The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-09

hustngs, speak out. if mistake them not, your
anxiety to hear, that you may fnirly Judge Of
them, the opinions of one whose course, in the
councils of the nation, has been animadvered
upon, in certain portions of the State, by de-
signing political opponents and by reckless par
ty defamers, as being not only dangerous, but
actually hostile TO your peace, to your dignity
and TO your interests.
Those opinions, il can no more be my desire
than IT is in my power To conceal from you
They belong to the history Of the country
they were formed upon deep and solemn delib-
Grafton they had and still retain the sanction of
my best Judgment and are spread out, accessl-
BILE to all upon the leaves of that truthful and
impressive Journal where for grave and weighty
reasons, no doubt, the opinions and acts of your
public men are faithfully registered and pre-
served. Most readily therefore shall ! make
them the theme of my discourse to you, and
plead in their vindcation the cause TO which
they owe their origin, and indeed all their i'm
por,ance.
1t is a cause in which we have all an equal
stake, Wings as well as Democrats ia cause
involving in its issues not only our rank and
condition in the great confederacy which holds
tie American States together, but the very ex-
istence Of that confederacy itself, and, to some
extent, the destinies of a whole world
Such a cause we should approach in proper
spirit. shall address myself to it, with mind
unbiased, either by party feelings or by consid-
erations Of private cOncernment. Let me hope
that shall find in this audience neither impatient
nor prejudiced hearers but that, on the contrary,
| shall be listened to with considerate and unin-
terrupted attention.
When was honored with the seat which
now hold in the Senate of the United States,
we were Just emerging from the war which
Mexico's folly and stubbornness had brought
upon us, and most needlessy prolonged.
BY the treaty of Guadalupe Hidago, an al
most boundless empire of territory, with vast
border of ocean, had been added to our already
gigantic possessions. We were about to dis
pose of the conquest we had achieved, and to
distribute and regulate the Increase of political
f influence and power which every section OF
country was to derive from it. We, OF the
South, had been participants in the struggle
through which it had been accomplished, to the
1 fullest extent of our resources and abilities
n We had contributed by far the largest proper
ton of the forces engaged in the war; two-thirds
of the supplies which had maintained them,
and in the touching and sadly eloquent Ian.
puage of a most eminent writer and statesman,*
| Eour-ff of Me graves" We, of course, pre-
sumed that we would also be perm tied to par
ticipate in the fruits of victory. ppt the North,
who, before they were secured, had denounced
our acquisitions as nefariOus and monstrous
spoaton and plumber, now claimed them all
to herself, and insisted that the South should
\ not have foGthold on that soil which she had
SO srenuously and so efficiently contributed to
wrest from the enemy, and Which was still
moist with the blood of her brayes end viii
tened with the bones of her dead
Mr.. Po!k's administration was drawing to
close Already had the two great national par,
hoir Riohu do i, tba falA
The Presidential canvass was soon to begin,
and the contest opened upon what principles
should prevail in the organization of the terri
tories acquired from Mexico. Were they to be
dedicated exclusively to freesoil, or was the
South to be allowed any share in them! Such
was the question mooted from end of the
country to the other. and in no part of it with
Q fiercer and more indouitablc spirit than in
Louisiana, where each party claimed for the
q candidate of its choice the security wb' his
, election was to give the South, that her rights
would be protected, and her interests safe
:, guarded. War to the knife was, during the
whole contest, denounced against all sorts of
Promises, against all attempts at excluding US
from the partition about to be effected. What
did we mean then! What were we after? Did
We in imitflon of those gallant Bostonians of
ITS, intend to fight for some empty phrase, for
"Less Than a predmbler' Was it to save our
sight from few innocuous words in law of
Congress, that we vented so much wrath and
trumped up such msnacing resolutions! No
srs, no sirs; il was for something more grave,
more substantial, more momentous that we en-
gagged in the struggle we engaged in it to
vindcate our rights as sovereign communities,
and to assert our rank, as equals in the great
confederacy of which we were members. Such
was the object, the boon for which, at one time,
| oil in nd daJ
ton against the usufpatians with which the
North was threatening the South.
We had ceased to WELD in Congress, that in
Auence which, in days gone by, had epabled us
to protect ourselves against unequal and oppres-
sive legislation Out Of the thirty States Of
| which the Union consisted, but fourteen could
be claimed being in the interest of the South.
\ We had hardly power enough to check the in
cessant invasion which the Northern majority
was committing upon our rg6ts snd franchises
| through insulting agitation and unsparinQ abuse,
and we were fast becoming feeble and impo-
tent minority; and, while the hostility mt the
North was increasing with our growing weak
ness, we had in prospect an immense territory
thrown open to the grasp Sf freesoilism, out of
which 1t might crave new soveregnues TO over
power us, if we should, at any future time, ever
attempt 10 resist its encroachments, and to put
|
ton in I848.
But, we Then stood up like men, and like men,
burst assert our rights and claim our due-And,
mark how the administration That controlled the
government was embroidered and neryed by the
stand we took and the front we opposed to the
| insulting pretensions of the North The Mexi
can commissioners who were empowered TO treat
| with the United States for peace, had been in.
structed by their government to require that
"The United States should bind themselves not
TO permit slavery to be established in the terri.
tories ceded by the treaty." and our minister
(Mr. TrisD was solicited, entroated, to admit the
restriction among the other clauses Of the treaty
Here is what Mr.. Trist says lin his correspond.
cree with the government Mt Washington of his
| conference with Mexican commissioners in rela
| ton to this sublcct:) "Our conversation was
perfectly frank and no less friendly and the
more effective upon their plinds inasmuch as !
was enabled to say with perfect s,ecerily, that
although their impressions respecting the psac
teal effect of slavery in the United States were