The Woodville Republican. [volume] (Woodville, Miss.) 1847-1853, 1851-03-25
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gfcssiou IN November next Our Association
halda monihly mreltngt which are being ai-
tended With thU happicst results.
On Saturday Last we had the pleasure az
meeting over two hundred ofour iellow-ctizrns
o. the Bick Church. near Mount Pleasant
where they bal met Ia listen to an address FROM
Col G. ~ Gordon a more respectable meet.
ing. IN point Of number and Intelligence, has
not lately occurred Ia the county.
The Hon. T. J Stewart vice-Preadent Of
the Association, called the meeting to order
at an early hour, and announced that as the
object Of the Society was Truth and free dis
c]ussion, If any one present wished to reply to
Col Gordon, be wouldbe heard with pleasure.
Col r. A. Stewart stated tina; be would be glad
to reply to Col Gordon, If he found, after the
Colonel concluded, be had taken grounds from
which he differed. The parson did not desire
TO speak but il Col. Gordon did not talk to
suit him, he would be after him with a sharp
stick The time, etc, that each speaker
should occupy was agreed upon, reserying a
reply to the parson, by Col. TT Stewart after
dinner.
To attempt a report of the speaking, would
be absolutely useless. Having no convenience
to take notes" and the speakers having trav-
elled over so much ground, it would be inJus-
tice TO them, were we to try a report. We
shall, therefore, only give an outline of the
principal points.
Col. Gordon was glad that Col. Stewart had
consented to reply to him he had known the
gallant Colonel a number of years ago, when
he was one of the most interchangeable Southern
rights men in the State and it would be in
t%eresting to learn by what cause he had got to
trailing after his old political chums with
sharp sticks He assured the audience that
he had appeared to plead the cause of the
Constitution, aud the rights Of the South, and
pledged himself to sustain every position he
assumed, by the most incontestible proofs. He
then proceeded to discuss aud explain the rela-
tive position of the State and the Federal Gov
ernments, and to establish the fact that Con-
gress can exercise no power that is not ex-
pressly delegated to it by the States, In the
Articles of Confederation, and in the Constitu-
ton for a more perfect Union,' the States, so
far from DISTINGUISHING themselves Of their
sovereignty, expressly reserved to their own
control. all matters, that were not absolutely
necessary to be delegated to the Federal Gov
eminent as a general agent Of all the States.
He proceeded 10 trace the history of the ag-
g]ressive measures of Congress. II had first
enacted the alien and scdi;ion laws, by which
former, men could be eypatriated, on the
order of the President and without trial by
jury, for speaking disrespectlully OF the Presi-
deut or of Congress. AT the formation of the
Constitution, all but one or two State were
shareholders and il was at the instance Of N.
York, then a slave.holding State, that the article
was inserted in the Constitution, providing for
the recovery of fugitive slaves but in the
course OF time, slavery ceased 10 be profitable
to the North, and she freed herself of it. Aud
how did she get rid of it Not by emancipat-
ING, but by otherwise disposing of them that
The North had engaged in manufacturing, and
had continually beset Congress with petitions
for protection, until she had nearly produced
q dissolution of the Union that she determin-
ed to ann:h!late slavery, and burdened the
tables OF Congress with abolition appeals, until
she had Produced another crisis; and she has
b ynumcrical force, caused Congress to dictate
the terms Of admission of new States into the
Union, and by tbis mems has produced the
present unhappy state OF feeling throughout
the e%ons;;7y. Col. G. proceeded to discuss at
length, the late compromise measures and
their bearing upon The country. The fugitive
law, which was the only one at all acceptable
10 the South, had been nullifed, in effect in
all the Northern States; f%ugitives had been for
chilly rescued, and their owners disgracefully
treated that a bribc had been offered to Tex.
as, by which the South was cheated Of a LARGE
slice OF territory, and that the falsely asserted
doctrine Of the ler loci had prevented South
erners from taking slave property to Caliiomii
and New Mexico: that California had beef
admitted as a state, in oontrayention to th,
rights oflhe South, and in the election Of sen
ators aud their admission into seats in congress,
the consiition oGthe U States was palpably vic
lated. Under all these evils, he appealed t
the meeting to determine upon some leasibl
plan of self-protcction.
Col. r.. A. Stewart followed He did not al
tempt a reply to Col. Gordon's argument
The Compromise, he said, was all right an
just to the South, and that she had rot all b
it that she was entitled to, or had a right to as
for; that the States had no sovereignty tina
by the Constitution, on the formation of tn
General Government they had Ito use Nj
Stewards own words "tumbled" it all over
the Federal Government He said the prob
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