throne. -if they are resolved to win for themselves, For, the French people, frightened to death for all time, the ignominy of the sarcasm, that by the Red spectre of anarchy and Socialism, Freedom's extremity is America's opportunity— will accept any form of government rather it will be at a heavier cost to them than mere than relapse into the horrors of revolution; loss of character. Nothing, indeed, could be and the Count de Chambord is the only man of mark, vice Louis Napoleon, to whom the country can turn its eyes; and he will, moreover, be backed by the whole influence of the Absolutist Courts on the Continent; and, if any one doubts as to what would be the policy pursued by Henri Cinq, let him recollect (what we pointed out in the opening article of last number) that the last act of Charles X., before he was driven from the throne, was an agreement with the Emperor Nicholas, in virtue of which Russia was to take possession of Turkey -and France, with Russian help, be aggrandized at the expense of Britain! more propitious than the external relations of the Union at present in this respect: to use a French phrase, it is completely "master of the position." But its internal condition presents a very different aspect. If a mingled terror of Absolutism on the one hand, and Red Republicanism on the other, now paralyzes the strength of Europe, and threatens only to be exchanged for an actual and barbarizing struggle between these opposite powers, America, on her side, is not free from corresponding elements of strife and convul sion. Slavery is the Gordian-knot of the New World; which must be solved some day; and Do not let it be imagined that these are there is too much probability that it will be speculations reaching too far into the future violently cut rather than quietly unloosed. to be of much immediate moment. They are Three millions of a colored race-not ignoinevitable deductions from the events and in- rant Negroes, fresh from the sands of Africa, fluences which we see in play around us at but who have lived for several generations in this very hour. They are the very first ele- contact with civilization, and in the veins of a ments to be considered by our statesmen, in large proportion of whom runs the best blood the present unparalleled dilemma of Europe. in the Union; not all with the sooty-black and If the United States attack Cuba, France blubber-lips of the Negro, but passing through must join Spain, and then what are we to every shade of color, feature, and intellect, do? Bound as we are to France by the and not a few of them rivalling, in all respects, closest ties of alliance and self-interest, how the best specimens of the Caucasian race; and are we to sever from her on so vital a point hence not leaderless, but abounding in men as this, without breaking up the alliance of talent and resolution, whose hot passions against Russia ? Are we to frustrate the boil at being trodden under foot by men whose prospective natural alliance and help of blood is hardly different from their own;America, or are we to abandon our present such a race, we say, cannot be kept for ever and indispensable allies of France and Spain? in their present state of galling servitude. Such is the choice presented to us-was The southern planters-and from their point. there ever one more fraught with peril and of view they are probably right-are resolved embarrassment? A Carlist revolution in to make no concessions to the slave population. Spain would put a new complexion on the At present, their policy in this matter is rematter, and justify our non-interference; but actionary; their measures more stringent than the position of France and England, though ever-a course which must lead to a more relieved of the American difficulty by such a violent solution of the question at last. revolution, would be made proportionably Now, whenever such a crisis comes, it will paralyze the United States. Be they as am- twenty years later, when California (which bitious as they may, as covetous and resolved lies half to the north and half to the south of on foreign conquest as it is possible for them this line) came to be added to the Union; but to be, no sooner does the crisis of the slavery ultimately it was resolved that that State question approach than it will paralyze their should be allowed to fix its own constitution. strength for external effort. As to the ulti- In this matter the free-soilers only held their mate effects of this eventuality upon the fab- own ground,-but now they are totally worstric of the Union, we now speculate nothing. ed by the success of the Southerners in carryWe content ourselves with affirming that, ing the famous Nebraska Bill, which has just when it comes, it will temporarily paralyze passed through both Houses of the American the whole external power of the United Legislature. States. And such an event, we shall now show, is sufficiently visible in perspective to form a vital element of consideration in an estimate of the present position