The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-15
From the Montgomery (yalx) Atlas and Secession,
Busasnr


From the montgomery (-a'~.) .assas and Secession
Bssxtv.
SgcEssloN-TH MONTGOMERY PLATFoRm-
Our Poslrlos--"TAKIKG STEP FoHwARDs."-
In discussing hitherto the subject of Nor herr
interference with the institution of slavery il
| the Southern States, we have repeatedly endeay
ored to show, as our readers will bear US wit
ness, the absolute necessity of meeting every
aggression, or attempted aggression, upon the
rights of the South, with such resistance al
would be adequate To their full and compiett
defence. AS to the particular mode of resist
ance, however, We have heretofore been content
to leave that to the decision of majority OF
the people, after resistance Of some kind had
been once resolved upon. The mere manner Of
resistance, indeed, we have been accustomed u
treat as question of little moment, believing
that prompt and united action on the part Of
a majority of the Southern people--such as
would evidence to our enemies OF the North
that they were determined to maintain all their
rights intact at every hazard-would have been
all that was necessary to our perfect security
from any further molestation--such belief being
founded in the conviction that those in whose
hands lie the great commercial interests of the
North, when once fully reused up to action by
fear Of dissolution of the Union, would, in
any general and serious copilict, be a decided
oyermatch for the whole body of abolition ia
natics
We deem it scarcely necessary to say that
recent evsnts in several Of the most powerful
Notwithstanding States, have greatly impaired
the strength OF our convictions in the moral
power and conservative influence of the metro
politan interests of the Northern section of the
Union. The general course of political events
in the Southern States too, during the last few
months, has been such as to leave us little hope
--mOrtifying the confession may bc--in the
practicabity of present union of the majority
of the Southern people on any feasible plan Of
selfdefence it being now evident that upon
the subject of slavery, there will hereafter be
but two parties recognized among them, viz,
those occupying the Georgia platform, or the
+" SuJmissionisis," and those, and such as those,
who support the resolutions adopted by the con-
vention of States rights clubs held in this place
in February last or the 'Secessonisis"
1t is quite clear, then, that the position which
we have heretofore occnpied--a position of re-
sistance-not of submission-a position in the
rear, indeed of the seceders, but far in advance
Of the submissionists, believing as we did in as
Stunning it, that in the longO in,erralio between,
a ground might be taken that would unite both
the secessionists and the resistance men Of all
parties Of the South-s no longer tenable for
any practical purposes.
Falling back to the submissionists being, from
various reasons, ont of the question, there is no
other alternative than to take stepf orloards'
and unite with the only party that now advocates
the course which We have aioays insisted that
every consideration of duty, honor, and patriot
ism required the South to adopt, viz: "to main
tain by some means or other, NIL her rights-in
the Union if possbe-out of the Union if
needs be-" That party is known in this State
as the one which has boldly planted itself upon
the "Nontgomery Platform,' Whose sole object
is--to maintain the rights and honor of the slave
holding States
The principles Of this platform, which have
been misunderstood, misinterpreted and misrep-
resented, it will be hereafter one of the purposes
of this paper to vindicate and support.
For the convenience of our readers, we have
republished the "Montgomery Platform in the
present number of our paper; and we are per-
suaded that when tits candidly and carefully ex-
amined, and especially in the light lchich the his
tory of epents both North and South during the
last tpo months has hro,cn upon ii, it will not
be found. the embodiment of such odious and
irrational doctrines as in some quarters it has
been represented to be. 1t does not recommend,
as it is charged by some papers, an immediate
secession of Alabama; it only urges that she
"set her house in order with rie,o to seces-
sion,"-the time being yet an undetermined
question, and one which can only be settled by
circumstances in the yet undeveloped future
but no man would desire so important a step to
be taken, before the people had ample time to
consider upon it in all its bearings, and to pre-
pare to effect its accomplishment with as little
interruption as possible to the pursuits of trade
and commerce.
As to the right of secession, and the conse-
guences Of secession we do not now feel called
upon to say single word about either; for on
those points the principles of the two platforms
of Georgia and Of Alabama--are precisely The
same; the Georgia submissionist, as well as the
Alabama secessionist, being already pledged to
practice the one and to brave the other-wlat-
ever they be--on the happening of certain
contingency, which, judging FROM the present
signs of the times, we do not believe to be very
far in the future.
For person occupying such position,
therefore, to object to the Montgomery platform
on account Of the consequences of carrying out
its principles, is not only inconsistent and abb
surd, but it is shallow and hypocritica.
the Alabama and the Georgia platforms, and all
the difference, in our opinion, is to the advant
age of the former. He who occupies that, stands
there in all the potent prestige of an unco,npro-
missing and an uncompromitted honor, clothed
in the panoply Of truth, without fe r and with
out reproach," his escutcheon untarnished-
sefrespect, and high chivarous feelings un-
sacrificed and undiscovered by the conscious
ness of ever having asked-in the language of
Jackson-for any thing that was not right or
submitted to any thing that was wrongly the
consciousness of ever having descended to any
inglorious huckstering about the privileges of
his birthright or of entering upon any mercan-
tile calculations Of the value Of freedom and per-
sonal digr ity--contending, like Washington and
his compatriots of the revolution, for his polit-
zeal rights--for Notwithstanding and feeling
that he is enlisted in holy cause, that Justice
and patriotism are his, and that in such con
test, to yield any thing, is, in effect, to yield
verything-conscious that to fight for right
cannot be wrong, and to temporze with wrong
cannot be right, he battles on with stout heart
and proud mein. determined to do his duty, his
whole duty, and to leave the consequences to
the powers above