The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-08-18

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Secession tho Sure Kennedy.
The following extract from the report Of Gen
WaIIace's speech at UnionyiIIe on the 4th Of
July. les worth reading. Like everything coming
from the author it is distinguished by directness,
sense and force
"The right of secession is the only mode by
which We can exercise veto power upon the
federal government The veto power should
have been left with the States, by the express
terms of the Constitution itself, where alone u
safe depository Of il can be found. Ii becomes,
therefore, question of the last importance, that
the right of secession, should be established and
acknowledged; and were there no other ques-
ton now before the people of the South than
this alone ii would be incumbent upon them TO
obtain clear and distinct recognition of this right
How we TO obtain this recognition There
is no way to retain il but to resort to the act Of
secession. Until we shall have seeded from
the Union, we can obtain no recognition of the
right to secede Once out Of the Union, by the
act Of secession---having resumed that sovereign
ty which is now denied us, our voice will be re-
spected, and until then it never will be. We
will then be in condition TO make terms il we
desire it, aud even if we desire to save the Union,
this is the only mode by which it can be done.
Let us suppose that South Carolina has seeded,
from the Union If the general government re-
sort to coercion, and South Carolina is subdued
there is an end forever of State sovereignty on
this continent by that act alone, the character
of the government will be disclosed, and it be-
comes at once, to all intents aud purposes a con-
soldated empire. II State sovereignty be thus
crushed in the case of South Carolina, in our
fate every Southern State may read their own
What State South of us would ever seek to de-
fend themselves in any way against the tyranny
of the general government, after South Caro-
lima has been subjugated? When that time shall
arrive, the phantom Of confederated republic
of independent States will disappear forever, and
We will be under the iron rule of remorseless
despotsm.
Do any suppose that the people of the South
are sufficiently blinded not to see this! When.
ever, therefore, South Carolina shall make the
practical issue of secession, the States South of
US, in order to save themselves from these dire
calamities, will be compelled to cooperate with
her; they can't escape it. Ifhe were told, there
fore, that he musk wait for cooperation, he
would answer, the only mode to guarantee that
cooperation is TO act-to made practical ISSUE
and if we do not obtain cooperation then, all
past history is fiction. 1t is clear, from these
propositions. that the secession Of single
State must, in the very nature of things, either
effect reform in the general government, by
placing it in the power of State to check its
tyranny by exercising the veto of secession, or
dissolve the Unions and the Union once dis
solved, Southern confederacy is inevitable
Let us not. then, hide from ourselves the i'm
portant fact that South Carolina holds in her
hands the power to destroy the Union. He
Ind no faore Of Lar
State having like interests with hers, cannot,
will not, dare not, permit her to fight the great
battle of Southern rights alone. In his iudg-
ment, the prevailing ideas in reference to the
cooperation which is sought are not well
founded. How did the colonies in 1776 obtain
cooperation with one another in resisting
British aggressions? Was the Union formed
before the revolution begun? Certainly not
The battle of Bunker Hill was fought by the
militia OF Massachusetts, under command Of
Col. Prescott, militia colonel The commits
sion he held was from the colony Of Massachu,
sets, and not from the United States. The
regiment he commanded was not called ont by
the authority of the United States, but by the
authority Of the colony of Massachusetts. The
conflict was thus begun by a single colony
without cooperation How did she obtain il I?
The sound of the guns of Bunker Hill had
scarcely passed away, before South Carolina
rushed to arms to cooperate with Massachu-
setts in common cause which involved the
fate of both ;and the first victory of the revolu-
ton was won upon Sullivan's Island against
powerful British feet, by regiment of South
Carolina militia, under the command of mill
tia colonel, and under the sole authority of
South Carolina. When these events occurred,
there was no Union--the blood that was shed at
Bunker Hill and Fort Moultrie, brought about
and that speedily, union of the colonies
And Washington was not commander-in-
chief when the Union was formed The Union
OF which we now hear so much, was the legiti-
mate result of separate State action, and
Washington placed at the head of an army
raised after the war began. This is lesson
which history teaches us---let US not lack the
resolution TO profit by it,"