The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-07-12
Washington, Friday, July ID, 1850.

which cannot fail to embarrass In every at
tempt to administer fairly upon our newly ac-
guired estate.
Sir, j feel as deeply interested in the prosperi-
~ and welfare of our own hardy adventures IN
California, as any member on this floor. II is
cheering to look upon this new field of enterprise,
and to see men born to poverty, or reduced by
misfortune to adversely, 1ocking thither, building
up their fallen fortunes. They deserve our care
and protection. They know that settlers upon
the territory OF the United States have ever been
cherished with maternal affection by this Govern
ment, and when organized into territories, gov
erned and protected by this Government, they
have ever been its pampered pets. Let us take
/ them now under our government and protection,
and my life upon it, they will gratefully thank
| for it. And il could command the aid of my
immediate neighbors on this floor, we could soon
bring forth bill, that could organize army of
miners and minute men in California, alternately
working the mines and performing military duty,
that would give efficiency to law, and a sure
guarantee for the security of the vast interets
j hanging upon the destinies of our Pacific pos
sessions.
/ MIR. Chairman, 1t was not my intention, when
first determined to address the House, to assail
any member who has engaged in this debate, nor
is 1t my intention now but the gentleman from
North Carolina Mr.. Stanlyl has thought proper
to redicule the idea of resisting the Wilmot Pro-
viso, and TO utter sentiment which CRATES
harshly upon southern ears, and which, ven
ture to say, is not the sentiment of the southern
| people j am sure it is not the sentiment of the
people whom l represent, Raising his voice to
its highest pitch, he proclaimed that " North Car
DINA goes for the Union, Wilmot Proviso or no
Wilmot Proviso ~ and for this expression he
was loudly applauded by the galleries, and many
northern members. Now, sir, never have been
a dsunionist; must frankly say, that l have
never yet broughtmy mind to the conclusion, that
disunion was our only means of protecting south
| rIoht north
sir, dare not utter such sentiment as that which
| fell from the lips of the gentleman from North
Carolina. The southern people know that they
are wronged, that their rights are invaded, and
that not only oppression, but degradation, will re-
suit from submission to abolitionism and free
soilism. They will devise some plan Of defence
and selfprotection, and be that plan what it may,
| venture to say that all coessions of individual
opinions will be buried in the unfinching deter
nlnation of all true hearted southern men to de-
fend southern rights, at all hazards, and to the
last extremity to go for the South, and with the
South-in the Union, or out Of the Union. This,
SIR apprehend, is much fairer expression of
southern sentiment than that uttered by the gem
teman from North Carolina, / understood him
to say, that resistance meant nor more nor less
than bloodshed and civil war; Sir, are the Abo-
4 Itionsts and Free Sellers now waging civil war;
We all know what they have already accomplish
ed, by organization in primary meetings, conven-
| tons, great and small, and through the instru-
mentality Of State governments. Are the peo-
pie of the South spirtlessi Are their State
| governments powerlessi Have we no means OF
repelling wrong, by retaliation, nor by any means
short Of the sword Sir, apprehend we have
conclusive proofs before our eyes, that different
sections of this Union, when in hostile array, have
potent means ofcrippling and annoying each other
| without disunion civil war. speak, SIR IN nc
spirit of bravado, but in the language of sober
truth, when proclaim, that the southern peopl,
are earnestly .meditating some mode and measure
of redress. Whether they will seek defence ant
redress through the fundamentally of Southern
Convention, or in another mode, it is not my pro
vince, but the province of my people, to decide
but cannot, in justice to myself, or my constItu
ents refrain from expressing my indignant feelings
toward those who denounce Il Southern Coven
ton as reasonable, when they themselves are bu
instruments, executing the DEGREES Of NORTH
ER.N CONVENTIONS, great and small, under
various names and organizations-dif as they
nav in other respects--a agreeing in systemati,
warfare against southern institutions. What su
? perIative arrogance! Might | not with propriety
retort in the courtly language Of gentleman who
addressed the House the other day, on the othe
side, 81" What cool impudence," that they wht
are the creatures of Northern Conventions, which
have moulded northern legislatures to their will
and well nigh obtained the mastery over this Gov
ernment, should brand southern men traitors
for meeting in convention to deliberate upon tn,
means of self-protection g
Sir, the people Of the South begin to feel the de
grafton Of continuing to lavish their treasure upon
communities who daily warning against Their
dearest rights. II requires but very superficial
| glance at the commercial and manufacturing sta
tistics Of the country, TO perceive how tits, and
| to what extant Southern slave labor and Southern
capital are tributary to Northern prosperity. And
our Northern assailans may rely upon it, that the
South will find means to arrest the current which
1 watts Southern productions into Northern pock-
cts, unless they let us alone, and leave to the
peaceabe enjoyment of our equal rights in the
Union That, SIR, is all that we ask. We would
\ scorn to ask at the ands of this government,
any undue advantages over our brethren in other
| sections of the Union. And is it not passing
strange, that, contending for this, and no more,
1 we are treated here at though were the wrong
doersi And when we merely utter COM
plants, in facts that undenied and undeniabe,
| we encounter taunts and sneers from those who
profess to be our friends. Sir, i leave those who
have thus treated us to their own reflections.
| Unless their minds have been so poisoned by Sec
| tonal prejudice that they will not look the truth
fairly in the face, and will not mete to even
handed justice, they will take back their hard
words, and join us IN so administering upon our
| Mexican possessions, to rebuke Executive in
| tervention and usurpation, and make all needful
rules and regulations respecting those possessions
| guided by the Constitution--conformably TO
| the past usages Of the Government, and with an
eye to the rights of every section of the Union.
llOSe now llNtSleu pow 81 shcSc
not do this, shall still have lingering hope that
there are Northern, and especially Northwestern,
patriots in retirement, who will spring forward
advocates of the Constitution as it is written,
and the equal rights Of the States and people.
This is not the first time that the advocates of
strict construction and equal rights stood in
poweress minority in Congress- In 1898, Vir-
ginia and Kentucky stood alone in opposition
to Congressional and Executive aggression. ...
Their opposition and their doctrines were de-
nounced as reasonable and revolutionary; and
yet, sir, the promulg CATION of those doctrines
among The people produced reaction, which, in
1900, brought Jefferson into the presidency, revo-
lutionized Congress, and stamped those doctrines,
though branded as reasonable, with the peoples
sanction. Sir, we must come back to those doc
trines, and take the Constitution as strictly and
honestly construed, as the rule and guide Of our
conduct, else we shall soon cease to enjoy the
blessings Of civil liberty and popular rights. The
ship of State must be brought back to the true
republican tack. This Government must confne
its action strictly to its constitutional limitations.
1t is by, overlapping them, that we have been
brought to the present fearful crisis Local inter
4 4 La IL.