The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-21

Why should We not secede! II the Union has
failed TO answer the purposes for which u was
created-if 1t has been so perverted na 10 operate
as curse instead of blessing upon the South
ern section---if it only serves to aggrandize the
North ut the expense Of the Southland II there
is nothing upon which TO base hope that the
former contemplates any change in her policy Of
aggression, which all acknowledge she has been
pursuing, we ask why--why the South should
not secede
Is she not able TO repeal the assaults of her
enemiesY Then she is already enslaved Is she
afraid to make the attempt Then the legitimate
inference to be drawn, is still less creditabe to
her boosted chivalry. Or, is it, that although we
confess we have been wronged, yet that we do
not consider the wrongs we have hitherto sur
fered, sufficiently aggravated justify secession
and that, therefore, we would rather "bear those
ills we have, than fly to others that we know
not off"
We fear that this is too true, and that "there's
the respect that makes calamity OF so long HE,
and that is the conscience that makes towards
of US ALL"
Sand thus the native hue Of resolution
Is sicklled Fer with the pale cast OF thought;
And enterprises of great pth and moment
With this regard their current turn away,
And lose the name of action.
But such motives and such reasoning will not
bear examination, and if we suffer ourselves to
be influenced by them, the fate OF the,hos.ile
Danes may be ours, and we and our enemies
both fall by the sword at last.
We have been wrOnged, say our submission
friends, but still not to that degree that would
warrent us in breaking up this GLORIOUS Union
--'the last refuge for the down-trodden" &c.
Let us investigate this q little.
In the first place, to submit to one wrong, is
holding out direct encouragement, and offer
ing powerful temptation to our enemies to
inhct a second and a more aggravated one.
How clearly this truth is demonstrated in the
history of this country? If the South had not so
foolishly listened to the fatal counsels Of the
compromises" in 1920, but had manfully stood
up for her rights--al her rights to the millionth
part of an iota--who believes that the expert
ment of ascertaning how many indignites could
be successfully heaped upon her with IMMUNITY,
would ever be the second time entered upon !
But it is not the FIRST nor the second, nor the
tenth nor twentieth instance of wrong perpe-
,rated upon her by the North, of which the
South is now complaining. The most palpable
and barefaced acts of aggression have been COM
mitted upon her during the long series oftwen-
ty or thirty years past.
In the second place, if the South submits
much longer to such confessedly unjust legisla-
ton as has marked the history of the federal
government during the last quarter of a century,
she will become so weak and the North SO
strong, as to put it out of her power to resist
the shackless Of her abolition oppressors-if she
would.
In the third place, if breaking up the Union
would be great calamity to the world, notwith-
standing the injustice of its Legislation towards
the Southern section, whose fault would it be ?
Certainly the guilt would not rest upon the
shoulders of the South. If she finds herself
compelled to go out of the Union, it will be for
the sole purpose of seeking that justice which
she cannot obtain in the Union.
In the fourth place, the issues should not turn
upon the question of how much loss the South
can possibly bear, and how many acts of oppres-
sion she can possibly manage to put up with !;
before absolute starvation and the chains of a
tyrant actually confront her in the face,--but, is
it the intention of her a5sailants to wrong her
at all, and have wrongs really been committed (!
Weak as were the American colonies when the
revolution broke out, and powerful as was Eng
land they did not hesitate a moment to vindi-
cate and maintain their constitutional rights by
the sword. They never submitted" from the
first. Why should the Southern States submit
now, who are more oppressed than were the
mother colonies of l776?
In the fifth place, it does not by any means
follow that the extinction of liberty would be
the result of dissolution of the Union, or that
there would no longer be any asylum for the
oppressed of other lands quite the contrary,
the direct reverse of all this would be the eff
feet The Union has already been once dis
solved, to its advantage, since the revolution,
why may it not be second time? Cotton and
corn would grow just well out of the Union
as in it; and the calls of Europe would be quite
as loud for the great Southern staples then as
now.
In the sixth and last place, the statistics of
our country show that the Union is now, and
has been for years past to the South positive
curse instead of blessing, and all the talk,
therefore about waiting for further aggressions
before resorting to such n measure, and the
calamity it would inhict upon the world, &c, &c.
is based upon false premises and has conse-
queptly neither force nor relevancy.
The time to resist palpable encroachment
upon our rights, is at the moment it occurs to
wait for the REPETITION of the offence before we
can consent to vindicate our manhood, is assist
ing to forge our own chains Montgomery
(ALa.) Atlas.
A SLAYER SUNK BY MISTAKE, AND OTHER
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