The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-03-02

| want him and other Northern men 10 come up
boldly and do what they tell US their consttu
/ ents have demanded
g The South, Mr.. President disrlaims the lam
guage OF menace but II is nevertheless due to
all parties that her deliberate purposes should be
known. We do not intend to stand still and
have our thfoats cut, because the butcher
chooses to sooth as with the operation of-hon-
eyed words You can deceive us no longer by
the catch-words cancellation and harmony Nor
can our voices be stied by the fear ofincurring
the reproach of imwudence | said the other
day, and say now, that he time for prudential
action has gone By. 1t is this prudence, of which
we have heard 80 much, that has brought as to
| the situation in which we now are 1t is this
constant talk about prudential Gcti0n which has
Induced the people of the North to believe that
we do not intend to resist.
| There is point at which prudence changes
from uirtue 10 a pice, and II often happens that
| il is used only as another name for c0,oardice.
| II is not to be wondered at if our good brethren
of the North have mistaken the one for the
other and have thus found courage to persist in
crusade which promised to be unattended with
danger. L.know not if they will thank nue. for
undeceiving them, but it is my habit to deal
plainly with all men; and now proclaim that
| You have reached The utmost limit 10 ,ohich you
can 60 There's line beyond which you must
not pass. You have marched up to it, and now
cross IL If you dare"
! Sir, is not that bold and striking language
language worthy Of Southern man contend
| ing for the great interests and honor Of the
| South! But he proceeds:
:" do not say this to intimidate. do not
believe il will have that effect. Onthe contrary,
| believe with the Senator from South Carolina,
10 I NAT NJ ,,iJ 10
course, and end as all similar things have ended,
in blood and tears" I" He who can
not now trace out, step by step, each successive
event Of the future, has learned but little from
the past history of mankind, and is i'll fitted to
be the law giver of a nation. The North will
not save the Union and the South cannot I'M
less, indeed, we submit to indignities and wrongs
of so degrading character as would almost
make our fathers burst the cerements of the
tomb and come amongst us once more to de-
nounce and disown the degenerate descendants
pho had disgrdced g glorious ancestry. We
know well what we have to expect Northern de-
mands have assumed a form. which it is impossi-
ole for us to misunderstood. First comes our
exclusion from our territory next, abolition in
the District of Columbian the forts, arsenals,
dock yards, &c.; then, the prohibition of the
slave trade between the States; and finally, to-
tai abolition. These results are just as certain,
unless the first step is firmly resisted, as that the
sun will rise tomorrow, and the night will fol.
low his going down. Heretofore, it has been
pretended that it was not the purpose of any
considerable body at the North to interfere with
slavery in the States but this is an illusion
which these resolutions have come in good time
to dispel. alaca, kne,0 IL ,oas false; but did
| not expect to see the cloak so soon thrown aside
| But even if it were true, would still say do
not choose to place myself at your mercy.
| will not exchange the Notifications which the
Constitution has thrown around my rights for a
frai reliance on your generosity or your for
bearance Concession never yet satisfied fanatic
| ism, nor has the march of the wrong. doer ever
been stayed by the supplications of the sufferer.
Situated as we are, the impulse of madness is
the dictate of prudence. Our duty and our OBJ.
vious policy, alike demand that we should meet
the danger on the threshold, and fall or conquer
there. 1t is Of no consequence by what name
you choose to designate your aggression. When
principle is established, which must bring mol
onu poverty, but desolation and death 10 The South
it Is immaterial whether you call it abolition,
free soil, or, to use the phrase of the Senator
from Ohio, Mr.. CHASE free Democracy; the
end is the same, and so saould be the resistance
also. When the fall of the. out-works must
! follow the fall of the citadel, he is poor com
mander who hesitates to risk everything in their
defence. 1t is so with US; we cannot yield an
inch of ground we no,o occupy, without compro.
missing our safety, and what is worse, incurring
the reproach Of eternal infamy. None but child.
rem can be imposed upon by the miserable delu-
sion that abolition will pause in the midst of its
! successesn
IL have no threats to make they are out OF
time and place; but tell you, more in sorrow
than in anger, not only that you must pause, but
that you must retrace your steps The guaran-
tees Of the Constitution must be respected, and
its promises held sacred, or the most ,oeak and
imid man in the State represent would scdrn
your alliance and shatier your confederacy In.
deed, do not know but what IL is now too late,
and that this Union, over which you have
preached so much, and about which 80 many eo-
quent sentences have been penned, is already al
an end"
lie considered the Union already at an end.
| That was upwards Of twelve months ago and
yet he Is standing here now, after all the mea.
sures he was denouncing are consummated, its
ardent champion, and calling those who say IL
ought 10 be reformed or dissolved bad men.
90 on:
Certainly you have severed many Of its
strongest ties, and but little remains besides chat
formal separation which imbittered feelings must
Il
soon render anecessity. You did enough to dis.
solve IL when you commenced organized rob.
berries Of our property-when you murdered our
citizens"
! Yes, sir, that murder was before the compro.
mise; but now since the compromise, when
another murder Is perpetrated in the effort to
enforce the fugitive slave law, where is his in
dignationl Who heard him say in his late speech
defending the compromise and the execution Of
the fugitive slave law, anything charging the
| North
'You murdered our citizens when you vic.
lated every constitutional obligation, and forgot
erery tie which bound Us together as people.
Reserve then your denunciations Of disunion for
yourselves" - "However much may have
loved the Unlon, love the liberties Of my ma
tive land far more and you have taught me that
they may bee Jme antagonists--that the exist
ence Of the one might be incompatible with the
! other"
4 IL G,rthor oav. vau havo v;oiaiad avarv