Lynchburg Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1829-185?, 1849-07-30

General anu their separate State uoVerhnehtS IL
would bethen total and gross perverson OF its pow
er and authority to use them to establish abolish
slavery any other property ct the citizens OF the
United States IN the Territories. All the power has
in that respect recognize property there what
recognized such by the authority OF any one
Of the States its own being but the united authority of
each and all of the States and adopt such laws for
its regulation and protection the state Of the
NAV require. Nor there the slightest danger that
the recognition of the property Of citizens Of each and
all the States within the Territories would turn them
into Babel, as Col. Benton contends. All may CO.
exist Without conflict confusion, by observing the
plain and simple rule Of duty and justice.
There is another akin to this-that the Mex
lean law aboishing slavery still in force in New Mex
leo and California when not particle OF its authority
Of sovereignty remains in either. Their conquest by
and the treaty that followed extingushed the whole
and annUlled all her laws applicable to them, except
those relations between individuals may be
ry to prevent anarchy and these are continued
only by suerance and on the implied authority Of the
con 7ueriRg country, and not The authority OF the
conquered and only from the necessity of the case
Her law abolshing slavery Is not embraced IN the ex-
ception and fit were it would be taken out of 1t, as
the assent of Congress could not be implied to contin
ne law which it had no right to establish
But still higher ground may be taken. The mo-
merit the territory becomes ours, the constitution
passes over and covers the whole with all Its provls
ions which, from their nature are applicable to ter
ritQres, carrying with 1t the JOINT sovereignty and a
thortv of each and all the States Of the Union, and
sweeping away every Mexican law incompatible with
the rights property and relations belonging to the
citizens of the United States, without regard to what
State thew belong. or whether it be situated in the
Northern or southern section of the Union. The cit
liens of all have equal rights of protection In their
property relations and person in the common teri
tories Of each and all the States The same power that
swept away all the laws Of Mexico which made the
Catholic religion the exclusive religion of the country
and which etin the religion ofa denominations, whics
swept away all the laws prohibiting the introduction
of property Of almost every description some absolute
" and others under the condition Of paying Duties
letting them in duty free until otherwise provided for
swept that which alb lshed slavery, and let IN prop
erty in slaves No distinction can be made between
it and any other property thing consistently with
the constitution and the equal rights of the several
States Of the Union and their citizens.
But we told by Col Benton that the question
has become a mere abstraction Of no Importance ;
that few have gone into either territory except citizens
of the North and foreigners and that they are all OPP
posed to US What insult What taunt us by tel
ling cannot 20 into them because foreigners and
others, who have been let IN freely and we kept out
by the threat of confscang our property by himself
and his associates have become sufficiently numerous
to keep out without the intervention Of Congress
to aid them lie knew that tproperty Is tmld," and
could be kept by threats and that to keep out
for short time of the ways to exclude us ult
mately. What comment on the equity and justice
Of the Government, that who have so freely spent
blood and treasure to conquer tie country should be
excluded from all its benefits while is left open Tor
the use and enjoyment of all that rabble OF for
egners which he enumeraes with such zest as the eff
fcient means of our exclusion Is their another in
stance of such outrage to be found in the history Of
any other Government that ever existed
His avowa Of the doctrines Of the Abolitionsts will
have an effect he little suspected when he made it..
1t furnishes ample evidence to show that he used de-
ception in assigning his reasons for declining to obeg
the instructions Of his Legislature, 1t will be remem
bred he offered his reasons that their resolutions
instructing him were borrowed from NINE and that
mine introduced for disunion purposes, and shat
there difference between them except that mine
aimed directly at disunion, and theirs ultimately at the
same thing He addrdn effect that his devotion to the
Union would not permit him to vote for resolutions
deeply tainted with disunion. That at the COM
mencement of his speech. We now have in its con
cuson conclusive evidence from himself that all this
was mere fetch, stratagem to conceal his real
tive for declining, to obey them. His real motive
it appears was that he could not vote for them
under any circumstances for how could an abolition
istas he ayowd himself to bepossbly obey resolutions
which utterly variance with their doctrines? To
obey would have involved him in palpable contradc-
tion much that it could fail to PROSTATE and
to overwhem him Nth shame nvulnerable This he
saw and that he had alternative left but to resign
or dsobey He determined in favor of the latter but
this ofitself did not relieve him of his dilemma. He
knew well that it would defeat his object to come out
boldly and say that he had abiured his form creed
and adopted that Of the aboitonists. And hence he
forced to adopt some other ezpedient; and for
that purpose adopted the miserable pretext Of SLAM
derousy charging and my resolutions, and his own
Legislature and their resolutions with dsunion and of
assigning that his for not obeying them when
he knew that his position made it impossible for him
to obey them. But these not the only resolutions
adopted by the Legislature Ct his State to instruct
him. The previous Legislature adopted two others of
which he says that they truly express the sense Of the
State and that he obeyed themnot only in their letter.
but spirit They are in the following words.
"Resolved, That the peace, permanency,a and welfare
OF our National Union depend upon strict adherence
to the letter and spirit Of the Sth section of the act of
Congress of the United States; entitled Gan act to
thorize the people Of the Missouri Territory to form
a constitution and State Government for the adHls-
sion of such State into the Union an equal foot
ing with the original States, and to prohibit slavery
certain territories approved March 9th, 1920"
"ResOlyed, That Senators in the Congress Of
the United States hereby instructed and our Rep
resentaves requested to vote in accordance with the
provisions and the spirit Of the said Sth section Of the
said act all the questions which may before
them in relation to the organization OF new Territories
States out of the territory belonging to the u
nted States which hereafter may be acquired either
by purchase, by treaty, or by conquest"
1t is proper observe that the oth section to which
they refer contains the Missouri Compromise, which
established So degrees 80 minutes the dividing line
between the slavehoding aud non sayeholdng States
drawn between the Western boundary Of the State Of
Missouri and the Western boundary Of louisiana
These buttons he says he obeyed in letter and spir
it, when, in fact he agrantly violated them by his
for the Oregon Territorial bill, prohibiting slavery in
that territory, without any compromise annexed and