The southern press., 1851-05-19


The alien and sedition laws were aimed Y
two classes Of people. neither of them very nu
merous, nor supposed to be very powerful--al
ems and editors. The obnoxious aliens the
were French and English republicans--som
of them distinguished political writer's, and zeal
Gus advocates of Democratic institutions. TIL
Federalists inclined to monarchy, and therefor
attempted to Danish these men, and TO imprisol
in power, who were Federalists. The move
ment was party one. 1t was also sectlona
one A Northern mafl---a Massachusetts man.
JOHN ADAMS, was President. Another chic
Of that party, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, was New
York man. And it has been seen that all the
Northern States except Pennsylvania, which
borders on Maryland and Virginia, came forward
to support these laws OF the Southern States
two only resisted ), the others were passive.
The next movement of the North in 1929
after having been partially toiled in the Mis-
souri, controversy, was still more sectional. The
rapid extension of the cotton culture in the
South had effected and was eflecting, a great
augmentation of Southern wealth and power.
And as at the time cotton was the great staple
of export, the North determined on line Of
policy that would have the two-fold effect ofap-
propriating to herself the profit of its manufac-
ture, and ofcutting off the foreign trade and the
growing wealth of the South. 1t was therefore
- ba ,,ta for
the general welfare of this glorious Union. The
sugar planters, the grain growers and the wool
growers, were all bribed into the combination
by bountes on their productions. In 1898 there
was great Southern military chieftain, General
WASHINGTON, who threw the immense weight
of his revolutionary services and popularity into
the scale of Northern federalism and of ALEX
ANDER HAMILTON. In 1923 there was an
other great military chieftain, General JACKSON,
that gave to the policy of WEBSTER and the
North, the alliance of his popularity won by
brilliant achievement in the late war. So in the
present struggle, we have seen another great
military chieftain, whose laurels were achieved
in the Mexican war, at the head chiefly of South
ern men, lending the power of his name and Of
Massachusetts--the same North.
When the Mexican territory was acquired
and when the immense and unexampled mineral
wealth of California was disclosed, the division,
or disposal of such an enormous spoil presented
a temptation which, perhaps, no political or hu
man virtue in the history of nations has with 4
stood. 1t was of itself the severest test to
which our institutions, or human nature, could
be subjected.
But when, to the disturbing element of ava
rice was added sectional and personal ambition,
and, beyond all that, long -smoudering and
widespread fanaticism, and then, in aid of all
these, came the infatuated cooperation of
Southern hero and President, giving his laurels
and his sword to Northern to Massachusetts,
aggression, the case became, for the time being,
desperate And il was decided with great con-
fdence by the North, to make a third and last
effort for sectional dominion and financial ag-
grandzement, at the expense of the South and
the Constitution. And as it was attempted to
crush the press in 1898, and the planting inter-
est in 1882, so in l843. it was resolved to pro-
scribe and degrade the whole body of slave,
holders, the institutions Of the South, and to
make it condition with the descendants of
WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, MADISON, M CON,
PINcKHEY and RUrLEDGE, that before they
H. la 10 apf fha for lair
swords had won, they should repent and reform
their habits of life, and conform to the code of
GARRISON and TAPPAN.
The attempt was made, and the law passed
as was the case in both other in tances. But
not a'year has elapsed and already has one
State announced in Mariner not to be mis-
taken, her determination never to submit. An
other is now celebrating. And in several
Others large and powerful body exists, before
whom the two pre-existing national parties have
already broken in pieces And in two years
from the time of its passage, this compromise
will either be overthrown, or the Union viii be
gone. But in our opinion the compromise will
be crushed, and not the Union.
In seventeen years after the alien and sedtion
laws were passed, the party that supported them
was extinct. In seventeen years after the mon
strous tariff of 1892 the principle of high protec-
ton was an obsolete idea And inseventeen years
after the passage of the spoliation compromise,
its authors and supporters will be where the
FederalisIs of 1898 and the Protectionists of
1882 are now.
We advise, now, therefore, every young and
rising politician to stand from under-to avoid
this compromise as pestilence, and to win his
way to public favor and intellectual renowp, by
following the example of JEFFERSON, MADISON,
and CALHOUN in contending for its overthrow.
Federalism seems to have regular pcriodi-
cal cycle of appearance like the seventeen year
ocusts--and like them, it lies in the interval
under ground.
1t came out in 1898, and disappeared in 1915
1t came out again in 1899, and infected both of
the grand national parties. Such was the in