The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-09-19
HYDE PARK, Duchess county, N. Y.
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HYDE PARK, Duchess county, ~ T.
September 9th, 1851.
GENTLEMEN Your letter directed to me Al
New York, conveying an invitation to add -ess a
meeting of the citizens of Charleston district
to be held in Charlesto D, South Carolina, on the
18th inst has just reached me at this place
where now reside.
For the compliment thus rendered, an the
language in which it is conveyed, beg you to
accept my Acknowledgements, accompanied by
regrets that | cannot comply with your wishes
Distance and space, the burden of years should
bear with me- and more than all, my incapacity
for public speaking, compel me to decline task
for which | am totally untitled What | have
to say,l therefore hope you will permit me to nd
dress you, through medium to which ] am
more accustomed.
AS it appears from the tenor of your letter
that you are already sufficiently aware of the
opinion | entertain with respect to what is
enthusiastically called the compromise, will only
trouble you with brief recapituaton In my
view, it was gross and palpable collation. Of
that great fundamental principle of State equal
ity, which peryades every provision of the Con
stitutlOn, aud forms the basis or this confedera.
ton; most unjustifiable attack on the rights
interests. safety and happiness of one half the
States composing it, accompanied by insult and
obloquy: a pretended concession, wrested by
mere force of numbers from a minority; and
that, in its sequences, it will prove more fatal
to the repose, prosperity, and happiness, if not
the very existence Of the Union, than any mea-
sures that may be resorted to in attempting to
obtain redress for the past or security for the
future
s lch being my view of the subject ! am and
always have been, of opinion, that the stand
originally taken by South Carolina, and most of
the Southern States in opposition TO the prn
ciples embodied in that aeries of measures, was
not only justitiable, but demanded by proper
regird for their rights and their bonorI and that
an abandonment OF the position they then as
sumed, and an aequiescence in measures they
repeatedly declared they would resist, sat all
hazards and TO the last extremity" unless ac
by frank acknowledgment Of hav
ing been wrong in the first instance, would, in
the language of the printed resolutions append
ed to your letter, be what they could not sub
init to without dishonor." II such an abandon
ment OF all previous pledges and declarations
were the result Of subsequent conviction OF
having greatly erred in maalny them it would
be honorable and magnanimous. But such APP
pears not to be the case since even the advo.
Gates Of acquiescence still continue TO assert the
principles on which these pledges and declara.
tons were based, as well as the wrongs which
FIRST called them forth.
The association IL, | believe, right In is sec.
ond esoution-declaring its belief that the co.
operation Ct any of the Southern States with
South Carolina either in resistance or secession.
is at least improbable, so long ms the influence
M patronaua If the uanaral
rayed against State rights Nor do see any
reason for believing that any probable change
of administration will produce change of
measures. since ms you will perceive, from their
repeated declarations, all parties in the North
unite in denouncing slavery, and maintaining
the constitutional right of Congress, as we'll as
duty, to prohibit its extension to any
State that may hereafter be admitted into the
Union. From all present appearances, the prin
ciples embodied in the compromise will continue
to be the basis of the future policy of the gov
IL seems, also, probable that the
States which have submitted to past, will be
equally quiescent under future wrongs.
Having thus briefly stated my views with re.
gard to your first and second, | will now revert
10 your last and most important resolution
namely: that failing in a reasonable time to
pDtatH Tue cu-opeFhtion OF OLncr southern STATES
South Carolina should alone withdraw from the
Union"
1t seems rather late in the day to be called on
to combat the old exploded doctrine of passive
obedience and non-resisance, the assertion of
which cost one monarch his head, and sent
another into perpetual exile. Yet, as that doc
trine has lately been revived by some of tn,
highest names of the republic, IL calls for
passing notice in connexion with the subject of
this letter IL seems strange, too, that this long
buried monster, which received its death wounds
in the two revolutions of England and America,
should have been dug up and resuscitated by
distinguished Democratic republican statesmen.
From all but the darkest regions Of the civilized
world, this por'entous phantom has been ban.
shed, as Il would appear, only to find refuge in
that which Processes TO be the most free and en-
ightened. There is not European writer, or
statesman, or theologist, Of any established rep
r,stion, that would now venture to proclaim the
slsvish principles which have been asserted by
republican leaders in the halls of n Congress Of
republican States.
A Il orough discussion of this doctrine of
passive obedience and non.resistance, on the
,art Of equal members of confederation oil
States, would require more space than ia proper
or me to occupy, and more time than you can