The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-04-30
TUESDAY, APRIL %, 1881.

TUESDAY. APRIL 30. 1851.
Address of the WING members OF the Viz
ginia Legislature and Convention, on
the Compromise.
We publish this document to-day--to use 3
cant phrase, as part Of the history oil the times
We think, however, it is important to the great
body Of the people of the South to know the
views of the leading members Of great party
In great State of the South. 1t may be pre-
sumed that the members of that party in two
such important bodies as the Convention anG
Legislature of Virginia represent, at least to 4
considerable extent, the sentiments of the party
In the State.
The first part ofthis address is devoted to the
praise of the Union and contains the following
Not less dear to us than to the patriots who
achieved our independence should BIZ the unity
OF government which constitutes us one people
In the language of the Farewell Address OF him
who merits TO be called the Father of our
Country, we should regard that unity as "a
main pillar Of our real Independence; the sup.
port Of our tranquility at home, our peace abroad
Of bur safety, Of our prosperity; of the very
liberty which we 80 highly prize" Hardening
TO this solemn and venerable advice, We should
cherish {" a cordial, habitual and immoyable at
tachment to it," and earnestly desire to see
every one 9Th nix and speak Of it as the palla.
dunn of our political safety and prosperity
watch for its preservation, with Jealous care
dscountenance whatever may suggest even a
suspicion that II can in any event, be abandoned
and Indignantly frown upon the first dawning
of every attempt to ALLEVIATE any portion of our
country from the rest, or enfeeble the sacred ties
that link together the various parts"
As an unqualified and idoatrous devotion to
the Union is about the only argument that can
be advanced for submission in the South to the
Compromise, and as Gen. WASHINGTON INDUCED
in expressions, on that subject, that give some
color to this sentiment, and hence is frequently
quoted, we consider it important to examine his
views.
Gen. WAsHIEGToN's farewell address was
written in 1896, when the country was about to
divide into political parti,s-Federalists and Re-
publicsns. And this address was directed as
much against party divisions as sectional divis-
IONS Hence, in this address he says of party:
1t serves always to distract the public coun-
ellis, and enfeeble the public Administrations 1t
agitates the community with i'll founded jealous
les and false alarms kindles the aBimosity OF
one part against another, foments occasionally
riot and insurrection. 1t opens the door TO for
eign influence and corruption, which find tacili.
tated access to the government itself through
the channels of party passions. Thus the policy
and will Of one country are subjected to the
policy and will Of another"
Notwithstanding WAsHIsGros's Farewell Ad-
dress, JEFFERSON, MADISON, and others, went on
TO organize party agrinst WAsHIsGToS's own
views. They organized the Republican party OF
'9s. They were supported in this policy by their
own State, the native State of WASHINGTON, as
well as of themselyes-the State of Virginia.
And the celebrated resolutions of 'es, or rather
of so, were passed by the Legislature of that
State. These resolutions were opposed by
General WAsHISGToN, and, Notwithstanding his
retirement from the Presidency, he entered
actively into the politics of his native State, to
put down the Republican party. He denounced
the course Of that party, he denounced these
resolutions as measures which must eventual
ly dissolve the Union, or produce coercion"-to
use his own language.
If the Republicans Of that day had been such
abject worshppers Of a man, and of name, as
the compromisers now, they would have deserted
the rights of the States, and this government
would have become, or re NAMED despotism
But the great leaders of the Republican party
had principle, fortitude, and independence OF
thought aud character, and they saved the rights
of the States, and the Union of the States in
opposition 10 General WASHINGTON, PATRIcK
HEsy, JOHN MARSHALL, JOHN ADAMS, and AL.
ExASDER HAMILToS-who were all against
them-all Union men par excellence, and mer
with more character, talent, and public service
TO sustain them, than all the compromises put
together. Those, therefore, who now quote
WAsHISGToS's Farewell Address against dis
union, have no business to appear as politica
party, for the same document condemns hem.
The Virginia Wings do not adventure on OF
argument in support Of the Compromise. They
say:
Whilst candor compels us to admit TINT those
measures are not, in all respects, what we could
desire, we yet do not hesitate 20 declare that ",
perceive in them nothing tyrannical nor de
grading, nor oppressive 10 any portion Of the
confederacy; nehing but what every patriot
may consistently sanction and as u compromise
of conflicting opinions, as settlement Of al
angry sectional controversy threatening in it,
fury the Union itself, we think they commend
themselves to universal support.
Net tyrannical nor degrading We should
like to know where, in all the volumes Of his
tory, Nan instance can be found, where the in
situations Of a whole people have been excluded
from vast territory which belonged TO them
by any thing else than the power and the des
potsm Of tyrant.
In this case the pretence on which the thin!
was done, was an Insult to the understanding
superadded 10 the degradation Of caste. Tn
inhabitants of California excluded slavery Thi
they had right TO do, if they were eligible {,
admission as a State But conceding that ant