Franklin Repository

The reason given by Southern locofoco members of Congress for their action in opposing an organization of the House is, that they are tired of the encroachments of the North -that they are oppressed by the North.

A charge so grave in its character, deserves serious consideration. If any one section of the country is really guilty of oppressing any other section of our people the fact should be made known. The oppressors should be made cease their oppression. This is the land of the free -home of the brave. Here all men have--or should have--the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. None, not even the humblest in the land, should feel the keen lash of the heartless oppressor in Republican America.

The last Census report, prepared by a Southern man, the Editor of a Southern Journal, shows that all the people, in the South, who are directly interested in Slavery -including men, women, and their children, even the babes- do not number the half of one million. It shows, further, that there are some five millions of whites in the South who are not interested in the "Peculiar Institution;" and that there are some fifteen millions of whites in the Free North who do not crack the plantation whip over human chattels -who do not hold their fellow men in bondage, as brute beasts. It follows then that the slave-holding handful -about the one fortieth of the whole white population- are justly entitled to official power and political influence in proportion to their numbers. If they have that ratio of offices, and about that amount of voice in the adjusting of the affairs of this great nation, they have no just reason for dissatisfaction -no genuine cause for charging the North with restricting them in the enjoyment of any of their legitimate rights.

If an investigation should, however, show that the powerful, robust North, in the magnanimity of true greatness, has given to the weak, erring sister -the wayward, headstrong, but physically impotent member of the family- more than she was entitled to; say the half or even more than the half of the common estate and the largest share of the management of the whole domain, then she, through modesty -if actuated by no sense of justice and truth- should keep quiet.

How does the matter stand? Have they received their fortieth of the public positions in the land -their fortieth of the loaves and fishes? Or have they, during all these long years, since the adoption of the Federal constitution, been pushed back from the National crib by the strong right arm of the stalwart North -whom she now charges with being guilty of oppressing her? The unerring page of truthful history will answer the interrogatory.

By reference to the official statistics we find that these growlers have received, not only their fortieth -which would be their honest share- not only the one half -vastly more than they would be entitled to- but, so much, more than the populous North of the official posts since the establishment of the confederacy, that we can scarcely believe the figures -cannot understand how the North submitted to this injustice for so great a period. Yet, startling as is appears, the following is a plain statement of facts:

There have been, since the formation of our present Government, eighteen elections for the first office in the gift of the people -the Presidency. The Candidates chosen at twelve of these elections were Southern men -slaveholders. The candidates who were triumphant at six of these elections were citizens of the Northern, or Free States. Thus giving that important office two thirds of the time to those who should have had it but one fortieth of the time. Nor is this all; one of the six Northern men -Martin Van Buren- declared, at the outstart of his reign, that he was a Northern man with Southern principles -and he redeemed his pledge. Two of the remaining five -Pierce, and Buchanan- conducted their administrations as boldly in the interest of the miserable handful of slave owners as if they had never been born in the North -had never breathed Free air. Thus reducing the number of Northern men who were elected to fill the office of President to but three -one of whom died in one month after his inauguration, and his mantle fell upon a pro slavery Virginian. So that, altogether, the South has held the control of the Presidency about eight-ninths of the whole period of our National existence; and now threatens to dissolve the Union if the North should elect a President. Is she not modest?

If we had time to search through all the offices under the Government, since the establishment of our present system of laws, the same spirit of injustice, we have no doubt, could be shown to have existed. We may on some future occasion take up the narrative and show, further, the falsity of Southern charges against the North. Enough has already been exhibited to show that they have no cause to complain of oppression; that they have controlled the whole machinery of Government to suit themselves; have enjoyed all the important offices and, starving with their months full of public provender, they cry aloud more, more, oppression, oppression.

The Nebraska Legislature, says the New York Tribune, has just passed a law prohibiting Slavery in that Territory. --There is no mistake, therefore, in the fact that that Territory does not want that peculiar institution. Now, the innocents were informed at the of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, both by the terms of that measure, and by the repeated declarations of the men who originated and passed it, that the Territories organized under it would be perfectly free to settle the question of Slavery "in their own way." We Republicans were pronounce immensely unreasonable because we refused to concur in such a settlement of the question. We all know what has happened in Kansas. Now what do we see in Nebraska. That Territory has declared that it does not want and will not have Slavery. Under the Kansas-Nebraska bill this would seem to settle the question. But does it? Not at all. At this point the President steps in and says the Territorial Legislature has no power to prohibit Slavery, and that it is a "mystery" how anybody could ever have tho't otherwise. And we are informed by the telegraph, what we suppose will turn out to be true, that Gov. Black, Mr. Buchanan's representative in that Territory, will veto the measure, and thus leave the Territory open to Slavery despite the wishes of the people.

This is but a fair example of the way which the people of the North have been bamboozled and deceived in regard to the Slavery question ever since the first attempt was made to apply the "Wilmot" to the Territories. Here is one of the Territories that Mr. Webster considered to be protected by the "will of God."--But the "Will" of Mr. Buchanan is nevertheless strong enough to keep Slavery there, and it would stay there but for the persistent and determined efforts of the Republicans to kick it out. Whether the collision here intimated between hostile "wills," in which the President has the advantage, actually exists, we shall not attempt to decide. The fact is so, or else Mr. Webster, for once in his life, at least, is greatly mistaken.