Jasper Banner, Volume 4, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1857 — The Great Question of the Day. [ARTICLE]

The Great Question of the Day.

Seguin, Ohio, June 11, 1857. ■ Editor Day Book— I have contemplated writing to you for some time, to give you my. individual approbation and encour--1 agement in the just and patriotic eiforts which you have made and ■ are making, to dispel the clouds of; ' ignorance and false benevolence that have so long enveloped large portions of the American people. They, many of them honestly, supposed that the negro was a man equal to themselves, and more so, in a ratio proportioned to the darkness of his skin and other diversities of his physique, assuming -that these diversities were so many evidences of his superiority to themselves. While this conviction may have been honestly entertained by the rank and file of certain parties, inimical to the sovereignty of the people and the equality of the States, the leaders of this anti-Americah sentiment knew full well that the God of nature had stamped the African race with inferiority, as positive and unmistakable as is that of the ass from the horse. This sad error has not only invaded the social and political circles, but has crept into the church of the living God, and, as in the garden of Eden, peace has yielded to strife, union to I discord, and the spirit of piety has > been changed for party bitterness. This anti-Bible, anti-Constitutional and anti-American party, from a small beginning, thirty years ago, has grown to an extent that involves all that is dear in religion and liberty. At first more covert than at present, yet the discerning eye could ! see the serpent coiled beneath. Alarmed at the inevitable consequences of the extension of its principles, and deeply imbued with a I love for our Union—l sat me down, i with the Bible and the Constitution, Land after a patient and thorough cxI amination of both, I proceeded to analyze this new scheme of British i modern philanthropy, and lo ! to my • utter astonishment, in the retort 1 found the following six elements, or fundamental principles of Abolitionism, viz : _ _ © Ist—lnfidelity I 2nd—Opposition to the will and sovereignty of God ! 3rd-—Enmkwtb4he“ slave ”41 4th—Fraud and robbery ! I sth—Hostility to the union of these States II { 6th—Destitution of patriotism ! 1 This analysis I made in 1836, and from repeated examinations of the reasoning by which I arrived at the conclusions above, I have not been able to discover any error in the logic employed. At some future time, I may give a synopsis of the arguments employed in arriving at the above truths, and the Scriptural | and Constitutional facts and declar- ' ations on which they rest. At present, my object is simply to bid you God speed. You have taken the bull (John Bull) by the horns, and with consummate skill and the ! . strenth of a giant. It is full time that he should be fettered. He has filled the earth, like pagan Rome, with bloodshed and war. Not satisfied to remain in his own “ fast anchored isle,” he commenced his efforts to divide our Union (that he | might conquer it,) by arraying the i South against the North on the tariff. Failing in this, he began cooing and billing North against the South on the “ slavery question.” This imprudent interference has received from your hand a just rebuke. Continue your castigations ui|til the eyes of our people are opened. Expose to the indignant gaze of all good men the toryism of those flunky presses, who, for British gold, would sell their birthright. The masses are honest but easily misled, and nothing so controls a man as his religious sentiments. If wrong in these, he is all wrong. If right, he will sooner or later be all right. Assuming that “ slavery ”is incompatible with liberty, they readily are converted to Abolitionism without seeing, its disastrous results. The error stops not here. Negroes’ rights are followed by women’s rights, children’s rights, implicating both the wisdom and sovereignty of God, in the relation He has seen meet and proper to establish inJus moral -Government. This false assumption hfts produced all tlje horrors, and shrieks, and groans, and bloodshed in Kansas. “ Free soil, free Kansas, free labor,” is a

repetition of the same rabble cry of “ Barrabas, Barrabas.” There is no such thing as freedom Unrestrained by law. It is law, and obedience to law, that constitutes freedom—all else is bondage, servile. A disregard for the “treaty stipulations” by which the Louisiana territory was purchased, lies at the bottom of all [this. While the people are “sovereign,” and from whom all the powers of government are primarily derived, yet when- they delegate certain specific powers, to be used for the general good, they can neither rightfully resist the exercise of those delegated powers, when legally put forth, nor resume themselves their original sovereignty without revolution. Hence the revolution, the Topeka convention, the veriest humbug of this half century of humbug. Every man who can read can see that the 3di article of the Treaty of Paris, of theSOth of April, 1803, secures to the citizens of the ceded territory, all the rights, privileges and immunities of the citizens of the original States, etc., and declares “ that they shall be admitted into the Union as soon as practicable.” “ And in the meantime (until admitted) they should be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, their property and the religion which they profess.” Was not “ slavery ” the establish- . cd law of that territory ? How then, when that treaty was ratified by the U. S. Senate and fifteen millions fo| its payment appropriated by the House of Representatives, I say, how could slavery be prohibited in any portion of that territory until admitted into the Union.* It will not do to say that the people are sovereign in this case ; they have yielded that sovereignty to the President and Senators. How long ? Until admitted, as a State, co-equal with the other States ; then, and not' till then, can the people resume that sovereignty, and exclude, abolish, admit or modify “ slavery.” And especially, how could Congress with an oath binding them to this treaty, as the “ supreme law of the land,” in the face of this treaty, run an imaginary line (the Missouri Compromise line) and declare that “ slavery ” should not exist North of 36 30 °, when that treaty bound them, bound every officer of the government, legis 1 ati ve, judicial or executive, to maintain the citizens of that territory in the “ free" enjoyment of their- “ property,” etc., until “ admitted !” And were slaves their properly? Thus it has been since 1819-20, and will forever be, that discord, strife and enmity must necessarily follow the violation of the Constitution and. the treaties made under it. So of this abominable Abolition system. It is a violation not only of the Constitution and of the treaties under it, but of the “ higher law,” the organic law of heaven, which says,“who can make equal what God has made unequal ?” Not only so it arraigns and judges the Almighty as “ unjust ” in arranging the domestic relation as seemed good in His sight: In conclusion, I have still strong faith in the masses, that they will yet have the scales fall from their eyes. But my strong hope is in God. He will make the wrath of man to praise Him and the remainder He , will restrain. He, too, in every (emergency has raised up men for* the emergency. Dr. Van Evrie, yourself and co-laboress are for the present emergency. God speed you. Wji. Fielding, M. D. •Though an old Whig for thirty years, I took the stump in Ohio and Indiana for Buchanan, and these positions none could resist or gainsay. OCT 3 After an absence of several weeks, Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, returned to the seat of government on Saturday morning, and,, it gives us great pleasure to add, in the enjoyment of his customary vigorous health. Gen. Cass left Detroit on Thursday evening, and arrived in this city at 11 o’clock this morning—thus making the distance in thirty-eight hours. In former years, when railroads were unknown, and’ a voyage down the Ohio or Mississippi was regarded as no ordinary undertaking, trips between Detroit and Washing- ’ ton were taken on horseback and were rarely accomplished under twenty-five days. Gen. . Cass haft often made the trip between the two cities on horseback, the journey then occupying nearly.** "“SMKMSr it now takes hours. J, Washington Union.