The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-11
Letter SfEx.Prosident Gee. N. Dallas, sfPs..
TO HON. GUY NJ. BRYAN, Oh TEXAS
ScHooLrY's, BErMor HALL,
ScHoOLEY's MoUSTAIs SPRIsG,

My Dear Sr:-Haying Escaped the heats of
the city, am almost inclined, amid the beauties
OIL nature which surround me here the high hills,
the pure cool air, the fragrant forests, and the
r'Po"ing hafvests, TO postpone until my return
70 ara Streets and studies, the attention %
whch your request is entitled cannot, how
ever feei at rest while imagining that my silence
may possibly be misinterpreted, and therefo,.,
hasten to send you the views, which Won are Mind
enough to wish repeated.
On the topics of your letter, dated the Ar
inst, from Peach Point, Brazora county. 'rexas
have long entertained definite and decided
opinions. AS they are somewhat different from,
any avowed by public mon in this quarter 7
should feel different ia holding or confessing
them, We're il not that every days progress in
our great federal experiment confirms to me-
their soundness, indeed their absolute necessi
ty. cannot work out the safety of the Union
In their absence. That Union was designed.
and IS fitted to be the best and most permanent
security for as much of combined freedom and
happiness as societies arc permitted to enjoy.
ana u has always aesmed to me not merely rash
and irrational, but grossly illogical, to disols,m
or aouD. any OF It's essential springs Of vitality.
Union, in its political sense, Is the opposite Of
consolidation. The elements necessary To hors,
IDEA of Union are antagonistic to those of a
consolidation; and yet cannot help thinking
that all the mistakes and mischiefs to which VS.
have been subjected, found an origin in the ha
bituai tendency OF many very able statesmen,
TO import from old consolidated empires their
products OF legislation and government, and 10
Iasten them upon the new American condition
of mere federal union. How often do we hear
and see the strictly deconstitutionalised term.
nation, substituted for that Of Union! A sub.
stitution plausible and innocent in the sphere of
our foreign relations, but full of insinuatipg and
pernIcous encroachment wherever the domestic
limits, reservations and guarantees ere involved.
1t found no place in the structure framed bv tbe
convention of 1887. Were not at this mo.
ment away from home, more in search of health
than disposed to labor, | should be tempted 10
note, from congressional and executive records.
some OF the errors apparently run into, both of
reasoning and Of policy, under the seductive in.
iluence OF round language. No stronger illus.
tration could be given Of Mirabeau's assertion
that words are things" (aye, and fatally seri-
Gus things, too y than the extent to which, with
such aids, the meaning Of our Constitution. if
not the nature Of our government, has been af
iected. am not 40 unjust as to question the
motives of those who have thus deviated thew
must rather be regarded AS nisled by sort of
ambitious patriotism, so intently aiming to aug
ment the greatness, wealth and power, of their
country, as unguardedly to overlook the peculiar
complications and nice adjustments of its politi.
cal system.
AS a people, we are generally calm and con-
servatlve-perl'aps more timely so than is con-
genial with the spirit and anticipations of the
Constitution. There is one provision of that
instrument which, more strongly than any other,
marks its practi al wisdom, and vet it is curious
to see with what almost superstitic us dread we
shrink from bringing it into action. refer to
the power and process of endment Our or.
ganic law was put in writing, its delegations and
restrictions OF jurisdiction were given express
and visible certainty, but, as all human fabrics
are confessedy imperfect and should ever be
adaptable to the times, the mode of peaceful.
change, correction or addition, was prescribed
with equal exactness. Why is it that we endure
years OF dangerous agitation, unsettlins our SON.
hments as fellow citizens, and winding gradually
up to social CONFUSION, rather than frankly re-
sort to this proffsred expedientl Certainly, tho
Constitution cannot be touched with too much
reverence, certainly, what is usually stgmatised
as "tinkerrg" at it should be resolutely az oded;
but when it is plain that the proper occasion has
arisen, that nothing less solemn can be eflica
cious, and that the very union il creates and con-
servaes, is at risk, why are we TO recoil from the
provided sanctuary? Oie of the authorized
forms OF amending is unaccompanied by hazard
OF any kind-that OF congressional recommends
ton, to be followed by the approval Of three
tourths OF the local legislatures Such a pro-
cess seems just now to be unpromsing; but il
may, after candid and dfruse discussion. turn out
otherwise. Surely the Union is valued suf
hcenty TO rally for its risk and rei ovation twen-
ty-four of tie thirty-one States or are we al
ready prepared to admit that the American peo-
pie have become incapable of selfgovernment
incapable of approaching the true sources of
their wonderful progress, aud incapable Of dis
carding the blind though boisterous guides ready
to lead them, through disunion, into mutual an
rancorous J''lonses, into dependence on foreign
into civil and servle wars, and into
the poor feuds of vi lage trades and tariffs?
think it always mistak to later in RELIANCE up-
on the shrewd and sober Judgment Of the great
body of our fellow citizens They were wise
enou IN to discern the untried excellence of the
Constitution; they were wise enough TO amend
aye, and most admirably, the work as il came
from the hands of Washington. Madi.on, Frank
lin ard Hamilton; are they not wise enough then
to apply single and simple cure for disclose
which, after many years Of latent torpor has
suddenly alarmngy developed? With me there
IS no doubt that if my countrymen be given the
legitimate opportunity, they will expressly and
unqualihedly prohibit sooner or later what |
have heretofore humbly believed they had by
the strongest implication already prohibited
They will prohibit from being forced BY the
sophistries Of zealots to enact the part Of con-
solidation; they will place the constitutional
canon, too palpably for misconstrpction, against
The solfslauqhter of intermeddlinr with insttu,
lions and rights exclusively of State creation,
State responsibility, and State control they III
render il impossible, by any process short of
treason or revolut IN, to convert the confederacy
into the means of destroying the equality of it's
own members or TO direct its energies to fulfill
he behess Of some higher l1,c starting up like
The cynltca of the minute from the ever rang
ing and lncalculable phantasies of the inner man.
have dispassionately, but anxiously, watched
The manifest Of political sentiment in the Nc nth
and Fast, since the adjournment of Congress.
and shall be most happy to find myimpression dis
pelled In the future. AT frat the movements Of
The masses were independent Of leadership, and
gave noble earnestness 10 indicate their good
faith, and to maintain the institutions and har-
nony Of the Union; but, and | say il with re-