The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-22

SlgDeu Dy 10y IellOW-CillLoIn Oh new 4 Ofh, lu-
yiting me to visit that city, and address public
meeting on some of the public and exciting
topics of the day and you are pleased to add an
expression of your own kind wishes that |
would accept the invitation. | should be most
happy, if felt myself in a condition TO do so /;
but for the reasons assigned in my answer to the
address, which is herewith forwarded, am very
sorry that it is not in my power to accept It,
hope that answer may be deemed Satisfactory by
you, and by those whom you represent.
| have the honor to be, gentlemen, with nigh
respect, Your obedient servant,
H. CLAY.
Messrs Geo. Griswod Stephen Whitney, A. C..
Kingsland, Chas. NJ. Leupp, and Jas d. p.
Ogden, &c. &c.
ASHLAND, Sd October, 1851.
GENrLEMEN:-I have the honor to acknowl-
edge the receipt, yesterday, of the address which
you transmitted to me, from number Of gen
tlemen in the city of New York Emanating
from source so highly respectable and impos-
ing from friends and fellow citizens so numer
GUS and intelligent and t. whom am under
such great obligations, have perused it wi h
profound attention and Difference. After advert
ing to the present state Of public affairs, to the
spirit adverse to the measures of compromise
adopted during the last Congress, which prevails
in certain quarters, to the necessity of unremit
ted exertion to preserve our glorious Union, and
to what has been so seasonably and well done,
with so much ability, eloquence, and patriotism,
by some of our eminent countrymen, you invite
me to leave, for time, my quiet abode here, to
appear in your great city, and to address my fell
low citizens on the actual condition, and menac-
ing danger of our country.
feel, gentlemen, with the greatest interest
and the deepest solicitude, the full force Of all
that you have expressed and | would gladly
comply with your wishes, and even dedicate the
remnant of a life, the largest aud best part of
which has been spent in the public service, to
the cause of the Union, if the state of my health
would allow me, and if believed that any fresh
exertions of mine would be useful. But ever
since the long session of the last Congress, dur
ing which my arduous duties were greater than |
was well able to encounter, my health has been
delicate and it has remained so throughout the
past summer. | hope that it is improving, but
it still requires the most assidious care and |
entertain serious arprehensions that if | were to
accept your invitation, and throw myself into
the scenes of excitement incident to it, my
strength might fail me, and my present debility
might be much increased. There is no place,
Am fully aware, where should find more ardent
and enthusiastic friends in one party, and more
courtesy and respect in the other, than in the
commercial metropolis of the Union. Whilst |
am constrained, with much regret, respectfully
to decline the meeting you propose, | avail my
self of the occasion to present some views which
have taken of public atfars and which trust
may be received as a substitute for any oral ex-
addition of them, which could make before a
large concourse Of my fellow-citizens in New
York.
1t was not supposed by the authors and sup
porters Of the compromise, in the last Congress,
that the adoption of the series OF measures which
composed it, would secure the unanimous con-
currence of all. Their reasonable hopes were
| confined to the great majority of the people OF
the United States, and their hopes have not been
disappointed. Everywhere, North, South, East
| and West an immense majority of the people
| are satisfied with, or acquesce in, the compro-
mise This may be confidently asserted in re-
gard to thirteen of the slave-holding States, AND
to thirteen, if not fourteen, of the free States
| In few of both classes of the States, and in
some particular localities, dissatisfaction exists
| exhibiting itself occasionally in words of great
violence and intemperance; but this feeling is,
| trust, where il has most prevailed, gradually
| yielding to an enlightened sense of publ duty.
will present rapid survey of the actual state
of things, as it appears to me, both at the North
and ths South, beginning at the former.
In all that region, there is but one of the vari-
Gus compromise measures that is seriously as
sailed, and that is the law, made in strict con-
formty with the Constitution, for the surrender
of fugitives from lawful service or labor. But
the law itself, with two exceptions, has been
everywhere enforced opposition to it is con-
Itantly abating, and the patriotic obligations of
obeying the Constitution and the laws, made
directly or indirectly by the people THEMSELVES,
is now almost universally recognized and ad-
mitted If, in the execution of the law, by the
public authority, popular discomfort is sometimes
manifested, it has, with the exception mentioned
been invariably repressed, or prevented from OBJ
structing the officers of justice in the perform.
ance of their duties. If lam correctly informed
! great and sautary change has been made and
is yet in Progress, at the North, which authorizes
| the confident anticipation that reason and law
will finally achieve noble triumph.
The necessity of maintaining and enforcing
that law, unrepealed, and without any modifica-
ton that would seriously impair its efficiency
must be admitted by the impartial Judgment OF
al candid men. Many of the slaveholding
States, and many public meetings of the people
in them, have deliberately declared that their ad-
herence to the Union depended upon the preser-
walton of that law, and that its abandonment
would be the signal of the dissolution of the
Union. know that the Abolitiouists (some OF
whom openly avow a desire to produce that cal
amitous evenD and their partizans deny and de.
ride the existence of any such danger; but men
who will not perceive and own it, must be blind
to the signs of the tines to the sectional strife
which has unhappily arisen, to the embittered
feelings which have been excited, as we'll as the
solemn resolutions of deliberative assemblies,
unanimously adopted Their disregard of the
danger, am apprehensive, proceeds more from
their desire to continue agitation. which aug.
ments it, than from their love Of the Union itself
You refer gentlemen, TO " resolutions and
addresses adopted at conventions lately asseu
BLEED around us, in which we have seen with re-
greet, well as alarm, that the question of ad
herence TO the compromise is avoided or evsded,"
and you justly deprecate the tendency Of these
resolutions. have not been an inattentive or
indifferent observer Of them, and with YOU
deeply regret their adoption. | wish that these
respectable bodies would have been less am
biguous, and more explicit in declaring their
determination to acquiesce in, and abide by, a
great measure of peace and compromise, which,