The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-22

uaticism, had assumed, have now abandoned
them, and acknowledged their unquestionable
duty to submit to the law, until it is modified or
repealed by competent authority In descending
from The high and perilous ground, which they
could not safely occupy, TO that OF concedlng The
obligation of submission to the lay, we discern,
hope, just homage to the dictates OF clvillZa
ton, and To the duties of established govern
ment. If they have coupled with this proper
concession the useless reservation OF arght OF
discussion, and of insisting vi on repeal or the
amendment of law TO which they had taken
exception, may we not hope that their purpose
was only TO secure decent retreat, with Sc
cret and patriotic determination to forbear from
disturbing that return to harmony and tran
guilty, so necessary to the safety and prosperity
of the Union? Should it turn out otherwise,
should the reckless spirit of agitation continue
to disturb and distract our country, to array sec
ton against section and to threaten the stability
of the government, my confidence is mistaken
in the great body of our Northern fellow-cit-
zens, that they will, in due time, and in right
manner, apply an appropriate and elfectual cor
receive.
In turning our attention to tbs South, and to
the slaye-holding States, we behold enough to
encourage the friends of the Union, and but
little to excite socitude and alarm. In all
these States, except three, there is acquescence
in the terms of the compromise, and firm at
tachment to the Uuon. In two of these three
Georgia and Missssippi,) we have much reason
to hope, from their known patriotism and in
telligence, that the same attachment exists, on
the part of large majorities of the people. At
all events, those among them of whose devotion
and fidelity to the Union serious approximations
we're entertained, have been constrained, in
Difference to public opinion, materially to change
their principles, and to go to the polls upon a
new issue. They have renounced and de-
nounced the practical right of secession at pres
ent, and taken shelter under the convenient
mask of the mere abstract right. Whether this
shifting of position will satisfy the people of
these two States, remains to be seen. They
will doubtless seriously consider, that there is
but short step between the theoretic assertion,
and the practical exercise of that right and in a
contingency, neither remote nor improbable, if
they affirm the right, they may be soon called
upon to involve themselves in all the calamitOus
evils of civil war.
South Carolina alone furnishes at present
occasion for profound regret and serious ap.
prehension, not 80 much for the security Of the
Union as for her own peace and prosperity.
We are compelled painfully and reluctantly to
yield, to the force of concurrng evidence, es
tablishing that there exists in that State general
dissatisfaction with, and general desire to
withdraw from the Union; and that both par
ties-that which is for separate State actor,
and that which insists upon the necessity of IT,
CO operation of other States-equally agree as
to the expediency of secession, and differ only
in the degree of rashness or prudence which
characterizes them respectively.
Notification and secession have sprung from
the same metaphysical school and the latter is
the ally, if not the off prng Of the former
They both agree that single State is invested
with power to nullify the laws of all the 9th :
States, passed by Congress but notification
claims a right to accomplish that object, and to
remain at the same time in the Union whilst
secession asserts a right to attain it, by with.
drawing from the Union, and absovnI the State
from all obligation to the Constitution and the
laws Of the United States. They both main
tain that a resort to either process is peaceful
and legitimate Notification derived an ambg-
uous but contested support from the memora-
Bile resolutions of the States of Virginia and
Kentucky adopted in 1889; but these reso-
lutions afford no color or countenance to the
pretensons of secession.
The doctrine of secession assumes that any
one of the thirty-one States composing the
Union, wherever or however situated, whether
in the interior or on the frontier, has right upon
its own separate will, and according to the die
tates of its exclusive Judgment, TO withdraw
from the Union whenever it pleases; that this
act of secession is peaceful and not to be con-
troverted or obstruced by the rest of the States
or by the application of any force, within the
limits Of the secedng State, to execute the laws
of the United States and that thereupon, the
State and its citizens absolved from all obli-
cations and duties to the United States, and be-
come power as independent and sovereign as
any of the nations of the earth. The doctrine
maintains that this right of secession may be
exercised whenever the State deems il has suff
cient cause; at all times--in a state Of profound
peace and prosperity, or in the midst of furious
war, raging in all cur borders and that, in the
latter case, transforming itself into distinct and
independent nation, il may escape the calamities
Of war, make a separate treaty of peace with the
common enemy, become neutral, or even ally
itself with that enemy and take up arms against
the United States 1t asserts this right although
il may lead in the process Of time, to the pro.
miscuous dottng over, upon the surface of the
territory of the United States, of petty indie.
pendent nations ). establishing for themselves
any form of government free or despotic, known
to mankind, and interrupting the intercourse and
violating or menacng the execution of the laws
Of the dsmembered confederacy It contends
for this right, as well for Louisiana as for South
Carolina, although the province of Louisiana
cost ne so much money, and was nigh involving
us in foreign war for Texas, although it &C
casoned US war with Mexico, the payment of
ten millions of dollars to arrange its boundaries
and to acquire it, many were willing to risk
war with England and for distant California,
although that was acquired by the double title
Of conquest and the payment of an ample pc
cuniary consideration.
IT. indeed, the Union, under which we have so
long, and generally so happily lived, be thus fra
gile, and liable to crumble into pieces, we must
cease to boast of the wisdom of our forefathers
who formed it, tear from our hearts the senti.
ments of gratitude and veneration with which
they had inspired us, and no longer expect an
enlightened world to bestow the unbounded
praise which il has hitherto avished on them
A doctrine so extraordinary and indefensible,
fraught with the destruction of the Union, and
such other dreful consequences, finds no en-.
couragement or support in the Constitution of
the United States. Ii had none under the arti
cles of confederation which formed, in terms, a
Il -