Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1851-01-04
Abolition Of Slavery in the States, by
the General Government,

10 me Bar OF the United States
To-day we commence a systematic movement
having for its object to give 4 new interpretatio
to the Constitution of the United States-an inter
probation that shall enable the general government
to abolish slavery in the States.
We have no manner of doubt that this interpre
tallon is the true one, and that the contrary ha
obtained only through ignorance and fraud. Ant
we propose to bring this question to the test of thu
highest and legal tribunal in the countryside ba,
q The ooasury-a tribunal that controls, and neces
sarily must control, the constitutional opinions o.
courts, congress, and people.
With this view we to-day to strike
Off twenty odd thousand copies of the first chapter
of the Appendix of Mr.. Spooner's defence for
Fugitive Slaves" This chapter contains a briet
summary OF the arguments that prove that slavery
neither has, nor ever had, any constitutional or le-
gal existence in this country, and that the general
government has power to abolish it. We propose
to send a copy of this chapter, to each Of the law
yers, whose names are gwen in Livingston's
Lawyers Directory" numbering nineteen thou
sand five hundred, and also to the editors generally
throughout the country.
Now, in our mind, the editor of the Chyonoty1s,
and his defence of Fugitive Slaves, as contained in
his paper, instead as he probably supposes will be
the case, that either the article or the man can
effect any sympathy, or any goodt to their black and
t1easonous designs, either here OF in any other por-
ton of this country, the very antipode will result
and deeper hatred and deeper animosity germi-
nate in the breasts OF all good and wise men,
against those daring and treacherous spirits at the
North, who, not satisfied with using heretofore
every artifice known to treachery, injustice and
rascailty, must now set themselves deliberately at
work. through the talent of hired partisans, and
paid but prostituted prints, to oppose the direct
law OF the land; In the face. too, Of a Northern
majority in its favor: We refer to the Fugitive
Slave Law.
If acts, such Al as these we have alluded to above,
cannot be noticed and punished as high treason, We
should like to know what description of conduct
comes lntothat category in this Republican Govern
Had the previous high-handed measures
offanatic Abolitionists, been taken under considera-
ion by the Executive of this Union, at any former
lay, and he had assumed the responsibility of so
onstrmng the &c .sautnn, that the most rigorous
impartial punishment be inflicted upon all
Who dared to have waved aloft the fre-brand of
iscord, or strike at the foundation of our harmony
nd peace, by endeavoring to destroy one of the
institutions of the country, the Union
'ould be in harmony and happiness at the present
me, and the cry of Secession and Disunaon never
ave been heard in any district of this Repub-
To the Abolitionists alone may be attributed t
le primeval source of all cur troubles at the pre. l
mt day. :
1t behooves every patriotic journalist, in what :
'er section Of the country this ~nefarious sheet
luded to may be received, at once to nail to the
unter its false and malicious character, and let d
vile and pcrnicious theories explode upon the j
of their originators. Had the editor of the a
sent any animate creature into this
IRISH, or had come himself, and exhibited his I'M h
'ly and icentious print, instead of making that r
cd old gentleman, Uncle Sam, his unconcious I
ent, either would have thought this the hottest !,
lie in christendom-even if the snow should have &
en- four inches deep las it was a few days since) Il
d the cold winds Of the North las cheerless as 81
the breasts Of the editors brethren) were sing p
gthrough leadess trees, and telling of the DESC u
ion in living and lifeless nature, from whence ;"
ey sprang. f.