The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-05

2 the dalv sort Of Legislation which the Sumems
Court would sanction or enforce Practically,
it II our only remedy, weak and feeble a. II Is.
The judiciary is the only channel through which
tho Constitution, in its ordinary operation, can
be enfoeeed and when this fails u.s. the Consti-
tuition fails US. | blame no one for conforming
Ia their legislation to the Judicial decisions Of
the country. But as a senator shall not sur
render my views Of the Constitution to the de-
cision of any tribunal; and as u Southern man,
| have felt it to be my duty to expose the wrong
which the South in my opinion, has sustained
by the usurpation of Congress-, and the cores
ponding usurpations Of the Supreme Court of
the United States.
Sir, know very well that it will be said that
these few remarks tend to support the Adolf
tionists and should not ut all be surprised If
l should consequently be denounced by some
of the papers of the country, not very far from
Washington, as having very close understand
ing with the Abolitionists Such imputations
arc to be expected in these days; aud a man who
has lived to forty or fifty years, az have done,
and who is not capable of listening to political
aspersions upon his public or his private reputa-
tion with GOODNESS and self-possession, is unfit
for public life Public life, in all free countries,
is not life of quietude and repose. He ~ho
would be useful as statesman must begin his
career by schooling himself to capacity Of hard,
simple endurance, and be prepared also, as the
only efficient means of vindcation, to act down
and live down all mputati0ns on his motives or
policy. think the Abolitionists have thei. way,
according TO the Constitution as it is construed
and administered. do not think they would
be very unwilling that the existing laws should
continue without being materially modified or
changed. They would infinitely prefer that you
should send an army to Boston to enforce them
take away the warning, designed in mercy by
the executive proclamation, and march the militia
of neighboring States into Massachusetts to en-
force the Fugitive slave law, and thus make our
rights under the Constitution incompatible with
the independence and sovereignty Of the States.
They would much rather have that, than that
the simple alternate should be laid down to them
by the Southern States, "Take into your hands
the Constitution and the faith implied; give us
by your legislation our rights, or we will dis
solve the Union" If that alternative was pre-
scented, as it ought to be- with the Constitution
in our hands, we would have our rights. Why,
YOU may pass your laws; but a handful OF peo-
ple-it does not require majority--can battle
your authority in every town in the United
States, and thus nullify your law, derde your
fiance. Senators on the other side of the cham
ber not J. are on the side Of the Abolitionists
Sir, what is the foundation of aboltionism
in this Union? 1t is consolidation. remem-
Der many years since that he who filled the seat
now occupy, and whose shoe-latchets as
statesman am unworthy to loose, said to the
senator from Massachusetts, now no longer in
this body, [Mr. Webster, in the great debate
that occurred in 1888:
"If the principles you contend for are correct,
you will wake up a spirit of abolition in the
North; you will make your people believe they
are responsible for this institution; and the day
that that principle gets into their minds, and
that feeling into their hearts, this Union will be
at an end And you yourself will be the very
first to feel the effects of the doctrine you are
now maintaining by being ostracised and
scorned"
Although that great statesman did not live to
see the fulflment of his prophecy, we now see
it. Where is the great statesman OF Massachu-
setts in Massachusetts,
1t is we'll that he is at the other end of the
avenue for if he now stood in Massachusetts,
and sought the sutfrageslof the people to hold
the seat he then occupied, he would be rejected
bv an overwhelming majority. The anticipa-
| tons of him whose seat | now occupy are now
realized, and consolidation here has crowned
abolition with its success. When you show
the people of the North that tbs Constitution
is nothing but what majority of Congress
thinks proper to make it, what is the natural in
ference from such teachings? Why, that when
ever n majority of Congress think proper to
abolishE slavery it ought to be abolished, and
that if they are responsible for the institution,
they ought to abolish it. Consolidation is abol-
itionsm; and those who have given abolitionism
| it's success in this country are the statesmen who
have been driving the car of consolidation over
the limitations Of the Constitution and the rights
of the South. Sir, you cannot consolidate this
Union in one particular, and in others leave it
unconsolidated IL you break down the limita-
lions of the taxing power; if you declare that
that power shall exist not merely, as the Con-
stitution says, for the purpose of revenue, but
shall exist for the purpose of plundering one
section of the Union for the benefit of another !;
| if you declare your power to establish vast cor
porations, and thus control the currency Of the
country; if you perpetrate the late outrages of
your compromise measures, you must consol-
idate the government in other particulars.
You promulge the doctrines here which vir-
tually make the Constitution nothng--its lmi-
tations mere breath And now, when abolition
rears its head, and stares consolidation in the
face, you wish to frown it down. 1t will laugh
you to scorn. II is only carrying out the prin
ciples you taught 1.-THE life you gave it. II is
only Kidding themselves of that responsibility
you imposed upon them, and carrying out your
principles to their legitimate results. Fir rast
days all statesmen had stood upon the limita-
tons of the Constitution; if they had said the
Constitution gives us no power beyond Its plain
and simple grants, these people would have re-
spected these limitations. Their minds would
never have respected these limitations. Their
minds would never have turned to the great
question of Southern slavery, and they would
have enforced the obligations of the Constitu-
ton, because it their bond, their faith, their
duty. The greatest friends of abolition in this
country are the consoldationsts. They are the
fathers Of it; they have made 1t. From their
corrupt constructions of the Constitution this
hidcous monster has arisen, now shaking this
Union to its CENTRE and, in my opinion, destined
to overthrow it.
Sir, what did this Congress do at the last ses-
sion! Consolidation carried its triumphant career
unchecked over the rights and honor of the