The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-07-23

sesscs interests peculiarly itsown. must
free to work them out. Seewhat forf sign int
ference and absurd laws hay, done for D ~ nd I
See what protection and ar insular osition
s have done fcr London Apayst whs Z would
9 she have beel, or what, had Germany AN France
. been free, agd the Rhine opeI to comusrcial
I industry? There would have zen a London,
but it would have been on tn, banks Of the
Rhine, and Hpt upon the little steamlet, called
the Thames.
E3g A complaint made to police justice ID
Lowell, OF a1aggravated misdemeaner, was dis.
missed by hih, few days since, because the
parties prefghng it were atheists, and therefore
unable to appreciate the obligations of an oath.
To it is statsa:
@The que&ion for the magistrate is clear
enough, mandy, to ascertain from the statement
of parties tft commission or not of q crime.
Nothing can ke imagined more absurd sthan for
person place in authority to watch over public
morals, executing himself from the trouble, or
liberating tho accused from motives so frivolous
and nonsepsica The testimony of one party
is as goodand as weighty as that of another, so
long as they have sense enough to comprehend
| the gravity of the matter in question. And
what ion earth some accidental within or fancy,
which a moments reflection may correct on the
morrdSv, can have to do with. destroying the
proofs pf the misdemeanor, we are at q loss to
comprehend
We are not for dealing out a savage jusfios,
or an undkcriminating law. But we are de-
cidedly agaiDx tn carrying out in this country
Of those 6stions for bullying justice, which 90
delight the English lawyer, the whole end and
object Of which is to leave ways open by which
higher class criminals may escape.
We hardly care how mild the law is, or how
-apidly justice is dealt out; but what we demand
$, that it shall not fail, and that it shall not be
made mockery of.
We call the attention of those of our readers
who contend that State has not the right to Sc
cede, to the following which we extract from the
New Orleans Courier:
(, THE RIGHT TO SEcEpE.-One Of the most
ridiculous humbugs put forth by the presses on
the side of consolidation, is the humbug that
sovereign State has not the right to secede-that
secession would be rebellion. Rebellion in
deed.-As If one sovereign could not decline
any longer association with fellow-sovereign
but it would be rebellion forsooth The great
mind which framed the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, knew as well as any other man that ever
lived in the tide of time, what are the rights of
men, individually as citizens or collectively as
States. In this declaration he says that sail men
are endowed with certain inalienable rights
that among these are life, liberty, and the pur-
suit Of happiness-that whenever anu form of
government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the rght-nay, it is the duty of such people
to throw off such government"-Again, in the
resolutions of the Kentucky legislature, in 1898,
drafted by him, he says that athe several States
composing the United States of America, are not
united on the principles of unlimited submission
to the general government; but that by compact,
under the style and title of Constitution of the
United States, and of amendments thereto, they
constituted general government for special
purposes-delegated to that government certain
definite powers reserving each State to itself the
residuary mass of right to their own self govern-
ment; and that whatsoever the general govern.
ment assumes undelegated powers, its acts are
unauthoritatiye, void, and of no force: what be-
longs to ~ compact, each State seeded as a
State, and rs an integral party, its co-States
forming as to itself the other party. That the
government created BY this compact was not
made the exclusive or final Judge of the extent
Of the power delegated to itself; since that
would have made its discretion, and not the
Constitution, the measures Of its powers; but
that, as in all other cases Of compact among
parties having no common Judge, each party has
an equal right TO judge for itself, as we'll Of in
fraction, as Of the mode and measures of re-
dress"
And, further on, he says that ato take from
the States all powers Of selfgovernment and
transfer them to general and consolidated gov
eminent, without regard to the special obliga-
ton and reservation solemnly agreed to in that
compact is not for the peace and happiness or
prosperity Of the States (for which object the
Union was formed and that therefore this con-
monwealth Is determined, rs il doubts not its
co. States are, not tamely TO submit to undeega-
ted and consequently unlimited powers in no
man OF body Of men on earth; III
that it would be dangerous deusion, were a
confidence in the men Of our choice to silence
our fears for the safety Of our rights that conf
dence is everywhere the parent Of despotism,
free government is founded in jealousy and not
in confidence, which prescrbes limited consti-
tutions TO bind down those we are obliged to
trust with power u
In question Of power, then, let no more be heard
Of confidence 10 man, but bind him down from
mischief by the chains ofthe Constitution"
Modern secessionists claim no more nor less
than the rights here defined by Jefferson, and
hence they are no more traitors than he was
and only as he was, DESTROYS Of preserving State
rights in the Union IL possible, but to preserve
them at all hazards, OUT or IN. In the lang
guage Of Jsckson-the doctrine Of the State
rights men is, ito contend for nothing but what
is right, an TO submit to nothing that is wrong
SUICIDE OF CONFERENCE.-The Wheel
ing Gazette says that John London, who was
arrested n few days since for counterfeiting,
while on mis- way TO Virginia under charge Of
officers, succeeded while at the Goddard House,
at Maysville, in taking sov ething that caused
his death. lie died on Friday evening, lth inst
OCEAN NAweATIer.-The propeller steam
ship Palmetto, the pioneer in line Of steamers
between Baltimore and Charleston, was launched
on Saturday last, at Baltimore. She will, it Is
expected, be ready for service in the course Of a