Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1850-06-07

their constitutional obligations; and thus their
course can have no other effect than to fan the
flames of fanaticsm until they shall burn out
the yitals of the Constitution and the Union
The other class show equally in their speech
es, their attachment to the doctrines offree soil
Every Northern man of thisclass who has ad-
dressed the committee on this subject, except
my friend from Indiana, (Mr. Gorman,) and my
friend from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Ross) is in the
same category. Their speeches open gederal-
ly, with violent philippe against the south.
They charge us with arrogance, and some of
them are lii hot haste in volunteering their SER
vices to march troops into our midst TO force MS
to continue iu the Union, if we should choose to
secede fromt. They tell us they are in fnvor
ofnon-intervention What does this non.nter-
vention amount tol Ifit were bona tide non
interference with ourrights, it would be all
that the south could ask-all that she has n
right to demand under the constitution But this
much she does dcmnnd and depend upon it,
she will be appeascd by nothing less Some
OF the Northern non-interventonsts deny that
Congress has the power to pass the Wilmot
Proyiso; others maintain the position that Con.
gress has tn. power, but should not exercise it.
and straghtway offer the excuse to their con
stituents that it Ia not necessary to pass tt
that the Mexican laws arc in force and they ex.
cludc slavory.
This is the opinion entertained by Gen. Cass
and all the nonintervention Northern Demo.
Gratis this House. Is not this n heavy tribute
which non-intcrventioh pays to free-soill It is
tantamount to saying, we are in favor of the
end which the proviso aims to accomplish, viz:
the exclusion of the slave States from ali the
territory acquired from Mexico-we oppose its
adoption only because we regard it as unneces-
sary, and because we believe the course we pro-
pose to pursue will most effectually subserve
the end without giving offence and producing
irritation in the South. | repeat it, Sir, such
lon-interyention pays aheavy tribute to aboi-
tionsm.
Another, and perhaps, Mr. Chairman the
most pregnant Indication of the progress of
Abolition sentiment, is the remarkable cond-
tion of things that now exists throughout the
country in relation to the admission oi Cali(or,
mia into the Union. 1 venture to say that new
er in the history of this Government has any
important question been presented for the
consideration OF Congress where party lines
were all broken down as they have been on
this question. 1t is an Administration measure
--one which certainly reflects but little credit
upon its wisdom or patriotism. Parties have
but recently emerged from the heat of n presi
dental struggle, and upon all other questions,
save this alone, which have been introduced in.
10 TINS House ut the paesent session, partisan
gladiators have waged as fierce contest as in
days of yore. Irregular and Objectionable as
all the California proceedings have been, but
one solitary Representative I refer again to
my friend Mr. Ross) from the free States has
avowed himself opposed to its admission
into the Union; parties are broken down--thc
North is making it a sectional question Nor
thern Wings and Northern Democrats, Wing
Free-soilers and Democratic Frec-soilers all
rally upon this common platform, and the en-
ulation between them is great who shall be
foremost inmtroducing in this embryo State into
the Union Some of the objections to its nd.
mission into the Union will briefly notice. No
census had been taken either by the authority
of the pretended State or by the authority of
Connress We have no official information
which woeld authorize us to determine whetb
er The population was ten thousand or one hun
dred thousand. The number of votes said to
have been pollcd i'll the ratification of the con-
stltuton was about thirteen thousand This
number of voters, where the population Is nm
average one, would indicate a population of
seventy thousand souls The proportion of the
adult male population California is greater
lar than IN the States comparatively few wo-
men or children having 'emigrated thither. If
thenumber of votes pollcd be adopted as the
criterion by which the population is to be adj
Judged, it could not have exceeded, at tho date
OF the ratification of the constitution, forty
thousand; and, with these facts, Congress Is i'm
portuned to admit California with two Ropre-
sentatlves, with a less population of American
citizens than each member ON this floor repre-
sents.
Then as to its boundaries, they contain suf
ficient territory to make five large States, and
embrace sea-coast gilmore than eight hundred
miles,
The convention which framed the constitu-
tion was not called by authority of Congress,
but by u military officer, who, by virtue of the
commission he held under the Government of
che United States, exercised the functions of
civil governor. His ukase directed that the
convention should consist of thirty-seven mem
bers. After the convention was elected, it MS.
sembled, and, by avotc fcrwhich it had no an
thority, not even from the military dictator, it
increased the number of delegates from thirty
seven 20 seyenty-nine, aud allowed the addi-
tional number, without referring it to the peo-
pie, to take their seats, they being the defeated
candidates at the election. In my judgement
1t was the duty of the President to have censur-
ed the officer who thus exercised the high pe-
rogative of military dictator. If the Presi-
dent had desired 20 carry out the will of Con
gress according his pledges, that officer could
not have escaped punishment, for Congress at
its last session positively refused to allow the
people Of California to do that which the mill
tary governor, by military order or proelama-
tion, bearing striking analogies to an order, in
ofs 10 IL.