Jasper Banner, Volume 4, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1857 — The Slavery Agitation. [ARTICLE]

The Slavery Agitation.

The following from the Valley Democrat, publich at Harrisonburg, Virg., w undoubtedly a fair expression of the views entertained by the national democracy of the South in reference to the position of Gov. Walker. The opposition of the ultraists at the South and the fanatics of the North, to the policy adopted by the administration, with regard to Kansas, show as conclusively as anything could, that the Democrat party stands on truly conservative and national ground: Interested and ambitious politicians seize upon every pretext to keep the public mind excited upon the question of slavery. We had hoped that the Presidential election would have at least afforded some little respite from angry disputations and sectional jarrings. Those who expect this will certainly be doomed to disappointment, so long as the people of the South will permit themselves to beeme excited by the idle chimeras of a few disunion leaders. The Kansas matters have now launched us upon the troubled waters of sectional strife, which, if properly viewed, would not cause a ripple in the tranquility of the Southern mind. Sore-headed and disappointed politicians and office seekers, who have been unable to control the Democratic party, and especially the present administration, have for some time been growling and snapping their teeth at almost everything done by the administration. The impraoticables of the South Carolina stamp were soured and disappointed because their peculiar wing was not represented in the Oabinite of the National Democracy, and scarcely was the administration organized before the most virulent denunciations were heaped upon Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury, simply because his sympathies are with tlve Union-loving, National Democracy of the country. They, finding the great body of the Southern Democracy undivided by these attacks and having the utmost confidence in the President and Cabinet, have now changed their tactics, and are assailing the policy inaugurated by Gov. Walker in the Territory of Kansas. And what is that policy? Nothing more nor less than the sacred pledges made by the Democracy in the late Presidential election as embodied in the Kansas-Nebras-ka act. The declaration that the people of Kansas shall establish their own organic law, is the head and front of Gov. Walker's offending, and is the theme for the denunciation of Southern ultras and impracticables. But why should Walker be charged with treachery to the South, when he is carrying out the instructions of the administration? If the policy is wrong, why not attack the fountain head? The reason is obvious. They hope to cover up their designs against the administration under the garb of hostility to an appointee, yet entertaining the most hostile feelings to that administration, because it had preferred to take a national position rather than a sectional one in regard to Kansas. If Mr. Buchanan hadtakenapartizan position, and sided with the pro-slavery party, these ultrns would have bedaubed the President with the most fulsom eulogy. On the other hand, had he favored the freesoil party, he would have subjected himself to the displeasure of the ISouth, and the praises of the Black Republicans.— He has, however, sided with neither party, but has taken a conservative and national position, and hence, while he has satisfied the reasonable portion of the people, by the position assumed, the fanatics of the North, and the impracticables of the South, have taken offence, and are unsparing in their denmneiation of the policy of Gov. Walker, thus indirectly impugning the motives and patriotism of the administration. It will, however, be a useless task for either portion of the extremes to alienate the National Democracy from the administration of James Buchanan. He was elected upon a national basis, and the whole country hailed his triumph as a victory over sectionalism, and as a sure guaranty that the Constitutional rights of all sections would be protected and maintained. In the impartial discharge of his duties he has fulfilled the just expectation of his friends, and commanded the admiration of the conservative portion of the Union; and the policy which he is endeavoring to carry out in Kansas will by ntMncans lessen that confidence which has been given him by the national men of all parties. The instructions of the administration to Gov. Walker, which he is endeavoring to fulfil, breathe nothing but the purest patriotism, and sustain a principle which lies at the foundation of self-government, amt which the Democratic party is solemnly pledged to maintain:—the fight of the people to determine the character of their domestic institutions, when they form their State Constitution. Those instructions are the very gSfennc of States-jtighte doctrine, and embody the whole theory of the Democratic party. What are they? The administration desires that the people of Kansas shall be free from all foreign interference; to decide their men destiny for themselves, subject pay to the Constitution of the Untied States, What more is desired? Could any instructions be more impartial? Is there anything in those instructions to which the rapst rigid proslavery man could take exception? We think not, and hence our decided objection to the tone and temper of a portion pf the {Southern press, in their denuncia- ..... ■■’fe l

