The North-Carolina standard., 1850-10-16

rescued and Federal usurpation rebuked, when Vii
ginia. in 1893 and l799 put forth her celebrated re,
olutions, and invited the cooperation of her siste
States. Nothing mas had more salutary and lastin
effect in perpetuating the Union than the frmnes
which she displayed in that great struggle for tn
rights of the States and the true principles of const
tutiona liberty. Had she and other States that side
with her, been induced, by way Of compromise
(snce become 80 frequent in sectional controversial
waged against the institutions of the South, sur
render the important principleafor which she conen
ded, our condition might have been far different, il
indeed, the Union would have been preserved to th
present time. Sir, We have tried compromises ant
concessions until the term compromise has almost be
come synonymous with the surrender of Southern
rights, and reminds me of what have heard said o
practice which grew up under the arbitration law
one of the New England States, q believe Connec
ticut) that compromise, by the division of property
among the claimants, became SO frequent, that it was
no uncommon thing for one who took liking to hi:
neighbor's farm 10 prefer claim to it, submit to arb
tration, and thus by compromise obtain one half o.
what he claimed, but to which he had not the leas
particle of right. 1t does really appear to me thai
this has been somewhat the character and result oil
those controversies between the North and South in
which Southern rights have been involved.
Pretensions have been urged utterly at variance
with the principles and spirit Of the Constitution as
well the principles of JUSTICE and for the sake Of
peace and the Union, the South has consented to
render portion of her just rights. until that fate
seems to be fast overtakng her which awaits the ab
orgines OF the country. I think in all conscience
the South has gone far enough in her concessions
and that 1t is time to take firm and united stand in
defence of what has been left her. Concession seems
to be but food upon which the spirit of
stimulated by Northern fnaticism, feeds and grows
stronger and it will cease in its exacons, as
long disposition exists the part OF the South
~. oL,IL
swept from the country. After the outposts shall
have been carried by excluding the slaveholdng pop
ulation from the Territories, they will assa the cita
del, and commence their attacks upon the rights of
slave property in all forts and arsenals within the
States well the District of Columbia and upon
the slave trade between the States. And soon as
the requisite number of free States shall be formed,
to which the antislavery policy of the North is rap
idly tending, amendment Of the Constitution will
follow, giving to the General Government unlimited
control the institution within the States nvolv
ing say fifteen hundred millions of slave property.
Believing such to be the tendency of things, sub
mited some time ago a resolution for an amendment
of the Constitution, the object Of which was to pre-
vent hereafter any amendment tending TO abolish or
affect slavery within the States, without the concur
renee of the States in which the institution may ex-
ist; and could it be adopted by the requisite vote of
the branches Of Congress, and receive the sane
tion of three-fourths OF the State Legislatures, it
more 10 IeIIeVe the sSOutn appenenSlOnS
beginning 10 be felt, and to aay anti-savery agita
tion at the North than any other measure and, in
with the non-intervention principle ap-
piled to the Territories, as proposed in my amend.
ment constitute the best basis upon which the slave
question could be settled, and place the Union up
foundation far more secure than that upon which
It at present rests.
The resolution does not embrace all tia, think
should be matter of constitutional arrangement be-
tween the slave and ant-slave States. l should have
preferred 10 guard against amendments changing the
existing provisions respecting representation and tax
alton, and the restoration of fugitive slaves. But. TO
Try the sense of ant-slavery brethren, l deemed
i was offered, that it might be liable to little OBJ
ection as possible. Objection being made, however,
md itnot being in order to suspend the rules it was
not introduced. l should myself prefer such an ad-
ustment the proposed Missouri compromise line.
The little regard which has been paid by our North
,rn friends to the principles of compromise hereto
fore made for the adjustment of sectional differences,
causes me to place no very implicit confidence in
heir stability, when subsequent Congresses are at
liberty to disregard them or not. as feeling and inter-
est may dictate. AS soon as the tariff compromise
was about to enure to the benefit of the South, we
know that pretexts were made for setting 1t aside,
and confenng bounties upon the manufacturers of the
North and burdens upon the agrcultursts of
The South. And in the annexation of Texas although
the Missouri compromise was firmly insisted upon
where its application enured to the benefit of the
North in relation to the territory acquired from Mex
leo, its principles have been wholly repudated, and
that too, after Southern gentlemen, in the Observance
Of that compromise. voted for the establishment OF
Territorial Government for Oregon, with the ordi-
nance of 1857 in it. Such conduct the part of
our Northern brethren, connected with view Of the
heretofore made, is not calculated to
beget disposition Tor further concession on the part
Of the South.
When we achieved our independence, the area of
the original States was 662, 1877 square miles. Of
that including Maine part of Massachusetts, there
were within the original States, which soon after
abolished slavery, and are non-slaveholding, only
l64, ,O8l square miles; and within the original States
yet slaveholding. including Kentucky and the terri
tory northwest of the Ohid river, within the limits of
Virginia, Tennessee, within North Carolina, and
Mississippi and Alabama within the limits of Geor
gia, 69s,ll6 square miles, BY the liberalitv of Vir-
ginia, all her territory northwest of the Ohio was
ceded to the Federal Government for the purpose of
creating free States, now comprehended within the
limits Of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wis
consin, containing, with that portion of Minnesota
Territory lying east of the Mississippi.
miles, making the present area Of free territory with
in the limits of the original States, 476676 square
miles, and the area of slave territory only 3S5,5ll
square miles. We acquired by our purchase
of Louisiana from France, exclusive of Texas, an
estimated area of /, ,l38, ,lO6 square miles. When
Missouri formed out OF that territory applied TOR ad'
mission into the Union, Northern brethren, to-
wards whom Virginia had been so generous, had
the illiberay to deny her application, but upon con-
dition that she would abolish slavery within her
limits. This she refused to do, and the matter was
subsequent compromised, by giving up to the non
slavehodng portion of the Coufederacy. all of the
territory north Of 36 deg. 80 min. By that arrange
ment, most unfortunate for the South, and believe,
the main source of existing difficulties, there is but
little prospect that the South will get any more OF that
extensive and valuable territory. than what is en-.
braced within the limits of Louisiana, Missouri and
Arkansas, being 10000 square miles; leaving 992,-