of the Unionespecially as regards the contemplated attack upon Cuba, with which it seems to us to be closely connected. The purport of this measure is to abolish the Missouri Compromise, by extending the limits within which slavery may be established. The territory of Nebraska is a vast tract of land, extending from Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, which has lately been cleared and settled on to such an extent as to entitle it to Before noticing the indignation and popu- be recognized as an integral part of the Union. lar irritation which the Nebraska Bill is at By its position to the north of the Comprom present producing in the Northern States, or ise-line, it belongs indubitably to the region the danger with which any attack upon Cuba of freedom, and accordingly the Abolitionists is fraught to the South itself, let us understand demand that it should be formed into a Freethe relative position of political parties in the soil State. But the Southern delegates made Union. And here it is important to observe, a desperate and ingenious onset-alleging, that the Whigs and Democrats of America that in case of California the Compromise was are really Northern parties; and that the virtually abolished, and all States, whether Southerners are a separate interest, as ab- north or south of the line, left free to choose sorbed in support of slavery as the Irish Brig- their own constitution. The Free-soilers deny ade in our Parliament is in behalf of Roman- that such was the case, and moreover affirm ism, and coalescing with either of the other that the proposal to allow Nebraska to choose parties which bid highest for its support. It its own constitution only presents an appearis by steadily acting upon the principle that ance of liberty of choice, while in reality it is the slave-holders have repeatedly managed, a coercive measure. The bill, it seems, virsince the beginning of the century to win a tually places the form of Government at the losing game. Hardly had the Union fairly disposal of Congress, by giving to the Presistarted on its career, when it became evident dent (who is a strong pro-slavery man) the that the Free States were rapidly distancing power of appointing the first governor and in point of wealth and population, and conse- judges of the new State, and by so limiting quently representation, their slave-owning com- the right of suffrage as to place all who are not petitors. A few years more, and a feeble naturalized on a level with slaves as to politiband of Southern representatives might have cal rights. And thus, it is alleged, looking at found themselves contending in Congress the character of the territory, the election of against a powerful majority of Northern op- the representatives of Nebraska will fall into ponents, eager to accomplish the abolition of the hands of the planters-the emigrants not slavery. The peril, however, was averted by being naturalized and, consequently, having the counsels of a series of politic leaders, the no right to exercise the franchise. That some last of whom was that most remarkable of such result is contemplated may be inferred modern American statesmen, John C. Cal- from the eagerness of the slaveholding party houn. To counterbalance their weakness, the to carry the measure.* In the House of RepSouthern delegates took advantage of the po-resentatives it gave rise to the most violent litical dissensions of the North, and put up altercations; and so great was the opposition their votes to the highest bidder, the price of the minority that the majority adopted the being respect for Southern institutions, or, despotic, though perhaps excusable step of in other words, tolerance for Slavery. Both bringing the debate to a compulsory close. To Whigs and Democrats have constantly com- give an idea of the fierce animosity of the peted for this powerful ally; and in this way proceedings, we may quote the following:the Missouri Compromise was effected in 1820, in virtue of which slavery was allowed "In a sitting which lasted from noon on to establish itself in any new State south of a Thursday (11th May) to twenty minutes to certain latitude (36deg. 30min.), on condition By the last mail we learn that, "according to that all new States to the north of that line the Western journals, the emigration of slaveholdshould be "free soil." A great strife arose,ers to Nebraska was very extensive." twelve on the Friday night, such a violent dis- ་ them that the building in which the slave was confined was about being stormed. The mob at this time had reached several thousand, when a desperate assault was made upon the building, a huge piece of timber serving the purpose of a battering-ram in demolishing the door. Stones and other missiles were freely used, and pistol shots fired; but just as the storming party were on the point of forcing an entrance into the court-house, a body of police rushed upon them, captured about a dozen of the most active ringleaders, and finally succeeded in dispersing