Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-02-01
THE FUTURE.

culated to excite in hopeful minds serious apprehen
sons of disturbance Of the general tranquility an
order in any quarter of the country, unless throug
the action of the State of South Carolina, VIII
threatens to secede from the Union by hersel
alone, should she not be able to induce certa
other States Of the South to make common caus
with her in breaking up the Union because of he
morbid discomfort under it. There are indeed
few feeting clouds visible in the North and North
storm that has spent its force, than as indications
of any dsaifection to the Union in that section
With the disgracious example of the one State O
the South before it, and The judgment passed there
on by all who profess attachment to the Union o.
the States, the spectacle would indeed be
melancholy one of any State in the North OF
the West .tolioWing that example, by withhold
ing effective support from the laws Of the United
States, and especially from any one Of those
laws, by the recent passage of which, in spirit
of compromise, quiet and repose were restored to
the agitated and excited passions of different parts oi
the country. Of those laws and that compromise,
let us say, in passing, that if patriot President
be not sustained in his avowed determination to
gard the measures comprised in it as ga final set
tlement" of the vexed question, and to enforce
them with all the power Of the Government il, in
other words, any State, in what for brevity's sake,
we will term the Northern interest, catching the
infection of Notification from the opposite quarter
of the country, shall encourage opposition, under
any pretence, to the full and prompt execution of
any one Of those laws, to the extent Of defeating
its operation in such State, such notification of the
law, it is greatly to be feared, may lead to conse-
quences which no man, who has not heart of flint
where one Of flesh and blood ought to be, can think
Of without shuddering.
The case which has arisen in the South, which
we have more specially to consider at present.
howsoever it may justly pain the sensibilities
of the friends of the Union, ought hardly to sur
prise more than it alarms them. 1t is one which
has occurred before, though less conspicuously
and less formidably one of class of difficulties,
TO be encountered in the working of the Federal
Government, which was clearly foreseen by the
trainers of that Government, and guarded against
by all the precautions which it was in their
power to interpose. Considering how much
this class of contingencies occupied the thoughts
and weighed upon the minds of the Washingtons,
the Franklins, the Madsons, the Hamltons, the
Pinckneys, and the Kings who framed the Const-
tuition, it is rather matter of wonder that such
case as that now before us has not occurred more
frequently than that it should have occurred at ALL
The pages of that great textbook fthe principles of
Republican Government, "the Federalist," abound
with proofs of the forecast in this particular of its
distinguished authors, who had mainly assisted to
build up our own admirable Constitution. With
the permission of the reader will refer to one or
two of the passages of that work, within our own
recollection, bearing or less directly upon the
subject before US:
The utility of Confederacy, ,ueA to suppress fac
on and to guard the internal tranquility of ates as to
increase their external force and security, is in reality not
idea. II has been pracsed upon in different countries
ages and has received the sanction of the most
writer's on the subject Of politics."
"sIt svery probable says Montesqueu, that mankind
would have been obliged, length live constantly under
the government of single person, had they not con-
ved kind Of constitution that has all the internal advan
ages Of republican, together with the external force of
monarchcal government. mean COM fsderate republic.
"sA republic Of this kind able to Withstand an external
force, may support itself without any internal corruption
The form of this society prevents all of nconve-
niences
"sIf single member should attempt to usurp the su-
pree authority, he could not be supposed have equal
authority and credit in all the confederate States Were
to have too great influence one this oold alarm the
rest. Were he to subdue part that which would still
remain free might oppose him with forces, independent of
those which he had usuped and ovepowe him before he
could be settled in his usurpation.
'"StouM popular insurrection happen in one Of the
onfedere Sates the others able to quel it. Should
abuses creep into part they reformed by those that
remain sound. THE State may be destroyed one side
and not the other; the confedeacy may be dissolved,
and the confe,lerates preserve their sovereignty
Theinfuenee Of factious leaders may kindle flame
,cn their particular States, but wM be unable to spread
general conagration through the other States religious
sect may degenerate into political faction in part of the
conedeacy; but the variety of dispersed the
tire face of it the national councils against any
danger from that rage for paper money for
abolition of debts for equal division of property, for
any other improper wicked project H less apt to per-
pade the whok body ofthe Union than particular member
on in the proportion such malady more likely
to ant particular county district than an entire State.
In the srt and proper structure of the Uon therefore,
we behold REPUBLICAN, REMEDY for the diseases most in
cident to a republican government"
"Thee is nothing absurd impractcabe in the idea Of
league alliance between Independent nations for certain
defined purposes precisely stated in treaty regulating all