tion of the policy inaugurated in regard to'Kansas. It is objected, however, that Gov Walker adoption of the Constitution by the .people at the polls, and hence originates the idea that it is tlve deßign or Gov Walker to make Kansas a free State. In the present state of affairs* and even independent of the peculiar circumstances surrounding the formation of the organic law of Kansas, it is eminently proper that the Constitution should be referred back to the people for their ratification. Any other course would retard the settlement of affairs, and augment the excitement and interest felt throughout the country. If the Convention refused to submit the Constitution to the people for approval, it would furnish ultraists a powerful weapon to increase agitation, and be a formidable argument for its rejection as a State into the Union by either of the contending parties. The character of the instrnctions given to Gov. Walker clearly indicates that it is the intention of the administration to prevent a repetition of those disgraceful seene which have been enacted in Kansas for the last several years, and to prevent foreign interference from paralizing the will and opinion of the people. To prevent blackguards and vagabonds from the Five Points, the excrescencies and scum of free society, through the instrumentality of Emigrant Aid Societies, bullies and ruffians of the Jim Lane stamp, and interlopers from Missouri, from in- . terfering and silencing the legal voters of Kansas, the President has ordered Gov. Walker to call out the military to sustain the people of Kansas in their right of es tablishing domestic institutions. Against the doctrine of non-intervene tion, in which the South is so deeply interested, has the vpice of a number of Southern journals, and several States been raised. We cannot go with them. They are making a mountain out of a mole hill. It is the spirit of ultraism that will draw the Union into the maelstrom of disunion, and drive from the ranks of of the National men of the North who have upheld the pillars of the Constitution amid the storm of tumult, treason and prejudice. We desire no compromise. We are for maintaining the Constitution as is, and when the rights of the South, under the Constitution, cannot and will not be recognized by the North, we are for secession, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must. But we of the South accepted the doctrine of none-intervention as the Shibboleth of our faith, and we are for maintaining the doctrine now, henceforth and forever. The moment the South abandons this strong foot-hold, that moment she drifts on the tumultuous waves of free soil fanaticism.

DCf* The Plug Uglies should take warning of the fate of their brethren in Washington. A few days ago it was announced that three of them had been sentenced to prison for one year for rioting on election day, and to-day the telegraph brings intelligence that another, who, in addition to rioting, had been convicted of assaulting with intent to kill the officer who attempted to arrest him, and sentenced to the penitentiary for eight years. A number of the other rioters have been arrested, and the probability is that they will be properly punished. The friends of law and order will rejoice that justice is overtaking the vagabonds who, since the advent of Know-Nothingism have been attempting to control our elections by means of bludgeons, pistols and bowie-knives.— N. A. Ledger. The Plug Ugly of the smut machine would do well to profit by the above. The Fourth in Canada. The Woodstock, Canada, Sentinel refers to the unfurling of an American flag in that town on the 4th, and says : “It is with feelings of unmingled pleasure that we see the bonds of friendship between Cana dians and our neighbors in the United States becoming daily more strongly cemented, and we heartily welcome the return of those happy seasons as the 24th of May and the 4th of July, as times peculiarly adapted for an interchange of friendly feelifigs and sentiments.’* Toledo Wabash and Western Railroad.—The N. y. Tribune, of the 16th, says: / At the adjourned Meeting, held today, of the stock dnd bondholders of the Lake Erie and Wabash road, resolutions were passed in fayor of the scheme proposed by the officers, artd, a committee appointed to induce the bondholders to come into the arrangement. The scheme concontemplates the division of the earnings of, the road between the floating debt and payments on the interest coupons of the coming year. The meeting was a harmonious one, there being but little opposition to the scheme/ DC/ A man known by the name Isaac Edmondson stole a Bible from the United Brethren Church at Mauckport, Harrison county, on Friday last. This is the third time he has stolen the same Bible. For wani'of 1 ! SIOO bail he was committed to prison. One would naturally conclude that a man who likes the word of God well enough to steal it, would hardly be permitted' to go to jail in 'default of bail in 4christian.qountry.