Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-02-27
The Presidents Message.

In answer t6 Mr.. Clay's resolution, the
President sent to the Senate on Friday, the
Message which we publish elsewhere. 1t gave
rise to debate which was not terminated at
the adjournment on Saturday. Mr.. Clay
arose Immediately, and expressed his great
satisfaction with the Message. He was fol-
lowed by Mr.. Hale, and an angry alteration
between the two Senators enlivened the oc-
casion. But we have nothing to do with that.
Mr. Clay represented that the fugitive law
had been successfully carried out everywhere
but in Boston. Mr.. Mason of Va, replied to
this position, and showed that the law had
been really successful nowhere; that its exc
cution in all parts of the North was obstruct-
ed with such an amount of difficulties, that it
was, for all useful purposes dead letter.
Mr. Butler of S. c., took part in the discus
sion, but we have no report of his remarks.
AS far as we have seen it. the debate had
not reached those great questions that are
raised in q practical shape by the Message.
The President it will be observed, assumes,
as an undoubted thing, that the Constitution,
in making him Commander-in-Chief of the
Army and Navy, has given to him the right of
employing these forces at his pleasure, in all
cases that call for, or may be thought to call
for, the addition of any sort OF summary
force to the civil power, and that he is the sole
Judge of the necessity Of the case. He
claims, in fact, as absolute discretion in the
use of the military power, as was ever claimed
by king of France. Add to this IN cstab-
lished doctrine of the party now in power,
that State acting against the Federal au-
thority, is no more entitled to consideration,
and stands on no more respectable ground,
than mob at Court House, and We must
see, in this assumption of the President, no
thing less than claim of right to wage 4
civil war, and to turn the whole land and M
val forces Of the Government, upon State,
without the Intervention of an act of Con-
gress, or even the formality of message to
the Senate. At what stage of republicanism
have We then arrived, when the President puts
forth such pretensions, and the oldest mem-
Der Of the Senate seconds and applauds them !
But Mr.. Fillmore is troubled by an act of
Congress, which confers upon the President,
with cautions and reservations, a portion Of
the power which he assumes to belong to the
Executive by the Constitution. and he modest
y asks for the passage of an explanatory
law which will remove this little difficulty in
the way of his using the army and navy as
the familiar constabulary and body guards of
the Executiresand his satellites
Thus the Boston riot is to be used, as all
Northern outrages are, as the occasion and
pretext for arming the General Government,
and especially the Executive, with increased
means of assailing the South. For it is
against the South, and it alone, that these
Veapons will never be seriously used The
Boston riot is god-scnd to the party in pow
or, and they show how they appreciateit 1t
is said that when Fiesch's internal machine
exploded, covering the ground around Louis
Philippe with dead and wounded, before the
smoke had we'll cleared away, the King clap
ped his hands and exclaimed briskly: "Well,
now at last the Chambers will vote me my
appanages, and the dotations of the boys!-
We imagine Messrs. Fillmore and Clay ex-
claiming joyously, "Thanks to this Boston
riot, we shall now get the power to make
war on South Carolina. ."-Charleston Mer.