should be proven by a life of sacrifice a devotion to the principles of republiz truth on which our government is beed

It is farther contended that the catode must be pledged to the compromise na ures, and particularly avow his determinat to sustain without modification the Fugitia Slave Law. To this we can see much ob jection. The doctrine of pledges, as it hs | operated heretofore amongst political p rants, appears to be a cunning device of demagogue, by means of which he seeks t mislead the public mind, and secure popiz favor; and when he comes into power, the pledge, often and solemnly repeated, is ne lected or forgotten. Instance after instans might be cited in proof of this positit Who does not recollect that the candidız of the Democracy in the canvass of 184 pledged himself to his party and the nati that under no circumstances would he eve consent to the dismemberment of the ter ritory of Oregon? The people believed the candidate, and trusting in his good faith,

as the most lofty patriot; yet it is question-elected him to office. But the Chief Magis trate had forgotten the pledges of the cardidate, and without apology or explanation, he unhesitatingly signed away by treaty onehalf of the territory to which, he asserted, our title was "clear and unquestionable." This and similar instances conclusively prove that pledges made by the candidate are no guarantee that the wishes of the people will be regarded by the officer.

We can see no necessity or propriety in exacting a distinctive pledge of a candidate to execute the Fugitive Slave Law. His oath of office requires him to enforce it, and would certainly be a more ample and relia ble guarantee than the most distinct pledges which could be made before his election. It is highly improbable that a candidate will ever come before the people and ask of them their support for the purpose, if elected, of revolutionizing the government or any portion of its laws. No one, excepting those who are connected with the extreme wing of ultra Northern fanaticism, proposes to nullify the existing law; and to suppose that an advocate of that "higher law” which has oeen! ately propagated with so much earnest enthusiasm could ever procure a nomination at the hands of either of the great political parties of our country, is a notion too absurd to combat. And even were it possible that such a treasonable en

more populous thoronghfares, and startled and electrified their inhabitants by the vehemence of their declamation for the Union. They too have unhesitatingly and gallantly eaten "Union dinners," and drank to the immortality of the Union. All of this is very well. But we fancy that this manner of defending the Union is pleasant and easy, endangering neither life nor limb; especially when we consider that the Union is in no danger. Speech-making is a most unsatisfactory test of the qualifications of the aspirant to the Presidency. His eloquence is an accomplishment, practised as well by the wily demagogue, who by false professions seeks to mislead the public mind, as by the true-hearted patriot. It does not follow, because an aspirant is attached to the "Union" or its "compromises," that he has the qualifications necessary to discharge with efficiency all the various duties of President of the United States. The wild borderer on the farthest verge of civilization is as devoted in his attachments to the American Union

able, with this one qualification, whether he would fill with dignity the chair of State, and discharge its duties with intelligence or ability. But we apprehend that there are other important qualifications which should distinguish the aspirant to the Presidency, besides mere devotion to our national confederacy. He should possess enlarged, comprehensive, and liberal views of national policy, matured by a profound and thorough investigation of the theory of our government. His mind should be unfettered by any of the "one-idea-isms" which so much distinguish the politician of the present day. He should prove his capacity to watch over the affairs, civil, political, commercial, and agricultural, of the government over which he seeks to preside, and to administer justice and execute the laws with a firm, independent, unwavering, and impartial hand. His devotion to the Union should not be manifested so much by rhetorical display and glowing eloquence, as appears to be the prevailing notion of the present day, but

when they found the demagogues still exciting them against the very laws of peace which had been agreed upon by all sections; and their success, too, is obvious to all men. One of the most

hopeful omens in modern politics is, that the voice of wisdom stilled the raging of the demagogue

wave.-ED.

thusiast could be elevated to the chair of State, however violent might be his hatred to the law in question, however devoted he might be to that "higher law" discovered by modern philanthropy, and however reckless, unscrupulous, and abandoned his general character, yet we much question whether he could be so deeply lost to every sense of moral obligation as to lay perjury to his soul by the violation of his constitutional oath, or to conspire for the subversion of a law which before the world he had solemnly sworn he would execute.

the anti-slavery prejudices of the North by requiring pledges which are contrary to the principles in which they have been educated, and which would only tend to foster sectional jealousies dangerous to the harmony and general prosperity of the country.

