Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-01-25

mol regarQ6Q as iOIthinS CNCh Pois u aAo 6Ao~
on which it was to be justified.
Early in the work referred to, the writer intro
duces the readers to knot of politicians !" IN the
neighborhood Of Richmond" in Virginia, who had
remarked the steady tendency of Federal measures
q 10 weaken the maicontent States in the South
and to increase the OF their Northern OPP
Is pressors and those Of the General Government.
" Hence they feared that, whenever Virginia or
!" any other of the slaveholding States should find
itself driven 10 secession, the other party, in the
consciousness of superior strength, might be tempt
ed forcibly to resist the exercise OF the right.
"They thus arrived at the conclusion that sEPARA-
TON (which they deemed to be inevitable,) to be
g peaceable, must be prompt" This, taken in
connexion with the events of the last year, is, if
not conclusive strong circumstantial evidence that
the design of dissolution of the Union was deli
berately entertained, as long ago as fifteen years,
by certain class Of Southern men. A few pages
further in the story, we are told that the power
and will Of fixed majority in the North to give
" a master to the South had been made manifest;
THAT is to say, the probability of Mr.. VAN BuRENs
accession to the Presidency had been ascertained.
" Under these circumstances, the Southern States
chad been at length forced to see that the day for
g decisive action had arrived: they determined
!" therefore no loager to abide the obligations Of
" Constitution the forms Of ,chscl alone remained;
!" and having, by movement nearly simultaneous,
"secsdedf from the Union, they hadimmediately form
"ed SOUTHERN CoNFEDERAcv." A little furtheron,
after informing us that the hero Of it had travelled
;,ate South Carolina" and that the effect of this
journey on his opinions was not a matter of doubt
to his friendshe story runs, that the opponents Of
the Administration, disgrace withit) had consult
q ed much together. Not only had they sketched
"proDisionally the plan Of "a Southern Confsdera
cy'-the identical plan, perhaps, (who knows that
was said to be here in Washington, at this time last
year, wanting only signature and seal to fit it for
immediate use-but they had also taken measures
to Regulate their relations aoith foreign Povers
One Of their number, travelling abroad, had been
instructed to prepare the way for commercial
&c treaty ,oith Great Britain" &C. /" So matters
" stood Gn Virginia) when the astounding ntelli-
:" gence reached Richmond that diplomatic agent
i" from the State Of South Carolina had been long
secretly entertained at the Court Of st. James,
and that he was supposed to have negotiated an
:" informal arrangement for commercial treaty
between that Government and the C0nfed-
/" eracy THEN FORMING u, the South" This news
is represented to have "6lled the whole North
ern faction in Virginia the Van Buren, democra-
cy, to wit" with CONSERVATION 1t was feared
that that State could not be withheld from join
ing the Southern league except by force, and that,
:" IN contest of force, she would be backed, not
i" only by the Southern States, but By the pouer of
Great Britain" We conclude our present no.
tice of this book with the following Dialogue be-
tween the Uncle and Nephew to be found in it,
in which the former is endeayoring to beguile his
unsophiscated relative into the belief that dis
solution of the Union would be mere child's play
"What the evils Of disunion ..e
Weakaess dissension, and the danger liberty from
the standing armies Of distinct and rival Powers"
Hence you have permitted yourself to look narrow-
ly into the question J"
81 never have. have no doubt of our wrongs but
have suffered myself to weigh them against dsunon
That have been taught to regard the Of evil"
But disunion has no,o come. The question now is
whether you shall continue to bear these scyogs or seek the
remedy offered by nuation to join the Southern Con-
tsderacy? The evils Of which you speak would certainly
be increased by such step. We might weaken the
North, but not ourselves As standing armies here we
have one among u.s. Ihe m0ve which that danger
is reversed in its operation. While we remain as we
are the standing army fastened upon us. BY the pro-
posed change, shake it off Then as to dissension if
there Of now, there would be none thes
Indeed the only would be removed and would be
that both parties had every nducement peace. Even
in the present unnatural condition, you that the sepaa
ton having taken place. there remains nothing quarrel
about" :...a
No one who has been familiar with the topics
and tone of the discussions in the South for the last
two years but will at once recognise in this fc-
tion-a fiction not at all more strange than the re-
ality-the projected shadow of what has already
come to pass. From that day to this these de-
feated and disaffected "partisans" have spared
no pains to make their story come true, by dif.
fusing doubts and dscontehts into the quiet homes
as well as the political circles Of the South, with
view to bring about revolution, which, had their
ambition succeeded, would, in its consequences,
have desoated those homes, broken up those abodes
of peace and happiness, and devastated the coun-
try with the flames of fierce, unsparing, and
unrelenting civil war.
From the epoch Of 1887, when most of the
friends Of Mr.. CALHOUN began to renquish the
cherished hope of seeing him ever placed at the
head of the Federal Government, that distinguished
gentleman remained in the Senate, for four or five