Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-02-22

lar debate arose OH the plopoSielo' :"
member of Ohio to congratulate France for over
turning her monarchy
The effect of these measures is seen in Congress
in the adoption of the prohibition OF slavery in
Oreeoh in the sanction of the spoation of the
South in California in the sanction given to the
existence of Mexican laws OF exclusion IN New
Mexico and Utah by the refusal TO Interfere with
or to repeal them to recognize the rights OF the
South in those territories after they were denied
in debate: and finally, in making the act OF
master in carving a slave for sale to the District
of Columbia equivalent to an act OF emancipation
They were seen out of Congress In the refusal OF
the Governor of New York to deliver fugitiyes
from Justice to Virginia, whose crime was negro
larceny in the refusal of the Governor OF Maine
to surrender fugitive to Georgia, charged with a
similar crime in the resolves of Massachusetts
and Vermont for amendments to the Constitution
proyidnp for the abolition of slave representation
and slavery; and in the nearly unanimous demand
of the Northern States for the abolition of slavery
in the District of Columbia and the enactment OF
the Wimot provso and in their local laws to pre-
vent and retard the surrender of fugitive slaves
Gentlemen, it appears to me, man who has at
all watched the progress of public opinion, must
conclude that as the Wimot proviso has served its
office and the vast territory of the Pacific have be-
come appropriated to freesoilism now the original
demands of the abolitionists must be revived
They have managed with singular skill and
power They have used any engine that party,
or opinion, has placed in their power, to exasper-
ate the public mind at the North, maintaining
however the broad, radical and imperious doc
trines with which they set out. The end that they
proposed to themselves was ''the abolition of slay
cry in the United States,'' and from this tempt
ations of ambition or avarice have led them to de-
part
The Channings, Adams Seward, Giddings,
Winthrops, and others of higher or lower degree
in the mysteries of abolitionism, they have been
willing to employ and to acknowledge with frank
ness the services received bit if they falter they
are at once corrected denounced
We call these men fanatics or enthusiasts 1t
is perhaps true, they are SUCH In saying this,
we only declare that they under the dominion
of the most powerful and productive sentiments ii
is possible for human nature to feel or know.
take the facts as they stand This agitation, com
menced by handful of men, in 1889, now com
prehends within its influence the whole mind of the
country. Banks, tariffs, subtreasuries, land dis
tributions, have gone into nsignhcance-churches
| have been served, party ties rent asunder, and
now commercial and social relations are seriously
affected. This party have not grounded then
arms and told us they have had enough. On the
contrary, their presses never were more teeming
their orators and agents were never more active
their auxiliaries and allies determined
and less apprehensive of the future. Do you tell
them of revolutionary glories and ancestral
recollectons, they answer that ancestors com
promised with slavery and furnished their glory
Do you tell them of the compromises of the Con
stitution. They answer there is ''higher law
which the Constitution violates. Do you tell them
of the Union. They say they would embrace the
slave well as the free in the Union, and that
equal political rights to bond and free it is then
mission to accomplish Do you tell them of civil
CONFUSION, the destruction of life and property,
and the decay of material and moral prosperity
that will follow, by violent changes in the social
fabric; they only invite the change SO as to dare
the consequences.
Gentlemen, | am sure | do not exaggcrate the
perils of our condition Hitherto we have done
nothing for our defence. While hundreds of thou
sands have been expended North to batter dowr
our Institutions, we have paid nothing to uphold
them. While hundreds of thousands of voter.
North hold their votes poised upon the balance il
| favor of abolition, anti-slaverv, or freesosm
questions affecting vitality Northern rights We
hardly dare hold meeting in favor of Southern
rights. We will have no communion one with an
other, lest peradventure some wing will affect ;
democrat or some democrat whig. We refuse t,
hold any account of the depraved and unprincpet
politicians who have would betray US, lest some
party advantage may of it. We refuse t,
look frml and honestly in the face the magnitude
of our dangers, and when they told us
We kill the physician
! And the fee bestow upon the foul disease.
i This condition of things it is obvious must b.
terminated, our ruin will be complete TIL
first symptom favorable to our condition is the for
nation of associations like our own The obiec
of this association is to defend Southern institu
tons. We declare to one another the first obiec
of affections, the dearest object of our care
are the institutions OF that section of country il
which our lines are cast. We place the repose
the security, the interest and honor of the Soutl
as paramount to all other considerations
| am asked if this is a disunion association.
answer, no. Disunion, whenever it comes, SHOULD
be accomplished by the voice and votes of the PEG
pie, after consideration and enliohted view of al
the circumstances and consequences that surround
it 1t is not measure to be approached in light
angry, or capricious temper. 1t should be calm
and resoute act of an entire people, exercising then
powers of self-government upon just considerations
of their welfare and that of their prosperity.
/ To accomplish dlsunion, change in the GOV.
eminent of the country, it will thus be seen. would
not be an appropriate Office of such an association
and | feel no hesitation in saving we have no such
an end in view. While l say this, let me not be
misunderstood. Whenever disunion is at all es
sental to the security of the institutions of til,
South, for one L am In favor of embracing it.
| There Is no competition in my mind between tn,
union of the States and the rights of the South
My heart and hand are on the side of the last
Whenever an mcompatibility is established between
i them.
The question comes, what is the object of tn,
association! FIRST, we want close, cordial harmo
NOUS union of Southern men for the defence of th,
constitutional rights of the South Those riobt
i violated m OH Al