The southern press., 1850-10-29
(ro BE coNrINUED.)
From the Charis,ion .Msrcurp.

NJ - SS.'NSN<D'/
From the Charleston Mercury.
The article copied in another column from
the Southern Baptist, is deserving of attention
not only for the soundness Of the views, but as
an expression of sentiment which We believe to
prevade the great body of the powerful denom-
ination Of which that press is the organ. II
places the question in true and striking light,
in arguing that there is the same propriety and
necessity for the political separation Of the
Northern and Southern sections as for the diyi-
sion OF the Churches. When Union breeds
only strife tyrannous exactions, and fierce strug-
giles, Christian charity no less than political wis
dom, the love of peace no less than the love of
liberty and Of justice, dictate that the parties
should separate.
From The Southern Baptist, October 49,
SECESSION AND THE FUGrTIvE SLAVE LAW
We have received communication, which will
appear next week, on the secession OF the South
ern States, and which requires some notice Mt
our hands. II is not our intention to admit any
thing, editorial or otherwise, into our columns,
which might give our paper political caste.
But we do not regard this question rs a political
one. The spirit that would overthrow our Com
stitution and convert our Union into a tremen-
dous machine ofoppression and injustice, would
if allowed its full sweep, soon degrade religion
into an odious fanatcism. II is In vain to pretend
that the tendencies of Abolition are not towards
irreligion and infdelity; its very spirit is the
setting up of individual notions OF justice and
humanity, against the morality of the Bible, and
if permitted to swell and gather head, 1t will
soon sweep away all the ancient hulwarks and
let in flood of brackish waters to destroy every
thing green or fruitful That fanatical wisdom
which oxalts itself above revelation, and arrays
the Bible against itself, must soon despise that
sort of justice that removed The Canaanites from
the promised land, to make room for the favored
seed of Abraham; it must end in holding in con.
tempt the doctrine that lays the guilt OF the sim
ner upon the head Of the immaculate son of
God What avails it to the heated imagination
of the disciple of equality that all the past bears
its testimony to the fact that the African race
attains its highest elevation and greatest happi
ness under the control and direction of the
whites! He will soon learn to question the
Justice that has SO decreed, and to deny 70 the
Supreme the right to subjecta sinful world as he
chooses. If there ever was time and place
since the fall of man where servitude was not
known, where the dream of equality had an ac-
tual practical existence there might be some ex-
cuse for this madness But with the concur
rent testimony of sacred and profane history in
their hands, nothing but madness can be plead
ed in extenuation of such folly. 1t is worse
than blindness then, to shut our eyes to the
matter. The progress Of Abolition must be
stopped, or our freedom of conscience will soon
be but name and the next generatian even
may see the Bible condemned, because man, In
his wisdom, pronounces slavery a foul sim We
say that freedom of conscience may soon be
deried us, it is even so now. Persecution
consists not alone in the torture of the body
or the Imprisonment of the person. Insult
and scorn, in words and acts, deny to the
mind freedom of thought, and he who is con-
demned to Insult for his opinions, may endure
persecution even greater than he whose body Is
tortured.
How then is this evil to be removed! How
are we to stop the mouths or palsy the hands of
those who persecute us :. We know no cure for
religious madness, the world has never disco
vered a remedy for fanaticism. But we can
withdraw ourselves from its influence. If We
cannot stop the mouths of our revilers, we can
stop our ears, and leave them to listen to their
own rawlings. We can do politically what we
Baptists have already done as religious body,
that is, agree to separate. 1t is plain that our
common government is the medium through
which we are now assailed, for the shaft can
reach us in no other way We can exclude
their books from our schools, their slanderous
papers from our tables, but the acts of our CON-
mon government which brand slavery as a curse,
and slave holders as tyrants, remain to bring the
blush of shame to our cheeks. The repeated
attacks upon slavery in the District of Columbia,
the passage Of the Wilmot Proviso in the admis-
sion of California, the approaching repeal of the
Fugitive slave bill, are small matters in them
selves. But when we consider that they are
but means to an end, that by them wreckless
politicians pander to the appetites of tho agita-
tors, they are full of evil omen. The storm is
assuredly approaching and we shall be wise if
we take shelter by ourselves. We cannot now
doubt that the North is in earnest, that the agi-
tators are in power there, and there is no safety
for them or for us but in our leaving to them
the field of contest. Even the safety Of the
North requires this course of us, for perchance
when its connection with slavery shall cease aud
the North be to us rs England is, foreign ma
ton, the strife may cease, and reason resume
her throne. We deceive ourselves if we sup
pose that any thing short of secession will give
us peace or put stop to the progress of Aboli-
ton. We have been brought to this conclusion
not by excitement, for we were never more calm,
but by cool and careful review Of the COM
mencement and progress of the slavery agitation; !;
and our firm belief is, that it has taken so deep
hold upon the mass of the free States, that it
must last while they have any connection with
slavery, through union, with the slave States
This being our conviction, and knowing that sla-
very is an institution that the South will never
surrender, we see before us no hope of peace in
the future, whilst the Union lasts With OPT
MONS and feelings so diverse, the North and
South must seek peace in an agreement to Sc
parate, and the longer that separation is delayed,
the more do we hazard the risk of fierce and
bloody war. For this separation we believe our
denomination is ready. Their independent sys-
tenn Of Church government naturally leads to a
reliance upon the home political government,
and having for the sake Of peace, severed our
religious connection with the nou-slaveholding
States, we are not prepared to hold our political
rs dearer than those of the Church. Freedom of
conscience is the birth right of the Baptist
We have never prosecuted Others, and will sub
init to persecution from none.
The late so.called Compromise, so far from
alaying, has increased the slavery agitation.
The leaders in the North are shouting loudly
aud hl;por