But in the mean time, if instead of permitting the excitement on the slavery question to expire for want of opposition, the friends of peace and order should proclaim that the approaching contest for the Presidency is to be a crusade against abolitionism, in which the disunionist of the North is to be for ever crushed, the hostile attitude you assume gives an importance to the political influence of free-soilism which the insignificance of the party does not merit. The force of the Union party is overwhelming. It can bring into the field a thousand to one, in a contest with disunionists; but you cannot thwart their policy or divert their purposes by engaging them in a warfare with a Union party. Their great destiny is to agitate. To excite, to irritate and inflame the public mind, is the object of their mission. Opposition gives vigor and importance to their action. They lose nothing by defeat, as they had nothing at stake. They are not even disappointed, for they expected nothing but to be overcome by superiority of numbers. They have in fact fully accomplished all their purposes. The friends of the Union may marshal their forces and shake the nation with their Union thunder, but the disunionist is neither killed, wounded, nor even disheartened at the tremendous explosion. He in fact rejoices that an opportunity is furnished to bring his batteries to bear, as he might express it, on the forces of oppression. The contest has plunged him in the whirlpool of excitement. It has quickened his blood. It has re-animated his flagging energies. It has given impulse and vigor to his discussions, and importance to his party. It has enlisted public sympathy for his cause, and brought new recruits to his standard. He has gained much by the contest.

It is admitted that there is a feeling of repugnance existing in the North towards the institution of slavery in the South; but much as the people of the North may deprecate its existence, there is neither the power nor the inclination to subvert it. Slavery in the South exists not by virtue of Northern will or legislation, but by Southern. A Massachusetts Legislature has no jurisdiction over existing laws and institutions in South Carolina. Northern zealots are fast learning that, however great the evil of slavery may be, it is far removed from their control. They are also making the discovery that the more they agitate the question of abolition, the more hopeless becomes the condition of the slave-the more tightly are riveted his fetters. They are learning too that in the tempest they have excited, the wheels of legislation have been stopped, important matters of general and local interest have been postponed or abandoned. During the contest of pro-slavery and anti-slavery over the prostrate and degraded African slave, the interests of the white free laborer of the North have been disregarded by both parties as unworthy of notice or protection. At this crisis, however repugnant African servitude may be to the feelings of the Northern man, he feels and knows it to be his true policy to cease from its useless agitation. He may regard the Fugitive Slave Law as a relic of barbarism, growing out of an institution established in an age less civilized and just than the present, yet is he willing to endure its continuance without a murmur, and submit to its most repugnant exactions without complaint, if his submission will silence the croakings of disaffection and fanaticism, and place a final quietus on the voice of agitation. This state of facts we should think would prove satisfactory to the most quarrelsome

and jealous Southerners, without arousing contested field? It occupies the same

In the mean time victory has declared in favor of the Union party. They have saved the Union, which was in no danger. They have manfully vindicated and proven the truth of principles which scarce one in a thousand ever doubted. What has the great "United Union party” achieved in the

ground, stands in the same position, and leaves the nation resting on the same political basis on which it rested before the battle for the Union was fought. Nothing has been accomplished; no new principles have been developed; no new policy has been marked out for the progress of the nation in its march to greatness.

The same results will naturally flow from adopting as an article of party creed the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. This would give additional cause for dissatisfaction on the part of the disunionist of the South, and add more fuel to the flames of disaffection and nullification which have already burnt with so much fury. It would give strength and consistency to their action, and add numbers to their ranks. Many who have heretofore been silent in the discussion of these exciting issues, or who have manfully defended the Union, would be driven into the ranks of nullification by the repeal of a law which tended to guard their private interests from infraction. Even States distinguished for their high-souled patriotism would waver in their devotion to a government which had failed to recognize their peculiar institutions, and afforded no protection to their distinctive rights. They may even be tempted to desert the national banner under whose protecting folds they have won imperishable glory on many a hard-fought field, and range themselves under the flag of treason given to the winds by the hands of nullification.

