Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-08-09
Foote on the Right Of Secession,

rl8hI OF a State to secede. lie does so now but
like all other public issues, Foote has defended
both sides, and his testimony is good against as
for the right-but politically considered, it is
worthless, wholly, utterly worthless.
''Ihese sir, are the views of the people, of the
sovereign State of Mississippi, declared by our
convention, through committee of seven gentle
men, who in ability, patriotism, moral worth, and
will add, deUotion TO the U1eion are not inferior
to any seven individuals to be found in the whole
Republic Who doubts now the truth of what |
have SO often declared here, that the people OF
Mississippi stand alone upon their constitutional
rights; that they rely exclusively upon the funda-
menCal guarantees SO wisely provided by our ven
Grated orefathers and that they resolved do all
IN their power to preserve this Union, by the only
means capable OF securing its preservation-the
ma finance Of tie integrity Of tie Constitution IT.
SELF?
But the National Intelligencer, in one of its late
numbers, instead of publishing the whole, or any
considerable portion, of this address, has torn a
considerable paragraph from its context in order
to prove that the South, at least the people of
Mississippi, have Internationally resolved upon
dissolution of the Union and the establishment of
Southern Confederacy. That paragraph is as fol-
lows:
Besides and beyond popular Convention of
the Southern States, with the view and the hope
not practicable, then to concentrate the South in
will, understanding, and action, the convention of
Mississippi suggested, as the possible ultimate re-
sort, the call by the legislature of the assaied
States of still more solemn conyentions-such as /
should be regularly elected by the people of those
States-to deliberate, speak and act, with all the
sovereign power of the people. Should, IN the re-
suit, such conventions would be called and Laeet,
they NAV lead 60 ike regularly constituted con
venton all the assailed States, provide in the
last resort, for their seperate welfare by the fcrm
alton of compact and a Union that will afford
to their liberties and rights. In such a
crisis in the language of Mr.. Madison, 'one spirit
viii animate and conduct the whole
Now, Mr. President, does not every one per
celve the gross injustice done the committee who
prepared this address, IN deducting from the para
agraph cited, the inference that the Mississipn
people are SO Reserved upon secession that nothing
else viii satisfy them? Sir, the true and obvious
import OF the language objected to, is simply this
the ConSt'tut'0n IS TO be naintGirssd IF possible, BIZ
all legitimate and honorable means The obIoa
tons of that sacred instrument are to be scrou6u
lously observed and executed, on the mart of the
Southern States, while its faithful observance Nv
other members otthe Contederacy is to be de-
manded and insisted upon. The guarantees in
which the South is peculiarly interested, are to be
respected by the free States of the Union in all
their scop and amplitude. IF in all these iaportant
points, tie NORTH should prove uasaolEi5aq to do ius
ajce-aotich HeGuena tor5id-if tie o9ensice enact
aents naenaced shall be adopted and the grieuonces
already conyessedly inflicted shall remain aare-
Rres8ed-then the Southern States aciU assemble IN
to consult for their oac satey and agek
fare and yjustice shall be aeithheld after all pa
cic and constitutional erpedients haze been tried
and tried an Vai a0hy then the Southern States mag
feel at 10 be duty, forced upon Mem of seeding
ia tie last resort from the Union.
This, repeat is the real and full import of that
portion of the Mississippi address, to which the
editors Of the Intelhgencer have applied language
of the most unmeasured denunciation. What is
this but to assert, sir, that live under system
of Government which renders all tyranny justifa-
ble and oppression too sacred thing to be COM
planned of-under which power, however obtain
ed 70 welded, is entitled to triumph over right-un
der which, in fine, freedom is but name, and
the written organic law a ridiculous moekery 1t
was not thus that urnoble forefathers thought
and acted, under which non resistance to the most
hedious usurpatious, is the bounden duty OF all
good citizens, and even of the sovereign States;
nor was it thus that, in pure and more high-spir
tied generation public men either wrote or spoke.
1t was not thus that Andrew Jackson expressed
himself in the famous proclamation, in which, /
though rebuking notification, he declared seces-
sion to be just and proper remedy-to be resort |
ed to In any case of intole-able oppression. 1t
was not thus that the honorable Senator from Mas
sachusetts Mr.. WEBSTER, spoke the other day, |
in our hearing, when he emphatically declared the
same doctrine. Such was not the doctrine of 2 hill
ip P Barbour who asserted secession to be the
political arsenic of our system, to be resorted to,
when all other remedies might fail Such final
ly, was not the doctrine of Mr.. jefferson, who Of
tentimes declared secession for "scssssaon, as he
denominated IT'D to be, in certain cases of enor-
nous and long continued outrage, the proper and
this point, very precisely set forth in the eulogy
delivered some years since upon the life and char
ter Of Mr.. Madison, by Mr.. John Quincy Adams.
Here Mr. Adams own words, as printed III
the volume from which now read;
sConcurring in the doctrines that the separate
States have right to tnterpose. in cases of palpa
BILE infractions of the Constitution by the Govern
ment of the United States, and that the alien and
sedition acts presented case of such infraction,
Mr. Jefferson considered the laws absolutely null
and void, and thought the State legislatures COM
petent not only to declare, but to make them so,
to resist their execution within their respective bor
ders by physical force, and to secede from tie IN
ION rather than submit to them, if attempted to De
carried into execution by force"
will not enlarge upon this fruitful topic; u
would be quite easy to do so, and to retal,ate up
on the editors of the Intellgencer, the lhberai re-
proaches cast upon millions of their fellow count
rymen. who have given their formal, solemn, and
deliberate sanction of those measures OF resistance
in regard to which, whatever may be falsely or ig