Amid the embarrassments and degradations occasioned by the sinuosity of the
President and his Cabinet in reference to the Nebraska bill, and the
inconsistent and antagonistical positions necessarily imposed upon their
adherents,
Because Messrs. Chase and Sumner, Giddings, and Gerrit Smith issued a dignified and truthful address to the public, in reference to the Kansas and Nebraska bill, the President and Cabinet, their organ and its echoes, Douglas and his associates unite in the about: "The Abolition confederates are upon us -- stop thief!" The old trick won't win. It may direct the attention of some momentarily, and cause others, for a time, to follow the wrong track; but there are those in pursuit whom these deceptive cries can neither divert nor retard. The plotters may not, and probably will not, be arrested in the Senate, but the guardian of the public honor and plighted faith in the House we trust they cannot dodge.
The first Nebraska bill was suppressed and superseded, lest it should be called an Abolition measure. The present bill was substituted, and to quell the rising insubordination a Cabinet council was held and it was determined to threaten and frighten the Free Soil Democrats into servile subjection by calling them Abolitionists. The "Little Giant" being caught in the very act of catering for Free Soil sympathy and aid, trembling accepts and adopts the new Administration project, abrogating and repealing all antecedent slave-prohibiting legislation, reports it to the Senate, assails the old slave-excluding ordinance of '87, denounces the Free Soil guaranty and compact of 1820, and concludes with the loud and prolonged outcry: "The Abolition confederates are after me; to the rescue -- help -- help!" Next the public press at the North and West give the alarm, the people assemble in masses, and the groundswell of popular indignation and denunciation reaches the National Capitol. Hereupon the Cabinet organ, its echoes and sentinels unite in a simultaneous cry -- "Abolition movements." The Senate bill, with hot haste, is reported to the House, with the view of rushing it through under the despotic operation of gag rules, but it is met by a multitudinous uprising, and amendments and substitutes are interposed, and again the agonizing cry is heard: "The Abolitionists are upon us -- help -- help!" We repeat it, this old trick won't win.
We are told, with mock solemnity, that this Kansas and Nebraska bill only
reasserts and reaffirms "man's indefensible right to self-government" -- that
the Jeffersonian Proviso and the Ordinance of '87 which adopted it; the
Missouri Compromise and all slave-prohibiting legislation are unconstitutional
obstructions and impediments to this indefeasible right.
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