All our experience proves that any issue whatever made on the subject of slavery must tend to foster and strengthen those sectional jealousies which may yet become formidable to the harmony and perpetuity of the Union. The feeling of enmity between the hostile parties has never been harmonized, but always increased, by a discussion of their matters of difference.

In the mean time the nation has lost years in this age of progress in raising new and fruitless issues, whilst the practical interests of the nation-its commerce, its manufactures and mechanical arts-are languishing for want of adequate protection. Notwithstanding mines have been discovered in our wide domain unexampled in richness and extent, although millions may have rewarded the industry and enterprise of the pioneer to the distant El Dorado, yet is the nation daily stripped of its vast resources, and the

gold of California is found insufficient to pay the cost of imported fabrics, whilst American skill is idle and unproductive. It matters not to the enervated Mexican that his native mountains sparkle with precious ores. Whilst millions are dug from the earth, this nation is impoverished and bankrupt. And it matters not to the American that the California steamer discharges at his sea-ports her freight of massive gold; for the same gazette which announces her arrival and comments upon the incalculable wealth of the nation, heralds the departure of the European steamer freighted with the same precious metal for the purchase of cotton, woollen, and iron fabrics. At the same time American machinery is idle, her manufacturing skill paralyzed, her factories many of them closed, and the rest tottering on the verge of bankruptcy, and the commercial interests of the country threatened with a revulsion unprecedented in American history.

In the tempest of discussion relative to the " Fugitive Slave Law," the internal commerce of the country is perishing from the accumulated obstructions to river navigation. Whilst sage politicians are gravely discussing the constitutionality and expediency of a law in which the great majority of American citizens have no direct or practical interest, the boatman on our western waters, uncared for by Congress, finds a deep grave beneath the treacherous wave. Apply to Democratic sages who control the action of that great party, and a portion of them will tell you that the "noise and confusion" incident to the settlement of the "Union question" is so great that you cannot now be heard. Others, who unscrupulously voted for the annexation of Texas and California, and are now encouraging the conquest of Cuba, without inquiring or caring for the constitutionality of any of these measures, will tell you that the improvement of such a river as the Mississippi, rolling its mighty waters from one extremity of the nation to the other, bearing on its broad and ample bosom the products of half the confederated States of this Republic, is an object merely local in its character, and that its improvement was never contemplated by the American Constitution. Such counsels will continue to prevail so long as Congress continues to be the centre of the agitation on the sub(ject of slavery. It will, then, be the height of

folly and madness for the Whig party to admit into the coming Presidential contest any of those unprofitable and exciting topics that have been for the present professedly settled. Any attempt to revive them should be "frowned down," for they tend to weaken

Our General Review.

439

the Union, and will continue to prevent the triumph of any of those principles for which the party exists; and keep us under the iron theories from which we are now suffering.

R. W. M.

Nauvoo, Illinois, Sept. 24.

OUR GENERAL REVIEW.

AN ABSTRACT AND BRIEF CHRONICLE OF THE TIME.

ENGLAND-In England the closing of the Crys-, tal Palace was permitting the press and people to direct their attention once more to the affairs of the world in general. It was closed on the 11th ult., after having proved one of the most successful and splendid speculations of the age. The structure will probably be removed, in spite of the popular desire to the contrary. Hyde Park is an appanage of the Court and the aristocracy, and it is thought a show-box or other property of the commonalty would be out of place within its precincts.

