The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-08-12
washington, Monday, August II, 1850.

not only approves this conduct, but gives us TO
understand that he means to maiutainit by force
Of arms. The President knows full well that Il
the rebels against Texas throw off her authority
and estabshan anti-slavcry constitution, n free
. soil majority here stand ready to admit her into
the Union as State. II is said that the Prcsi-
dent never threatened to use military power UNI
1 til Texas had first threatened. We all know,
1 MIR. Chairman, on what state of facts the mover
4 ments of Texas have been based. We all know
that Texas acqniesced in your sending military
establishment to Santa Fc, under an assurance
that it was not to be uged against her ellim, or
to her prejudice; and We all know that this ssme
military power in the hands of the President
was used to subvert the authority and trample
under foot the rights of Texas. Thus IL was, sir
4 when Texas saw herself by means like these
driven from her rghtful possession, that she first
| spoke of force. But even then, sir, she asked
respectfully what was meant by all these pro-
ceedings, and whether the President approved
them; and we have already seen in what spirit
that civil inquiry was responded to. Texaswould
be unfathful to her past history if she feared to
assert her rights or filtcred in maintaining them
/ against whatever odds.
I In what attitude, Mr.. Chairman, does the
/ northern Democracy present itself on the ques-
! ton of the Texas boundary? 1t is within your
recollection, that in the memorable political con-
test of 1874, Texas was inscribed on all our
banners; and from the loud hnzzas that went
up continually, thought it was inscribed on all
4 our hearts. MIR. Van Buren, was discarded, and
Mr. Clay crippled in the affections of his friends
on account of their mutual hostility to the pro-
i ject Of annexation Mr. Polk was nominated
and elected on tho issue. The measure was
consummated in compliance with the peoples
4 mandate. War ensued, and the people turned
out en- maSSe to prosecute it to successful ter
mination. The first blood was shed between
\ the Nueces and the Rio Grande; and the De-
mocracy voted on their oaths that it was Ameri-
can blood shed on American soil. You de-
j Tended the President through the whole of the
war, always maintaining that the Texas we ac-
4 CURED, was Texas according to the Constitution
\ of 1885, Texas as she presented herself, and as
she was accepted under the resolution of an
nexation Now, where are you? Will you
vote to-day as yon voted in 1874? Will you
vote to-day as you continued to vote through
the whole of the Mexican war! And if not,
why? can understand a Northern Wing who
votes against the claim of Texas. He belongs
4 to party who was opposed to annexation; OPP
posed to the war; opposed to the acquisition Of
additional territory; opposed to everything that
! you and were for. But how you can oppose
this claim, recognized as it has been in every
J form, supported as it has been by you and me
through all its various forms and phases, / must
J confess myself at fault to understand.
f There is one other matter to which must
: advert. It's become quite too common Of late,
for certain political censors, in and out of Con-
t gress, to speak Of Southern men who demand
justice for the South, as ultras and if we per-
sist in our demands, and can either be bribed or
/ brow beaten into acquiescence with northern
!, All ia Tn
winds as dsunionists and traitors. It's not, sir,
$ because fear the effects Of charges like these
; on the minds of my constituents that / now
speak. They have known me for many long
4 years have served them here and elsewhere !;
and il there is any earthly power to persuade
them that am disunionist or traitor to my
] country, would scorn to receive office at their
hands allude to charges like this, that may
hold them up to public scorn and Reproduction.
The miserable reptiles who sting the South
while they nestle in her bosom, are the authors
of these base caumnes. Sooner or later they
Y will be spurned as the verest spaniels who ever
|, crouched at the footstool of power / fancy,
II sir that there is perfect harmony of sentiment
/ between my constituents and myself on the
, subjects which now divide the North and the
South. We are Southerners and go for the
, Constitution, and the Union subordinate to the
Constitution. Give us the Constitution MS it
was administered from the day of its formation to
4 1919, and we are satisfied Up TO thai time
Congress never assumed to interfere with the
relation ofmasterand SERVANT. It extended over
all, and gave to all equal protection give it to
us to-day in the same spirit, and we are satisfied.
Less than this we will not accept. You ask us
to love the Constitution, to revere the Union,
and to honor the glorious banner of the stars and
stripes.
i Excuse me, gentemen but I must say to
4 you, in all candor, that the day has gone BY
when and my people can cherish a supersti
tions reverence for mere names. Give us
constitution strong enough TO shield us all in
the same degree, and we will love it. Give us
union capacious enough to receive us oil as
4 equals, and we will revere it, Give us banner
that is broad enough to cover US as nation of
brothers, and we will honor it. But if you offer
us broken constitutior,-one that can only
shield Nlrthern people and Northern property
we viii spurn IT, If you offer us a union so
contracted that only half the States can stand
4 up rs equals, we will reject it; ard if you offer
j us banner that covers your people and your
/ property, and leaves ours to the pers of piracy
and plumber, we will tramplc it under our feet
i We came into this Union as equals, and we will
/ remain in it as equals. We demand equal laws
and equal justice. We demand the protection
of the Constitution for ourselves, our lives, and
our property. Wherever sc may be, we de-
mand that the national flag, wherever it may
waive, on land or on the seas, shall give shelter
and security to our property and ourselves
/ These are our demands: will you comply with
them? You have the power to grant or refuse
them. Grant them, and our feelings of harmony
and brotherhood will be restored These evil |
dences of decay that we witness all around us
VII vanish, and strong, healthy, vigorous, natl
cnal prosperity will spring up. shall not pre-
dict the consequences Of your refusal; they are !
so plain that "a wayfaring man though fool"
cannot mistake them. They exhibit themselves |
in a thousand different forms,--in the divisions
of our churches in the arrangement of family
ties, in jealousies between the North and the |
South, in the gradual but certain withdrawal of
all confidence and fellowship between the people !
Of the two great sections, Where is the patriot