Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1850-08-31
The Protest OF the Ten.

The following paragraph, taken from an
interesting article in the Picayune. is appropos
| at present, that our readers may keep up the
chain of political history at this interesting Pc.
Rod in the public affairs Of our country
The protest offered in the U. S. Senate againsa
the California State bill was signed by only ten
Senator's. 1t appears that several Senators, ia
whom it was presented for signature, decliaed
and one who had consented, afterwards changed
his mind and withdrew his name. The whole
number of Senators from slavehofding States
is thirty. The protest is signed by only aone.
third of that number, and not by all the oppo
| nents of the California bill. Several who were
warm and Incorporating in their opposition
while the bill was pending withdrew their hos
tiiity when it passed, and refused to continue
an improbable warfare. Even Mr. Clemens, OF
Alabama, and Sebastian, of Arkansas, who have
been classed with the shot heads" an ultras,
stopped short of this. The venerated names
Of King and Berrien, Senators and statesmen of
unqnestioned fidelity to their section, and firm
in their resistance to the bill, are not to be
founda appended to this manifesto. 1t is a Sec
tional manifesto, but certainly not the manifesto
Of a section. 1t proceeds. from a small minor
ity OF the South, and represents, as was ayowed
in debate, only individual opinions, with a dec
laration that it contemplates and intends no ul-
terror purpose whatever.
Ofthosew who did sign the protest, it is ex-
tremely doubtful whether more than two or
three are in accord with the sentiments of the
States they represent. South Carolina may
probably be as ultra as Messrs. Butler and Barn.
well. Possibly, but we have no belief Of the
fact, Florida may sustain Yulee and Morton.
The signs in that State are mixed, and really,
without disrespect to a sovereign State, the
public opinion in Florida is but a small part of
the public opinion of the South. Virginia We
~ certainly does not hold with Mason and
Hunter. She will be found emphatically con-
sentative on this question; and will not be found
c~ontending for the doctrines of the protest,
which made, not explicitly, but still undeniably,
a revolutionary issue on the admission of Cal
ifornia. The Four other signers are from fou,
States, in each of which the delegation is divi-
ded. Mr.. Soule speaks for Louisiana, but
Mr.. Downs differs radically from Mr.. Soule,
and Louisiana is without doubt with Mr..
Downs on this question. Mr.. Turney signs
for Tennessee, but Mr.. Bell at least offsets
Mr.. Turney's authority, and who questions
that MI. Bell is in accord with the sentiments |
Of his State! Jefferson Davis UNDERWRITERS for
Mississippi, but his colleague differs with him
and radically, and on an appeal to the
people OF the State, the result of an issue be-
them is extremely doubtful. MI. Atchi-
son, of Missouri, is the tenth and last; and the
ssue of the late election in Missouri, wherein
Of both extremes have been rebuked
md q large legislative majority returned against
he violent resolutions of the preceding legisla-
;ure, utilities at once the influence of his name
to such a document.