Southern reveille. (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1851-185?, 1852-05-12


assured the people of Mississippi it would be,
why should he thus abandon all hope Of re-
covering these twenty-five or thirty thar
Sand" slaves? The truth il, that all my col
leagues are very ready to lecture me for a
want Of faith. but neither Of them has the
least confidence in the efficacy Of the COM
promise. The one Mr. FREEMAN has no ex-
pectation that we are to recover our twenty
five or thirty thousand slaves, and the other,
[Mr. Wilcox less desponding and yet evi-
IDENTIFY in doubt, concludes his speech with an
earnest invocation to the North to do us JUS
tice. If the compromise were executed in
good faith, we should get back our slaves
But, like my colleague, | "neyer expect to
see them again" If the North has given US
justice in the compromise, why this invocation
to their sense Of justice now? The honest
truth is, that in our secret hearts we all know
that Justice has not been done us, and we have
little hope that it will be in future. We
have submitted to one wrong; will we SUBJ
NIT to another? I'VE never expect to see
our slaves again" All that we now do is to
invoke justice for the future.
My colleague, though he "nerey ezpects
10 see me slaUes that have been "decoyed,
caught anil harJored" By the "pious phil
onthropists, is yet full Of hope, in the con.
clusion Of his speech, that we are to have
peace in future. l do not care to be imper-
tinent, but / should like to know on what he
bases the hope that decoying, catching
and harJOring slaves is going to cease,
and why it is that, despairing as he does Of
recovering the slaves already taken from our
possession, he is yet confident that we shall
recover those that are "dcc0ycd, caught anil
harb0rcd " hereafter? At his leisure, shall
be gratifed to hear his answer. To my mind
we are as likely to recover those already
decoyed," as We are to recover those that
are taken hereafter. Inogoy erpees 20 sec the
ono or the other. The fugitive slave bill has
not been executed and if by its execution is
meant an honest and faithful surrender Of the
slaves-such a surrender as is made Of every
other species Of estrayed or stolen property
it never will be.
Ny colleague commenced his reply to me
with an expression Of his regret that he did
not hear my speech. It certainly would have
gratifed me had he given me his audience
but he did not, / should have been satisfied
had he done me the honor to read printed
copy Of my speech. This am sure he never
could have DONE | know my colleague is a
sensible man, and / hope he is just, aud am
well satisfied that no sensible and just man
who had read my speech could ever have pub
lished such a reply as that which find prin-
ted BY order Of my colleague.
If my colleagues speech had been delivered
in the House, should have thrown myself
upon his indulgence, and asked a portion Of
his allotted hour to correct his errors, as one
after another he fell into them. But as it
suited him better to print his speech without
delivering it, am left no other alternative
than that Of asking the indulgence Of the
committee whilst make such responses to his
several allegations as in my judgement they
merit
It was an ungenerous fling from my col
league to criticise my remarks as he did in the
opening paragraph of his speech. lie thinks
that upon such a question as that Of appro-
priating money to continue the work on the
Capitol, might have said something Of the
pressing necessities Of the mechanics and Ia
borers on these works-of the character Of
the work, &C. Now, the plain English Of this
is, that / made a speech out Of order, and
that an act SO unusual called for his special
animadversion. / am sorry the gentleman
did not see at an earlier day the necessity
Of sticking to the subject under debate
Three days before spoke, our colleague from
the second district Mr.. WLcox made
speech, to which the gentleman listened with
infinite delight The subject was THE HOME
STEAD BILL" Of the gentleman from Tennes-
see, [NIr JoHNsoN.l Upon such a topic
we may suppose thatour colleague would have
said something Of the pressing necessities =
Of the landless, the houseless, and the home
less. but. much to our surprise, he wan
dered off two thousand miles, " TO bring up and
discuss before US the state Of parties in Mis-
sisslppi. The gentleman Mr. FnEEMANl
heard this speech. lie enjoyed it. "He
rolled it under his tongue as q sweet morsel.
Il was foreign to the subject under debate. It
was out Of order, II was in advance Of any
single remark from me on the subject Of Mis-
sisssppi politics. But it was from the politi-
cal twin brother Of my colleague, and therefore
he had no word Of rebuke to utter. But no