Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-05-10


ions pregnant with truth than is contained there
in Let the reader pass back to the bill that called
these remarks out and fconvenent trace the bounda-
ry indicated by the bill for the reduction of Texas
map, and see Just what the bill proposed.
g am by no means able to discern how it is that
what the honorable Senator is pleased to call the
frce-son principle was at all let in by the resou-
tons of annexation. On the contrary, | contend
that this principle is most efectually and forever
precuded from all the territory embraced within
the limits of Texas by these very resolutions, and
that there is a moral certainty that all the soil of
Texas now open to the settlement of southern men
and their slave property, will forever remain thus
open. | will ONLY mention two reasons out of
many which might be urged is support offhis view
of the subject but they will be held to be sufi-
cent by all unprejudced minds. And, first, | ask
honorable gentlemen to look at the surface of Tex
as, indented it is with various noble rivers all
of them, except one, the Red river,) running
from the mountainous region of the north to the
Gulf of Mexico in the south, nearly in a straight
line. Glance for a moment at the Sabine, the
Trinity, the Brasos, the San Antonio, and Rio
Bravo del Norte Would any but a madman ever
think of dividing Texas into new States witdout
adopting some of these noble rivers as bounda-
ries -
Comment is superfluous. Senator Foote was at the
true Southern party he then for equality and JUS
tice. But read the followng-t contains much sound
sense.
But let it be recollected that no such new State
or States ever be formed aythout tie consent of
Ieras,-and then let any man answer me the
question, whetheri possible that the noble State
here represented by the two distinguished gentle
men now in my eve Messrs. Busk and Houston |
"a State so eminently southern in her origin, her
heroic achievements, her well known political
principles, and her interestS--can ever become so
far rccreant to her own high character-her glori-
deeds in the Of her revolution how she
can become so unmindful of her true honor-her
safety now and in future-so blind to the accursed
designs of the factonsts who have already plotted
her undoing, and the ultimate destruction of the
whole south-os to be acHLingiy used by anpriecj
pled men, whether resilient IN tie north or IN the
sOuth-aChether dean0gGgueS, fanatics traitors
for the purpose of multiplying the number of our
adversaricS in the national councils, by permitting
additional free States to be formed within her linn
it's whose representatives here and in the other
wing of the Capitol would be shortly found in close
alliance with those bace and unprncipled men
who have SO long kept up wicked excitement in
the two houses of Congress, and who will never
be content until the faircst portion of this noble
republic shall be subjected to rayage, to dessola
ton, and to ruin--and until the most high-spirtcd
and gallant people that the sun of heaven has cv
cr shone upon shall be involved in scenes more
horrible and more dishonoring than has ever yet
polluted the pages of history. Never will Texas
consent, or think for moment of consenting, that
single of this, her valued territory, shall be
given up to her own worst enemies, to be used
to enlarge the arena of gadiatorial strife; which
is certainly large enough in all conscience without
this enormous addition to it. Now, sir, what
bright prospect does not the honorable Senator's
bill unfold to us for the speedy organization of
another State wherein his favorte frce-sOil princi-
plies may gain ascendency! Sir, anxious as | was
to bring about the early reduction of the territori
al limits of Texas-satisfed as was that this was
decidedly necessary to the convenient manage
ment of her own governmental concerns Ger
tainly never thought of attempting to accomplish
such an object by such means as he has chosen to
adopt. AS senatorial representative of one Of
the slave States of the Confederacy, | could not
have recOnclled 1t to my own sense of duty to en-
gage in any scheme which menaced the whole
South with such serious detrimcnt Were [ to
bring forward at such period this project so
fraught with mischief as is this one to the whole
holding section of the COnfederacy, | should
expect to be speedily instructed oft of my seat in
this body for true it is, as John Randolph used
to say, those members of Congress who cannot be
instructed IN their seats must pertorce be instruc
ted out of them. | do not mean to say that the
parts of the honorable Senator's bill, TO which |
have been so seriously obecting, were plagjarized
from me- but merely that all which is not actually
mschevous in his bill was substantially copied
from the bill now in my hand, as it was at first
fromed, and it described in the newspapers.
{" This | had resolved to offer as a neW scheme OF
compromise; which, with the establishment of a
territorial government In New Mexico, in Deserct,
and California, and the ultimate admission of Cal
ifornia as a State when freed from her present
fortunate organization, hoped might tend to set
tie the vexed question of the Wilmot proxiso for
ever. | should certainly have offered the whole
| bill as it was first drawn up and in the form in
which | had submitted it to the consideration OF
various sage friends with whom / am in the habit
of counselling upon this subject, but for certain
proceedings in several of the free States of the
North, of which we have been recently notified
which satisfied me that could not offer anything
! that at all bore the characteristic features of
compromise, without encouraging our arrogant foes
to fercer and more extended aggressons, and bring
down other more erritating insults upon the south
ern States of the Confederacy.
''The resolutions of Vermont, now upon youl
table-the incendiary messages of the Governors
of PENNSYLVANIA and of Massachusetts-the truly
demoniacal resolutions now before the New orl
Leoislature-the extraordinary harangues made
in this, Hall since we assembled these and othe
facts of a kindred character satisfied me that TIT
season for compromise had forever passed by; o
that at least if propositions of compromises wer
hereafter to be offered, they ought to emanate from
the North. | became satisfied that the time ha'
1 arrived when 1t behooyed southern Senators ant