The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-06-20

Alabama Rights Convention.
At the State Convention of Southern Right.
Associations of ALABAMA on the 10th instant
the committee appointed to draft resolutions. o.
which the Hon. WILLIAM l.. YANcEY was
chairman, reported the following:
" Whereas in the opinion Of this convention
events of recent occurrence indicate that one o.
the sovereign States Of this Union is placing her
self in position to secede, and will secede from
the Union:
"And whereas in the opinion of this body, any
State has the right to secede, and, from the very
nature of the case is the only judge of the justice
and propriety of such act:
"And whereas ii is not improbable that the ex-
ercisc of such right by the seeding State viii be
opposed. with arms, by the General Government:
Therefore, be it
"Resoired, That, in the event any southern State,
in the exercise Of its own judgment, should think
proper. for causes which now exist to secede
from the Union, in the opinion Of this convention,
it would become the duty of this State, as Of all
other States, to oppose. with force, any attempt
upon the part Of the General Government to coerce
such seeding State"
Governor SEABRooK says that, practically,
secession is a revolutionary remedy. This we
believe is now very generally admitted even by
the secessionists. The conclusion, then, at
which the Southern Rights Convention of Ala
bama have arrived, may be very distinctly
stated in few words. They think, though
there may be no ground for revolution in the
Southern States, that if one of them should
deem it proper to rebel against the General
Government, and there should be an attempt TO
execute the laws in that State, it would then
become the duty Of the other Southern States
to enlist on the side of rebellion. That is to
say, if ALABAMA thinks there is no reason for
rebellion, if SOUTH CAROLINA thinks that such
reason exists, it then becomes the duty of ALA
BAMA 70 give her aid and comfort, and to take
up arms against the Federal authorities.
The attempt TO execute the laws of the Uni
ted States in State refusing to obey them is
such an aggression" as will justify general
revolution. In other words, the Government
of the United States is Government as long
as every State sees fit to obey it, and no longer.
mere refusal to obey the laws, on the part Of
a single State, operates as dissolution Of the
Government. IfCALIFoRNIA should undertake
to secede from the Union, or to rebel agains,
the Union, then the other States must make
common cause with her against the Union, OF
CALIFORNIA must be permitted to do as she
! likes, the laws of the United States TO the con-
| trary Notwithstanding.
| This is, to say the least, very extraordinary
doctrine for member Of the DEMOCRATIC par
| q alx,p I &c n 81 Ioc
that this party put forth in the days of the
Hartford Convention. The members of that
body were rendered odious because they were
suspected of sentiments much less offensive and
much less dangerous to the Union. The cold
FEDERALIsTs" were for years excluded from
public confidence and public honors, and were
denounced by the DEMOCRATS of their day fol
alleged opinions much less destructive in their
character and tendency. They were charged
with the design of establishing New England
confederacy. Was it the DEMOCRATIC doc
trine then that if the New England States saw
fit to secede it became the duty of New York
| and Pennsylvania to make common cause with
| them and to arm against the General Govern
meht? We have not so read the history o.
those times. We are under the impression tina
it was the DEMOCRATIC policy Of those days tt
denounce the Hartford Convention as treasona
BILE, and its members as traitors But the Nash
vile Convention has changed all this. If We
are to believe the DEMOCRATIC leaders o.
our own times, the Hartford conventionists were
all right; they only contemplated the exercise
Of an indisputabIe power, of the propriety o.
exercising which they were the exclusive
judges; and if the PRESIDENT had undertaken
to execute the laws within any State that had
moved off under the lead of the convention, il
would have been the duty Of all her neighbors
to unite with such State in forcible resistance
to the Federal Government.
What was rank Federalism in 1915 is "or
thodox republicanism, according to Mr.
RHETT and Mr.. YANCEY, in 1851.
| Tho Compromise and its Supporters.