Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-04-19
TIE most efficient preServative principle as tie
T0pOer Of 000reee;oD

IN national legislation ? A present good has eve
preponderated over prospective evil The stron.
have ever tyrannized over the weaker, to the ex
tent that aggression was met by sufferance. Ag
gresslon, therefore, only be arrested by resis
tance. Nor is the remedy speculative merely
! when Missouri, III 1890 was refused admission
into the Union, by reason that the constitution
framed by her inhabitants permitted domestic sIa
very, nothing prevented the consummation of thu
aggression but unmistakable demonstrations tha
1t would effect dissolution of the confederacy-
SO the resistance, in 1832, of South Carolina to
protective tariff, was mainly effectual in the sub
sequent abandonment of the principle; till now
the most which is claimed by the opponents of free
trade is an incidental protection after the expen-
dltures of the government shall be reduced, as
much as practicable by economy and the land
money But to admit old examples, what caused
the abandonment, at the last session of Congress,
OF the Wllmot proviso, though patriotism during
the war with Mexico, and our armies there in i'm
mlnent peril for reintorcements, in vain could cause
it to be abandoned? ? And what caused the eff
cient amendment of the fugitive slave law, the
notification of which for many long years, had
been the labored effort of States, and the favore
amusement of associated societies? and what a.
rouSes in nearly all our large cities, Union meet
ngs, without distinction of party to arrest slavery
agitation, on which parties so long have lived .
1t is the determined spirit evnced by some of the
aggrived States, that they will no longer submit
to what outrages their interests and their feelings.
Let not the truly Union men, therefore, look
with dsapprobation at the agitation which is per-
vading the South, for it is but the tempest which
is to purify the political atmosphere; and by a
means which God hns ordained for the purposes of
longevity. Nations and society of every grade are
kept peaceable and just by only the antagonsms
which nature arouscs between the aggrived and
Ca IL
facilitates further aggression and unrestricted
submission in the intercourse of mankind with each
other would be attended with universal ravage,
rapine and outrage. Thus, had the slave States
tamely submitted to the imposition of the Wilmot
proviso to New Mexico and Utah, we should in
stead of Union meetings to arrest further agita-
ton, have had meetings every where to spirit for
ward the abolition of slavery in the District of Co
lumbia and our confederacy, 'soaring in its
pride of place. would have been continually thus
''hawked at by every mousing OWL till it would
have lost all its preservauve elements, and become
practically huge consolidation, which the diver
siy of exasperated local interests, and geographi-
cal hatreds, would, eventually, have broken into
irreparable fragments.
For the aggrieved to resist aggression is, there
fore, the most patriotic of duties and the fault of
the South consists in not having resisted effectual
ly in 1890, instead of compromising by the circum
scriptfon of slavery in Missouri. If an injured
party is subdued by force, he must submit but
he who submits without physical necessity is an
to his own dshonor; and in confed-
eracy he becomes an accOmplce in the overthrow
of the Union.
al tie CONCESSIONS Of the South hare been re,1-
aered agithOm an e9uiUaLem.
Nor need we be surprised that the South is not
quoted by the late compromise measures. Who
sees not that the Calfornians formed their consti-
tuition under the coercion of knowing that admis-
sion into the Union was impracticable, except by
prohibition of slavery and that an extension of
the interdct nearly all the territory acquired
from Mexico, would facilitate the admission. To-
say that the new fugitive slave law is an equva-
lent for this aggression, is to aggravate the injury
by taking advantage of our wrong ; for the
new law is beneficial to the South only because we
nulied the old. The like may be said
Of our abandonment of the Wilmot proviso in the
organization of New Mexico and Utah, an aban-
donment that useful to the South by reason
only of wrong in meditating the restriction.-I
In Short every compromise the South has entered
into has resulted in a sacrifice without available
equivalent. Capitation and other direct taxation
was by the constitution, to be apportioned among
the States according to the ratio of their represen
tation; hence, rather than be taxed for the whole
number of their slaves, the South consented that
every FIVE slaves should be counted as only three
persons But no direct taxation is levied. and the
loss of representation by the South is without an
equivalent; aggravated, too, by the fact that eve
ry five slaves who escape to the North without be-
ing recaptured will be represented in Congress as
FIVE persons ; though the blacks are usually as
much debarred from lhe right Of suffrage in the
North as in the South
The remedy ahich alone can restore .traternaI
harmony
The people, like other sovereigns, are so little
accustomed to hear TRUTH that the foregoing re-
marks may seem strange ; but the time is arrived
when the whole truth should be told, that our
citizens never acting Intentionally wrong, may
know what is due to their virtue and patriotlsm.-
They will not learn it from partisan leaders, who,
in speaking of even the late compromise measures,
seem more intent on apologizlng for abandoning
the Wilmot Proviso, (some law of God having
superseded it, they say,) than by wholesomely
inculcating the usurpatlon OF its lntlction. 10
thus doubt the patriotism and wisdom of the peo-
pie is an old error, and will not medicate the
wounds we have inflicted in fraternal bosoms.-
In vain, also, protestatlons of love for the
Union, unless we show our love effectively
than by declamatlons-and be assured, that for
bearance from lawlessly obstructing the Fugitive
Slave law, EARNED, as it now is with fearful penal
ties, and with President said to be determined
to enforce them, is not all that is required by love
for the Union nor is mere abstinence from turth-
er aggression-ttle more remaining for further
aggression to accomplish. If our Union demon
strations are something more than temporary
bending to the whirwind of our own raising, we
must make restitution to the South, by division
of California at the latitude of $50 so some ten