Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1850-02-02

i
the relation of Slavery in the States in which it ex
listed when the Constitution was framed-com.
ing in from other quarters, and suggested by other
motives, rritated still further the Representatives
of the Slaveholding States drawing forth from them
very natural expressions of surprise, complaint
and, at last, Of Indignation, at the pernacy OF the
memorialists. Advantage was taken Of this sensi-
bility by artul men, who sought to accomplish po-
litcal and party objects by inflaming the excite
ment. They began to pour in Abolition Memo
rials in such numbers, under so many forms oil
aggravation to the feelings of the Southern Mem
bers Of Congress, and through the publicity of these
debates, to those of the People of the Southern
States, as to lead at length to state of exaspera-
| ton of the public mind of the South, the evidence
of which has been seen, during the last fifteen years,
in the Resolutions of their State Legislatures, and in
speeches in both Houses of Congress. These
speeches, &c. have had the effect to provoke further
offensive demonstrations from the People of the Nom
slaveholding States, and at length from the States
themselves, by Legislative acts as well as by ex-
pressons of sentiment which it would be asking
too much Of human nature to require Of the People
of the South to bear with submissive patience. The
tortoise itself can be excited by heapng Goals OF
| fire upon its back.
We the Editors of this paper have Witnessed
with great and increasing pain the progress of this
hateful contest between the States of the North and
of the South-a trial, not exactly which Of them
could do the other the most harm, but which of
them could, from their respective citadels, speed
the sharpest missiles, and infct the greatest wound
upon the feelings, convictions, and prejudices of
the other. II has been all along plain to US that
in this contest of ilwill there are faults on both
sides; and, with the regard which we have for
what is really respectable and estimable on either
side of Mason and Dixon's line, we could hardly
be otherwise than panied in Witnessing strife ola
character so detrimental to the public welfare, SO
injurious to every public interest, and which has
now become SO distracng and SO disorganizing.
In the position which we occupy, on an isthmus,
as il were, between the North and the South we
have foreseen the danger which might ensue from
further exasperating this controversy, and we have
studiously refrained from adding, by any vounta-
ry act of ours, fuel to the flame. We were we'll
convinced that discussion of the right or wrong of
the elimination and recrimination which have
been INDUCED in between the statesmen as well
the party gladiators Of the South and of the
North, would only goad them into greater excite
ment, and might drive them to violence, the last
argument Of rational man. We have, therefore,
for years, not only abstained from discussing these
matters ourselves, but we have excluded from our
columns all communications on the subject that
have been offered for publication by others.
With the same motive, and considering the mat
ter to be wholly outside of the official character Of
Members of Congress- and such as, if the subject
Of private consultation, should not be bruited to
alarm the fears Of the people at their homes, or to
gladden. the hearts of the enemies of the Republic
abroad, we passed by in silence, and now, for the
first time bring to the notice of readers the fact
that, at the last Session Of Congress, portion of
the Members from the Southern States assembled
in what was termed Southern Convention, in
some chamber of the Capitol, and, after stormy de-
bates, (by decision far from Unanimously agreed
upon and published an Address to the Southern
States, setting forth an array of wrongs agains.
them by the North, actual anticipated, which, in
their opinion, required redress. Similar secessions
have heretofore taken place by Members of Con-
gress from the same part of the country, without
eASihhS very PdisCuldI dttcHtioH, anu Ilc one
Of last session was viewed by US in the same light
as we had regarded those which preceded it-as an
expression of feeling at the moment not likely to
be attended with any action or, at least, with none
that ought to excite serious uneasness any where.
In this estimate, recent events seem to show that
we undervalued the consequence of this then
supposed hasty and evanescent but now apparently
deepyconcered plan, the part Of its originaors,
at least. The Appeal by this Convention to the
People of the South was answered by the assembly
of voluntary Convention Of Delegates Of the People
of the State of MISSISSIPPI chosen without dis
tnction of party, in the month of October last at
which majority-again no unanimity-gave
(says one of them in letter to the Editor Of the
Richmond Enquirer) "vivid expressions Of the
Southern sentiment that immediate, concentra-
ted, and undivided action, to arrest the North
erR Coalition and secure the Constitution, the
Union, and the South, was demanded by the
crisis" By this Convention were passed num-
Der of resolutions, the only one Of which bearing
any substantive affirmation of State rights certainly
requires no Southern Convention to affirm it, at
least not until any respectable assembly of citizens
in the North or elsewhere shall be found to deny
it. The resolution to which we refer is as follows
"That the institution Of Slavery the Southern States
, by the Constitution, erclsirey under the control of
the STATES in uhich il erists, part Of their domestic
policy ,chich they, and they only, hare the right 10 reg-
M,