h of territory to slavery, to the absolute exclusion of freedom.
For what they ask (however they may disguise it) is simply this,--that
their _local law_ be made the law of the land, and coextensive with
the limits of the General Government. The Constitution acknowledges no
unqualified or interminable right of property in the labor of another;
and the plausible assertion, that "that is property which the law
makes property," (confounding a law existing anywhere with the law
which is binding everywhere,) can deceive only those who have either
never read the Constitution or are ignorant of the opinions and
intentions of those who framed it. It is true only of the States where
slavery already exists; and it is because the propagandists of slavery
are well aware of this, that they are so anxious to establish by
positive enactment the seemingly moderate title to a right of
existence for their institution in the Territories,--a title which
they do not possess, and the possession of which would give them the
oyster and the Free States the shells. Laws accordingly are asked for
to protect Southern property in the Territories,--that is, to protect
the inhabitants from deciding for themselves what their frame of
government shall be. Such laws will be passed, and the fairest portion
of our national domain irrevocably closed to free labor, if the
Non-Slave-holding States fail to do their duty in the present crisis.

But will the election of Mr. Lincoln endanger the Union? It is not a
little remarkable, that, as the prospect of his success increases, the
menaces of secession grow fainter and less frequent. Mr. W.L. Yancey,
to be sure, threatens to secede; but the country can get along without
him, and we wish him a prosperous career in foreign parts. But
Governor Wise no longer proposes to seize the Treasury at
Washington,--perhaps because Mr. Buchanan has left so little in it.
The old Mumbo-Jumbo is occasionally paraded at the North, but, however
many old women may be frightened, the pulse of the stock-market
remains provokingly calm. General Cushing, infringing the patent-right
of the late Mr. James the novelist, has seen a solitary horseman on
the edge of the horizon. The exegesis of the vision has been various,
some thinking that it means a Military Despot--though in that case the
force of cavalry would seem to be inadequate,--and others the Pony
Express. If it had been one rider on two horses, the application would
have been mo