The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-22
mr.. Clay on Union and Secession.

H-Mr. MAzYcK is our agent for Charleston
mr.. Clay on Union and Secession.
Mr. CLAY has written letter on Union and
secession to some Of his friends in New York.
II is avery fair compilation of the various efforts
defence of the compromise which its friends
nave attempted to pass off as arguments. Mr..
CLAY has added nothing new-not even an IL
Illustration.
He says, with some exultation:
Every where--North, South, East, and
West-an immense majority Of the people are
satisfied with, or acquiesce in, the compromise.
This may be- confidently asserted in regard 10
thirteen Of the slaveholding States and thirteen,
If not fourteen, Of the free States"
The satisfaction, or acquiescence, Of the i'm
mense majority of the thirteen Southern States
is simply that, Of the two evils Of submission Or
disunion, submission 10 the less. 1t is about
the same sort of satisfaction, or acquiescence,
with which man who has had his arm crushed,
determines that il is better to suffer the pangs
Of the fracture than Of amputation. So he grins
and bearsit As for the satisfaction of the North,
it is that of person who, in knocking another
down, comp aims that in the operation q little
finger nail got hurt, and who is indignant that
he could not PROSTATE his adversary without
getting scratch. The satisfaction Of the North
is that she does not, and will not, submit either
to this compromise or the Constitution. The
satisfaction of the South is so profound that she
declares, by an immense majority, that if one
more such measure of fraternal regard and con-
cord be perpetrated, she will commit treason
forthwith in resistingit.
Mr. CLAY says that opposition to the Fugi-
tive-slaye law is constantly abating. If this is
true, it is because the attempts to execute the
law are abating still more constantly. We have
heard of no attempt to execute since the last
grand browning outrage at Syracuse.
Mr.. CLAY says that tho law itself, with two
exceptions, has been every where enforced"
Now such declaration as this ought not to be
made. The law has been successfully resisted
or defeated in Syracuse, in Christiana, in Boston
in two cases, and in Buffalo in two cases
making six, instead of two.
Mr.. Clay thinks the opponents Of the Fugi-
tive slave law ought to renounce what they
profess to be their conscientious principles on
the subject, and submit to the law after while,
but If they don't, he has the utmost confidence
that the mass Of the Northern people will apply
the proper corrective. What that is, be don't
inform us. What the prospect is, we leave to
be inferred from the following response made
by the New York Tribune, the Wing paper of
the largest circulation in the North:
sBut Mr.. Clay undertakes the force, because
he does not fully appreciate the character of
Northern repugnance to some provisions Of the
Fugitive slave law He does not realize that
large majority of those with whom this Iepug-
nance is deepest are among the best of our citi-
zeus-intelligent, moral, and aw.loving-and
that they shrink from the enforcement Of the
Fugitive slave law as it is, because that law
weighs upon their understandings and con-
sciences, Ms standing in direct aud emphatic
tagonism TO the great law Of love which they
must not, dare not disobey. "Whatsoever ye
would that uen should do unto you, do ye even
no unto them" such is the commandment, Of
no doubtful import and of universal obligation,
which they cannot reconcile with the demand
made on them by this law for direct efficient,
into bondage Of those whom this Fugitive.
slave law marks out rs its victims. Can there
be any doubt that their embarrassment has
real foundation, Let Ms suppose clergyman
praying in the midst of his congregation for the
speedy coming Of the Divinely promised King
dom of universal righteousness and justice, the
breaking Of every yoke, and the overthrow of
all oppression-when u. 3. marshal and party
gallop by in hot pursuit Of three women fugi-
tives from slavery, each painting from weary
chase through swamp and brier, the blood
trickling from her lacerated limbs, and streaking
the brow Of the infant she still strains 10 her
breast as she painfully continues her fight
Can that pastor, that ongregation-supposng
them 10 have any real religion in their hearts,
fervently pray that the pursuers may succeed In
overtaking those wretched fugitives and beaiing
them back into bondage!
Mr.. CLAY then turns to notification and Sc
cession. He admits that notification derived
an ambiguous, bat contested, support from the
resolutions Of Virginia and Kentucky in 1893
9, but they afford no color or countenancc to
secession"
But he says that "a notification and secession
have sprung from the same metaphysical school
and the latter 10 the ally, IL not the offspring, Of
the former" Qualification and secession are the
offspring OF lnirst principle asserted by Mr.
JEFFERSON In bis Kentucky resolutions-and
that is, that those States are not united on the
principle Of unlimited submission TO the federal
government. He says that the right Of seces.
sion Is not recognized in the federal Constitu.
ton. Nor is the right Of a State government
70 impose taxes TO be found in the federal Con.
sttution. 1.-THE States have no rights but what
arc TO be found in that instrument they have
Just about no rights or powers at nll-they only
have restrictions
Mr.. CLAY thinks there could be no right 70
secede during furious war when the enemy is
in the midst Of us. This only shows how hard
he Is pressed. IL one man owes another money,
IL may be said in the same manner that the lat