The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-17

systematic abuse in certain journals OF the South,
| of gentlemen occupying high positions in the
affection and confidence OF u large portion of the
Southern people,-gentlemen who have served
their country with honor and glory, whose char
acters are beyond suspicion and reproach,-but
who happen to entertain different views from
those which are advocated by more time-serying
and complaisant politicians, are made the target
not only for editorial censure aud detraction, but
also for the pellets of anonymous scribblers and
Washington gossip mongers. The sin of too
great fidelity to the South, of determination to
resist encroachments on our rights, is an mex
piabe one in the view OF many even in the South,
who might be more usefully employed in expos
ing and denouncing the enemies OF our rights and
the Constitution.
Among other eminent men who have shared
largely of this detraction, is Colonel Jefferson
Davis, of Mississippi. We find published con-
spicuously in the picayune, journal so gen
erously and literally supported by the South,
letter from a well known Washington cores
pondent, full Of the vilest and most shameful
abuse of this gentleman, whose name through
out the Southwest and the Union, is the
synonyme of heightened honor and chivalry,--a
gentleman who was once received with Triumph
| ant procession and public parade by the city of
New Orleans, on his return from the war in which
| he had borne so glorious part. We refer to
| Colonel Jefferson Davis, the bosom friend, com
panion and indicator of Zachary Taylor Here
is the allusion to Colonel Davis in the letter of
the picayane's Washington correspondent, pub
lished in Sundays paper.
"This brought Col. jeff Davis to his feet,
and more puere, lame ard sophisticated ar
gument never heard in any Legislative assem-
bly,.
"Col. Davis was magnanimous after his own
peculiar fashion. He forgave Massachusetts
he acknowledged her right to nullify the laws
of Congress when not suited to her condition
or taste, and said that trifling privilege is inher-
ent in her State sovereignty. He, for one, was
willing to let Massachusetts go out of the Union
whenever she chose, that being part of the
original contract, for which no State could be
held to account. He, Col. jeff Davis, of Mis-
sssissippi, would be the last man to stop or to
try to prevent her. The United States had no
right to prevent her themilitia had no right to
prevent her the army and navy had no right to
prevent her, and the President of the United
States had no right to prevent her. The Colo
nel's speech was all defamation and nonsense
"a pure, naked, logical puerility, without point,
which fell stillborn from his lips without creating
even as much as a SMILE"
And then to give still greater point to this
false statement of Colonel Davis position and
| speech, and to show off in stronger light the
inferority of Southern senator, the speech of
Honest John Davis" of Massachusetts, is thus
contrasted with the puerilities" of the senator
from Mississippi:
This calm reply Of John Davis completely
knocked COL Davis arguments into a cooked
hat'n
This is the same John Davis who advocated
Al f1o hat,
necessary to surround the Southern States with
Gordon of free States, in order to restrain the
lawless propensity ofslavehoders. The Picay-
une's correspondent further continues:
"One thing only regret as having been intro
duced in COL Davis's speech, viz: the arrest of
Gen. Quitman, which, he said, involved his res
| ignaton as governor. He read from that docu-
ment but nobody was moved by the sympathetic
accents of Col. Davis nor by the tone of the
document itself 1t was deemed unfortunate
for Col Davis's logical reputation that he should
compare the official acts Of Gen. Quitman, done
deliberately, or after what may be supposed to
have been deiberation, with the acts of law
less mob, thus drawing parallel between some
of the choicest spirits in Mississippi, and ne
gro mob from the purlieus OF vice IN Boston.
| The comparison was unfortunate. Col Davis
| ought not to have exhibited General Quitman's
ln0eScreIlOnS IN SUCH uu7h uasiaTulY cOlOrS.
| The falsehood and ndecency of this illusion
are quite apparent to any one who has read the
discussion referred to. The reference of Col
Davis to General Quitman was drawn forth by
an attempt of the Abolitonst Hale to assini-
| late the alleged resistance of General Quitman
| to the arrest by the United States marshal, to
the mob violence Of the Boston negroes. The
sympathetic accents" of this writer are base
| fiction. There was no such parallel as this
writer says, drawn by Colonel Davis. The
whole review of the speech of Senator Davis
, is one of the most contempt BILE and malicious
pieces of misrepresentation we recoect ever to
have read in decent journal. That our readers
may have an opportunity of judging of the cor
RICHNESS of this opinion, we give the speech of
| Colonel Davis, on the occasion referred to, ms
we find it reported in the Washington Union:
"Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. Mr.. President,
when the bill providing for the delivery of fugi-
| tive slaves was under consideration, was one
of those who sought to give it the greatest eff
cacy of form. | was also one of those who ex
pected no great results from it. / feared then,
what seems to be too we'll realized now, that
there was not n sentiment in the Northern
States to enforce the law and without that
public sentiment without that consent | felt
that the law was useless Here and there, per-
maps, tuplLNe may Dc 1tcoNcIcu, Dub ~ 10 SCI
dom that he can be found-seldom, indeed, that
the process can be executed against him. In
commercial communication it may occur--in ru-
raj communities, perhaps, never. did not then
anticipate that if fugitive were arrested and
brought legally before the commissioner or
Judge, a mob could have the power to release
him. Without that, | still thought the law
would be Intellectual for any useful purpose.
Opposition has gone further than expected.
The senator from Massachusetts says the COM
mon sentiment is in opposition to the law; and
a senator who did not address the Senate, but
spoke in terms which reached my ear said the
universal sentiment" strengthening the asser-
ton Of the senator from Massachusetts. If it
be so, then il follows that the law is dead as to
that particular State. As to the particular case
which has occurred, regret it as much as any
one | regret it, because it is an evidence of that
downward tendency in the people of the United
States, which seems to manifest that they are
unworthy of the government they have inner
tied. 1t is a government which is wholly mop
erative whenever the people cease to be sufli
/ n "a