The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-02-21

maintain Its dignity against all opposers. This
little 'enecdote serves to show the spiritlof the
President Of the United States, and it win show
the senator from New Hampshire that, If the
President deems it necessary, he will direct the
employment of the military force In Massachu-
setts, or ia my State in the Union, in order to
maintain the law
Mr.. DAVIS. Of Mississin pi. Mr.. President
when the bill providing for the recapture of flu
gitive 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 sentiment in the Northern
States to enforce the law, and without that pub
lie sentiment, without that consent, felt that
the law was useless. Here and there, perhaps,
q fugitive may be recovered, but it is seldom
that he can be found seldom, indeed that the
process can be executed against him. In CON-
mercial communities it may occur, in rural com
munities perhaps never. ! did not then antici-
pate that if fugitive were arrested and brought
legally before tte commissioner or Judge, a mob
could have the power to release him. Without
that, still thought the law would be ineffec-
tual, to great extent useless for the contem-
plated 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. 1t it
be 30, then it 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 indication of
that downward tendency in the people of the
United States, which seems to manifest that
they are unworthy of the government they have
inherited. II is a government which il wholly
imperative whenever the people cease to have
sufficient virtue TO execute it. Whenever mobs
can rule, and law il sienced beneath tumult,
this is wholly an impracticable government 1t
was not organized as one of force. Its strength
is moral, and moral only.
The government Of the United States has
power to suppress instruction and to repcl in
vasion.* What insurrection do you suppose is
contemplated! Only insurrection against the
authority of a State in which civil government
shall be paralyzed by physical power. The oc-
casion, too, must be sudden and epheneral. If
the masses Of any State choose, they have the
power, and il is nndenable,t to change their whole
form of government An Instruction, them
must be one against State, and State must
seek the aid of the federal government to justify
it in introducing its power in the State for the
purpose of suppressing insurrection. In the
better days of the republic, may not say the
purer days of the republic, the militia of the
States were relied upon for the enforcement of
the laws against those who resisted them within
the borders Of the States. Thus Gen. WASH
ington's Secretary of War called on the militia
of Pennsylvania to put down the whskey insur-
recton He did not call on the army and navy
of the United States.
But. sir, the case in Boston seems to be the
legitimate result of an event which occurred not
long since. when the officers failed to do their
duty, and the marshal ,ho so failed WINS net re-
moved. What WIS this but direct encourage.
ment to a free negro mob to set aside the law,
and to oppose the officers if they attempted to
execute it! am not one of those, however
anxious may be to see this law enforced, who
would advocate the use of the army to secure
its enforcement hold that when any State in
this Union shall choose to set aside the law, it
is within, her sovereignty, and beyond our power.
| hold thpt it would be total subverson Of the
principles of our government if the strong arm
ofthe United States is to be brought to crush
the known will Of the people of any State of
this Union. Such is my theory of this govern.
ment. If the people of Massachusetts choose
to nuify the law, if they choose to obliterntethe
Constitution, If they choose to deny the supre-
macy of the laws of the United States, they will
have but one step more to take, and the impulse
with which they will be moving will compel them
TO take it, that is to declare the authority of the
United States abrogated, and the bonds of the
Union to be no longer over them. We of the
South have been constantly arragned as those
who oppose the government of the United
States, who nulify its laws and who manifest
violent resistance against their execution. The
charge is as untrue as it is common. Look To
the history of the country, and find in times past
where the laws of this government have been
nullified. Elsewhere they have been in the plant
ing States never
But special reference was made to the State
Of Mississippi. Now, sir, whatever newspaper
reports the senator who made that reference
may have, ! tell him those reports are utterly
untrue. Process in the case to which reference
was made was delayed, and have yet to learn
sufficient cause why it was not longer delayed,
when the executive of sovereign State,
charged with high functions of Office which he
could not lay down except by resignation, pro-
posed to give the vernment security to 60 to
New Orleans and stand trial, if they would
suspend the process until his term Of Office
closed. This it seems they could not grant
Jus ice was hungry for that sacrifice. Why,
will not say. Many others have passed unno-
ticed. Offe lders against this fugitive slave law
have gone unpublished. Actors in the Cuba in
vasion, avowng the fact have remained unno-
ticed. Still there was one against whom the
shaft unerring must de levelled, and that was
the State rights governor of Mississippi man
who had grown old in honorable service civil
and military, and whose gray hairs had brought
him accumulated honor He must be dragged
from the duties Of his station to answer the
charge of aiding and abettng an expedition from
the United States, which it was well known
from his public position he could not have been
a participant. | will read part of the pro-
clamation of that governor when he laid down
his Office:
al therefore. fellow-citizens, now resign the
high trust confded to my hands, with no feeling
of personal regret, except that | could not
serve you better; with no feeling of shame, for
am innocent Of the causes which have induced
the necessity Of this step; on the contrary,
although personally fear no investigation and
shun no scrutiny, have spared no efforts, con-