Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

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LMEMOIRS OF JOHN ADAMS DIX.

lieve the great conservative party of the North may be rallied successfully on the foregoing propositions as a basis of
adjustment. In carrying them out we shall re-establish the
practice of the government from its organization to the year
1820, running through the successive administrations of
Washington, the elder Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. The
Territory north-west of the Ohio River, in which slavery was
prohibited by an ordinance adopted under the Articles of Confederation, was an exceptional case. In the other Territories
emigrants from the States were freely admitted with slaves
when composing a part of their families. The adoption of the
Missouri Compromise, under the administration of Mr. Monroe, was the first departure from the practice of the government under the Constitution. We must go back to the policy
of the founders of the Republic if we hope to preserve the
Union. We believe this great object can be accomplished,
and that harmony may be restored to the country, if time for
action be given to those who have its destinies in their hands.
"II. The Republican party.-It cannot possibly remain
unbroken during the term of the incoming administration.
The two chief elements-the political and religious-can never harmonize in practice. The process of separation has already commenced. While those who ostensibly represent the
religious element are as fierce as ever in their denunciations,
leading politicians, no doubt, in view of the responsibility to
devolve on the President-elect in carrying on the government,
have renounced ultra opinions, and proclaim the duty of enforcing an efficient fugitive slave law. In Boston the Union
party triumphed by a majority of several thousand votes in
the late municipal election, and the abolitionists have been
expelled by the people from the public halls in which they
attempted to hold their disorganizing assemblies. In other
cities of New England the same reaction has taken place,
The theorists and the politicians can never hold together
when measures of government are to be agreed on; and it
is not believed that the Republican party can sustain itself