Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-05-03


tempts to prove that his views square with devo-
ton to the Constitution, provoke only contempt
and Indignation. The object of this miserable
demagogue is plain enough. His detection is an
advertisement not only for a seat in the 32d Con-
gress, representipe-the election taking place
in his district to-day, where he is acandidate-but
also for seat in the Senate by obtaining the free
soil vote in the Legislature of Massachusetts, now
in session When he was chosen to the latter
body for the remnant of Mr.. Webster's and Mr.
! Wmthrop's term-a term of two or three weeks
he was absent in Illinois, but with mercenary
gFeediness that disgusted every Democrat at the
Capitol, he came on and took his place, which be
occupied for nine days, being all that remained of
it. We then refrained from denouncing him be-
cause it was supposed he would take occasion in
the Senate to state his case, and throw off the
pesential imputation that charged him with hav-
ing planned the guilty nuptials between certain
weak democrats and the free-soile of the Massa-
chusetts Legislature and, indeed we could not
realize what other motives, under the same cir
lcumstances, could influence an honorable man who
Iprofessed to be democrat He remained quiet,
1 however; took the leavings of Webster and of
Winthrop--pocketed his mileage and his pay, and
went home to prostitute himself anew by an open
differentiation with the assaants of the Constitu-
ton. The evidence of this base and scandalous
conduct is to be found in the following resolutions
offered by him at a free soil meeting at Lynn, in
Massachusetts, on Thursday evening last. They
contemplate the overthrow of the fugitive slave
law, a consequence which every friend of
freedom" should labor to bring about We copy
from Fridays Boston Post:
| Resoiued That the Constitution of the United
States has not conferred upon Congress the power
to enact any law authorizing officers of the United
States to determine the slavery freedom of per-
sons found within the territory of any State, and
to convey them out of the State wherein they are
found, to be held as slaves in another State.
ResotUed, That no person in any State of this
Union, can be lawfully deprived of his liberty with
out due process of law which process, in the case
of an alleged fugitive from service, is suit at
common law wherein the fact, whether said fugi-
tive was lawfully held to service in the State from
which he is alleged TO have escaped, shall be de-
termined by trial by jury.
| ResotSed, That such trial by jury should pre-
cede the delivery into the hands of the party claim
ing him, of such alleged fugitive and should be
had IN the vicinity where the said alleged fugitive
is found.
! ReSoIoed That in the determination of the ques-
tons of liberty, all presumptions of law and fact
are, and ought TO be, in favor of liberty.
| ReSoEtea, That the fugitive slave law exacted
by the Congress lately expired, cOntravening these
principles, is unjust, unconstitutional, in dero-
cation of the fundamental maxims of free gov
ernment, and ought to be speedily and forever
repealed.
| He supported these resolutions in a speech two
hours in length, in which he also took ground a.
gainst the recent compromise measures, and i'm
medately afterwards assumed position in the ranks
OF tanaticlsm. There is happily this difference
between this transparent treason, and the infamy
oil Arnold and Gorgev the latter had their pay
secured before they did the work of shame. In
the case Of Rantoui, the democrats have an oppor-
tunity OF defeating his bargain; of leaving him
among his contederates, stained and blackened
with dshOn0r: and yet-what to him will be a Sc
rous calamity-without having received the pos-
onous wages of his detection. To-day the cleo
ton for representative takes place in the 18th Con-
gressional district, Massachusetts,, and he is a
candidate. Let the brand be put on him. let it
| be burnt upon his brow; and then, when he is
rejected from the House, and he presents himself
for the U. S. Senate, let the Democracy of his
State spurn him from them as they would leper.
The example that should be made of such
should be complete and overwhelming.
| Almost simultaneous with this disgusting exhi-
bition the arrest of fugitive slave in Boston;
and the mad zealots there felt renewed rcsolu-
ton In resisting the law, since they had been
strengthened by RantouPs accession Crazy
preachers, hired foreigners and brutal blacks
! fairly made the town echo with denunciations and
threats and at last accounts the law seemed TO
be silent or suspended, and the city at the mercy
VI d ~ dAu dDCHtIOu ilOD. we pOlub W tItC
details OF this affair." given in this journal for
several days past, more in sorrow than in anger,
| for unless the sequel vindicates the majesty of
! the Constitution, who can foretell the calamity
that may grow out Of this extraordinary state Of
! affairs i?
/ At the South, thousands take ground for the
Uuion and against secession. The platform they
occupy is, that the North will faithfully carry out
the Fugitive Slave law and put down the enemies
of the Constitutional rights of the Slave States
While they agree with the secessionist in regard
to the Compromise measures as unjust to the slave
States, they protest that these do not in
themselves, constitute a sufficient for leav-
ling the Union--especially while the north signifies
a disposition to enforce the only part of the Com
promise which possesses an Immediate interest,
consttutionally considered, to all those States
J Indeed Mr. Cobb boldly declared in New York,
in November last, that if the Fugitive Slave law
was not maintained, in good faith in all its integ-
rity, and in all its parts, would be impossible for
them to stand out, and equally impossible to pre-
vent the entire people of the South from demand
ing to be relieved from union which would then
be to them only state of vassalage, of injury,
and of insult. In the present critical and momen-
tous state of feeling in the slave States, it can
readily be imagined how the events of the last
few days in Massachusetts,, viii operate upon an
Iexcited public opinion in that quarter. No man
can contemplate the issue without the most fearful
foreboings.
Il Mr.. Rantoul is not lunatc. 1t is vaunt of