Democracy And Slavery

It. has for soma timo boen the cue of! adversarles of tbo Dsmoerutic party to : stigtuü'ize it as a pro-slavery party, and to excite prejudico against it as the pat ron and apologist of au ingtitutiou which is cocdemned by tlio civiliatioa of the Oge. That tliis is an unjust imputation on tho Democracy of the Northern States, is demonstrated by the broad and uudeuiiiblo faet that slavery was abolishcd in all tho Northern Htutes in' which it ever existed with the warm approval and liearly coucurrence of all the peoplo of those atates without disthiction of party. No Northern Demoorat . ever opposud or rcgrel ted the abolition of siavory in tho state ol bis resideuce, j much less ever proposed or wished il. i re establishment. The head of a family who takes tho most careful pains to train I up.his own children in the principies of Cbristiao virtue, gives the strougest possiblu evidence of his appioval of thos principie?, even though hc may not tltipk it his Juty to interfere with the domestic discipline oí' his infidel neighbor. If' íhnt neighbor hapjiens to be his partner in business, the fact that they are mombers of the same firm fers upon neithor any control over the liousehold of the other, however str.ongly ho may disapprove oí' its management. - But can there be no virtue uuless it be of that meddlesome and ntrusive kind which viohtca the sucred right of diatioct families, or of dia tin et eommunities," to bo exempt froin-the offieious and ocnsorious turveilanc of neighboring familia, or DeighboriDg eommunities? Does a man cease to bo viftvtous beoause, in addition to othor virtues, he prácticos the discreet and pcaceproinoting virtue of minding bis owu business ? Busidc-s thü great cardinal faot, on which we insidt, that Northern demócrata havo proved their abliorrence of slaverj hy ussistiiiij in espcihiig it iioiu their own States and boltiDg ük doora gainst its rüturn, thej hnye expressed pubüc and constant satiefaetion at uil moveineuts towarda ita abolition in other States, by-j the peopio of those, and equally deeided j deprecation of the arrest of t-uuh ] iiients bv iuipcrtinant outside interñjrence. We could, if' neeessary, fill our columns to overflow ing witli citations from the doeuments, speeches and writings of democratie Btateumen, in which it was urged as a stroDg [oir;t againat the abolition crueade of the last t.hirty ycarc; that it had put back epianei-pation in t!;e border flsve Statps. Is Llsis ii í pee Tes of argument to bu u.-ed by men whg appTove of giuver vmA d.esire its oontiouau.ee ? Tiio proslavery stigma atfeompted to be ilxod (in northern domoorats is a ealumny, it has always been repelled as a eaiumny throngfiout the heated controversies whieh liave pixvaüed since the annexation of Texas. Among Southern deüioerats the slavory isue early merged in the bigber is?ue of the right of the States to control their domestie affairs, and as it was'only by attacks on slaverv that this right was assailed, they were led to deferid the outpost as if it were the citadel itse!f, and thereby furnished a pretext for the calumnv against the democratie party. But the demócrata of the Norlh, in repelling this calumny, have steadüy asssrted that it was not slavery they ris!ied to uphol'l, but only the eonstitutional right of oach rftate to determine for itselt' (as the Northern States had done) whun it WOuld abolish slivery, or whet'aer it would abolish it at all.