Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-02-15

Here it will be perceived Mr.. Webster recognizes
incidentally, the claim of Texas north and south Q
36 deg 80 min, which embraces the city of SAINT;
Fe, and as elsewhere remarked, by far the large
portion of the territory held to be in dispute.
Again Mr.. Webster says:
s.But now, sir, what is our condition Texa
is in with all her territories, as slave state, witt
solemn pledges that if she is divided into many
states, these states may in slave states
south of $50 30' How are veto deal with them
know ofno way of honorable Legislation, but whel
the time comes for enactment, to carry into effec
all that we have stipulated
And lastly, he says:
s.When the proper time arrives | may not bs
here; may nave no vote to give on the occasion
but wish to be distinctly understood this day, thai
according to my views of the matter, this govern
ment is solemnly pledged by law to create new
states out of Texas, with her consent, when hel
population shall justify such proceeding, and, sc
far as those states are formed out of Texan terrific
ry lying south of $50 So to let them in as slave
states. That is the meaning of the resolution which
our friends, the northern democracy, have left us
here to fulfil, and for to fulfil it. because
will not violate the faith of the government.
Dir. Websters opinions conclusive to the right
of Texas and were it deemed at all essential, other
testimony in abundance could be submitted As the
admissions of Mr. Webster carry the right of Texas up
much the largest fraction ofthe territory eventually
yielded to the United States shall leave the ques-
ton as to the right of Texas, and take up another
lying in cur way.
The constitution may be violated in spirit and the
letter construed to the violation Tits the
continual shifts of politicians and the readiness with
which they bring to these palpable vio
atons of the spirit and manifest intention of the fra
of that instrument that should the people
to sense of danger. This Texas affair is in
point The letter of the constitution may not have
been vioated-yet ii is question worthy of enquiry
but its spirit has. We GO upon the assumption that
Texas was legtmatey right, and that the action OF
Congress was legitimately wrong. That while Con-
gess possesses the power of appropratng money for
all purposes strictly NATIONAL it has not the power,
eept by strained construction appropriate the
of the for the advancement of section
the expense and ruin of another If the North thro'
an Congress seeks purchase slave territory of
State and devote it to free soil purposes it may be le
ultimately assumed that if presented itself, it
would not hesitate to appropriate the means OF the
ernment to the purchase of slaves of individual or
many individuals, and emancipate them. Most men
South will deny Congress any such power, yet the e-
gtmacy of the act is defensibe as the other
CongTass purchased of Texas vast domain-twice as
large as the State of Mssissippi-with the federal
money. Not one foot of it will ever be peopled by
Shareholders and their property Mr.. Clay and all his
defenders with Gen. Foote and the submission press
make pretensions toward reuting the fact. 1t is
amey argued that slavery is not inhibited but the fact
that it is palpable, that time is wasted in refut-
ing It. yvu1id Softfrever do ur
federal means purchase the right of Texas if it had
been slavery could not go there 1t is clear
that the North is opposed to the admission of more
slave States Texas by the resolutions of admission
entitled divide her territory asto make four
slave States but according to the argument of the
submissionsts the North has deliberately chalked out
territory sufficient for two States and that these
States may in with slavery incorporated in their
organic law The South is told that Texas get
of her boundaries the four stipulated States and beside
that two States will be carved out of the pur-
chase territory, and that the whole six will in
slave States. What acquisition to the South, and
how consderate of the interests of slavery the North
has been!
| As mere question of right, one involving the leg
innate power of Congress, the purchase of the ter
ritorv from Texas under the circumstance and for the
objects supposed, unwarranted assumption of power
and unconstitutional appropriation of the money
the people for objects sectional in their character
is natural to view the act connected with the crcum
stances surrounding the perpetrators oft and it
not be disconnected from the prevailing sentiment o
the majority that controls Congress when
by those who seek the truth Viewing the act every
way indeensible we assert it, in view of the assump
ton, destroying the spirit, not the letter. of thu
nstitntion On this ground and bv this reasoning
we put case
Can Congress appropriate the federal money to pur
chase the slaves in the district of Columbia supposn
the people of the District are willing and Northern
majority being majority of all the States favored it
Take another and case in point Can Congress ap
propratemoney for the purchase of the slaves in Mary
land, provided majority of the people ofthe State
gree to the sale 1t willbe remembered that the sub
mssionsts have said the people of Mississippi have
right to complain the people of Texas acquesce Fo
the and upon the same ground, the peopl
of Maryland might acquesce and the people of Mssis
sppi would have no right to complain Yet the appro
priation of federal money has been made in the on
case for the advancement of sectional interest,
why may it not be used to destroy it in another
one legitimate both are. If IfCongress had the rigf
oapprepriate federal money purchase territory fc
eeso purposes, ithas the right purchase the slave
of Maryland, the right alone depends upon whetht
the people of Maryland, the State from which til
territory is purchased, acquesce The rule of acqu
f escing adopted the standard of construction f
Congressional action and according to that rule, Il
past action Of Congress is to be measured
1t has been asserted that the people of these errt
ries left free to elect for themselves, when the