the mob and restoring order. During the riot one of the special officers of the United States' marshal was shot dead. At midnight two military companies reached Court-square, and were quartered at the City-hall and at the court-house. A large force was detached for duty during the night, including an entire regiment of the Massachusetts Militia, which had been called out for duty. On the 29th the excitement continued to be very great. An association from Worcester, A conviction that in gaining this point they called the Freedom Club,' was in town all that gain not only additional strength, but a pre-day, and held a meeting at the Tremont Temple cedent for the future measures of the same in the evening, where several highly inflammatory kind, induced the legislative Halleys and Le- speeches were made. At five o'clock in the afgares to put forth their whole strength; and ternoon it was estimated that not less than 10,000 people surrounded the Court-house. The milithey have succeeded-the Nebraska Bill now tary remained on duty. Theodore Parker only awaiting the assent of the President preached a discourse on Sunday, in which he (which will be readily given) to become the denounced the commissioner. A handbill was law of the land. in circulation in Boston, stating that the sum demanded for the purchase of Burns, the fugitive, had been raised by subscription, but that Colonel Suttle refused to sell the man. a police, and guarded by marines, infantry, and artillery, the poor negro, whose name will live in history, was removed to the harbor, escorted by twenty thousand citizens. Persons thronged the wharves who had come eighty miles from the interior to see one who will probably be found to have been the innocent occasion of the greatest events that have befallen the Union since its for The Northern States are naturally much exasperated at the passing of this Bill. It is an affront to their institutions,-an open violation of the Act of Compromise,-and a fresh In spite of the proved alibi, the victim was opportunity for slavery to extend its baleful surrendered. The square was cleared by the dominion. The temper of the people is far would not permit the tolling of the bells in the military, and cannon planted. The mayor from quiescent, and Fugitive-Slave-Law riots city; but the country towns and villages thus have broken out with increased bitterness and sounded the dirge of the liberties of Massachudetermination. The most remarkable of these setts. Placed within a hollow square of armed were those which took place at Syracuse and Boston on the 26th May. At the former of those places, the Abolitionists, learning that fugitive would pass through the town in custody of the United States' Marshal, the bells were tolled, and a crowd of some thousand persons assembled at the railway-station to effect a rescue. The slave, however, had es- mation. He was embarked about three, P. M., caped from his gaolers into Canada, and the on Friday, June 2nd, and the steamer immedi crowd retired, "evidently disappointed." At ately departed for Virginia. The standards of Boston it was a much more serious business, the troops were hissed, and the American flag blood having been shed, cannons planted in was hung out in Court:street, draped in monrnthe streets, and the whole scene being one ing. Every newspaper shows that the excitemore suited to the worst-governed countries ment is spreading, and that the free states are of the Old World than to Anglo-Saxon Amer- vigilantly on their guard against kidnappers." A local authority thus narrates the affair: ica. The correspondent of the Morning Chronicle thus shows the connection of those formi dable riots with the recent policy of the slaveholding party : "This sudden and powerful hostility against the Fugitive Slave Law has been called into action by the passage through Congress of Senator Douglass's very imprudent Nebraska Bill, which not only permits the existence of Slavery by a tions, and memorials being sent by every mail. The clergy of New England, of all denominations, have sent to Congress a mammoth protest, having three thousand signatures. Besides this, various religious bodies have protested, and the clergymen of New York city, of all denomina tions, have united in a protest, and, in some cases, conventions of clergymen have been called for the special purpose of considering what is to be done. vote of the people in Nebraska and Kansas, but | in the northern States are arousing, conventions it absolutely and for ever annuls the Missouri and mass-meetings, without respect of party, are Compromise to the effect that there should be no constantly being held, and remonstrances, petislavery in any new territory north of latitude thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. How true and unanswerable the remark of anti-slavery statesmen, who contend that if the Missouri Compromise could be thus easily broken, they should claim a revocation and abrogation of the latter compromise which contains the obnoxious