The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-01-17


80. 1850 Received and 500 copies ordered d
be printed
MONDAY, December 80, 1850. 3
| Mr. ANDERSON, from the Committee on Fed
eral relations, made the following report:
The Committee on Federal relations
REPORT:
| That they have approached the difficult sub
ject referred TO them with minds deeply i'm
pressed with the Importance Of the mopentons
issues which hang upon the actionOft the South.
ern people, ut the present stage OF their national
career. Though the minds Of the citizens of the
slaveholdng States have been stirred up to their
lowest depths by the most wanton eneroach-
ments upon their rights, continuing through
many years and terminating in congressional &c
ton which finds apol0gists but no adyocates in
the South, and though the committee cannot
but participate in this universal sense OF injus-
tce, they have strven to treat this subject dis
passionately, and free from recollections that
prompt US, for the sake Of the past to suffer
much and be kind" but yet not forgetful that
the precious birthright of freedom is in our
keeping, and that the future will hold US 10 &C
count strictly for its preservation. <
The committee deem the time to have past
for tile enumeration Of mere abstract PROPOSE
tons on the subject of the rights of slavchold-
ers, or vague threats of what the South will be
disposed to do, on the contingency of any spe-
cited encroachment upon those rights. The
past is irrevocable, but the future is before U.S.
to be won or lost, according as we are true OF
false to ourselves. OF nations ma we'll as of in
dividunls it may be said truly, in the words Of
the old Roman, I" 1t Is not in our stars, but ia
ourselves, if we nre underlngs."
1t is happy omen Of success in the struggle
which seems to be awaiting us, that in the gen
eral Southern mind there is an almost perfect
agreement in regard to the great Fundamental
principles for which we are confending per-
feet right to the control and disposal of our in
teFnal affairs, $50 far as we have not Welded ii
in ternsto the federal government and amongst
| others, the interests growing ont Of the insttu-
ton Of slavery, is denied by none, and as
means OF preserving that right, all agree in
holding our associates in the federal Union to a
strict construction of the Constitution which de-
fines the limits Of the rights Of government which
we have surrendered There is also, another
point Of substantial agreement as to the RENE
dy which we hold in our hands for the violation
OF the rights which belong to us under the Con-
stitution, or which we claim not to have surren-
dered BY that instrument. All agree that vo-
lations OF our constitutional rights, persisted in
till they cannot be regarded otherwise than as
indicating determined and settled purpose Of
oppression, Ill justify resistance to the last ex
tremity, though resistance may lead to disunion.
The right of secession and the right of revolu-
ton are the terms respectively used by those
who differ as to the modes OF that resistance,
the right Of making which is equally asserted by
both. Though the committee do not consider
II Important to their present purpose to discuss
at much length this difference as to the partcu-
lar modes OF resistance to oppression, (for when
the proper time comes the people, in convention
will decide for themselves,) vet they are desi-
rous Of referring very briefly to the arguments
of that class of persons who claim the ripht of
secession, and who, in doing 80, in the opinion
of this committee dignity the right of resist
anee by acknowledging it rs an incident to SOW
ereignty preserved with jealous and wise fore
thought when the Constitution was framed, and
susceptible Of being exercised without violence
and without any evasion of the constitutional
rights of others,
1t is fact familiar to history that, at the time
OF the formation of the present Federal Govern
ment, the several separate sovereignties which
formed it were most cautious and guarded in
the act by which they surrendered portion of
their sovereign power. The fires Of that eter.
nal vigilance which is the price of liberty were
then burning brightly, when our sres had but
Just passed through their fierce struggle for
freedom, and those who had so dearly won this
heritage for their children did not rec slessly and
irrevocably surrender its custody TO Others. All
rights not expressly given away were reserved
in terms, and, being reserved, they exist though
they may be in allegiance. If these reserved
rights exist at all, they must exist in that sover
eign,apart from the relation in which that sover
eign stands to the General Government. AS a
member Of the Federal Union she has certain
rights and owes certain duties which are derived
from and regulated by the Constitution, but a.
sovereign State she solemnly reserved, and
therefore must yet retain, certain other rights
which! have no relation to the General Govern
ment
If these last are invaded BY the General Gov
ernment inasmuch as it has no warrant from the
Constitution, which is its charter-its sole prin-
ciple ofvitaly-its iealously defined boundary OF
privilege and power, it becomes to the sovereign
thus wronged like any other enemy, and is no
longer the government which the sovereign had |
in conjunction with Others, endowed with life |
and certain defined vcarous powers. Usrping |
power not belonging to it and exercising thai
power to the injury of the States, the right of
the injured State to resist the wrong does moi
seem to be more clear than is her right to with. |
draw from that association or confederation
which, by the assumption and exercise ofusurped
powers, had become another and different gov
eminent from that with which the sovereign had |
united herself The argument indeed, seems to
establish this principle, that usurpation and
tyranny on the part Of the Government towards
he States work of themselves destruction of
ihe Union; bu. for the purpose of establishing
md declaring so fundamental change in the
condition Of the relations between the parties,
'ction on the part Of the aggrieved State seems
% be required, to declare the dissolution of the
compact between the State and the confederacy
~ the act of the latter and the necessary and
resumption by the former of the
lights and duties of an independent sovereignty.
The right of judging of the usurpatons and
'iolations of compact by the General Govern
nent has sometimes been denied to the States.
,ut it will be observed there is no dispute on
his point between those who differ as to the
light of secession and that of revolution. Both
If these rights undoubtedly imply the right of
leciding when they are to be exercised, and as
ne have already said, all Southern men agree
hat, in some form or other, the right of the
States to resist wrong on the part Of the Gen