The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-19
Hon. PIERRE SoULE.


We know nothing of Mr.. STANTON or of his
relations to Mr.. SoULE but we should beg to
be excused from having such a friend. One who
asks suspicious questions regrets the answer,
regrets that he has in his possession an answer so
eminently calculated to injure his friend, Mr.
SoULE,-and then puts it in the possession of Mr.
SoULE's avowed enemies, who make it the basis
of public attack on him. Mr.. SoULE, it seems
was not misled, for he intimates his knowledge
of the ultimate object of the movement
But this would not quite do; so another let
ter is written to Mr.. SoULE, as follows
"DEAR SIR: Great excitement prevails at the
South and at the North at the result of the re-
cent Legislation of Congress. This excitement
has progressed so far in several Southern States
that dissolution of the Union is openly advo.
Gated. The undersigned, a portion of your con-
stituents and members of the Democratic party,
desire to know from you and your colleague in
the Senate, Mr.. Downs, respectively, your views
on this Important subject. Permit us, therefore,
to request your reply to the following questions,
in manner so distinct as to place beyond doubt
or eav the position you occupy. You will un-
of you in no spirit of unkindness, but with the
of your opinions, and in the exercise Of what we
regard as a right, which will be at once recog-
nzed and conceded by you:
Are you in favor Of Il dissolution of the Union,
now or hereafter, because Of the legislation of
the late session Of Congress?
Are you in favor of the establishment of a
Southern Confederacy, now or hereafter, be-
cause of the legislation of the late session of
Congress!
Are you in favor Of the secession of the State
of Louisiana from the Union, now or hereafter,
because of the legislation Of the late session of
Congress?
This is signed by seventy eight persons who
we are told, are members of the Democratic party
in New Orleans. Among them we notice the
name of Mr. X. WAGNER, late editor of the
Louisiana Courier, and bitterly opposed to Mr..
SoULE s course in the Senate We presume the
other signers are like him.
Mr. SoULE answers these gentlemen as fol-
lows:
New ORLEANS, Oct 80, 1850
GENTLEMEN: acknowledge the receipt of
communication which you caused to be placed
in my hands on yesterday, and which | find is
the same which has been hawked about in the
streets of New Orleans for six entire days, that
it might obtain the endorsement of the seventy
names affixed to it.
Here is my answer;
Whenever the grave matters so fippantly al
ludsd to in that paper shall come before me in
the only shape that can reach my official respon-
sibities to the State and people of Louisiana,
depend upon it they will be met with spirit not
unworthy of the high station which | occupy,
and of the duties which | owe to the great in
terests confded to my protection and guardian
ship. But, as | can regard you neither as the
org ms of the people and State, nor, indeed, as
the echoes of the party to which you say you
helong-as ask neither your applause nor your
support-you will pardon me for taking no other
notice of the queries which you have propounded
to me than by assuring you that ] am not to be
moved out of that propriety which becomes
public man, and, above all, an American senator,
by the tricks of five or six disorganizers, who,
for some time past have been moving every rub
Dish they could lay their feet upon to kick at
me, and who can have no object but to distract
and divide the Democratic party, that they may
build for themselves, upon its ruins, an import
ance which they know but too well, they can
not secure as long as it stands by its principles
and remains united.
Yours respectfully
PIERRE SOULE.
Messrs. WV. King, Charles s. Reese, John l.
Larue.
We observe that the Washington Union in
re-publishng this correspondence calls this letter
of Mr.. SoULE, "reply to the members of the
Democratic partyT-thus manifestinp the desire
of that editor to injure Mr.. SouLE, and the ne
cessity of Misrepresentation to effect it.
This asking precise questions of public man,
this demand Of reply, |" SO distinct as to place
beyond doubt or cavil" his position, and this too,
in the assumed exercise of q right, TO be "at once
recognized and conceded by him, is specimen
of modesty, which could not have originated any
where but in the head of Yankee, and accord
ingly, we find it so alleged in the Louisiana
Courier. The right Of asking questions, il not
an inalienable right of man, is by long usage