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

lleved 10 be best under all the Trying circumstances
OF the case and hail and welcome them home,
with pnabated confidence and friendship. Com
PEELED 10 cast their votes amid the hre, and smoke,
and suffocation of a wild fanaticism on the one
hand and the most vehement threats TO dissolve
the Union If something was not done, on the ON,
err, what wonder were II II all their votes shouid
not have been cast precisely right, IN The emergen-
CIV Of the moment! We are now examining their
measures after the smoke Of the conflict has DIS
persed, and as no man knows what votes he might
not have cast in order to secure the unity OF this
great nation, when he believed it was in DANCE:
so let no man yield himself up to the foul spirit
Of intolerance, Besides, sir, this fatal war on our
rights has only just begun. The enemy has only
carried our outposts. They have drawn Gordon
of non-sIaveholding States around us by the late
bills, and are now only waiting for the new appor-
tionment to give them an increase Of strength, ana
for the arrival of their new evies from California,
Utah and New Mexico, TO make fresh onslaught
upon US on the abolition of slavery in the States
in the District Of Columbia--in the forts, arse
nails, &C., of the United States-the prohibition of
the transfer of slaves from one State to another
When that time shall come, we shall need that there
should be no arrangement among the men ofthe
South. 'iShoulder to shoulder, and with shield
locked on shield, !" we must then stand or fall to-
gether. Till then, let no division Of opinion make
divisions in friendship. ......... ....
There is yet another thing this heart of mine
will not do. For nothing in the past, great as
have been our wrongs, will il beat one pulse the
less of ardent devotion to the Constitution and the
Union. NV motto now is, endurance of the past,
resistance for the future. The past can he endured
Though demand all the forgiveness of the chris
tan, and all the forbearance of the patriot it new
ertheless can be endured. The future, / awfully
fear, cannot. When you shall hear that the
most solemn covenants Of the Constitution are
broken by lawless mots, and your fellow citizens
imprisoned for demanding the restoration of IN cir
lpro anlnU A WI the late Fn0I-
tive slave bill in the one hand, and the Constitu-
ton of the United States in the other: when you
shall see the beacon fires blazing all along the
mountain border Of Maryland and Vrginia--all
along the shores Of the Ohio--as signals for the
fight and escape of your property: when military
attachments shall have to be sent, night after
night, to the protection Of your homes and fami-
lies: when every fre-bell at night will make the
mother 81, sp her infant closer to her bosom-how
can you endure this, and more than this? In such
a future, who then can talk Of Constitution with
its violated covenants, or of a Union with all its
shattered fragments strewn around US The great
law Of self defence will then be all that is left us.
1t is the law by which even the reptile resists the
invader. Under that law, whether to be found in
the reserved rights of the States under the Con-
stitulon, or in the admitted right of revolution,
care not-under that law of selfpreservation, the
States will have to fall back upon their full orig
nal sovereignty, ard provide again for the en-
Ijoyment Of life, liberty, and property" God
grant, however, that the dark future which have
portrayed may never come. On the contrary,
may it come to us crowned with peace and frater-
nal concord; may it come with the Constitution
still unbroken, and the Union, with adamantine
strength, still bespanning the continent from ocean
10 ocean, brighter and more glorious than ever.
To such a Union owe perfect and perpetual
obedience-to such an one will adhere, and ad-
here to the last, like the gallant sailor, when about
TO be driven from the vessel which he had long
tofS IsI Id l,eo.u A.
side of his ship, he seized it with his right hand
when that had been cut off, he seized it with the
left; when that, too, had been cut off, h.. seized il
with his teeth, and went down with it to the
bottom. Sir, say this Of that Union which now
s-of that Union which Washington, and Mad-
son, and Plnckney, and the Rutledges gave us.
But to that Union which may be yet to come--to
that Union which would deprive me of my pro-
perty, which would beggar my children, which
would fire my dwelling, and spread around me all
the horrors of a servile war-o Union which
would deuge "my own, my native land" in one
vast sea Of bood-by heavens, | owe it no ale
glance!
Sir: 1t was upon this great principle that the
Tennessee resolutions were constructed. That
we will abide by the past-by the late legislation
of Congress-wth that fidelity which has always
distinguished the South. But, at the same time,
we solemnly affirm that our cup is full-we can
drink no more. Will those who propose not to
will they hear from me one argument against this
rash and perilous deed' Who are here! Call
Maryland, call North Carolina, call Missouri, call
Arkansas, call Louisiana, call Kentucky. Do
they answer? No, not one of them. Who, then,
are here' Virginia answers with one lone solitary
voice. Virginia, whose trumpet notes have so
often called the sons of the South together against
all and every encroachment on the rights Of the
States. Where are all her mighty men that they
do not come up to the great work which you pro-
pose to do? Look, too, to the falling off of that
crowd Of patriotic men who thronged these halls
is Campbell, and Coleman, and Davis, and Cooper
and Winston? From Mississippi, where is Ma
thews, and Boyd, and Sharkey, and Clayton, and
Wilkinson?
Sir, there must be some good reason for all this.
Let us look facts directly in the face, and they
will tel us that since our last meeting great doubts
have arisen in the minds Of our Southern brethren
as to whether the late Legislation Of Congress has
not been such as ought to be satisfactory to the
South at least so satisfactory to supersede any
further action of this body. Sir, we do know that
these doubts do exist. Look to your own State
look to Mississippi look the accounts from Lou
isana. What do we find I pray you answer
me the question: what do we find Our own
Southern people divided about equally upon the
subject. Here pause, to ask Of every man who
now surrounds me, is it wise, is it just in such
divided and distracted condition Of the Southern
u
it not bold measure to proclaim that the deep
foundations Of this Government are to be broken
up and new one to be erected on its ruins! Let
me tell the gentleman from Virginia (Gen Cor
dong that when the news shall reach that ancient
commonwealth, it will shake the very walls Of her
capitol, and the statue of Washington will trembe
on its marble basement. When this great nation
shall be passing through the agonies of dissolu-
ton, her dying groans will be heard through half
the habitable world. Her fall, like that OF Jeru-
salem, will be preceded by signs in the heavens
and connections on the earth, a sword will be
seen in the sky, great comet will blaze over her,
and armies in battle array will be seen amid the
clouds. On earth you will hear and feel the earth
quake tread Of a mighty people, coming up to n
larger council than this. Until we see this latter
sign, at least, let US not proclaim that her end
draweth nigh. In the spirit Of the Tennessee re-
solutions, let US rather proclaim-Not yet not
yet 10, shall this republic end until the
sovereign people who created it, in one grand,
united council, shall pronounce it's doom.
TENNESSEE RESOLUTIONS.
In CONVENTION, Nov. l3, 1850.
Gen. Pillow, Of Tennessee, offered the follow
ing preamble and resolutions, which were read and