Fugitive Slave Law! Besides, the North feels that it has made humiliating concessions to the South on almost every point, and that it is time for Northern policy to be recognized and respected. The feeling between the two sections of the Union is stronger than it ought to be, and should the South push their claims much further, it will soon be found that the Boston fugitive slave riot is but the beginning of the end.” pressure of public sentiment by spreading it over wealth and prosperity which freedom has given the whole country, and using all the material as a cloak and sanction under which slavery may, for years to come, prolong its existence. Never was liberty more seriously and more deliberately menaced; but God is on the side of right, and right at last must prevail. My trust is, that this agitation shall precede the final destruction of the evil.-Very truly yours, In this state of things it is impossible to speak definitely of the results. We can only see that a wide and vast agitation is coming up, whose results are of incalculable importance, and whose extent no mortal eye can foresee. The whole force of the slave power is now concentrated on the one design-to seize the whole power and inIt is not to be wondered at that the Anti-fluence of the nation, and use them for the upslavery party should feel thus alarmed and holding of slavery; to avert the intolerable indignant at the progress of their opponents. They not only see the Slave-party at present in the ascendant, and resolved to push their success to the utmost, but they know, too, in regard to Texas, that a clause was caused to be inserted in the treaty of annexation by Mr. Calhoun, pledging the Government of the United States to create three or four States out of Texas, as soon as the territory should be sufficiently populated; and although no one supposed at the time that the South would ever be strong enough to exact the fulfilment of that stipulation, the Free-soilers now begin to look with alarm at the prospect of this great addition to the strength of their domineering antagonists. The general feeling is, that the Slave-party will be content with nothing short of absolute supremacy; and, even before the passing of the Nebraska Bill, Mrs. H. B. Stowe, who is probably as clear-headed an observer as she is an animated and gifted writer, thus expressed her sentiments to a friend in this country, as to the apparently approaching crisis between the North and the South: H. B. STOWE." The Free-soilers say truly, that the ambition of the Slaveholders is insatiable. Not content with this triumph in regard to the Nebraska Bill, and the prospective addition to their strength from the new States to be created in Texas, the leading men of the South are bent upon annexing Cuba as a fresh trophy of their power. The island is large and populous enough to cut up immediately into three or four Slave States; and besides a teeming soil and luxuriant crops, it bears on its surface a population of slaves whom it would be most profitable to capture. The annexation of Cuba, indeed, would secure to the South the same superiority in actual strength, which the passing of the Nebraska Bill has restored it in moral position. For this most sufficient reason it is that the sagacious politicians of the Southern States are foremost in adding fuel to the fast-spreading popular excitement against Spain. The North is far The infamous Nebraska Bill, by which in ef- from viewing such projects with indifference; fect the whole unoccupied territory of the United and one of the most powerful organs of the States is given up to slavery, has now passed the Abolitionists in New York, in some judicious Senate, and will soon be before the House. No remarks on this subject, warns the South "to event since the time of our revolution has pro- mind its eye;" but unfortunately nothing duced such a sensation, or promised so thor- short of the most pressing emergency will sufoughly to arouse the whole northern States to the real nature and plans of the southern slave fice to unite the factions of the North against power. It is now plainly seen that the policy of their united and energetic rivals: and, as in slavery is extension, and that this movement is the case of Texas and of the Mexican war, nothing less than a plan to extend this desolat- the plans of the South are generally accoming curse over the whole country. All parties plished before the feeling of the North is ef "Andover, March 16, 1854. In regard to the present state of the Antislavery cause, you must have perceived ere this from the American prints, that a crisis of great magnitude has arrived which is arousing this country to its lowest depths. fectually roused to resentment and resist-march upon the Western Powers-but a ance. calm inspection of the facts leads rather to the supposition that they will only be over reaching themselves. There is a Nemesis in human affairs, and at present it seems hover ing over the destinies of the Anglo-American States. Let them