The southern press., 1850-11-06


y that his name had been used at small meeting
y of Wings who favored~the COMPROMISES: b.
The Editors Of the .Nstos, z-,-ze-.-s
Sir: In the published proceedings Of the Gra-
velly Hill meeting find my name among those OF
the committee of "Twenty-f appointed to
a draft Preamble and Resolutions expressing the
sentiments of the meeting-to be forwarded to our
!. Senators and Representative in Congress. At the
time that this meeting was held, | absent
" from the county and knew not that ] had been
: called in to participate in its proceedings until |
A saw il in the papers of the day. Aslthe Preamble
and Resolutions contained sentiments which neye.
were and never will be mine, feel bound to dis
own them: and to say to those who have hereto
{ fore honored me with their confidence that have
not turned this summerset, which appear by this
Preamble and these Resolutions to have DONE
My "conviction of right, " and my '.sympathies"
| never have been, and never can be, with the
" friends of Clay's Compromise, which was re-
: ported by committee Of the Senate, a measure
at once so odious and so traitorous to the South,
that my greatest surprise is, to find Southerners
forgetting the rights of their native soil, and lend
ing themselves even for moment to its support.
Yet such is the melancholy fact, though not with
out precedent. ... . usaagr r.
1 am not follower of either Mr., Clay, or those
who are his followers or worshippers; for | sin
cerely believe that if the rights the liberties and
the destinies Of the South were in his grasp, he
would surrender them all to the Aboltonists of
the North, and place about our necks the calling
chains of perpetual serviude and slavery. Is not
such desire to be seen in his celebrated " Com
promise 7" Does he not propose by that bill to
surrender to the North the enormous region of
country known as California Does he not pro-
pose to take from Texas, territory sufficient to
form two States and surrender it into the graspng
hand of Northern Free-soilers! Does he not
propose to take from the Treasury ten millions of
dollars, with which to quiet the claim of Texas to
her territory thus wantonly torn from her grasp,
that the Abolitionsts at the North may receive
. the ultimate beneft' And do not the products Of
the slaveholding States contribute largely, more
than half Of this sum? Does he not also propose
by this same famous &c Compromise" to abolish
the slave trade in the District of Columbia, on soil
given 10 the General Government by the slave
Holding States of Maryland and Virginia; without
the most remote expectation or apprehension hav-
ing been entertained by those States at the time
the grant was made that such an attempt would
q ever be made' Thus forever depriving the citi-
zens Of that District of their inalienable rights
8 which never would have been done by their parent
States! And what IS it proposed by the far
=, famed I" Compromise" that the South shall receive
~ for all thisi Simply the passage Of tn" Fugitive
,, slave b'' through Congress, by which he en-
deavors to hold out to the vision of the Southern
Of people the hope that this will be all sufficient to
insure to us the perpetual enjoyment of our rights
.e and everlasting peace to now distracted coun
try. As If Northern fanatics would not disregard
II any such law, they have already and for years
dsregarded the constitutional provision relating to
[
u us into fatal security, until our chains shalt
be forged and riveed upon US, and their clankngs
shall be heard over all the length and breadth of
8 our land. Then, he might well lay, aside his mask
and receive the applause from his Northern friends,
for which, and for whose best interests, he has so
long and so arduously labored. 80 .. G.yg
Such are the provisions OF this celebrated 'Clay
Compromise, advocated by man of gigantic
1t luminous intellect, who is capable of making the
very chains he forges for appear, to his friends
and followers, gilded ornaments. He would bar
Ter away the best interest of the South and leave
e. us but the memory Of thepas as consolation for
the rights of which he had deprived us. Can 1t
's be- sir that Southerners can give their "sympa-
thies" to such a MANI Can i.be that their "sym-
II pahes are enlisted in behalf Of this 'Clay Com
promise, /" measure calculated to deprive them of
le their inalenabe rights and gradually but surely
and certainly ultimately to reduce them to the
position OF provncias and dependents of the
:, North, Sir cannot believe it, But what was
'' ! the fate of this famous "Compromise'' in the
- Senate Of the United Statess Mr.. Clay found ex,
~ istmg among Southern senators a purer patriotism
than he had probably expected to find, aud ntellect
'"' that, not even all his eloquence could mislead
n, and his ardenty cherished measure was defeated
~ Since then he has avowed the most startling doc
-, trnes that have ever been held by all American
' statesman, and which in their effects would Leaf
to the most fearful and disastrous consequences
They are in effect that no citizen OF the country
. owes any allegiance to his parent State, and in
D., case of collision is bound to array himself upon
the Slue or the Il euerAl pnloi eNeu w tne
'e exterminat on Of the rights and liberties of the
~ -, State which gave him birth. Also, that no State
!. (and by parity OF reason no number Of States)
has even the slightest shadow of right, no matter
how grievous the wrongs they suffer, to withdraw
8 from the Union and should a fatal blow be struck
10 at the liberties of the ffteen Southern States by
:. the ma ority in Congress with the sanction and
70 approval of the Executive, the Southern States
a H must bow submssively to the yoke, and dare no
:, raise their voice either individually collectively
' tbo which O1lIa hIot them
- as sovereign States from the confederacy.
Of This is the tendency of his monstrous doctrines
d and strikes at the basis of all free and
A. federated government in America. The Federal
h Union is compact of the States composing 1t,
n and had its existence long after their existence
known as free and sovereign States and by their
freely and voluntarily consenting to unite and form
1 one general head of Government, for mutual and
9 reciprocal benefit and advantage. They could not
e have been compelled to enter the Union for each
i State was entirely free and independent of the
Il others, and there was no power to coerce or COM
pei the submission of any State that should have
! chosen not to enter the UEinn. Had there been
), a CO npelling power, and one State had been
PEELED to enter the Union against her wishes there
B. would have been end at of all free govern
j. ment. But there was no such compelling power
Of in the government Of the Federal Union. Such
- an idea is absurdity. If then, there no
such power at the time Of the formation of the Fed
v eral Union, there can have been none since, un-
less by the free of every State of the Con-
e federacy, and this we know has never been given.
n The Southern States having entered the Union
te freely and voluntarily, with equal rights and pri
n vileges with each and every State forming the
II Confederacy, they have perfect and indefeasibe
n right to withdraw from the compact soon rs
n their liberties their rights shall be likely to be
subverted, that Union shall cease to confer the
benefits sought in the Union. AT the time of the
e formation Of the Federal Union, the South pos
J. sessed a more than balancing influence in the
It country Since that time, that influence has stead
!. lily, though slowly, and almost imperceptibiy, de-
n clined while the North has increased in wealth
!, in power, and influence, with giant strides unit
v now that portion Of the Union has avowed doc
trines, and set up monstrous and unfounded claims
which calculated in the end TO sweep from the
10 face ofthe world every Southern State, a free
r. and sovereign commonw nwenlth ...
NJ The North has largely the majority in Congress
d. ana what may that section not do, conscious OF
power as it is, with Northern President at the
v head of the natinp