The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-01-01


brium, which lasted for thirty years has been
ended The North has now the power-has
it likewise the will to crush this institution lie
must be blind to the warnings of the past, who
does not see unquestionable manifestations of
this will The church, the pulpit, the school
master the press, the public meetings, the legis-
latye halls of the North, and all the departments
of their State governments, with few bright
exceptions, are all against this institution
Where, them is there room for hope, except In
the united action and counses Of the South
We pass over the abolition of the slave trade
in the District Of Columbia, with but single re-
mark 1t is portentous sign OF the times, III
is the carrying of another outpost, preparatory
to the final attack, upon the citadel itself.
Another most significant sign is the opposi-
tion so generally manifested at the North, against
the Fugitive slave bill. This right to recapture
fugitive slaves, already guaranteed by the con-
stitution, was the only semblance of good ex-
| tended to the South, by any of the measures OF
the last session and this will not be permitted
to remain on the statute book moment longer
than ianatcsm can gather strength to take it oil.
! Even now il is in practice, to a great extent,
nullifed and set at defiance.
The habit of discussing slavery In Congress,
without any view to its protection, fills the
country North and South with agitation. In
deed, agitation is pursued AS system, and there
seems to be a fixed determination to keep it up,
to continue it and to increase it, till slavery is
swept from the land The object of the Consti-
tuition as declared inits preanble,was "to establish
Justice, provide for the common defence, and in
sure tranquility" 1t has failed in securing these
vitality essential ends. North and South the
country is rent with discussions on the subject
of slavery. Congress, 80 far from providing
means to bring about tranquility on this head,
is but the arena on which the passions find place
for their exhibition. What spectacle is thus
presented to the world The institution of sla-
very is assailed and the safety Of the Southern
States endangered, not by any foreign power,
not by natural causes operating among ourselves,
but by the fanaticism and lust Of power of our
associates in confederacy, constituted for our
protection.
No one nation or State is permitted to inter-
fere W tn the domestic institutions of another.
This principle was propounded at very early
day, as especially the policy of this continent.
1t has kept out interference from abroad 1t is
quite as applicable to the sister States of this
Confederacy as to foreign nations, except in re-
gard to those objects which are confided to Con-
gress by the Constitution. Yet, in violation Of
this principle, the people of the North do not
hesitate to seduce our slaves from our service
to protect them from recapture, ard to prepare
their minds for Instruction. The national le-
| gislature will afford us redress, because a
permanent sectional majority is against us. If
n foreign nation were to do these acts, and
make no reparation, it would be just cause of
war. This principe has been more than once
asserted by our Government in relation to this
very description of property, and as often re-
eognized by Great Britain.
Without the Constitution, and without the
- H. - a., NJ
set forth, would be cause of war; As it is, the
constitution is the rampant behind which atoli
| tionism affects to entrench itself, and commits
these acts with impunity. So far from the con-
stituton affordng protection to slavery, and JUS
tice to its owners, as it was intended to do, it is
converted into an instrument by which deadly
assaults are made upon the institution If the
compact of union has thus failed in practice, to
attain the ends for which it was created, it is
time to seek for security in amendments of its
provisions, or in some other mode.
| Is it right that those who have no pecuniary
or social interest in the subject Of slavery, should
be permitted constantly to agitate the question
of slavery in Congress, solely with view to its
| destruction.
Is it right that slavery and the slave trade, so
far as they are connected together should be
abolished in the District of Columbial
Is it right that the Fugitive slave bill, and with
it the Constitution upon which it is founded,
should be disregarded and set at nought?
Is it right that the common treasure of the
States should be expended by free-soil majority
in Congress, in the purchase of the territory of
a slaveholding State to line south, which If
extended east TO the Atlantic would leave more
than half of the State of Mississippi north of it
| Is it right that the North, which in spirit Of
injustice to the South restricted its institutions
to the line of 80 degrees 80 minutes by COM
promise, thirty years ago, should now be per-
mitted, in a spirit much more unjust but by
another compromise, to drive us to line further
South by about two hundred and seventy miles!
| Is it right that the people of the South should
be excluded from the territories acquired from
Mexico
| Is it right that they should acquiesce in sys.
tenn which restricts the institution of slavery to
its present limits, which will result in creating
free-soi barrier west and south beyond which
it cannot pass, and which must end in its final
destruction, involving the people of the South
in universal and irremediable ruin
! If all these are right, then the South has no
present cause of complaint, ard should not utter
a murmur. But if they are wrong, it behooves
the South to consider how its rights are to be
maintained and what are the means of remedy
and redress
The first obvious step in the progress of rem
| edy, is the call of convention of the people
BY this step the State assumes her highest at
titude Of sovereignty, and is prepared to call her
whole resources into exercise. That conven-
ton may ask for redress with some hope of sue
cess.
We would suggest that il should ask amend
ments of the constitution, by which either of
the two great sections of the confederacy, should
in the future, be deprived of the power of OPP
pressing the other, by unequal and unjust taxa
ton, whether direct or indirect;
| BY which fugitive slaves shall be delivered up,
in the same way that fugitives from justice, are,
and that the State authorities shall assist in, and
compel their delivery:
| BY which all future discussion or agitation Of
the subject of slavery in the halls of Congress
shall be excluded; unless with view to extend
to it the protection given 10 other descriptions
| OF property
! And that il should ask that Congress shall ex
tend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific
/