The Woodville Republican. [volume] (Woodville, Miss.) 1847-1853, 1850-06-18

{
subjects of no Government but our own 10
cal governments, and concerned no one bu
ourselves, we have been passive under thes,
assaults, until danger menaces us from eve
ry quarter. A great party has grown up
and IS increasing in the United States
which seems to think it a duty they ows tt
earth and heaven, to make war on a domes
tic Institution, upon which are staked on
property, our social organization, and oul
peace and safety. Sectional feelings have
been invoked, and those who WELD the
power of this Government have been
tempted almost, if not quite beyond Their
power OF resistance, TO wage a war against
our property, our rights, and our social sys-
TEN, which, if successfully prosecuted, must
end in our destruction. Every inducement,
the love of power, the desire to accomplish
what are, with less truth than plausibility,
called 'reioms," all are offered to them
to press upon those who are represented.
and, in fact, seem to be an easy prey to the
spoiler. Our equality under the constitution
is in effect denied, our social institutions are
derlded and contemned, and ourselves treat
ed with contumely and scorn through all
the avenues which have as yet been opened
to the public opinion of the world. That
these assaults should have had their effect is
not surprising, when we remember that as
| yet we have offered no organized resistance
to them, and opposed but little, except the
isolated efforts Of members of Congress who
have occasionally raised their voices against
what they believed to be wrongs and inus-
tice.
1t is time that we should meet and MAIN
tain an issue in which we find ourselves in
volved by those who make war upon us in
regard to every interest that is peculiar to
us, and which is not enjoyed in common
with them, however guaranteed by solemn
compact, and no matter how vitalIy imvoly-
ing our prosperity, happiness and safety
1t is time that we should take MEASURES to
defend ourselves against assaults, which
can end in nothing short of our destruction,
If we oppose no resistance to them. Owing
to accidental circumstances, and want of
knowledge of the true condition of things in
the Southern States, the larger portion of
the press and of the political literature of
the world has been directed against us.
The moral power of public opinion carries
political strength along with it, and if
against us, we must wrestle with it or fall
If, as we firmly believe, Truth is with us,
there is nothing to discourage lis in such an
effort.
The eventual strength of an opinion is to
be measured not by the number who may
chance to entertain it, but by the truth
which sustains it; we bclive, nay, we know
truth is with us, and therefore we should not
shrink from the contest We have too
much staked upon it to shrink or to tremble
"a property interest, in all its forms, of in
calculabIe amount and value the social or
ganizatlon, the equality, the liberty, nay,
the existence of fourteen or fifteen States of
the Confederacy-all rest upon the result of
the struggle in which we are engaged. We
must maintain the equality of our political
position in the Union. We must maintain
the dignity and responsibility of our social
position before the world and we must
maintain and secure our liberty and rights,
so far as our united efforts can protect them ::
and if possible, we must effect all this with
in the pale of the Union, and by means
known to the constitution. The Union of
the South upon these vital interests is ne.
cessary, not only for the sake of the South,
but perhaps for the sake of the Union. We
have great interests exposed to the assaults
not only of the world at large, but of those
who, constituting the majority, WELD the
power of our own confederated States. We
must defend those interests by all legitimate
means, or else perish either in, or without,
the effort. To make a successful defence,
we must unite with each other upon the
one vital question, and make the most of
our political strength. We must do more
we must 90 beyond our entrenchments,
and meet even the more distant and indirect
but by no means harmless assaults, which
are directed against us. We, too, can ap-
peal to public opinion. Our assailants act
upon theory--to their theory we can oppose
experience. They reason upon an imagi-
nary state of things-to this we may oppose
truth and actual knowledge To do this
however, we too must open up avenues to
the public mind we, too, must have an or
gan through which we can appeal to the
world, and commune with each other. The
want of such an organ heretofore, has been,
perhaps, one of the leading causes of our
present condition.
There is no paper at the seat of Govern
ment through which we can be heard fairly
and truly by the country. There is paper
here which makes the abolition of slavery
its main and paramount end There are
other papers here which make the mainten-
ance of political parties their supreme and
controlling object, but none which consider
the preservation Of sixteen hundred millions
of property, the equality and liberty Of four
teen or fifteen States, the protection of the
white man against African equality, as par.
amount over or even equal to the mainten-
ance of some political organization which is
to secure a President; and who is an object
of interest, not because he will certainly
rule or perhaps ruin the South, but chiefly