Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1850-12-21


support Of those principles which 1t has been the
constant employment of this print for almost half
century to favor and sustain, than in copying from
the Oldest journal in the State OF North Carolina
the article which will be found in the preceding
page, on the constitutional right of secession
of any State from this Union, and the practicabihty
of peaceable = secession on the part of any one
of the States now proposing it. On both points
the argument of the Register is absolutely unan-
swerable.
Upon this pretended right of secession, and the
atrocious purpose Of which it is but the fimsy
cloak, we have ourselves something to say; but we
could say, in all our saying, nothing more to the
point more strong in substance. or more powerful
in demonstration, against the wickedness and folly
Of this Disunion project than what every attentive
reader will find in the article which we now earn
estly recommend to his perusal. H.@
With regard to the proposition by the Governor
of the State of VIRGINIA to the Legislature Of that
State, recommending to them to invite the Call of
Convention Of all the States, it has at least one
merit to distinguish it from other measures which
have been suggested, as well in the Legislature Of
the same State as in two other States whose Legs-
latures are now in session that is to say, it can
be brought within the competency of the body to
whom it is proposed, and be entirely constitutional
in its character. AS some of our readers may not
have at hand copy of the Constitution Of the
United States to refer to, we here insert the
article of the Constitution which recognises the
right and prescribes the manner of resorting to
Convention of all the States, when deemed nsces-
sary for such purposes as that suggested in the
Message Of the Governor of Virginia:
ARTICLE v. The Congress, whenever two
thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall
propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on
The application Of the Legislatures Of t,co-fhirds
2fthe seueral States, shall call a Convention for
proposing amendments, Uhich, IN either case,
shall be uald to all intents and purposes part of
this Constitution, ,Ohen ratified by the Legislatures
of treeJourths Of the several States, or By Con-
ventions IN treejourths thereof as the one or the
other mode of ratification may be proposed by the
Congress provided that no amendment which may
be made prior to the year one thousand eight hun
dred and eight shall in any manner affect the first
and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first
article; and that no State, without its consent, shall
be deprived Of its equal suffrage in the Senate"
With Difference to the high source from which
this Virginia proposition emanates, we cannot but
regard it as the most alarming step that has yet been
proposed in any one of the Southern States and
this Notwithstanding its consttuonaity, and rather
because of it. Other measures of proposed redress
for alleged grievances starte and repel many good
citizens, because they hardly assume to be, and
certainly are not, constitutional in their nature.
The one now under consideration, though free from
that vice, opens the way to greater dangers than
threatened by either ofthe projects Of State secession
or non-intercourse; measures to which, if carried
out, no authority of the United States, judicial or
other, would pay the slightest respect, and which
could only recoil, with disaster and humiliation,
upon their authors.
1t is not at all probable, indeed, that a PROPOSE
ton for General Convention of the States could,
in our day, command the assent of the necessary
number Of States to require Congress to call such
Convention. Far distant be the day when the
Constitution and the Union of the States will have
to pass through such an ordeal For, happen
when itmay-long, we trust, after we and the great
body of our readers have ceased to be among the
living-it will end in the breaking up of this great
Government and the substitution of chaos, which
not all the wisdom on earth could ever restore to
order. Anarchy, the law the strongest abolition
of property, and the establishment of community in
every thing else, are horrors-against the spread of
which the Government Of the United States opposes
rampars which can never be forced whilst it remains
in full being and eect-that stare US in the face,
in contemplation of the abolition of an Indepen-
dent Judiciary and of other essential conservative
features of the Constitution.
Our engagements do not allow US to enter into
any thing like particular statement Of even the
nearly certain consequences Of the assemblage of
such Convention as is proposed. But we will
just present to our friends in Virginia and other
Southern States one consequence, which seems to be
inevitable, of setting the Constitution at sea in
General Convention Of the People. 1t will be the
striking down at single blow Of all the power and
influence which the Southern States derive from
the provisions Of the Constitution which recognise
the obligation of all other States to respect their Pc
cuiar rights and of the Government of the Union to
protect and defend them. The numerical prepon-
derance in such Convention of People having
other interests, and deeply imbued with other convic-
tons and feelings than those Of the Southern Peo-
pie, could not fail to exert power which it would
be IN vain to resist. If this be too strong view
OF the subject, it must be at least admitted by all
well-lnformed persons, that by NO other process