The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-28

liberty the negro and then deliver patriotic
charge" to the jury and mob.-LynchbTg Re-
pnblieqa
The Closing Proceedings at Nashville.
We find in the Nashville American, the fol-
lowing account of the proceedings of one OF
three Tennessee delegations, who, we are graft
fled to see, stood SOLITARY and alone" in his vlo-
lation of the ordinary rules Of courtesy, and the
rites of hospitality 1t will also show how
petty was the molehl raised by his efforts
magnfed into a mountain by those who hate,
because they fear the deliberations, and the ac-
ton of that patriotic assemblage.
The open and emphatic manner in which "the
Tennessee delegation" have expressed, through
"many of its members" "morLifcation" ut
the course pursued by Major DoNELsoN, acquits
them from all responsibility for such improper
and indecorous conduct. We deem the simple
narrative of such transaction, to be a sufficient
punishment for those concerned in this double
breach of good breeding, and hospitality. Even
the savage will not insult his guest.
THE CoNyENTIoN.-The course pursued by a
portion OF the Nashville papers in relation to the
Southern Convention-the degree of AFFECT servll-
ity towards Northern men and measures and Of
hostility towards the South and her rights which
thew m anfest-is absolutely amazing. No ag-
gressons upon the rights Of the South pro-
yoke their censure and efforts to restrain those
aggressions can escape their abuse. 1t is their
constant labor to palliate and excuse the conduct
ofN Northern fanatics, and TO censure the action and
misrepresent the motives Of all those true South
| ,hn lnhn IN n
teed to them by the Constitution, Their present
effort appears to he to convince the North that
there is no danger Of anything but the most alb
ect submission by the people of South to such
legislation as Congress may choose to adopt. They
invite and beg aggression, as though it did not come
fast enough of ITSELF and see no evil in the flu
ture, save the dreaded one ofbeing separated from
those who brand all shareholders thieves, and
preach that they can best glorify God by obeyng
that "higher law" which places the Constitution
and the laws of the land at defiance and nculcates
the idea that the best service Of their Maker con-
cists in stealing and secreting Southern slaves.
Why is this? Leaving out of view entirely the
Injustice they commit, is their course polite Do
thew not know that there is in each of the North
ern States party, sufficiently powerful to control
their elections, who openly preach resistance to the
laws of Congress? Do they not know, that, in
each of the Northern cities, organized bands are
being formed to resist to the death the enforce
ment of the Fugitive slave law, and that recently,
in the citv of Boston, it has been successfully re-
sisted DO they not know that the abolition of
slavery in the States is the great object to which
all the efforts of the Abolitonists tend and that
they have already hecome so powerful as to make
both the political parties at the North more or less
subservent to their views? No one dares deny
this and yet, it is at such time as this that
Southern papers make haste TO proclaim that the
South is ready and willing to submit to anything,
and those who insist that she has some few rights
In bac heep ;,aLj
ARE denounced "a little knot of factonists
and trators!" Traitors To WHAT To whom?
Not to their own States--their own homes-the
dwellers around their own fresides. The de-
nounced are at least true TO their own affairs The
",reason' consists in refusal to have their peck
cts picked and their Threats cut, without effort
to beat off the robbers.
Our sympahes, We confess, flow altogether in
different direction. e can much more readily
pardon the Southern man who, we may think,
goes little too far in asserting Southern rights,
than the man who does not 60 far enough. There
is no earthly danger that the South will get more
than her rights. There Is danger that she will
lose all, through the course pursued by leading
politicians AM papers in her own borders.
The ''clc sing scene" Of the Convention afford
the papers to which we have referred in the COM
mencement Of this article matter upon which to
show their sympathies and to vent their abuse
That the matter may be understood, we give a
brief history. The committee on resolutions had
unanimously instructed their chairman on report
ing the resolutions on Monday morning, to move
the previous question on their adoption. The
members were anxious to return home, and it was
known that ifa debate once commenced, it would
be almost interminabe. Messrs. Brown and Mich
olson, representing Tennessee on the committee,
both tated in Convention that while they dissent
ed from the report, they ouId take other cp-
portunty Of loyin. their views before the public,
and admitted that the reasons for taking the vote
without debate were satisfactory, and, in commit
| tee consented that the previous question should
| be moved. The previous question was sustained
| and the resolutions adopted. Maj. DCnelson then
| moved a reconsideration Of the vote adopting the
resolutions stating that he had at the meeting of
| his delegation voted in favor Of them, for the pur-
| pose of moving reconsderation.-The President
stated that as the had cen taken by States,
each State giving ore vote, reconsideration could
| only be moved by Stdte-that the Convention
had no knowledge, ana could have none, Of the
votes Of individual delegates Ia their private con-
| fersnces-and that, as the State Of Tennessee had
voted in the minority, her delegation, and much
| less one member of it, could not move recpnsld-
Grafton,
This decision was undoubt edly strictly parlia-
mentary and correct. OF this there can be no
question. Yet Mojor Donelson insisted on his
right to speak, denounced the purposes Of the
Convention as " unhallowed," and then appealed
to the courtesy" Of those thus denounced to
hear him. The hearing was, as a matter Of course
refused. During this scene, some Of the specta.
tors, admitted TO the sessions Of the Convention
through its courtesy, totally interrupted its pro-
| ceedings by boisterous appreciation Of the remark
Of Major ponelson, which we have quoted, thus