The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-08-12

that if the right Of secession exists at al, IL 10 III
most invaluable Of all rights to the majority o
sectional issues, in such government as ours
No administration of the Constitution upon sue
questions, is likely to be so impartial and just
nor ensure such protection to the minority, a
when armed with right of potential seces
sonit can declare to the majority: /" DO as jus
tice or ws ,ciu dissolre the partnership" No on
knows better than your Excellency, that tn
South has always been, and is now, an until
ing source of the North's thrift and the North
wealth; and that, could the free States once pu
their faith in the Souths right OF secession, vir
tue of the compact, or believed that the South ca
ready and resolved upon its dissolution il unredress
ed Of her wrongs, the aggressions complained
of would Immediately cease, and all the exasperat
ing anti-slavery issues now pending before Con
gress would be adjusted in forty-eight hours, and
upon the South's own terms. There is not prin.
ciple in the Federal Constitution SO conservative
Of the rights, equality and sovereignty of the
States, and Of the peace and perpeuity of the
Union, as would be recognized right in each OF
the States to secede from the Union whenever il
failed in any Of the great ends for which it was
established. Then, all sections and every State
would realize how deep and vast was the stake
which each one has in its presentations; how frai
was the mere legal cincture which bound the com
/ prehensive whole in one how essential to its
duration it was, that each should refrain from
aggressing upon the rights of another, or from
grasping at or appropriating more than its own
and that all should unite in promoting each Others
interest-cultivating each others friendship, and
securing each others affections and binding these
States indissolubly in one harmonious whole
Then would the voices of this generation mingle
with the voices Of the remotest posterty, and the
Unions value and the Union is benedictions would
be pronounced in the Esro PERPETuA! Of the
grateful millions who would reap its bountes and
share it's glory, when this gensption shall have
passed away!
! Three Of themost eminent living men of the coun-
try are Messrs. Clay, Cass and Webster. Could
they have been satisfied as SO many of the fathers
Of the Constitution, and Of the great men who pre-.
coded them, and the illustrious Washington, JEFF
ferson, and Madison among them were, that the
right of secession was an inherent and essential
element Of compact, to which the States were
parties in their sovereign capacities; and had they
seen fit TO make known such opinions to thei,
countrymen i'm all sections who can doubt, but
that their great weight OF character and influence
and admirable powers Of debate, would have
wrought their own convictions every where upon
the public mind And had they done so, who
can doubt, but that the free States, after balancing
the South's products and the South freights, the
South's purchases, the South's exchanges, and
the South's supplies to the Treasury gains,
their preiensions to appropriate to themselves ex.
clusively the entirety of the Federal territory
to decoy away and emancipate the South's slaves
&c., in breach of the Constitution, with the Ger
tainty of an immediate disruption of the Union
would promptly have chosen to have stood b,
their interests abandoned their preensions, yield
ed the South her equality, shared with her tn,
territory, surrendered up her slaves, and, in fine
have adjusted the whole controversy on the very
moderate basis Of the Sonth's ultimate Had thi.
been done, the whole lard would have resoundec
with rejoicings, and been wreathed with chaplet
Of Cancellation and peace from ocean to ocean, ant
from the lakes to the sea. But most unhappil,
for the country, these distinguished men did nc
see fit to take this soothing and tranquilizin
course, but took the opposite one; and in m,
humble judgment have wrought thereby incacu
liable, and il may be, ncurable mischiefs upon thu
country. do not mean to say that either of thes
gentlemen asserted, in so many words, that thu
right Of secession did not exist; but that they &c
ingenously and oracularIy argued against it's ex
ercise, and made civil war its imminent and in
separable sequence, as to have wrought that i'm
preston thoroughly upon the public mind at tn,
North, and to have wrought the impression every
where, that such were Il cir opinions.
It has never been my good or i'll fortune, to en-
counter any well-informed person, any where
North or South, who, however he might deny tn
right Of secession in pords, did not, in sentiment
if urged to particulars, betrny his belief in it, il
some form or other; though apt enough Il
retreat from his position, and mask his confession
under cover Of the phrase Of right Of repolu tioa
/ This proneness Of statesmen to conceal their re-
treat under battery Of words, and in matters Of
state to regard as the safest use Of language, the
concealment Of ones thoughts, was most strik
ingly exemplifed at the close of Mr.. Webster
great speech on the slavery question in March
last. A very eminent person, Of spotless purity
Of character, frank Of thought and bold Of counsel
unrivalled among men for his deep sagacity ant
profound and comprehensive craftsmanship, hap
/ pened to be present on that occason:-It wal
South Caroina's illustrious statesman the lament
ed CALHOUN! In the course of Mr.. Webster
fervent deplorings Of the effects of secession, Mr.
Calhoun understood him to deny Gas did most o
his audience) the right of secession, and for am
cause. True to his instincts, and as rapid a,
thought, Mr.. Calhoun saw all the porientous bear
ings ofths piece oforatory, and though Their
in deep decline, and but span from the grave, he
faultered nota moment in assaultng Mr. Web
ster's position, and putting him upon his defence
and the following coIloquy ensued;
Mr., Calhoun. 81 cannot agree with the sena
tor from Observation-Disclosures this Union canno
be dissolved. Am ! to understand him, that no
degree ofoppression no outrage no broken faith
can produce the destruction of this Union, Why