The southern press., 1850-08-31

been superseded by the Constitution Of the
United States, and that slavery cannot be
inhibited from going there Yet, while these
opposite and clashing interpretations are
given to the same features OF the same sec
ton Of the same bill, by sown friends, we
are urged alike by both senators to give it
our support, and without reference at all to
the obscurities which mask its meaning from
its own champions Under whose banner
shall we confront the Propiso SITS Under
which construction shall we wage the war !?
Is it for Southern rights or Southern ,orongs :
"Great, sir, as is my respect for the pro-
found learning and my admiration for the
genus Of the honorable senator from Ken
lucky, cam It concur with him IN his con-
clusions upon this point, and shall range
myself rather under the banner Of the distn-
guished senator from Georgia, Mr.. BER
RIEN,) whose adverse positions, il they have
ever been met, have never, in my judgment,
been overthrown."
Again:
If the political law of the Mexican Constitu-
the treaty Of peace it was not the only political
law Of Mexico which was thus brought back to
life and into function Of that measure. Kindred
laws derived from kindred authority must have
equal force in the same localities and jurisdc-
tons; and propose now to bring to the notice of
the Senate some other political laws of Mexico,
in active force and in full operation in these terri
tories when the war broke out, which, l must
think, some Of the honorable senator's who hear
me would be most reluctant to admit had survived
both our hostile occupancy and our possession
under the treaty. Take an instance: AT the
opening Of the war, the Mexican tariff law abso-
lutely prohibited, under heavy penalties, the i'm
portaton of upwards of sixty articles of our
home produce-sugar, rice, cotton, -four, &C.
Now, during the war, the Executive of the Uni
ted States caused to be established and enforced in
the several sea-ports in Mexico that were in our
possession a tariff, laying and collecting mod
crate revenue duty upon those very articles; and
this tariff, believe, was continued in practical
force in California long after the peace, and up to
the time the United States revenue laws weH ex-
tended to her and to the other ceded territories.
do not enter at all upont the question whether the
executive tariff and its enforcement in California
after the treaty of peace, had or had not the sane
ton of the Constitution; but wish to take the
judgement of the Senate upon the point whether,
IN legal contemplation, it was abrogated or not by
the revival of the Merican tariff, with all its PEN
aties and confscations under the treaty Of cesson
If it was so revived, then all these penalties and
confscations should have Injured to the Treasury
of the United States; and if they did, who can
estimate the millions in value of the ships and
casgoes forfeited If it was not so revived, it
was not revived at all; and the political provision
prohibiting slavery, most assuredly encountered
a like fate.
"Sr, if the Mexican laws continue in force,
there are other consequences equally important
and far more obnoxious, to be realized. Those
n.
eYs. While they are in force, an American could
not be an alcalde, or magistrate, or have q right
to vote; be an officer of the militia, hold or ex-
ercise any Office or franchise whatever. He might
be compelled to give evidence against himself in
criminal examinations, or be disalowed a trial by
jury, even in capital case! In religious matters;
toos Americans migrating they would find them
selves scarcely less aggrieved under their laws
Proestants could not be permitted to Protes-
tant churches or to attent Protestant worship, nor
when dead be allowed the rits Of Christian sepul-
ture Upon the numerous Catholic religious fes-
tivas and feast days, Protestants would be re-
quired to close their stores, and to desst from all
business, &C. If great object of the freesoiers
be, as they sometimes say, to crafty our Merican
fellow citizens by securing them in their just rights
and privileges, they may rest assured that these
felow-citizens will consider either far less inter-
fered with by the intryduction among them of M.
can siapss than by the coming thither Of tce-soii
Professionals; and if the Federal Constitution is to
be regarded as the charter and measure of our
rights, there is quite as much authority for ex-
cluding from the ceded Territories free-soiers,
with their Professionalism, as Southerners with
slaves; that Is to say, no authority at all.
But, sir, those who maintain that the Mexican
laws prohibiting African slavery still obtain in
these Territories will have to encounter another
startling consequence, and must rid themselves of
It as best they may; and that consequence is that
the same laws which prohibit african slavery
there, tolerate .Merican slavery; and so the free
soilers will have to make their choice between
black slavery and ,phite slavery! The victims of
Mexican peonage the slapes Of debt and the do
prospect Of the peores quite dreary and change
less, as those Of the Africans in any Of the slave
States. 4t
Have honorable senator's contemplated all the
revolving consequences which flow from the doc
trine that the Mexican laws prohibiting African
slavery are in force in these territories! Ifthey
be, by the very same implication, so are the laws
regulating Mexican peonage; and honorable SEN
ators must at once see it might be possible, as il
would certainly be awful, that while an african
wouM be instantly emancipated upon going there,
and could not be redeemed to slavery, an .aneri-
can citizen might through want and misfortune,
become the peon of so vile thing as .Merican
Lepero! The highest success, therefore, that our
opponents can promise themselves in this memoir
able struggle is, to shield the African race from an
enslavement and doom from which they neither
care strive to shield their ocn. While African
slavery can receive no accession, except from de-
scent, they insist upon the existence and the as;
tendency of foreign code of laws, which pre-
sents fresh and inexhaustibe sources Of supply in
our own race, and makes poverty and want a
lawful means and Justification for enslaving free
born, tchite men!'
Nothing need be added to this, in fnrtherance
Of its purpose, to demonstrate the unsoundness
and absurdity of the position it controverts.
In regard to this provision Of the bill, then,
claim that my allegation has been made good
that it is, in respect, better for the South than
the Wimot Prorisoindeed, that it is in purpose and
effect, identical with the Propiso. You, then, while
you retain the principles and opinions to which
we have, long since, pledged common faith and
devotion, can never accept such pro-
vision in satisfaction of your rights, or in safety to
your interests; and as your Representatives faith
ful to the trust reposed in never sanction il,
or vote for it,
We come, now, to the last provision Of the bill,
which propose to consider this is
g. To establish the boundary line bet,reen Teras as