The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-08-09

the extrpatiou of slavery in the South, and
would, If they could, secure TO, and elevate the
slave to all the social aud political rights Of the
master. Will the people Of Georgia give en-
couragement to the enemy, with knowledge
of these melancholy truths by silent approba-
ton! | trust not, bat rather ut the hazard Of
being DENOUNCED AS fire-eaters, | would have
them to feel az insulted freemen; and feeling,
express their indignation in words that burn"
Are we disunonsts because we say and be-
lieve that the independence of the States is ne
cessary to the preservation Of re Union and
that tie moment their Independence and soyer-
eighty are surrendered, they are reduced to
mere municipal that We hold the Constitution
to be the compact of Union formed by the peo-
pie of the respective States; that in the treaty
with Great Britain, they were acknowledged and
treated with as free corporations separate souer-
eiga and independent States, that in the articles
OF confederation each State RETAINED its sOver-
eighty freedom and Independence, and every
power, jurisdiction and right v hch was not ex-
pressly surrendered; ;" that States could not part
with their sovereignty in forming the Constitu-
lion, but only delegated certain enumerated yoso-
ers and that the powers (not sovereignty not
delegated to the United States, nor prohibited
to the States, were reserved to the States res
pectively or TO the people! Or are we disunion-
lists because we have implicit faith 10, and adopt
the great elementary TRUTH MS a part of our poll
teal creed-"that all power is derive from the
consent Of the governed" that sovereignty il
immutabe and indivisble and 10 government
like ours, of confederate States abides with the
people of the respective States that the powers
delegated to the federal government, Ms the
agent OF the States are only emanations of that
sovereignty; that when these powers are per-
verted or abused by the agent so as to imperil
The rights, happiness and prosperity of the cti-
zen, 1t is the duty of the people of the respective
States to check those abuses, and to arrest the
progress of the evil. Virginia and New York,
in particular, guarded those truths and the rights
growing out of them, by expressly reseryng ut
the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the
right to resume the power they had delegated,
whenever they should deem it expedent The
Union party seem solicitous to withdraw public
attention from the investigation of these elemen-
tary principles, upon which the right OF seces-
sion rests, and to give peculiar prominence to the
compromise measures, and the action Of the
Georgia convention on them in order to evadc
that issue.
If not why was the letter of their nominee
for the gnbernatorial chair, denying the right of
a STATE IN her sovereign capacity 10 secede, not
read before the convention which nominated
conclusive proofs that the wire-pnllers, or
knowing ones as they are commonly designa-
trd, considered that their nominee had assumed
an O. roneous postion--one which could not be
sustained by precedent or principle, and which
the republican or State rights party of Georgia
had ever repudiated. So far as the decision Of
the convention is concerned, the Southern
rights party considers its judgment as final,
until revoked by the same power that made it,
Why then is the public tranquility sought TO be
disturbed by hypocritical signs, groans and
amen tations and lachrymal offerings for the
government or the Union! They have lost
their magic charm to deceive and are sought to
be made the fume and smoke of the MASKED
Battery" to conceal an gnoble retreat from an
issue which cannot be evaded, and to which
candidates for public favor must fully respond.
The convention did not sustain the views Of the
nominee of the Union party He considers the
measures just towards the South,
far preferable to the Missouri compromise line
to the Pacific. The convention never endorsed
such views but regarded them as unjust,
and to which they could not give the sanction
of their approval, but was willing to bear their
evils, sooner than dissolve the Union, should no.
gresslon cease with them, and the Fugitive slave
bill be neither repealed or materially modified.
Texas was dismembered to extend the bounds
Of freesollism, and the most abomn able means
-esored TO by g ,vernment and government
agents, with its sanction, to exclude the South
from the whole of California, and the Mexicas
avs of Utah and New Mexico remaining un-
repealed as effectually excludes the South from
III participation in those territories as the direct
nterdict of the Wilmot Proviso would have
done.
The bill which confiscates the masters pro-
)erty in his slave, in case he is offered for sale
n the District of Columbia, is invidious in its
character, and may be justly regarded as tho
entering wedge to the emancipation ofthe slaves
IF that District. Ii comedies the question of iu-
isdctoa TO Congress, and their discretion, and
lot the Constitution, becomes the rule by which
hey will be governed and that coming event ia
oreshadowed in the recent elections in Ohio,
New York, Massachusetts and other non-slave-
folding States, in boldness of projection which
caves no room for doubt and prophecy. | repent
{, it is concession of jurisdiction, for if Con-
-ress can free my negro because offer him for
ale IN the District il has equal power to say that
work him more than two days in the week,
n if work him at all, the same consequences
hall follow. And yet we are assured by som,
Who are candidates for public favor, that those
measures are Southern triumphs and victores,
more than blessings in disguise, yea, the bar
,ngers of peace, which should command the
tonnage and challenge the admiration of every
Southern patriot. The State of Georgia has an
bounced to the world, through her convention,
hat should Congress abolish slavery in the Dix
rict of Columbia, she would disrupt the ties
which unite her to the Union. Deny the right
# State, thus acting ia her sovereign capacity.
o secede, and to say that she has only the right
# revolution, in what lamentabe predicament
10 you place her citizens? If they obey the cor,-
nands of the State, Che State not having the
light to secedeD they are guilty of rebellion ard
re punished for treason, and their properly
ontseaied by the federal government; al,
hould they disobey the behest of the State. the
anne pains and penalties are inflicted or imposed
N them by the tate
Can the intelligent people of Green counte-
ance federal heresy which would invo q
hem In such catastro he If the State has
10 right TO secede, the federal government, as a
ecessary consequences, has the power to ccerce
er to obedience.--But the republican doctrine
shich claims the right, relieves the citizen from