Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1850-06-28
ADDRESS OF THE SOUTHERN CON
VENTION.

VENTION
To the people of Maryland Virginia North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Florida,
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Texas, Missouri and Arkansas:
FELLOW CITIZENS:
In obedience to the commands of those we
represent, we have assembled together to con
fer with each other concerning your relations
with the General Government md the nom
slaveholding States ofthe Union, on the sub
jiect of the institution of slavery. We deem it
proper to lay before you rs brify ms the sub
! ject will permit, the result of our deliberations
! and councils.
In order that your condition may be under
Stood and the conclusion at which we have
arrived justlynppreciated, it is necessary brief
ly to refer to few past transactions.
1t isnow sixteen years since the institution
4 of slavery in the south began to be agitated in
Congress and assailed by our sister States
Up to that time, the people of the Northern
States seemed to have respected the rights re-
served to the southern States by the Constitu-
tion, and have acted under the conviction that
the subject of slavery beyond the legislation
ofCongress, all agtations with respect to it on
the part of Congress- was equally forbidden
by the Constitution. but Mt this time n por-
ton of the people ofthe North began to assal,
in Congress, the institution of slavery and to
accomplish their object of dragging it into the
vortex of ofcongressional agitation they claimed
the right of petitioning Congress upon all sub
.!jects whatsoever Asa petitionis only the
to petition a Legislative body, must be limited
by ITS powers of legis, alton. No one can have
a right to ask of anotherto do that whichhe
hasn no moral or legalright todo Nor can
any tribunal have the power to receive and
consider any matter beyond its jurisdiction.
The claim therefore to present petitions to
Congress on the subject of slavery, was consid.
'ered, by thesouthern Representatives general
ny, as an attempt indirectlyto assume jursdic-
ton over che subject itsolf in all parts of the
Union They object, without disguise, was the
overthrow of slavery in the States; butour as
sailants framed the petitions presented chiefly
'agai st slavery in the District of Columbia and
our territories, and against what they call the
internal slave trade-that lis, the transmission
of slaves from one southern State to another
Conscious fthe fatal tendency Of the agitation
of ofslavery in Congress, to destroy the peace
and stability of the Union, an cffortwas made,
Representatives, which provided, that all pc
titions on the subject of slavery, should be
either considered, printed or referred. This
rule was assailed by the Noltbern States, as
violating clauscof the Constitution which pro-
hibits Congress from passing laws to prevent
the people from peaceably assembling and
petitioning for aredress of grievances. In De-
cember, 1874, this rule fell before the almost
unanimous voice of the North; and thus the uil-
limited power of introducing and considering
the subject of slavery in Congress- was asserted.
Inthe mean time, thecourse the Northern
people showed clearly, that the the agitation
of slavery in Congress was only one of the
they relied on to overthrow this institution
throughout the Union. Newspapers were set
UP amongst them, and lecturers were hired
tog abroad to excite them agaiest slavery in
tee southern States. Organizations wore
formed to carry off slaves from the South, and
to protect them by violence from recapture
Although the Constitution requires that all flu
gitive slaves like fug' res from justice, should
/ be rendered up by tho States to which they
may have fled, the Legislature of almost ev-
cry Northern Slate, fs;tt!icss % :,is treaty sip
,ulation between the States, pas1cd laws de-
signed and calculated entirely to defeat this
provision oftho Constitution, without which
the Union would have never existed, and by
these laws virtually nullifed the act of 1894,
passed by Congress to aid its enforcement.
Not content with the agitation ofsavery in po-
litcal circles, the Northern people forced it al
so into the religious associations extending
over the Union, and pyoduceda separation of
the Methodist and Baptist churches. The re-
. suit of all these various methods ofessailng
slavery in the southern States. was. that it be-
caniet the grand topic of interest and discussion
jim Congress and out of Congress, and one of
the most important e.tmcntso os politics in the
Union. Thus AN institution, belonging to the
southern States Exclusively, was wrested from
their exclusive control; and instead of that pro-
g lection which is the great object ofall goysrn-
&incpts, and which the Constitution ofthe United
States guarantees TO all the States and their
institutions, the Northern States, and Congfess
#under their control, combined together to gs-
sail and destroy slavery in the south. The
)igbts and arrest this course of things. The
Mexican war,brok out, s.Sa instead ot that pat