The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-12-02
First Meeting of Congress in the New Era.

MONDAl, DECEhbE4h =, iooo. 10 4
First Meeting of Congress In the New Era.
Congress meets again to-day under the forms
of the Constitution: but the Government has
undergone a fundamental change. 1t is no
longer Federative-it is an elective despotism.
The will of the majority, as represented in the
Senate and House Of Representatives, is abso-
lutte. A great revolution is accomplished, and
the Constitution of 1889 survives only in form.
OF course such an event could not happen
without deep sensation. Accordingly, in both
sections of the Union, whose condition is az
fected by this change, disquietude and discon-
tent pervade the public mind, exceeding any pre-
vious period of our history. t:+
In two of the Southern States, South Caro-
lima and Mississippi whose Legislatures are in
session, the revolution is recognized and de-
nounced, and measures for ayerting its conse-
quences discussed. .a
In Georgia, popular vote has just been
taken, which, although it has given large ma
jorty for submission, has, perhaps, given none
for appreciation; whilst a considerable minority
Of the people, who but one year ago were unani-
nous in their support of the Federal Govern
ment, now declare it to be their enemy.
In Florida, an election for Congress has re.
Gently been held, in which candidate who de-
nounced the late measures of Congress as wOr-
thy of resistance, was. defeated by a bare ma
jority Of few hundred votes in the whole State.
In Texas, we behold State laboring under
financial embarrassment, and threatened with the
sword of Federal power for asserting her terri
torial rights, finally induced by the fear Of power,
and the offer of an enormous sum Of money, to
surrender vast claim to territory, and to aban-
don the cause of her sister States of the South.
In Alamaba a multitude Of public meetings
have been held, to declare the hostility of the
people to the late acts of Federal legislation.
or three exceptions, the people are earnestly
canvassing the policy of non-intercourse with
the North, retaliation forpast aggressions, to pre-
vent future ones and to prepare for the contn-
gency of final separation, which the people of
the South are compelled to contemplate. The
most submissive to Federal authority of the
people of the South, talk of submitting to no
more aggression, and even specify the repeal of
the Fugitive slave law, os an event at once so
probable and so offensive, as to require them to
give protest in advance against it.
These are the results in the South of the re-
cent change in the character of the Government.
In the North, the state of affairs is equally
striking and significant. The majority flushed
with victory, and spurning the authority of a law
themselves can repeal, have successfully resisted
one Of the late measures OF Congress,-the
only one that did not operate exclusively in their
favor. And throughout almost the entire fifteen
Northern States that law is nullity.
In the progress of events which has thus far
gone-we have heard much of the sanctity Of
the law When Texas attempted to establish a
civil jurisdiction over the territory she claimed,
she was appraised that the Federal army would
be marched to oppose her, and troops actually
were sent off to Santa Fe. Yet at the very
time when mere assertion of jurisdiction was
attempted by Texas, and thus resisted without
authority of law, some hundred thousand people
of the North and of foreign nations, were tres.
passing on the public lands of California, and
were committing waste to the amount of fifty
millions of dollars annually, contrary to law, and
no attempt was made to prevent them, although
the law expressly required their removal and
punishment. On the contrary they were still
further INDUCED, in assuming sovereign powers,
in establishing government not for themselves
States and this not in the territory thus occu-
pied only, but over all the sea coast of California
and finally, they were admitted into the Union,
through breach in the Constitution, and of
right, justice and equality.
The federative system, which our fathers es-
tablished in 1887, was regarded by them with
much solicitude and apprehension. They were
afraid that it would be incompatible with the
rights of the States and the liberty of the citi-
zens. Its own champions defended it against
this objection, by insisting that it left prepon-
derance of practical power with the States, and
was more liable to fall by their power than to
sacrifice them to its own. But our Federal sys-
tenn had guarantee for its preservation in AT
rican slavery, whose political value was not then
understood, but has since on several occasions
been developed in the most effective and sau-
tary manner.
In African slavery there was vast property
devoted to agriculture, and to the production of
exports. 1t was hence from the structure and
function of the Federal system, incapable of
receiving much favor from Government, and
therefore, had no interest in charging its power.
But it was peculiarly exposed to its burthens,
and therefore, vas interested in restricting its
power. And experience has amply shown that,
but for the influence of the slaveholding States
the federative features of the General Govern
ment would have been oblite ated long ago, and
the system would have Immediately become, as
it has at length done, consolidation.
The meeting of the greatest tribe Of the white
race the Anplo- N orman- Saxon with the black