The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-14

- arc, OH WI AAaOhoo oHu OOCutCut ocifuito,
james Blair, VIM. Barksdale,
VIM. II. ID. Darlington, Beverly Matthews,
Il. Sharp, and others.
STEAMBOAT GEN. SCoTT,")
November 90, 1850.
GENTLEMEN IL have the honor to acknowl-
edge the receipt of your very gratifying letter
of the 18th inst, in which, as friends to the
Union and Constitution" you approve of my
course in the United States Senate, and invite
me to public dinner at such time as may be
compatible with my other engagements.
When your letter was handed to me, was
on my way to Washington City, and the oblga-
ton to be present at the commencement of the
session of Congress, Il thought required me to
proceed without delay. The shortness between
the last and the coming session of Congress,
and the exigent demand for some attention to
my private affairs, permitted me to visit but n
small portion of my constituents Had con-
suited my own qualification in the selection of
the places to which should go, you will not
fail to perceive the many inducements which
Lowndes and adjoining counties offered to me,
who owe to their people such debts as to an y
one it would give pride and pleasure personally
to acknowledge. Suffice it to say, that was
governed by other considerations than the wish
to visit those from whom | might expect the
most fattering reception, and now for the
pleasure of meeting you, must look forward to
the ensuing summer, when hope and expect to
be with you.
For your expressions of confidence and est-
nation, accept assurances of my deepest graft
tude, increased, if it be possible, by the con-
sciousness that they are the result of your
Kindness not of my service, and are all un-
merited save for the unwavering devotion have
felt and feel to the State of Mississippi, the
rights, the interests, and the honor of my con-
stituents.
The fears which you express of alienation of
the people from the yet revered Union of our
fathers, and the perverson of the Constitution
from its intent and spirit consequences of
the late action of Congress, were the copvic-
tons Of my mind when the measures to which
you refer, were under consideration in the Senate,
and nerved me in the long opposition | offered
to their enactment 1t may be said, and from
the journals of Congress demonstrated that but
for sectional rivalry and distortion of the grants
of the Constitution from their true purposes,
those laws would not have been enacted The
source of the measures WILL ! think, be increased
by their operations. The alienation of the peo-
pie and the perversion of the Constitution bear
to them the double relation of cause and effect
Yet ingenious demagogues seek to deceive the
people Of the South by throwing the RESPONSE
bility of their present position on those who
struggled most to defeat the means by which
they have been injured, and are required to an
swer the question, will you resist, or submit tc
unjust and humiating discrimination against
you7 A wrong has been inflicted on the South
those who aided in the infection would now
draw the eensure they may have anticipated,
]. a.
rights, and claim redress for past and security
against future aggression. There could not be-
more dangerous heresy than that which con,
cedes to the majority Of Congress the right tc
use all grants in their discretion they may
choose and acknowledges the right of the States
to interpose against their federal agent only
when the forms of the government are violated
in other words, for a palpable violation of tn
letter Of the Constitution. The federal govern
ment is creature Of grants; its powers are no
limited by prohibition, but are only co-exten
sive with the authority conferred Ii the RICH
of the States to interpose begins only on tn
papable infraction of the letter of the Constj
tuition, then they have no power to guard thei
reserved powers, none to conhne the agent i
the use of the grant to the purpose for which
was granted; and it would be difficult to con
ceive Of a case snch as is contemplated by tn
phrase, paspable violation of the Constitution
an which the Supreme Court of the Unite
States would not furnish an adequate remedy
1t Is exactly in the case where the rights Of tn
States and of the people thereof are withheld
by evasion, or invaded by fraud, which depriv
them ofredress by appeal to the Supreme Cour
as the constitutional arbiter. that the State
have right, which may become duty, to in
terpose- Such is the refusal to give protection
to slave property in the territories, held bv thu
federalgovevnmenta as the common property ofth
States: Such was the admission of California a
a State, in order that slaves might be excludes
from the whole territory acquired on the Paci6
coast, NOT merely as eifectuaIy but more efec
tually than coslA have been done by the "Wi
mot Proviso," and such was the partition
Texas Tho violation Of the guarantee OF III
Constitution for private property for citizens
the United States, as presented in the bill
abolish the slave trade in the District OF Colur
bis. is one for which we might look TO the Su
RENE Court for remedy, and cannot bele'
the court would sustain law which declared