ry extension. This exciting topic, as we have said,
serves to keep politicians of the abolition school at the North in his
constant employ. But for the agitation of this subject, few of these men
would succeed in obtaining the suffrages of the people. Wedded to
England's free trade policy, their votes in Congress, on all questions
affecting the tariff, are always in perfect harmony with Southern
interests, and work no mischief to the system of slavery. If Kansas
comes into the Union as a slave State, he is secure in the political
power it will give him in Congress; but if it is received as a free
State, it will still be tributary to him, as a source from whence to
draw provisions to feed his slaves. Nor does it matter much which way
the controversy is decided, so long as all agree not to disturb slavery
in the States where it is already established by law. Could KING COTTON
be assured that this position will not be abandoned, he would care
little about slavery in Kansas; but he knows full well that the public
sentiment in the North is adverse to the system, and that the present
race of politicians may readily be displaced by others who will pledge
themselves to its overthrow in all the States of the Union, Hence he
wills to retain the power over the question in his own hands.

The crisis now upon the country, as a consequence of slavery having
become dominant, demands that the highest wisdom should be brought to
the management of national affairs. Slavery, nationalized, can now be
managed only as a national concern. It can now be abolished only with
the consent of those who sustain it. Their assent can be gained only by
employing other agents to meet the wants it now supplies. It must be
superseded, then, if at all, by means that will not injuriously affect
the interests of commerce and agriculture, to which it is now so
important an auxiliary. None other will be accepted, for a moment, by
the slaveholder. To supply the existing demand for tropical products,
except by the present mode, is impossible. To make the change, is not
the work of a day, nor of a generation. Should the influx of foreigners
continue, such a change may, one day, be possible. But to effect the
transition from slavery to freedom, on principles that will be
acceptable to the parties who control the question; to devise and
successfully sustain such measures as will produce this result; must be
left to statesmen of broader views and loftier conceptions