The southern press., 1851-08-13
= & R M s
From the Southern (.athsns) Herald.
GOs, Lamar's Letter to the WoodvilIe Com
mIttce.

From the Southern (.aihens) Herald.
Goi, Lamar's Letter to the WoodvilIe Com
ATHENS, July 2, 1851.
GENTLEMEN: | am in receipt Of your letter
III tte 2lst ultimo, and regret that prior engage
me,,ts forbid my acceptance of the invitation to
be with you at Woodville on the 4th inst. You
will have my sympathies, and | trust will real
ize the ardent desires OF the most sanguine, in
giving proper direction to public sentiment
and that the good people Of Greene, will, in Oc-
tober next, as they did in 1923, present an
unbroken phalanx in support Of the rights of
the States They were then energetic and de-
cisive in the assertion of those rights, rs adopted
by the State rights convention of Georgia. and as
exemplifed and expounded by the Virginia and
Kentucky resolutions. Their moral courage,
too, was equal to the occasion; they vindicated,
maintained, and supported those republican
principles with a sternness Of resolve, and un-
wayering consistencv. which elicted the admira-
+isss of .iis. sfeGs. sad Ipas' a. than, aenlip.f,
their own. Tae intelligent people Of Greene
can but perceive that the present issues involve
the same cardinal principles of our government,
and You are right in urging and seriously pre-.
senting to their consideration the position occu-
pied by the respective political parties in the
present crisis.
In 1898 and 90, when federal encroachments
were rife, and the rights of the State endangered
.by the centralized action of the federal govern
xnent, Jefferson, Monroe, and Madison became
the yigilant and eloquent champions of those
rights. They saw that the constitutional rights
of the States and people could only be preserved
by strset construction of that instrument, that
the usurpstons which gave existence to the alien
and sedtion laws, were destructive of the hap
piness and liberty of the people, and would, un-
less they were resisted and controlled, subvert
and change our government of confederate
States into a national despotism. Their patriot
ism was not circumscribed and limited by cold,
calculating chances of federal Offices or emolu.
ments The sedition law, with its pains, penal
ties, and imprisonments, could not overawe or
intimidate them. They "cried aloud and spared
not" until the fedral usurpers were hurled from
power, and the States and the people were REIN
stated the full fruiion of that liberty and those
rights, which are enumerated and defined by the
resolutions to which have adverted, and which
form the political creed of the republican party
For this ardent, patriotic zeal and unflinching
fidelity to the rights Of the States and people,
they are denounced by the federal party as
Jaeobins, factionists and isunionists.-Why
then should the Southern States rights party,
the faithful at5herents to those republican doc.
trines, expect OF desire to escape the denunca-
tions of the opposing party, with the old federal
leaven in it! They have, il is true, changed their
name, and ransacked the English vocabulary to
find epithets sufficiently opprobious for their
second edition Of SANDER, and we are called ire
caters, disunonsts, and rebels. Are we fire.
eaters, because we are jealous of power, vigil
liant in watching its encroachments, Spd soacd
the alarm of the first movement of usurpation! 81
Better far better to be too anxious in our ap-
prehensions, than to be ruined by too confident
a security; for the "price of liberty is eternal
vigilance" There can be no mistake as to fiie
aggressive intentions of the Abotionists at the
North. They avow their ultimate object to be
the extirpation of slavery in the South. and
would, if they could secure to, and elevate the
slave to all the social and 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-
7tion? | trust not, bnt rather at the hazard of
being denounced as fire-eaters, | would have
them to feel as insulted freemen; and feeling,
express their indignation in words that burn"
Are we disunionists because we say and be-
lieve that the independence Of the States is ne
cessary to the preservation of tie Union; and
that the moment their Independence and sover-
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-
eign and independent States, that in the articles
of confederation, each State RETAINED its sover.
eighty, freedom and Independence, and every
power, jurisdiction and right, which was not ex-
pressly surrendered;" !" that States could not part
al l.. r
ton, but only delegated certain enumeratedp poU.
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 peoplei Or are we disunion-
lists because we have implicit faith in, and adopt
the great elementary truth, as part of our poll
tscal creed-athat all power is derived from the
consent Of the governed" that sovereignty is /
immutable and indivisible, and in n government
like ours, of confederate States, abides with the
people of the re spectve States that the po wers
delegated TO the federal government, as the
agent of the States are only emanatons 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 citi.
zen il 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, guaroeu tnOse uutns, anu tie rlgnts
growing out of them, by expressly reserving at
the time of the adoption OF the Constitution, the
right to resume the power they had delegated,
whenever they should deem il expedient. 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 10 evade
that issue.
If not, why was the letter Of their nominee
for the gubernatorial chair, denying he righ ofl
a State in her sovereign capacity 10 secede, not
read before the convention which nominated
him, but suppressed Thus furnishing the most
conclusive proofs that the wire-pullers, or
knowing ones as they are commonly designa-
ted, considered that their nominee had assumed
an erroneous position--one which could not be