The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-05-10
MIR. RIVES ON THE SLAVERY CUES
TION

to friend upon the controversy now gong on
between the two sections of our country. Al
though not intended for publication, his posi-
ton and connection with political matters In
vest his opinions with some weight, and there
fore we suppose his epistlc has found Its way
into the public prints In this letter is the toi.
lowing paragraph, and in connection with n !. IL
and another, we give some excellent comhe"'s
thereon by the Charleston Evening News;
"Absolue non-interrention on the part OF Ion
eress should be our motto-no W'tmo' prop'so'
no LEGISLATION rhnterer By Congress, either TO
nrohibit or to introduce slavery in the new ter
ritories. Leave them to the natural and spon-
taneous course of things, aud to the people
who r,ay settle the country the unimpalTed lib
ertv. when the time arrives to establish per-
mapent Government for themselves, to exclude
or to permit slavery, as to them may seem gooa,
and as it will then be their unquestionable right
freely to decide. FIVE go beyond this, and de,
mand of Congress any action whatever In aid
of the establishment of slavery i'll any portion
!. of the territories in question, we abandon the
great principle of non Intervention, which alone
Constitutes our safety and the invincible justice
of our cause
Now, non.intervention has been all along
the amotto" of the Southern States. This has
been their principle of resistance. 1t is to keep
Congress within the line of this principle that
all their efforts have been directed. The South
has never intimated wish, much less "de-
mand on Congress, for any action y to aid IN
the establishment of slavery in any portion OF
the new territories, against which Mr.. Rives
warns them. The whole progress CT the con-
troversy shows that the position of the South
has been not to act, but to prevent action. Its
cry has been "hands off," Mr.. Rives really
addresses a warning to the South against ac'
ton, when it has all along been on the defen-
sive. But suppose non.interventlon not posi-
BILE, what then is Mr. Rives' remedys Does he
counsel submissiona Does he propose acqui-
escence in violation of this principle, in which
consists, he says, the safety of the South and
the invincible justice of its cause!' lie pro-
poses nothing. But he condemns Southern
Convention as scheme of disunon. HE al
firms that the Wilmot Proviso is ntrinslcally
opposed to the just and equal spirit of our lnst-
tutions;" yet to redress that injustice and Inc.
quality he would set the mark of disorganizers
on those who propose to meet for common
counsel in Convention; he goes further--he
hints an affinity of design between such Con-
-vention and the one having the bad odor of a
memorable example in our history" meaning
the Hartford Convention. He advises the peo-
pie Of Virginia to withhold any participation
in the proceedings of such Convention. He
thus appeals to their selfish instincts.
@She (Virginia) is geographically, as she
long was and may again be politically, the
centre of the federal system The liberal and
enlightened policy of her legislators has, of late
years, been rapid making her what nature de-
signed her to be, the thoroughfare and rendez-
yousof our great and united sisteTheod of States
Her great lines of railway, from north TO Soath.
and from east to west, already completed or III
progress under the noble and munifcent pfo-
vision recently made by the Legislature, were
iutended to be the avenues Of n great constltu.
fional intercourse, both of travel and of COM
merce, between the remotest extremes of an
empire extending from the lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific
ocean. Into what ridiculous but costly and
ruinous abortions would they dwind!c if Vir.
ginia, instead of being the thoroughfare, and,
in some sort, the eutrepot of the continent, en-
richcd by the currents of free and unshackled
intercourse passing through her bosom, is to be-
come border State, standing on the edge of
divided confederacy, and looking oat on the
contiguous territory of foreign and possibly
hostile States both to the North and the West
for hold it to be absolutely certain that neither
Maryland nor Kentucky can ever be drawn in.
to any scheme of disuuion."
Now, it very i'll becomes Mr. RWes, who
abandoned those principles Tor which the SoAth
had for so many years contendcd against an
interested majority in Congress left his
position in the ranks of free trade for the sI1iles
and patronage Of the protectionists-to offer
counsel on this subject to the South or even to
bis own State. He was brought up at the feet
of the Patriarchs of the Republican school of
Virginia. He received his earliest lessons from
the teachings of the strict constructionists-the
statesmen of 9S Mr.. Madison would have
taught him, if he did not choose TO look beyond
the constitution for remedy or relief against ag
gression under the forms of that instrument
that consultation by the aggrieved States is
not disunion, when he said, in the Federalist,
speaking of projects of usurPation by the Fed
eral government They (the State Legisla-
tures) can readily communicate with each other
in the different States and unite with their com.
mon forces for the protection of their common