about to make remonstrances against it. London is, in fact, looked upon as the centre of the European democrats. The object of these is a steady radical revolution in Europe, to be brought about by the union of the people and by their contributions. shares shall be bought in national loans, which The German Committee propose that the chief men of the movement shall guarantee, and which shall be repaid on the liberation of the nations. Mazzini has been trying to get up such a loan for the particular behoof of Italy. Just The English were making great preparations through the United States for the purpose of exnow Professor Kinkel, the poet, is travelling for the reception of Kossuth, who was expected at pounding and furthering, particularly among our Southampton in the American ship of war. Up- German population, this grand liberating project. wards of a score mayors of towns and cities wrote to the Mayor of Southampton to express a beginning to impress and agitate the United KingThe prestige of our American republicanism is desire to join in the popular welcome. London dom in a very remarkable manner. The English and its municipality were prepared to give the press has become greatly occupied with these Hungarian exile a polite and kindly reception. States, and its tone has become vastly more reThe desire to do honor to him is very general: spectful and conciliatory. Latterly the Hon. Mr. for the Ministers are not disposed to curry favor Lawrence has been creating a sensation in Ireland, with the despotisms just now. Two of them-the far more deep and general than that caused by Secretary of War (Lord Palmerston) and Mr. the visit of the Queen to that island. Gladstone-have publicly denounced or con- allows that he was every where received" with demned the high-handed doings in Naples and else- almost royal honors." The Times where on the Continent. So that no government with which he was followed and fêted was the And indeed the sincerity consideration seems to stand in the way of a general English welcome. And it is a good and among the people to promise them any thing or to more emphatically proved, that he did not go a cordial thing to see the two great and powerful flatter their passions or political leanings. His families of English tongue and name, forgetful of speeches, throughout, tended the other waypast differences, standing side by side and foremost in the cause of humanity in the midst of and help themselves. Nevertheless, there he was were full of calm advice to rely upon themselves such frowning and threatening despotisms. After all, there is no fear of the ultimate triumph of their dreams-the land in which millions of their -an American-from that great and rich land of free governments all over the world, when Eng- countrymen had a home and a refuge, and from land and America join hands in so noble a cause which within the last few years over two millions as this. Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet against the of pounds sterling had come from poor Irish laborKing of Naples has called forth a wrathful reply ers to their poorer friends in the cabins at home; from his Majesty, implicating and taunting the so that, if Mr. Lawrence were really the grandson English Government; while the speech of Lord of Brien Boru himself, he could not have been rePalmerston at Tiverton has excited a general in-ceived with more cordial respect and enthusiasm. dignation among the continental rulers-Louis Furthermore, they identified him with that spirit Napoleon included; and it has been stated in a of American enterprise which, in the matter of German newspaper, (the Ober Post Amt Zeitung,) steamships and railways, is making such wonderthat the toleration extended to the band of Teu- ful changes in the world, and hoped something tonic conspirators now in London is a breach of was about to be done for the country at last. good faith towards the German rulers, who are Some of the people actually had an idea that he 30

VOL. VIII. NO. V. NEW SERIES.

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The submarine telegraph between France and England has been laid down in the English Channel, from South Foreland to Sanngate, near Calais. The line consists of four copper wires, like bell-which has caused some discontent on the part of wires, cased in gutta percha, and twined with hempen strands into the size of a rope an inch in diameter. More hempen strands and wires of galvanized iron are twined round this, and all form a flexible casing 4 inches thick. Messages have been flashed through very satisfactorily, and the communication with Paris will doubtless be shortly completed.

In Ireland the Catholic Association, which was about to be got up in opposition to the late AntiPopish Bill, has been a failure. The Catholic people and hierarchy are not agreed upon the mat- The London Morning Post contemplates a ter. Many of the Irish bishops are in favor of the larger steam project than the foregoing to wit, Queen's Colleges ard the government system of regular communication with Australia; giving as education. But Dr. Cullen, Primate of all Ireland, a chief reason the rapid advances of the Ameriis bent on an exclusively Roman system-sepa- cans in the Pacific, and the advantages offered to rating, in all things, the sheep from the goats-the their commercial marine by the repeal of the Catholics from the Protestants, with whom no Navigation Laws. The Post says that if England terms, no faith, is to be kept. All the Irish priests will not place efficient ships upon that eastern and bishops are not prepared to go these very Ca-line, the steamers of America will anticipate them, tholic and consistent lengths, and hence one more and manage the trade and intercourse of the Pa.