The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1851-08-29
tFrom the savnh6k Georgian) :.
John Randolph and the right of Seosssio,


An extract, laudatory of the union, from
one of Mr.. Randolph's speeches, q short time
since, went the rounds of the Compromise
presses. That its author was to the time Of
his death, true friend of the union. admits
of no more doubt than he was a friend of the
south and of his darling doctrines of State
rights. Yet in these days, when an assertion
of the right of Secession makes a man a
dlsunionist, what is to be thought of the
following resolutions drafted by MI. Randolph
aud submitted by him to the people of Char
lotto county, Va, at the Courthouse assem-.
bled:
"Reso!ued, That Virginia is and of righ.
ought to be a free, sovereign, and indepen.
dent state That she became so by her own
sovereign act, which has since been recop-
n'zed by the whole civilized world, and has
never been disavowed, retracted, or in auy
wise impaired or weakened by any subsequent
Resolued, That Virginia never has part.
ed with the right to recall the authority 10
delegated for good and sufficient cause. nor
with the right to Judge the sufficieocy ofsuch
cause, and to SEcEDE from the Confederacv
whenever she shall find the benefit exceeded
by its evils, union being the means of secur
ing happiness and not as an end TO which il
should be sacrificed. - -,
RESOLVED, That while we utterly repro.
bate the doctrine Of notification, as equally.
weak and miscliievous, We cannot for that
reason, give our countenance to PRINCIPLES.
equally unfounded and in the highest degree
dangerous to the liberties of the people,
Yet, this great man-for great notwith.
standing bis eccentricities he truly was, not
only III the cloquence of the orator, but in
the wisdom OF statesman-yet he, much
as he was devoted to the union, were he now
living, would expose himself, for the au.
nouncement of the foregoing sentiments. to
denunciation as disuuionist
1t will be seen that Mr.. Randolph nlaced
the right of secession where it ever must rest.
upon tho broad, immoveable and indestract.
IDLE rock of STATE SOVEREIGNTY and INpr-
PENDENcE. He thought that Patrick Henry
and Thomas Jefferson and George Washing
ton had, by the tongue, the pen, and the
sword, secured and achieved for Virginia.
their country, something more than the right
now possessed by the serfs of Russia and even
their own African slaves. He thought that
Virginia, in ceasing to be province Of Great
Britain, did not become province of New
England, or of New England and all the
other states combined. He thought that her
people had done something else than trans
fer their allegiance from king George to king
! Numbers-enthroned as tho latter is with
despotic powers, North of the Fotomac.-
He did not think, that her long struggle.
commenced by Patrick Henry in the house
of burgesses, with the cry oftrsason ringing
in bis ears and ended by Washington on the
glorious field Of Yorktown, had done more
for Virginia than to give her the right of
revolution-the night of Withdrawing from
the union in case she could aohip the general
government and had doomed her to the fate
Of submissively remaining in it, in case she
could not whip that government.
If the people of the different States-or
to come home-if the people of Georgia
have not the right to change their govern.
ment, it is high time that they did have II.
Whether they may ever wish to exercise it.
IS another thing. But as soon as the State
shall cease to claim and insist upon the tight
so soon may she bid farewell to her soyer-
eighty, and TO the liberties of her people
She becomes subject to the will, not Of tbe
majority of her own citizens, but of an ex-
traneous multitude, whose interests. preiu.
dices, and feelings are antagonistic to her
good