The southern press., 1850-10-01
Alabama.

4 We see in several of the Alabama papers,
proposal made to hold meetings throughout,th'
\ State, to declare the sense of the people on thu
course to be taken, TO avert the results of th,
late acts Of Congress. The Legislature Of tina
/ State does not meet until 1851, and that alone
can call convention. But the plan now pro
posed, is TO pronounce the sense Of the people
every meeting will send delegates to the Nash
vile Convention also.
The following able article is from the Id
rcrtiscr and Gazette of Montgomery
1t is not our purpose here to go over the M
gu,nents frequently adduced i'll our colums, to
show the monstrous injustice and unconstitu-
tionaty of the measures which have just rcce-
we'd the sanction Of laws Every man in the
South has recognized the principle that The ter
rilorics Of the United States however acquired,
are the common property of the people, the
whole people, each and every one, in each and
every State of the Union; that they have a right
to 90 there with their property, and that the Uni
ted States Government is bound by the Consti-
tuition to protect them in the enjoyment of that
property of whatever description, so long as the
United States holds supreme dominions over it.
That this protection must be afforded by the
General Government and cannot be waived or
reinqushed by it until it authorizes the people
tho inhabitants of II territory, to organize
State Government for themselves; ut which
time the limits of The proposed new State is pre-
scribed 6y Congress, and q complete relinquish-
ment by the Convention, which is to form the
State constitution, of all control over the pri-
mary disposal of the public lands is distinctly re-
ouired. This has been the invariable practice Of
the Government aud is in strict accordance with
the principles of the Declaration of Independence,
and the Constitution Of the United States We
hold it, then, as correct principle, one that can
not be successfully controvertcd, that those who
without this couse { of Congress--thc trustee
of the people of the United Siates-undertak
TO erect or establish n State government upon
and over the public domain, and to pass funda-
mental laws, excluding the people of one half
the States with their property therefrom, are
guilty Of usurpation--of downright rerotuttoa
and the failure of Congress to provide them
territorial government does not IN the least alter
the case: The Supreme dominion over Tins ter
ritory was in the United States, and could be
lepitinately exercised by none, but by the con-
sent of Congress, the authorized agent of the
people of the United States.
We hold, then, that no State has been legiti-
mately formed in Cnlifornia--that all acts done
there, to that end have been pure usurpaions ;and
that to the extent that Congress sanctions their
injustice to any part of the people of the United
States IL is an enactment in eiiect--to all inteuts
and purposes-of that injustice itself. we see no /
escape from this conclusion. This is the view |
{ ken of this measure by the Southern States, |
and against it they have been waging war of
resolutions for the last SIX or eight months |
But it is useless to multiply words and argu- |
and all the other great measures /
that have so long engrossed the public attention
have all been settled by Congress, and settled
against the South. From all the territory ac-
quired from Mexico, we have been as eflectuaily
excluded as If wall Of brass had been thrown
around it. California embracing the whole eN-