Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-03-29

i
accordance with reason that when the iio'' r.
violations Of GOOD faith and State comfy re-
ceiye the support and sanction OF talent "iiuei
can institutions, their history IS Written.
.~~-~--~~~--~~~-1-0 -. o,,t of
Sunnose South Carolina determines 10 90 Ou' VI
the Union. what will MIR. Fillmore do
This question begins to grow important as tne pio'-
abilities increase that she will decide upon tidt %
alternative between disgrace and resistance.
dt 90 freemep TO look this issue boldly and fearessy
in the face If the strength of this Union Is 10 DC ~
ed and the federal power brought to coerce o'ae III
70 the ouet submission of wrong, we say the quicker
the issue is made the better The present is as aSPi
an bour as anv for the South. If the time Is de-
Iaved the North continually and rapidly strengthen
mo in nopuIation will soon possess the numerlcai
to restrain by forms oflaw every effort to resist
Ifthen, the issue is to be torced' II Is III
every respect better to face it than hereafter III
view of the issue being forced let us ask what freS
dent Fillmore will do Will he attempt to exercise
the military power of the federal government 70
South Carolina There are those who have little re-
spect for our constitution, and less respect Tor he
ciples of republicanism and genuine CIVIL liberty ue
clare that the President would, and that is his duty
to- coerce sovereign State by military force. we are
those who believe the President has no such power
nor does the constitution anywhere give to Congress
the right to clothe him with any such power were 1t
otherwise the President ight be empowered by law
less Congressional majority to enforce any law, no
matter how oppressive by military coercion Against
State we care not under what preteXt, the consttu-
ton furnishes no authority for any department of this
government to exercise coercve power. Instructions
IN or AGAINST State-resstance in State against a
constitutional law may be coerced by military power
But State after it has in it's sovereign capacity denied
the constitutionaty of the exercise off political power
by Congress- cannot, in opinion, be coerced either
into an acquiesence in it. to submit to the enforce
ment of it, by the general government within It's Dor
ders Itmay legtmatey and ought to resist any at
tempt by the general government to enforce such law
within the limits of the State.
But it is urged that State may not go out of the
Union, and that should any make the experiment, the
federal arm would be raised to slap them back There
is singular opinion abroad among the calm thinking
classes on this subject. Let the first federal gun be
discharged at the citizens of South Carolina if she
cedes, and this Union will melt down rapidly
piece of butter would have done in the furnace into
which those holy men of old were cast If this were
not to be So should be prepared believe that the
institution slavery instead of being permanently, en-
duringy fixed recognized element in the progress
of man in this peculiarly adapted section, by climate
and soil production, merely an accidental element
to be displaced by those who happened to possess the
physical power of doing it. We contend that if the
federal government permitted by the Slave States
to coerce South Carolina, they would write seal ant
deliver mortgage to the North upon the negro proper
ty of the South, which, within fifty years, would BIZ
orecosed The safety of the South lies in her resist
power by the general government against the legal ant
sovereign authority of any State.
It said that Mr. Fillmore would exercise the militia
ry power of the government against S. Carolina if sht
dare secede. We do not believe it. In politics VIZ
know him to be bold, sagacious man, but he has dem
onstrated to the world that he is morally feeble. HI
shrank from before the lofty crest of aboltionsm il
Massachusetts,, and he trembles at the cold and SLOW
progress Of that Robespere in N. York. w. H. Seward
Mr. Fillmore will disgrace himself by seeking pretex
and excuses for delay should he be summoned to fac
the storm gathering. Mr.. Fillmore will bluste
and fume little, but he'll do nothing IF bold poll
teal combination were to be formed, such an one a
that which despoiled Texas ofSO odd thousand SQUARE
miles of territory and robbed the federal treasury
$l0,OOO,O0O, Mr.. Fillmore is them man for such ma
neuvre. Ifthe abolition vote is necessary to him O
his projects, he knows how to work out just such
combination But Mr. Fillmore is not the man to fac,
or guide revolution and should it be his misforn,
to be at the head of public affairs when the crisis comes
he will dwarf into very small-exquisitely small pro
portions.