Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1850-04-27


late number of that paper.
1t is not true, in the first place, that this paper
has ever slandered the patriotism of the South
It is the confidence of its Editors in the patriotism
of the South, on the contrary, which has induced
them to endeavor TO rouse the People of that region
who were generally dreaming of nothing of the
kind, to perception of the deep designs which
were cloaked by the newborn zeal for Southern
interests on the part of those who, until political
power had departed from their hands, were in the
closest alliance with these people in the North,
whom 1t is now represented as treason TO the
South to desire to live under the same Govern
ment with. The South is patriotic. 1t is also in
tellgen; and it is because it is so that renounces
the scheme of a Southern Confederacy, into which
a few of those who would most repudate that idea
have been nearly inveigled by arts which have
hitherto had no example in the history of this Re-
public, and, it may be earnestly hoped, will here
after have few imitaors.
The imputation of old black-cockade federal
ism to the National Intelligencer shows how little
knowledge of history-of the political history of
their own country-it requires to qualify, in their
own conceil, heated and bigoted partsans to over
turn and reconstruct Government which even the
" old backcockade federalists," when they were
Oldest and when their cockades were blacklist,
thought good enough for them to live under.
But, says the " Enquirer" the columns of the
National Intelligencer have been filled with evil
dences going to show that the South will not resist
the aggressons Of the North. To which we an
swer, that those aggressions have been resisted,
within the Constitution, by theEditors of this pa
perallied to the South by every tie which the Con-
ventionists endeavoring to sever-as zealously
and as conscientiously as by the most furious of
the presses which resort to such defamation as
this to mask their own great object of erecting
United States South upon the ruins OF the great
Temple Of Liberty built up by the Fathers of the
Republic.
Every paragraph emanatng from any village
'press, however obscure, &c., is eagerly seized
upon and paraded proof of sentiment at the
South Gladly ''sezed upon," if the "Enqui-
rer" peases, not as proof of sentiment at the
South, but as proof that the sentiment of the
Southern People was not nearly universal, as it
represented to be, that they could not continue
IN the Union with honor-that that estimation of
the sentiment, which the Nashville Convention
was TO be the means of organizing and reducing
to practice, was false one The result of the
scrutiny which we Instituted on the subject sur
passed our expectations. The opponents Of Revo-
luton, in its different forms of secession separate
organization, Southern Confederacy, &c., are, we
feel justified in saying, ten to one Of the whole
people of the South The plot was deeply laid,
it is true and arfully contrived and it might have
been successful had not the attention of the People
been aroused to sense Of their danger early
enough to explode it. ".,.
The Enquirer goes on to question us why
we have not done this, that and the other, IN re-
gard to abolition meetings and anti-savery lectures
in the Northern States, &c. &c. To which we
answer, that this paper never held any equivocal
language in regard to these matters. For the ia
natics Of the North, whose enmity to slavery III
duces them to desire dissolution OF the Union,
we should honor them too much by "parading"
in our columns their proceedings, teachings, and
preachings, as evidence Of reasonable intent.
Zhey have not that we have ever known, called a
Northern Convention, preliminary TO a Northern
Confederacy; nor have they armed or threatened to
arm to resist acts of Congress- nor in any other way
indicated hostility to the Government Of the United
States. When they do, we will let the South know
Of it, whilst we shall endeavor to convince the
Northern Conventionsts of the madness and folly
Of deliberately applying the torch to the house
their heads, which has thus far sheltered and pro-
tected them and theirs from external danger, and
from the rage Of contending elements to which they
would otherwise have been exposed.
The closing sentence of the extract from the
Enquirer, distinguished by nothing but the blind
rage of bafled confederacy, implies compli-
ment to the Editors of this paper which we are
not conscious Of having deserved. Could we be
satisfied that we have been at all instrumental in
preventing the people Of Virginia, Of any other
State, from engaging in an unconstitutional undertake
ing, which, if abortive, would cover them with ridi-
cule, and, if successful, would involve them in dis
grace and danger-could we be assured Of this, it
would be for the remainder Of our lives among the
most pleasant and proud of all our recollections.
1t is not however to the efforts OF the press, or
of the reverend clergy from their pulpis, nor yet to
the eloquence Of distinguished statesmen and pa
riots (of both parties) in the halls of Congress
however worthy of all honor and praise these be
that this Government owes now, will at any time
owe, its safety from factious combinations against
it. The strength of this Government consists in
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