The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-13

| ment Is rendered, rcbucr IL peculiarly Sfattytlk
to me, because it assures me that you approve
Of my conduct under trying circumstances, and
that am still honored with your confidence and
| esteem.
Nv position as governor of State which
had been the first to recommend measures OF
resistance to the anti-slayery movements, and
nv expressed determination, in my official action,
not to reeede from the position which had been
taken by the State, and which hereby approve
Of have subjected me to much bitter detraction
and abuse Such is ever the fate Of those " o
seek to restrain the abuses of power The
priests who derived honor and profit from the
worship of the Ephesian Diana, and the gold
smiths who enriched themselves by it, cried
aloud and furiously assailed the messenger Of
truth, who proclaimed doctrines which threat
ened to destroy the urces of their power and
wealth. Those interested patriots, in answer to
every argument, shouted "great is DIANA" and
4" sto ne the tratorT The selfish politicians of
our day, who worship around the presidential
altar, with similar motives, drown all reason and
argument'in hosannahs to the "giorious Union"
and abuse Of thos who will not submit que "
to be despoiled of their dearest rights in the
name of the Union. Southern men who have
been true to their section, have had to eneoun-
ter a systematic course of denunciation and
those who have deserted its interests have been
loaded with honor and praise from the same
sources.
| have been complimented with being made a
special object Of vituperation. | know of no
reason for it, except that, while governor, fear
lessly endeavored to maintain the rights Of the
State, and with you, ard thousands of the purest
patriots of the South, have advanced opinions
that the present state Of the slavery question is
incompatible with the equality of the slave hold
ing States in the confederacy, and have adyo-
Gated some efficient State action to protect us
| from the unconstitutional and oppressive meas
ures of the federal government. Whether the
prosecution against me for an alleged violation
of the neutrality laws, had its origin in these
causes, have not sufficient evidence to asserts
but do say that the prosecution was wholly
unfounded that not a single charge of the in
dictment was true; and that there never was,
so far as have been able to ascertain, any evil
dence TO support it, Provoking and oppressive
as was this prosecution towards me personally
it would not have deserved public consideration
but for the manner--contemptous, insulting and
dsrespectful to the State--in which it was car
ried on.
In urging the arrest and immediate removal
of the governor, there was deliberaton and de-
sign and it is fair to infer that design was to
humble the State of Mississippi, and to PROSTATE
her before the federal power. The spirit that
Gould dictate lattering apology to the abolition
city Of Boston, for scandaous outrage upon
law. well as the principles of common honesty,
is fit for the service of perverting the power of
executing the laws, to insult Southern State
In the acts of the administration, the govern
ment and the anti-savery States, we may read
the signs of the tines. We would be blind not
to see them, and infatuated not to prepare for
them. They thcken around US so that we can
no longer avoid them We must determine to
meet them face to face We have been swindled
out of the public domain. Even a portion of
Texas, supposed to be secured as slaveholding,
has been cut off. Every outlet to the extension
Of our institution has been firmly closed The
golden shores of the Pacific open to the adven-
turers Of the wide earth, are denied to Southern
labor, though, in part, acquired with our blood,
and purchased with our treasure. We are now
hemmed in on the West as well as the North
The line once fixed to save the Union, has been
contemptuously disregarded. The area for the
employment of our labor has been crcumscribed
by the stern fat " thus far shalt thou go, and no
farther" and while anti-slaverv States may be
indefinitely increased the number of savehold-
ing States and their political power must remain
stationary, or diminish. An effective step to the
entire abolition Of slavery in the Federal Dis
trict, although surrounded by slavehodng
States, has been adopted. The provision Of the
Constitution for the reclamation of fugitive slaves
has not only been dsregarded. but number Of
the leading anti-savery States have passed laws
to prevent its execution within their limits and
since the passage of the Fugitive slave bill, is
operation has generally been defeated by cunning
legal devices, vexatious nterventions and some
times by open violence.
= A spirit hostile to slavery pervades most, if
not all, the non-slaveholdng States and, in nv
judgment, this hostility is becoming daily more
active, more practical, and consequently more
dangerous. The so called compromise, instead
'of alaying II, by yielding up all the public terri
tory, appears to have stimulated this fell spirit
to more efficient action.
In the great States Of New York and Ohio.
the recent contests for Senators have resulted
In the election of men prominent for their ex-
IRENE anti-slavery principles; and in Massachu-
sets, the contest lies between Free.soiler and
an avowed Aboli,ionist
Not enc of The States whose statute books
contain laws to prevent the delivery up of fugi-
tlves from labor, has even formally acceded to
the Clay and Foote compromise, by repeating
their obnoxious laws, and complying with their
SoioNieu'tuhdi uue( auu ule MOST lniluenllal
non sayeholding States, in spite of the exertions
of those politicians whose fate hangs on the
success of their so-called compromise, show
liked determination to repeal or essentially
change the Fugitive-slave law. In fine, hostility
to slavery has never, in my opinion, assumed so
organized and dangerous a character as it has
done since the Wilmot Proviso was settled by
excluding slavery from the territories, by the
new and more effective means of the California
and Mexican law provisos
If there have heretofore been any grounds for
action on the part of the Southern States, to
avert the impending evil or to prepare for self
protection if the evil could not be arrested, they
exist now in much greater degree than when
the people of Mississippi, under the advice of
distinguished citizens of both political parties,
assembled in convention, declared that the time
had come when the Southern States should take
counsel together and devise and adopt some
mode of resistance to these aggressions, and re-
solved that they, representing the feelings and
opinions of the people of Mississippi would not
submit to an exclusion from the public domain,
y. ..l.. a