The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-15
WINCHESTER, Oct. %, 1850.
To Col. BRAxToN D,vEMPoRr, the Hon. Isaac
K. DouGLAss, and others, Jefferson county, Va:

To Col. BRAxroS DAVENPORT, the Hon. Isaac
K. DOUGLASS, and others, Jefferson county, Va:
GENTLEMEN: | have had the honor to receive
your letter of the 18th instant, signed by your
selves and many other of my friends and fellow
citizens Of Jefferson county, expressive OF your
kind appreciation of the terms OF my late address
to the public meeting Of the cilize of Jefferson,
held on the 18Th instant, and ohligingly rendering
me your thanks for the 8! faiihfuness and dstin-
gushed ability with which, " Gas you kindly ex-
press it, " in the Senate of the United States,
you CD had maintained the rights of our honored
Commonwealth, and Of the Whole South, and
for nv " fidelity to the instructions of the State.
Such testimonial, gentlemen, from the intelli-
gence and patriotism Of Jefferson county, would
be n full reward for any dut es public servant
couli! discharge; but, emanatlng from those with
many Of whom have been associated from my
carrier years IA neghbors and friends; It comes to
me under associations that stamp peculiar value
That have done my duty in every vote h We
given, and every opinion have declared, on each
of the series of measures which passed at the late
session Of Congress, called by their advocates
measures of Compromise, " have never enter
tanned doubt. Nor could doubt, if measured
such duty alone by the position taken in the reso-
Iurions Of our General Assembly, which stands as
The Immediate constituent body of the senators of
Virginia. Ii was the duty of the senator's, IN all
things, TO conform TO The chart of those instruc-
tons. Yet am free to declare that. with my
whole heart and soul guided by the best intelll-
gence and Judgment could command on the ques-
tons involved, viewed the position taken by
those resolutions, three times affirmed rs they
were, by successive legislatures, as thoss only
which could be taken, consistently with the honor
aud dignity Of orr Suite, and the safety and well
fare Of her people.
They were intended to call back our Federal
counses those limitations and restraints Of con-
sttutiona law, which kternly provided to
protect the rights of a minority against the usur-
pations of power. Our Government, wisely as il
has been ordained, could offer nothing in restraint
Of such usurpaton, stronger than mere parch-
ment authority, trusting, as those who framed II
could only do, to the irmness and consistency Of
those who came after them, to see that such au-
thoriiy was respected
A minority can have no safety but in a strict
adherence to the letter and spirit Of the compact
which associates them with a majority They
are the true friends OF the " Union" who insist
on such constructions; and those its worst foes,
who, to gain temporary ascendancy, would bend
the Constitution 10 suit the occasions Of power.
In the determination so strongly evinced, both
by the last ongress and in the late session of the
present, to destroy the constitutional equality Of
the States by direct and ruinious interference
with Institutions peculiar to the South, our noble
and vencrated Commonwealth saw at once. that
crisis was at hand. Whilst the cloud was gath
ering, thrice had che striven to arrest it, by de-
claring the consequences that must ensue if those
Her bugle note was sounded 10 rally "the
whole South for the maintenance OF the Constitu-
ton, and The preservation Of the Union, if it could
(csn( be preserved, and for their own preserva-
ton If it could not Cannot" Unfortunately, her
voice was not needed. Measures have been ulti-
tely adopted, directly affecting the integrity of
those institutions, upon the sole care of which, by
the States where they arc found, necessarily de-
ponds their safety and welfare. il rests with them
TO determine what remains on their part TO re
done 10 arr st the progress of the evil or 10 re-
dress the wrongs that have been inflicted
These questions, in her own good trwia, Virginia
will determine for herself As one Of her honored
representatives, aud most devoted sons, shall oC
cupy whatever position her wisdom may assign
to me confident that whatever trials may follow,
she viii make good and abide by the emphatic de-
cluration Of her General Assembly, pronounced in
the present year, that "her loyalty to the Union
is no matter Of empty profession. 1t is stamped
upon every page Of her history. No State has
done as much to form the Unor--none is pre-
pared To- do more to perpetuate 1t IA the spri, In
which il was formed, and in which alone it cnn be
preserved, But, loyal M she is, and always as
been, II were fatal error to suppose that Virginia
will ever consent that that Union, 10 which she
has looked as a source ef happiness and honor,
shall be converted INTO an instrument CT degrade
ton and oppression" -. .
In the confident belief that the final determination
of our honored State, so fnrcbly EXPRESSED, Will
find patriotic response in her many mounians
and wales, should the day OF trial come, | sub
scribe, gentlemen, with great respect,
Your friend and felIow-oitisen, .
J, NJ. MASON