The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent. (Port Gibson, Claiborne Co., Miss.) 1848-18??, 1851-01-10

resolutions in favor of the Wilmot Proviso,
which first cheered the hearts Of every patriot
in the land. This was speedily followed by a
vote of the House OF Representatives at WASH
ington, mailing the Wilmot Proyiso itself to the
table. And here / ought not to forget the great
meeting held in Philadelphia on the birth day Of
the father Of his country, in favor OF the Union,
which gave happy and irresistible impulse to
public opinion throughout the State, and may
add throughout the Union.
The honor of the South has been saved by the
Compromise. The Wimot Provso is forever
dead, and slavery will never be abolished in the
District Of Columbia whilst it continues TO exist
in Maryland. The receding storm in the South
still continues to dash with violence: but it will
gradually subside, should agitation cease in the
North. All that Is necessary for Us to do is TO
execute the Fugitive Save Law, and to let the
Southern people alone, suffering them to man
age their own domestic concerns in their own
way. A Virginia farmer once asked me If there
were two neighbours living together. what would
think If one of them should be eternay inter-
feriDg in the domestic concerns of the other?
Gould they possibly live together in peace?
Without reference to the harmony and safety
OF the Union, what blessing would this policy
OF non-interference be, not only to the slaves
and the free negroes, but even to the cause oil
constitutional emancipation ITSELF
Since the agitation commenced, the slave has
been deprived of many privileges which be for
merly enjoyed, because OF the stern necessity
thus imposed uponthe master to provide for his
personal safety and that of his family.
The free negro, for the same over-ruling rea-
son, is threatened with expulsion from the land
OF his nativity the South; and there are strong
indications in several of the Northern States
that they will refuse TO afford them an asylum.
The cause Of emancipation itself has greatly
suffered by the agitation. If left to its constitu
tional and natural course, laws ere this would
most probably have existed for the gradual abo-
lition Of slavery in the States of Maryland, Vir-
ginia, Kentucky and Missouri. The current Of
public opinion was running strongly in that dl-
rection before the abolition excitement commen-
ced, especially in Virginia. There is measure
having directly in view the gradual abolition of
slavery, offered too by the grandson of Thomas
Jefferson, came within one vote, If my memory
serves me, OF passing the House of delegates.
Throughout Virginia, as well as in the other
three States which have mentioned, there was
then powerful, influential and growing party
in favor oi gradual emancipation, cheered by the
brightest hopes of success. What has now be-
come ofthis party? tits gone. Its numbered
with the things that have been. The interfer-
ence Of Northern fanatics with the institution OF
slavery in the South has so excited and exasper-
ated the people, that there is no man in that re-
gion now bold enough to utter sentiment in
favor of gradual emancipation. The efforts OF
| the aboliionsts have long, very long postponed
| the day of emancipation in these States.
Throughout the grain growing slave States,
| powerful causes were in operaiioa, which must,
before many years, have produced gradual eman-
| cipation. These have been counieracted by the
violence and folly Of the aboitionists. They
have done infinite mischief. They have no:
only brought the Union into imminent peril, but
they have inflicted the greatest evils both on the
slave and on the free negro, the avowed objects
of their regard.
Let me then call upon your powerful and in.
| huential meeting, as they value the union Of
these States the greatest political blessing ever
conferred by bountifu Providence upon man;
as they value sthe well being of the slave and
free negro; as they value even the cause OF reg
ular and constitutional emancipation, to exeri
| all their energies to put down the long contln
ued agitation in the North aga nst slavery in the
| South i unreasonable that the South should
make this demand? The agitation has reached
such height that the Southern people feel theil
personal security to be involved. 1t has filled
the minds OF the slaves with vague notions O
emancipation, and, in the language Of Genera
| jackson, threatens "to stimulate them to insnr
rection and produce all the horrors Of aservile
/ wars Although any such attempt on their par
would be easily and speedily suppressed, ye
| what horrors might not in the meantime be per
4 err no
| night under dreadful apprehensions of what maj
| befal herself and family before the morning
Self preservation is the first instinct Of nature
and, therefore, any state of society in which tht
sword of Damoclesi is alithe time suspended owe
| the heads of the people, must, at last, become
| intoerable.
/ Tojudge correctly of our relative duties to
wards the people Of the South, we oughtto place
ourselves in their position, and do unto them a
we would they should do unto us undcr simila
circumstances. This. is the golden rule !
was under its benign influence that our Consti
tuition OF mutual compromise and concession wa
framed, and BY the same spirit, alone can it b
4 maintained. Do the people of the North ac
in this christian spiritf whilst stigmatzing thei
brethren Of the South with the harshest epithet
and fmputing to them high degree ofmoral gull
because slavery has been enfailed upon then
/ bytheir forefathers, and this, with knowledg
that the consequences of these assaults mus
place in peril their personal safety and that 9
all they hold most dear on earth. repeat tha
i this constant agitation must be arrested by To
firm determination and resolu.e action OF tn
vast majority of the people Of the North, who ar
known to disapprove it, or the sacrifice OF on
glorious Union may and probably will be at las
the consequence
2. shall now proceed TO present TO you som
views upon the subject of the much lBisrepre
sented fugitive slave law. It is now eviden
from all the signs of the times, that this is des
. tined to become the principal subject Of agita
ton atthe next session of Congress, and TO tax
the place of the Wilmot Proviso Its total re
peal or its material modification will hencefor
ward be the battle cry o. the agitators Of tn
North.
And what is the character Of this law?
was passed to carry into execution plain, clea
/ and mandatory provision of the Constitution, re
quiring that fugitive slaves, who fly from servic
in one State to another, shall be delivered up |
their masters. This provision is SO explicit Lbs
i he who runs may read. No commentary ca
present it in a stronger light than the plai
j words of the Constitution Il is well know
historical fact, that without this provision, tn
Constitution itsele could never have existed
!. How could this have been otherwise? Is it POI
sible for moment to believe that The slave State