The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-07-23

Town, and not thoroughly and practically uude
standing its bearing and importance.
Every nation, and every part Of nation, POI
sesses interests peculiarly is own. II must /
free TO work them out See what foreign int
ference and absurd laws hsve done for Ireland
See what protection aud an insular positio
have done for London! And yet where wouI
she have been, or what, had Germany and Franc
been free, and the Rhine open to commercia
industry! There would have been a LondoI
but 1t would have been on the banks of tn
Rhine, and not upon the little streamlet, caIIe
the Thames.
EE- A complaint made to police justice il
Lowell, of an aggravated misdemeanor, was dis
missed by him, few days since, because tn
parties preferring it were atheists, and therefor
unable to appreciate the obligations Of an oath
To it is stated:
"The question for the magistrate is clea
enough, namely to ascertain from the statemen
Of parties the commission or not of crime
Nothing can be imagined more absurd than fo
a person placed in authority to watch over public
morals, excusing himself from the trouble, o.
liberatiDg the accused from motives 30 frivolous
and n0nsensical. The testimony of one part,
is as good and as weghty us that Of another, &C
long as they have sense enough to comprehend
the gravity of the matter in question. And
what on earth some accidental within or fancy
which moments reflection may correct on the
morrow, can have to do with destroying the
proofs of the misdemeanor, we are at loss to
comprehend"
We are not for dealing out savage justice
or an undiscriminating law. But we are de-
cidedly against the carrying out in this country
of those fictions for bullying justice, which SO
delight the English lawyer, the whole end and
object of which is to leave ways open by which
higher class criminals may escape
We hardly care how mild the law is, or how
rapidly justice is dealt out; but what we demand
is that it shall not fail, and that it shall not be
made mockery of.
We call the attention of those of our readers
who contend that State has not the right to &c.
cede, to the following which we extract from the
New Orleans Courier:
The RIGHT TO SEcEDE.-One of the most
ridiculous humbugs put forth by the presses on
the side of consolidation, is the humbug that
sovereign State has not the right to secede-that
secession would be rebellion. Rebellion! in
deed.-As if one sovereign could not declwe
any longer association with fellow-sovereign
but it would be rebellion forsooth. The great
mind which framed the Declaration of Indepen.
dence, knew as we'll as any other man that ever
lived in the tide of time, what are the rights of
men, individually as citizens or collectively as
States. In this declaration he says that sall men
are endowed with certain inalienable rights
that among these are life, liberty, and the pur-
suit OF happiness-that whenever any form of
government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the right-nay, it is the duty of snch people
to throw Oft such government Again, in the
resolutions OF the Kentucky legislature, in 1898,
drafted by him, he says that "the several States
composing the United States of America, are not
united on the principles of unlimited submission
to the general government; but that by compact.
under the style and title of Constitution of tho
United States, and of amendments thereto, thew
constituted general government for special
purposes-delegated to that government certain
definite powers reserving each State to itself the
residuary mass Of right to their own self.govern-
ment; and that whatsoever the general govern
ment assumes undelegated powers, its acts are
unauthoritative, void, and of no force: what be-
longs to fbjs compact, each State seeded as q
State, and is an integral party, its co-Statcs
forming as to itself the other party That the
government created by this compact was not
made the exclusive or final judge of the extent
OF the power delegated TO itself; since that
would have made its discretion, and not the
~ nno ~ fho - "a 4 -
that, AS in all other cases Of compact among
parties having no common Judge, each party has
an equal right to Judge for itself, as well of in
fraction, as of the mode and measures of re-
iress."
And, further on, he says that "to take from
he States all powers Of selfgovernment, and
transfer them to general and consolidated gov
'rnment, without regard to the special obliga- |
ion and reservation solemnly agreed to in that |
compact, is not for the peace and happiness or |
of the States (for which object the |
Union was formed J and that therefore this COM
is determined as it doubts not it's
20. States are, not tamcly to submit to undelega-
ed and consequently unlimited powers, in no
nan or body of men on earth: y
hat 1t would be dangerous delusion, were
onfidence in the men Of our choice to silence
ur fears for the safety of our rights; that conf
ence is everywhere the parent of despotism,
rec government is founded in jealousy and not
n confidence, which prescribes limited consti
utions to bind down those We are obliged to
rust with power.
n question ofpower, then, let no more be heard
IT confidence in man, but bind him down from
Mischief by the chains of the Constitution
Modern secessonists claim no more nor less
han the rights here defined by Jefferson, and
renee they are no more traitors than he was.
md only as he was, DESTROYS of preserving State
lights in the Union if possible, but to preserve
hem at all hazards, OUT or IN In the lang
.uage of Jacksonville doctrine of the State
lights men is, "to contend for nothing but what
, right, an to submit to nothing that is wrong
SUICIDE OF A COMPLEMENTARY Wheel
,g Gazette says that John London, who WINS
rrested few days since for counterfeitng,
lille on mis- way to Virginia under charge of
Ulcers, succeeded while at the Goddard House.
{ Maysvillp in tskino ga ~ afh;nr that o,u.n1 |