The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent. (Port Gibson, Claiborne Co., Miss.) 1848-18??, 1851-02-07
A Letbr from Gen. Cass.
WASHINGTON, Dec. IA. 1850.

peril, and tnere IS 20 feal DuL t1iS no0e duty
will be.nobly perbnned IN city which has al
ways been true our Institutions, and which
has given one of tae moss signal proofs Of patri-
otic devotion; and one ofthe most glorious, too,
recorded in the annals obur political existence.
The danger was then fbm without: it is now
from within. Then th invader polluted the
soil of our country, aid was repelied by the
valor of your citizens;how the Republic is in
peril by the dissensioS of her own sons, and
what we want is not force, but reason just
appreciation ofthe blessings we enjoy, and re-
storation of confidence and harmony to every
section of ihg country. for with them would come
back that attachment to the Constitution that
maintainsit, which wDu,d make our institutions
the strongest, as they are the freest and the
most prosperous upon the face of the globe.
And what has divided in feeling, and threatens
YET to rend us as asunler, unless countefacted by
wisdom and moderation? We are at peace with
all The world. respected by all the world, and
wherever our flag fioas, upon ocean, sea or bay
upon the deep or in the harbor, there it carries
protection to the American citizen, and there it
announces the name and the power of the Amer
ican people. Are we oppressed by the Govern
ment, ruled by tyranicsl laws, by military force,
by any of the machinery of power which else
where, wrings its earrings from labor. and re-
presses every effort al equality and freedom?
Are we visited by any geat national misfortune?
Is the destroying angel N his passage through
the land, carrying pestience and famine N his
train, or any of the othefcalamilies which mark
the judgments of God upon nations, and might
well mark His judgment upon US for our con-
tempt of His blessings and for our ingratitude
without a parallel even in the waywardness
OF man, except in the history of another stiff
.necked people--His chosen people of old
whose punishment was finally as awful as it
was Just; an example to the world where we
may read as disastrous afate, if we dc not AVA
ken TO conviction os oul duty before the decree
has gone forth against us Never had the Jew
| ish nation more direct manifestations of the
interposition of Providence in their favor, than
we have had from our first struggle Cor freedom
to this day of the funess of every earthly bless
| ing. In light and in darkness we have had our
pillars Of cloud and of fire, and they have gui-
ded and guarded us till We have reached our
promised land--til we have nothing to fear but
our own crimes and Goles and the just iudg.
mcnts of God. Whence, then, all this agitation
this excitement, this desire to break up the
Confederacy, and to rush blindly into future
whose fearful results may well appal the cour-
age of the boIdest, as they defy the sagacIty oi
the wisest? Are we tired of prosperity--oi
| freedom--of all that makes human government
dear to man? Do we murmur at those who
brought US up ont of the land OF Egypt? Do
we desire intestine war, the bitterest of all wars,
standing armies, oppressive taxes, an iron rule,
and then, it may be, the tyranny of some military
chaftain. building his own glory upon the ruined
| glory o. his country? Let no man deude him
self with the pursuason, that this free Govern
ment of great Republic--the worlds hope and
our own, which has done so much for human
| happiness here, and so much for human liberty
everywhere---can be overthrown by peaceabe
action, come when or whence it may. He has
read the book OF human nature and the book oil
human history to small purpose, indeed, who
indnlges in such fatal error. [ am not DEAL
ing in abstract rights, nor with extreme ones
the former are scarcely worth investigation, and
the latter must work their own way, when the
time comes, if it should come, that one State OF
one section of the country may feel such de-
gree of unconstitutional oppression, as to leave
! it no choice between tame submission to wrong
and the assertion of the last remedy of an out.
ragged people. / trust such state of things
will never arise. | believe it never will, and
assuredly it is not among US now. No, as GER
tainly as there is truth in the experience of man.
! kind, the day that sees this Confederation dis
| solved, will see the commencement of hostile
feelings and acts which will engage all heads
and hearts, and hands, and will usher in one o
the bitterest and the longest conflicts ever called
| by human passions into unnecessary existence
Then what do we attempt TO fee from, and
where do we seek to 90? From liberty, peace
secnrity, prosperity--from such a present and
such future as the world never saw--to war, anC
to all the countless evils it brings with it, o.
which, thank God this generation of Americans
know little but by history, but whose exten
and terrible results they will learn by bitter ex
perience, if they are not wise in time. AEc
why? What irresistible motive urges US onward
in this fearful course? What are we disputing
about, that separation would secure or remove
as one section or another of the country de
mands or resists it? As to the various question;
arising out of our various Mexican acquisitions
and out of subjects connected directly or in
directly with slavery, so far as Congress ha:
constitutional power to deal with them, they
were adjusted at its last session in reasonable
spirit of compromise. The adjustment was no
the triumph of one local section, or of one po
litical party over another. 1t was based upoE
a spirit of equity and conciliation, avoiding tht
exercise of power Of Intervention with slaverI
IN the leITltOTleS, WHICH was peCultdlly OD.sOA
ious to the South, as being unconstitutional an
derogatory to their pride and their rights. AM
it must not be forgotten, that the assertion o
this power in Congress was the original caus
of offence, and the great measure which unite
the Southern States, almost as one man, 10 re
sistance. Well, it was abandoned, and the ques
ton left to the people to whom it belongs, an
by whom alone it can be safely solved. AS Z
the other measures, you know them all. and
had hoped they would be satisfactory and b
followed by general harmony and tranquility
And so / believe they would ere long, had NO
the public feeling in some of the non-slayehol
ding States been excited by misconstruction
and Misrepresentation of the Fugitive S.ay
law SO as to call down upon it peculiar denun
Citations, and 10 demand in some places, its re
peal and in others, its resistance. | am no
going into this subject, fellow-citizens, at all
It is not necessary. ] believe neither in tn
right OF resistance, nor in the poIicy-I may adj
indeed, tbelgood faith Of repeal. The principle
Of the former, if established, destroy all govern
ments, and the exercise Of the latter, am firml
pursuaded would destroy this Confederation a
surely as to-morrow's sun will rise upon il
Believing this, /, for one, shall set my fac
against resistance and repeal, and hold on to th
compromise as an anchor Of hope and safety
when the storm RACES so wildly around US.
Every true patriot should now endeayor {
ILL.,, ~. tim. roeforo rr,aon