The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-25
THE SOUTHERN PRESS.
SPEECH OF
Hon LANepoN cHEvEs' offs. Carolina
T., u. so,bs,, Contention, al NashUiHe, Tennessee
=" "'' 0'""'''" November IA, 1850.

Hon T,ANGDON CHEVES' Oh D SaioiiA'
In the Southern Contention, al .SaShr'le tennessee
" ''' h1pena6er H. 1851.
w, r,os, on a melancholy occasion lin 70 de-
We me- n,esns of defending the Southern States
sSG ~. great and alarming danger, with which
IS are not threatened by foreign Toe or com
NON enemy, but by our fellow -czens' whom
fraterna feelings, whom fidelity to pIlghted faith
and whom gratitude for great Dement'S, whlch more
than all other causes, have made them great
wealthy and powerful, should have MADE our
hearty friends and our devoted allies IN all adver-
sitv Instead of which find them our most
unjust oppressors, our bitter and unappeasabe
enemies. Having deprived us, practically, OF all
power under the common government which
bound together, they are claiming at the
subverson of our dearest rights, the destruction OF
our most valuable property, and the deso'atlon OF
country.
Our inquiry will, of course, be Of Southern
rights, Southern wrongs, and Southern dangers
The general rights of the Southern States are
those Of equal independent, unabridged sovereign
ties Our independent sovereignty was asserted
from the beginning OF the government, and main
tame | triumphanty within a few years after the
adoption of the Constitution of the United States.
The old Federal doctrines of strong government
and constructive powers were put down. In the
South and West there was but voice on the
subject. Such was the devotion TO State indie
pendence, such the generous spirit of the people
of the South and West, as expressed in the
utons Of Virginia and Kentucky in 1893, that
had not the dangers then contemplated, though
not amounting to a 1.-THE Of those by which we are
now threatened been averted at the polls, it would
have been done by force. The base idea Of taking
{" the best we could get" entered INTO no mind.
The only questions were, what were our rights,
whole and unabridged rights and how they
should be maintained. The universal public scorn
would have scathed, with the power of the vivid
lightning, the bastard who would have consented
10 accept compromises, or talk of taking frag-
ment OF those rights, the best we could get.
Who would then have dared to propose submits
sion to our equals Who would then have been
mean enough to deliberate on such degrade
ton; But the noble spirit of that day seems to
to be eXtingulshed; and unless it can be reused,
YOU are destined to become {" the basest meanest
of mankind You will suffer the most con-
spicous infamy that characterized people.
You will cease to be people, and your homes and
hearths will be occupied by those who now
your slaves.
The danger, however great, which we suffer, is
nevertheless from our own creature. The States
have all sovereignty. They have only granted to
the Unlon as their agent, i'll trust, the execution
Of certain limited functions. This great and por
tentous power which now hangs over us, would be
diss pated like cloud if it only covered consttu
tional ground. 1t surprises u.s. Investigation,
TO see how little sovereignty is vested in govern
ment that now looms, as the sailors say, immense
ly large. 1t has distinct Identity 1t has not even
a name Of identity. lt-has no power under the
Constitution to acquire, by conquest or otherwise
an inch of territory, except for the seat OF Gov
eminent, and with the consent of the States, for
forts and arsenas. This was the doctrine Of the
Federallss, who are the present Free-solers,
when Louisiana was acquired and it is sound
constitutional doctrine. The appropriation Of tina,
territory, in the form Of new States, merely
by the acqulescence Of the several independent
States in whom it vested. 1t is more au-
thorized by the Constitution of the Union, than
was the Missouri Compromise, which excluded
slavery beyond the line of 81 deg 80 min, which
is wholly founded on the acquiescence of the
raj States. Time, with that acquiescence, has
& wen validity to these transactions. According
TO sound constitutional law, California is not, and
cannot be, State, without the acquescence o.
each and every State of the Union. Whether she
is a State or not, may yet be question before
'rhe great argument pending etween the Soutl
and the North shall be finally concluded.
But admitting that California is State, IN,
th't, according to the forms Of the Union, her ad
mission is valid, her introduction, under all TIT
circumstances, with the exclusion of slavery, is
tn. most prominent Of the recent wrongs that the
s. Itn suffered. 1t was tyranncal, it was fraudu
Int it was insulting. The territory was acquired
Uy your blood and treasure, to much greater eX
tent L. IN by those Of the section Of country which
has bereaved you Of all share in it. Can any ty
ranny be greater than to rob you Of it You had
as fall and clear right to it, in equity and law, rs
you have to the soil of the States which you oc-
cupy and cultivate, and the miserable pretences
ncreas Il the injury by the insults which they
constitute. 1t is said that the admission Of Cali.
forna is not inconsistent with the Constitution, by
which is meant merely that Congress has the pow
er TO admit State into the Union. The
highest violation Of the Constitution is to employ
the Of its forms to violate its spirit The great
object of such institutions the security of the
rights of the citizen. Now the admission of Cal
iforna was expressly with view to destroy your
property in the territory, and to make 1t mstru-
mental in destroying slavery within all the States
Is it not farccal, then, to say that it consti
tu'ional? Had they come into your domestic ter
ritory, and turned you out of your homes, it
would not have been clearer violation ofright, or
more unjust, though the violence might have been
greater.
The manner, too, emnently bore the impress Of
tyranny. The military power, of which all free
States are, or ought to be, in the highest degree
jealous, was the immediate instrument used for
its accomplishment. A subordinate officer, in
regular rank not exceeding, believe, the grade Of
colonel, calls upon population contemplate in
number disqualified in character, whether recent
squatters, the simple and ignorant conquered
people, to perform the great work Of statesmen,
to appropriate to their a vast territory,
equal TO the aggregate extent of many of the
largest States in the Union, embracing all our
ocean border, all ports and harbors the
great Pacific, to one foot of which, not one, nor
all of them, had n political right. Does the his
tory of Nations from the earliest records to the
present time, furnish any thing like parallel to
IT; Was ever people treated with such utter
contempt by one branch of their government,
These grave and learned legislators form con-
sutution, and demand admission into the Union,
and begin by violation the Constitution of the
1t mon in making claim to two representatives
instead of one; and contrary to an express article
OF that instrument, which required that the mode
and manner Of their election should have been
previously prescribed by the Legislature OF the State
Their haste was too great even to wait for the es
adjustment of Legislature. In better times
when your old, well-tried, and established citi
zens respectfully applied for admission into tn
Union, such eXtravagances were not dreamt OF
nor would they have been tolerated yet Congress
admitted this monstrous deformity, with none O
the probationary tests which had always befor
been required, with haste which forbade all in
vestgation, by the people of the Union, of tn
physical character of the country, or the fines
of the population to form State, or the name
in which these pretended rights had been exer
cised. The miserable juggIe OF non-interpeniio,
was played off, twas alleged that Congress ha,
no power to control the small and motley popua
ton which wantonly, presumed to do this grea