The southern press., 1851-09-01
&c. EiIkInson's Reply.
YAzoo Cry, July 20 1876


Hon. H. S. FoorE:-My Dear Sir: Ny de-
Law in returning an answer to your note needs
no apology hope A wilful disregard of the
courtesies for life will scarcely be imputed to
me by you, to whom have been known so
long, and as you say, so favorably. But | have
been disabled f;om writing, almost since the
date of your letter, by infirmity of health, and
this wonld serve as ry excuse, if an excuse
was needed | am at loss to conceive why
the opinions of one so entirely out of the pub
lie view, | have been for almost nv whole
life, should be of interest to any one, especially
10 one conspicuous in station and character
as you. Since you have been pleased, however
TO allude to my views in your public speeches, it
may be just to myself as well as courteous TO
you, to state them explicitly and fairly.
] believe, (and have recently stated this be-
lief in conversation and in the few public
speeches have made,) that for Mssissisipp to
meet South Carolina or any other Southern
State alone in convention, would be simply an
abortive and useless procedure. have usu.
ally. however, if not always followed such a
declaration, with an expression of my sense of
the great importance of the general cooperation
of the planting States in some measure of de-
fence OF precaution, or of safeguard against the
ceaseless assaults of the North against their
TluUtS. III IN oniY lfOUl n CVNNtcubH tiitt SutU
cooperation cannot for the present be obtained,
snd from an unwilngness to jeopardise the
changes for such co., operation for the future, by
an indiscreet and precipitate step--tbat have
discountenanced the policy of meeting South
Carolina alone in the proposed Congress. /
cannot see any good that could come of it, since
the most visionary politician would not en-
courage the thought, ] presume, of Mississippi
seeding from the Union with South Carolina ;
and if the convention of November next shonld
advise it, / doubt if the people would sanction
the act. 1t appears to me, therefore TO be in
discreet in the candidates for office of the State
rights party TO make this an issue in the present
contest Seeing that if we succeed we gain
nothing by It, and that il may be an element
and cause of failure In fact, il is not the issue
proposed by the party; the late convention
passed it without a word of notice; the Caro-
Iinians themselves do not appear to desire it,
il is embarrassing, immaterial, and nigh prove
disastrous to the Just expectations of the party.
But you are very much in error, General, in
supposing that "this is the only really practical
point left open between the two parties in Mis-
sssippi," or that "it may be fairly regarded as
embracing all others" Allow me to claim
few moments of your time, while proceed to
correct the error into which you have fallen.
tncTt ~ an iSSht-lulit TfftUtlN indlt--iuipOI-
tant, "practical," overriding all Others that
were made between the North and South dur
ing the stormy session of the 3Ist Congress
1t involves the right of State to a peaccable
withdrawal from the Union whenever it may
suppose its interest or its honor to require such
a step.
You rendered this issue yourself in your
speech IN June, at Lexington, and your fol-
lowers are now making it everywhere. 1t had
not been rendered before since the days of the
elder Adams. You deny this right. We af
firm It, And now for q brief examination into
the merits of the subject Do not tell me that
you admit the right as n revolutionary move
me.ti this is sheer cant. Or IL it means any,
thing, it means mischief IL is in effect denial
of the right altogether. Every revolutionary
movement Is n rebellious movement The one
of necessity involves the other. I he mind can
not conceive of the one with out the other, ex.
cept, indeed that sort of revolution (so common
with States) of peaceful and bloodless changes
Of Fundamental law These are only not rebel
lious, because they are authorized and provided
for by the actual sovereign poioer.
If any attempt we're made in any of the
States to overturn the government, or 10 alter
the constitution Of such State, without the ex-
press permission and authority Of the actual
sovereign poloer, declared through the appointed
4 modes and with all the prescribed forms, such n
movement would be rebellion, and would be
treated as SUCH This ia well illustrated by
the history of the Rhode Island movement Ia
lS4l, and the history Of Dorr is warning to
all rebels who may be disposed to assert, prac
ticaly the abstract right of revolution This
care has passed the ordeal of the Supreme
Court of the Union, and the doctrine of Dorr
and his followers stands condemned by every
intelligent statesman and jurist in the world