ignore the ties of blood and the sympathies of freedom-let them turn from their Mother-country and her allies, and seek only to wring a profit from our necessi ties—let them, the champions of liberty, play into the hands of the despotic Czar, and, intent only on their own aggrandizement, snatch at the colonial possessions of Spain; and in that very hour, we believe, they will them selves be stabbed to the heart. In that very hour, and in the very act of seizure, their strength, like the outstretched arm of the idolatrous king of Israel, will be blasted by the fiat of Divine vengeance. The very success of the South, however, is now endangering its position: it is challenging a crisis and a crisis will come. And we believe that, if the Annexationists succeed in their contemplated rape of Cuba, the event will infallibly be followed by a reaction against Slavery which will shake the Federation to its centre. The fillibusters of the South need not expect to find an easy conquest in Cuba; and, as we have shown, rather than yield the island to the invaders, the Spaniards have resolved to set free the Negroes, who will fight to the death sooner than submit to American Planters. No one who knows the history of St. Domingo, and the exploits of Toussaint l'Ouverture and his blacks against the best troops of France, will think lightly of such a struggle. And once this slave-war is commenced, who is to guarantee that it will not We have reached the limits of our spacespread? Is King Soulouque and his black yet there is much that we ought to say. We subjects so enamored of fighting, that no- have great faith in America. We know that thing but foreign intervention keeps them sooner or later her people will perceive their from constant warring against the European true role, and demand with one voice to stand portion of St. Domingo-to remain apathetic up for freedom and Anglo-Saxonism throughwhile the neighbor-island of Cuba is being out the world. It is for the outset of their conquered by the enemies of their race?* career alone, in this strange crisis, that we And what forbids - now that, under the pres-tremble. Russian despotism has resolved to sure of the war in Europe, we have with- acknowledge no law but the law of the strongdrawn our wonted garrisons from the West est, and will accordingly have to wade to her Indies - that the Negroes in our own colo- conquests through the blood of her myriads, nies should rise in support of their brethren and amid the uspeakable horrors of a whole fighting in Cuba? Nay, in such circumstan-continent in war and commotion; but let not ces, may not the flame of revolt extend to the American freedom follow so ignoble and so selfmainland, and a slave-rebellion arise in the pernicious an example. To the calm contemheart of the Southern States themselves? plator of events, the New World is already seen And, finally, in such a case, what degree of destined to be hers from the Canadian lakes to help can the South expect from the North? the Isthmus of Darien. Let, then, America and are the Abolitionists and Free-soilers in go but honestly to work, and the triumph will a temper just now to aid heartily in putting be hers without a blow. Let but her overdown an insurrection which, if let alone, would flowing settlers spread peacefully among the effectually make an end of slavery in the New [indolent populations of Central America; let World ? + Such considerations, it seems to us, ought to teach all parties in the United States, and especially the hot-headed men of the South, to consider well before they rush into a war with Spain, or seize upon the inviting but perilous opportunity for " annexation, now afforded by the war in Europe. They fancy, doubtless, that by so doing they will steal a her deploy among them her energy, her wealth, and the marvels of mechanical invention and industrial civilization; let her show to them the usefulness as well as true nobility of free institutions, and even the somnolent offspring of Spain will awake from their long torpor, and grow desirous of imitating so noble an example. And so at length, tired of the alternate anarchy and despotism to which they have been subjected, and inoculated alike The restless men of the South do not confine with American blood and American feelings, their projects to Cuba alone, but have already cast the Spanish States will willingly enrol themcovetous eyes upon the territory of King Sou-selves as component parts of the Union, and loque. By the latest news, it is confidently reported that an agent has been sent to the republic of thus bring the frontiers of the vast confedeDominica, in the island of St. Domingo, to treat racy to the southern limits of the North Amer about annexation. If such agent succeed, the en-ican continent. tire island will soon follow, as the Emperor Souoque's sceptre would probably be stricken from his grasp. At least in its present form, which is a system of caste the most rigid the world ever saw. States. The blood of the two nations is, in |
