The southern press., 1851-07-08

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tusl nseessatIes. interest will regulate these
subjects ~ il has always done Should our
slaves escape into the free States, we will have
to do jast what we aye doing now-submt to
their Ices.
Mr. President, admit that it is very easy to
say many herd things against secession, 80 ! ap-
prshsnd it is just as easy TO say many hard things
against disunion. Our friends must allow me
to say TO them Push not your arguments against
secession too far, or you may find your batteries
turned against your own favorite scheme
disunion by coo GRAFTON. Do you know that
you can accomplish disunion and the estab-
lishmeDt of Southern confederacy, without
many Of those very sacrifices you now urge
against secession! lf your confederacy consists
of the cotton States, do you know whether you
will be permitted to secede without coercion !
May you not encounter blockades and war OF
custom houses Will not slavery become
hemmed in. and localized within the borders of
your confederacy! Will your power of recap
ture be perfect and complete May not the CON-
merce Of Charleston, and your other ports, be
harrassed and driven away! Who shall have the
mouth of the Mississippi? Who shall have the
mouth of the Mississippi! have heard many
brave words uttered by Western men on this
subject on the floor Of Congress, and high claims
put IN to this right
Speak kindly, therefore, pray you, Of seces-
sion, for it is the first born--the lawful offspring
Of disunion doctrines. Such, be assured, will
be the judgment Of cand d world, the record
of impartial history
admit, however, that our friends have one
advantage over us. Their scheme lies in the
future; ours is at hand. They have the chapter
Of accidents on their side; we have only the
chapter Of history.
am aware it may be said, that if, according
to my argument, there is nc danger ofany Overt
acts OF aggression against the South on the part
OF the government in our day, then there is no
danger to US if We remain in the Union; that in
this respect my argument is contradictory. But
the reply is obvious. The argument on the
other side is, that our destruction is inevitable If
we remain in the Union; that il is the govern
ment Of our enemies who will annhiate us, but
that further aggressions will soon be committed
which will unite the South in conjoint secession
The first branch of the proposition admit, but
the Litter deny. How, then, you ask, will our
destruction come answer, by the gradual, but
certain advance of abolition by the process of
saTping and mining; by immigration; by the
spread OF anti-slavery opinions; by degrading
State rights and exaltng federalism; by COM
bining measures of justice with measures of
wrong-a fugitive slave bill with an anti-slave
trade bill; by dividing the South by party con-
tests by denouncing slavery as an evil and hop
ing for a remedy through the dispensation of
Divine Providence; by going on step by step in
this way until consolidation and abolition be-
come 80 strong that OfI may be pardoned the
quo,at'on) the zone shall! hold whilst the other
skins" This is the way your destruction will
come, and there is no contradiction whatever in
the argument. 1t will stand the test of any
scrutiny. Hear what the leading journal Of
Europe says on this subject
The London Times thus describes what is to
be the result of the Union to the South, if it
goes on as it has been doing
Slavery is but a question Of time. 1t is
scarcely possible to conceive that hundred
years hence there will be one slave in the United
States, not to say in the whole continent of
America. The slave owners see the ramparts
rising, the trenches opened, the co nmunicalicns
established, and the blockade closing around
them, that is one day to reduce them to uncon-
dtional surrender. We doubt not for an instant
that our children's children, will see the chains
drop in one hour from the limbs of three mil;
lion slaves. The Fugitive slave bill is only
last Legislative effort against that which is more
powerful than legslatures--the progress Of hu-
man affairs. Every acre added to the territory
of the Union, every freeborn child added to its
population, and every immigrant that lands on
its shores, is another weight to the scale of
abolition. Then why, except because they are
demented and doomed, do the slave owners
take no steps whatever to prepare for the great
day Of reckonings Why do they assume the
stability Of an institution at variance
with the whole tenor and course Of modern
We do not hesitate to advise them
to set their house in order If tits harder to do
so now than it was seventy years back, instead
of being easier, as the great statesman Of that
day hoped and expected If time has hitherto
aggravated rather than removed the enormous
what will be the case thirty years
hence, when perhaps there must and will be
abolition without either the slave or his master
being prepared for the changel The choice
lies between gradual and sudden abolition, and
it is for the slave States themselves to choose
which of those two they will have-for one they
must"
Behold this picture ard say lift is true. fit
is, then let me ask you, will delay tear down these
close these trenches, raise this block
ade and save you from unconditional surrender
Ye are men, answer for yourselves. Ihave thus
Mr.. President, endeavored to give my views on
the present deeply interesting condition OF our
public affairs ! am sensible that ! have per-
formed this DUTY very mperfectly. ] have pur-
posely abstained from any attempt to stimulate
the counsels of this assembly, or the popular
mind by appeals to pride, TO passion, or to pre-
judicc. trust feel too deeply the heavy res
possibility which rests upon me, to ad lress my
self to any other tribunal than the calm judgment
of an intelligent people have endeavored, too
carefully TO avoid the use ofanything like the Ian
guage of elimination or censure. | know too
well that such language only closes the door 10
reason, and opens the windows to passion. j
deprecate from the bottom of my heart any thing
like angry dssensions within the State Our
enemies are watching our councils, and will re-
joice at our divisions. Let us give, them no such
triumph Let us tell them, once and forever.
that, though we differ, we will never divide. !
For one. | do not regret the introduction of
this discussion. II has been said that your con-
vepton was elected before the question of scces-
sion was discussed If this be so, then let the
argument be heard before the judgment is pro-
Free discussion never hindered anv |