The southern press., 1851-05-14

| to me, because it assures me that you approve
of my conduct under trying circumstances, and
that am still honored with your confidence and
| esteem.
MY position as governor of State which
| had been the first to recommend measures OF
resistance to the anti-savery movements, and
my expressed determination, in my official action,
not to recede from the position which had been
taken by the State and which hereby approve
of, have subjected me to much bitter detraction
and abuse. Such is ever the fate of those WHO
seek to restrain the abuses of power The
priests who derived honor and profit from the
worship of the Ephesian Diana, and the gold
smiths who enriched themselves by it, cried
aloud and furiously assaulted the messenger of
truth, who proclaimed doctrines which threat
ened to destroy the sources of their power and
wealth. Those interested patriots, in answer to
every argument, shouted "great is Diana" and
g stone the traitor!" The selfish politicians OF
our day, who worship around the presidential
altar, with similar motives, drown all reason and
argument in hosannahs to the "giorious Union"
and abuse Of those who will not submit quietly
to be despoiled Of their dearest rights in the
name of the Union. Southern men who have
been true to their section, have had to encoun-
ter systematic course of denunciation and
those who have deserted its interests have been
loaded with honor and praise from the same
sources.
/ have been complmented with being made a
special object of vituperaton | know of no
reason for it, except that, while governor, fear
essy endeavored to maintain the rights of the
State, and with you, and thousands Of the purest
patriots of the South, have advanced opinions
that the present state of the slavery question is
incompatible with the equality Of the slave hold
ing States in the confederacy, and have advo-
Gated some efficient State action to protect us
from the unconstitutional and oppressive meas
ures of the federal government. Whether the
prosecution against me for an alleged violation
of the neutrality laws, had it's origin in these
causes, have not sufficient evidence to assert !;
but do say that the prosecution was wholly
unfounded; that not single charge of the in
dictment was true and thatthere never was,
so far as have been able to ascertain, any evil
dence to support it. Provoking and oppressive
as was this prosecution towards me personally,
it would not have deserved public consideration
but for the manner-contemptous, insulting and
disrespectful to the State-in which it was car
ried on.
In urging the arrest and immediate removal
of the governor, there was elaboration and de-
sign; and it is fair to infer that design was to
humble the State of Mississippi, md to PROSTATE
her before the federal power. The spirit that
could dictate flattering apology to the abolition
city of Boston, for scandalous outrage upon
law, as well as the principles ofcommon honesty,
is fit for the service of perverting the power Of
executing the laws, to insult a Southern State.
In the acts of the administration the govern
ment and the anti-slavery States we may read
the signs of the tines. We would be blind not
to see them, and infatuated not to prepare for
them. They tIicken around us so that we can
no longer avoid them. We must determine to
meet them face to face We have been swindled
out of the public domain. Even a portion of
Texas, supposed to be secured as slaveholding,
has been cut Off Every outlet to the extension
of our institution has been firmly closed. The
golden shores of the Pacific, open to the adven-
turers of the wide earth, are denied to Southern
labor, though, in part, acquired with our blood,
End purchased with our treasure. We arc now
hemmed In on the West ms well as the North
The line once fixed to save the Union, has been
eontemptuously disregarded. The area for the
employment Of our labor has been circumscribed
by the stern fat" thus far shalt thou 90, and no
farther !" and while anti-slavery States may be
indefinitely increased, the number of slayehod-
ing States and their political power must remain
stationary, or diminish. An effective step to the
entire abolition of slavery in the Federal Dis
trict although surrounded by slaveholdng
States, has been adopted The provision of the
Consultation for the reclamation of fugitive slaves
has not only been disregarded, but number of
the leading nnti-slavery States have passed laws
to prevent its execution within their limits, and
since the passage Of the Fugitive slave bill, its
operation has generally been defeated by cunning
legal devices, vexatious interventions, and some
times by open violence.
A spirit hostile to slavery pervades most, If
not all, the non-saveholding States and in my
judgment, this hostility is becoming daily more
active, more practical, and consequently more
dangerous. The so called compromise, instead
of alIaying IL by yielding up all the public terri
tory, appears TO have stimulated this fell spirit
to more efficient action
In the great States Of New York and Ohio,
the recent contests for Senator's have resulted
in the election of men prominent for their ex-
IRENE anti-slavery principles; and In Massachu-
sets, the contest lies between Free. soer and
an avowed Abolitonist
Not enc Of The States whose statute books
contain laws TO prevent the delivery up Of fugi-
tlves from labor, has even formally acceded TO
the, Clay and Foote compromise, by repeating
their obnoxious laws and complying with their
constitutional duty; and the most influential
non.savebolding States, in spite of the exertions
Of those politicians whose fate hangs on the
success of their eo-called compromise, show a
fixed determination 10 repeal, or essentially
change the Fugitive.slaye law. In fine, hostility
TO slavery has never, in my opinion, assumed so
organized and dangerous character as il has
done since the Wimot Proviso was settled by
excluding slavery from the territories, by the
new and more effective means of the California
and Mexican law provsos
X there have heretofore been any grounds for
action on the part Of the Southern States, TO
avert the impending evil, or TO prepare for self
protection II the evil could not he arrested, they
exist now in much greater degree than when
the people of Mississippi, under the advice of
distinguished citizens OF both political parties,
assembled in convention, declared that the time
had come when the Southern States should take
counsel together, and devise and adopt some
mode Of resistance TO these aggressions, and re-
solved that they, representing the feelings and
opinions Of the people Of Mississippi, would not
submit to an exclusion from the public domain,
nor to any act which would impair the equality
of the States To the snbsfouce of thesa re