The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-28 00:00:00

is a species of gambling, and produces most of the evils, public
and private, which usually result from the indulgence of that
unfortunate propensity. If this kind of speculation has not
been recently conducted in a manner altogether new, it cer-
tainly has beon carried to an extent altogether unprecedented.
Immense quantities of stock have been sold by those who had
it not, under a contract to be fulfilled at some future period,
and purchased by those who did not expect a delivery of it.
The results of these transactions are adjusted without the de-
livery of the stock, and the loss and gain ascertained by its
market lalue on the day stipulated for performing the con-
tract. This is no more nor less than a wager' upon the
price of particular stocks on a specified future day. It
is worse than wagers upon ordinary contingencies, be-
cause the event may be controlled by artifice and ma-
nagemeit, and the persons concerned are too stronly
tempted to resort to them to subserve their interest. It is
true, our present laws regard these transactions with disfavour.
Such =tracts are not only declared void, but the persons
who have gained by them may be compelled to refund to the
losing party or his representatives • yet they are constantly
made, arid in most instances faithfully executed. The extent
to which this species of gambling has been lately carried, and
its injurious effects upon many individuals who have embarked
in it, have given it the character and consequences of a public
evil ; and your official situation imposes on you, in my opinion,
the duty to suppress it. I recommend to you to lay this prac-
tice under a strong legal interdiction—an interdiction that
shall be rendered effective by pains and penalties.
SLAVE ABOLITION.—A few individuals in the middle and
Eastern States, acting on mistaken motives of moral and re-
ligious duty, or some less justifiable principle, and disregard-
ing the obligations which they owe their respective govern-
ments, !lave embarked in an enterprise for abolishing domes-
tic slavery in the southern and southwestern States. Their
proceedings have caused much mischief in those States, and
have not been entirely harmless in their own. They have ac-
quired oo much importance, by the evils which have already
resultec from them, and by the magnitude and numbers of
those which are likely to follow if they are farther persisted in
to justify me in passing them without notice. These pro-
endings have not only found no favour with a vast majority of
our corstitucnts, but they have been generally reprobated.

In our commercial metropolis, the abolitionists have esta-
blishel one of their principal magazines, from which they have
seat their miss:ess of annoyance into the Slaveholding States.
The impression produced in those States, that this proceeding
was encouraged by a portion of the business-men of the city
of New York, or at least was not sufficiently discountenanced
by them, threatened injurious consequences to our commerce.
A proposition was made for an extensive voluntary asssocia-
ciation in the South, to suspend business intercourse with
our citizens. A regard for the character of our State, for
the pubic interest, for the preservation of peace among
our citizens, as well as a due respect for the obligations
created by our political institutions and relations, calls
upon us to do what may be done, consistently with the
great principle of civil liberty, to put an end to the evils which
the abditionists are bringing upon us and the whole country.
With whatever disfavour we may view the institution of domes-
tic slavery, we ought not to overlook the very formidable dif-
ficulties of abolishing it, or give countenance to any scheme
for accomplishing this object, in violation of the solemn gua-
rantees we are under not to interfere with this institution as it
exists in other States.
Domestic slavery existed in almost every State when the
Federal Union was formed. Its character was as well under-
stood then as now. The men who founded the General Go-
verment had as much philanthropy, and as just an appreciation
of moral and religious duty, and knew as well what was due
to the cause of human rights as the present generation ; yet so
great did they regard the difficulties of abolishing slavery, and
so disastrous to the public welfare would be, as they appre-
hended, any intermeddling with it in the respective States,
except by the citizens and civil authorities thereof, that they
delegated to Congress no power to act on this subject, farther
than to prohibit the importation of slaves after the year 1807 ;
but they recognized the right of the several States to continue
slavery without interference, by obliging them to deliver up to
each other all fugitive slaves. They left the right to abolish
slavery where only it could with safety be left—with the res-
pective States wherein slavery existed.
The proceedings of the abolitionists have rendered their
object in this respect perfectly unattainable. They have al-
ready excited such a feeling in all those States, that a pro-
position so to enlarge the powers of Congress, would be in-
stantly rejected by each with indignation. if their operations
here are to inflame the fanatical zeal of emissaries, and insti-
gate them to go on missions to the slave-holding States, there
to distribute abolition publications and promulgate abolition
doctrines, their success in this enterprise is foretold by the
fate of the deluded men who have preeeded them. The mo-
ment they pass the borders of those States, and begin their
labours, they violate the laws of the jurisdiction they have in-*
vaded, and incur the penalty of death, or other ignominious
punishment.
TxzAs.—The General Government is exercising that
power to suppress such acts of the citizens of the United
States, done within its jurisdiction, in relation to the belli-
gerent authorities of Mexico and Texas, as are consistent
with the relations of peace and amity we sustain toward those
States. Such a power, therefore, belonged to the sovereignty
of each of the States, before the formation of the Union, and as
far as regards their relations to each other, it was not delegated
to the General Government.—lt still remains unimpaired, and
the obligations to exercise it have acquired additional force from
the nature and objects of the federal compact. I cannot doubt
that the Legislature possesses the power t o pass such penal laws
as will have the effect of preventing the citizens of this state and
residents within it, from availing themselves with impunity, of
the protection of its sovereignty and laws, while they are actually
employed in exciting insurrection and sedition in a sister state,
or engaged in treasonable enterprises intended to be executed
therein.