The Portland Gazette

From the New York Columbian.

THE MISSOURI QUESTION.

"All men are free and equal," says the American Constitution. The assertion is false, says a late decision of the American Congress.

Slavery should not be tolerated by a free people, has been the saying of the wise in all ages.

—"Slavery is productive of prosperity," says our Southern brethren. Slavery is an evil to be dreaded, says sound policy. Slavery is a necessary evil, says interested cupidity.

It is the curse of the free people of America, that slavery exists among us. It is the misfortune of the Southern people, that habit has rendered slavery "a necessary evil" to them.

The admission of Missouri into the Union with the foul blot of slavery affixed to her, is an evidence of national imbecility, and a stigma upon our free institutions. Missouri now comes among her sister states, not erect and fair, but deformed and distempered.

The names of the dough faces will descend to posterity. Contempt and disgrace will attach themselves to their memories. Political Arnolds will ever be considered base and infamous.

The virtuous minority will always be honored. Their votes on the side of virtue; their firmness in the cause of liberty; their consistency; their contempt of gasconading cowardice, and their perseverance in the path of duty, entitle them to the respect of all men, and of all parties.

The dough faces are irretrievably lost. At the North, they are considered apostates and time-servers; and at the South, they are regarded as convenient creatures and hand tools.

But the Missouri question is settled. The question has been solemnly determined by the representatives of the nation. It is our duty to abide by that determination—and to acquiesce in that decision. Let this question be agitated no more—let Missouri be admitted peaceably into the Union; but let it be remembered, that SUCH THINGS AS DOUGH-FACES EXIST, AND LET THEM BE REMEMBERED.

TRUE BLUE.