The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-05-12


out of order, undoubtedly embraces this, and
therefore will not needIessIy consume your time
by pressing decision on it.. | say, then, that
cannot support the pending proposition to fix
the time and place for holding National con-
vention. will not in any mode give my sane
ton to the calling OF such convention uncon-
ditionally. IT. were to do so should feel my.
self bound in honor to support its nominee.
am, therefore, willing TO join in calling it only
on conditions such as are expressed in part by
my resolution. am willing that those gentle
men who desire to do so shall hold convention
and present II nominee; but | shall then decide
for myself whether vote for that nominee or
not. | mean TO say that shall not support the
individual merely because he has been nomin-
ated by that convention.
"The nomination will neither help nor hurt
the person selected, in my Judgment. ! wish,
therefore, to be understood as neither advocat-
ing nor opposing the calling Of this convention,
and do not mean to be bound by its action to 20
further than my sense OF duty may prompt.
shall hereafter, upon full view of all the cir
cumstances, determine what ought to do.
The following is The resolution intended TO
have been offered;
Whereas by the series of measures com
monty called the Compromise, California has
been admitted into the Union az State, the
boundary Of Texas has been settled, territorial
governments have been established for Utah
and New Mexico, and the slave trade in the Dis
trct of Columbia has been abolished, and these
several measures have been acquiesced in and
carried into effect and whereas resistance has
been made in certain places to the execution of
the Fugitive slave law, and efforts are being
made to effect its repeal, or render negative and
null its provisions Therefore
g Resolped, That in view Of these things, and
inasmuch as, under the constitution of the
United States, we are entitled to an efficient
Fugitive slave law, that we have right to re-
quire that this latter law shall be sustained and
carried out in good faith, and that any National
convention nominating Presidential candidate
shall, in unequivocal and plain language, declare
it to be the purpose of said convention faith
fully to carry out this law, and that its nominee
shall express his concurrence in such a PROPOSE
ton"
What inconsistency is there between my pre-
sent and former positions? Ia not my resolu-
ton true in its statement Of facts? Those fea
lures of the so-cnlled Compromise which and
others at the South objected to have already
been carried into effect California has been adj
mitted as State, and Texas has given up her
right to the territory claimed for New Mexico
by the Moth, and Congress cannot now change
this condition of things The territorial gov
ernMents of New Mexico and Utah are practi-
caly just as secure from repeal and have been
carried into effect So, too, is it with the law
abolishing the slave trade in the District of
Columbia. Though these several measures
were condemned by myself and others from the
South, yet no attempt has been made to repeal
them, nor does any one expect to prevent their
being carried out, or in any way to defeat their
operation. But how is it with the Fugitive
slave law, which the Southern friends of the
Compromise constantly refer to as the equiva
lent given by the North in exchange for the con.
cession made by the South?
There are not only powerful and organized
efforts in the North for its repeal or modifica-
ton, but even IFS execution, while standing
on the statute book, has in many places been
successfully resisted At Boston mob entered
the court house, and while the Judge was sitting
on the bench, and in the presence of the assem-
bled multitude, by force liberated and carried off
fugitive slave. At Syracuse similar mob res
cued another fugitive from the United States
marshal, though he struggled against them till
he was overpowered and his arm was broken
At Christina the fugtives were aided and the
master murdered, by like concourse of viola
tiers OF the law. In the great States Of Massa-
chusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, these
things were done in open day, and in the pre-
sence Ofhundreds, and yet no one Of the wrong
doors has been convicted OF any offence. After
repeated attempts to prosecute part Of the
government officers, they have been obliged to
consent to the discharge Of the criminals. This
fact, better than an hundred Witnesses, proves
the state of feeling which pervades the popular
mind in these localities. If there was not a
strong and general sympathy for the criminals,
some one of them would have been convicted.
might refer to similar manifestations elsewhere,
but they are sufficiently known already. Why
more than year ago tho legislature of the
State of Vermont passed an act utterly nulfy-
ing all the provisions Of the Fugitive slave law.
This proceeding was loudly complained of at
the time, and it was said, to quiet the public
mind, as remember by the papers in this city,
as well as elsewhere, that the act had been
pessed hastily, did not meet the views of the
people of the State, and would be repealed by
the next legislature But unfortunately for the
prophesjers, when last winter the legislature
reassembled, the proposition to repeal this act
of notification was rejected by vote of nearly
three to one-makng it manifest that the set
tied action of the State was against the execu-
ton of the law of Congress. A similar nullify-
ing law a few weeks since, according TO the
statements published in the papers, passed the
senate of Massachusetts, and only failed in the
house by a vote of one hundred and sixty-two
to one hundred and seventy-eight. Such things,
when they occur in the Northern States now,
do not even excite the comment of some of the
national papers here at the seat of government
But if the State of South Carolina, which, with
out actually carrying it out has threatened to
nulify, in former times if this State, say, were
really to nullify, or seriously even threaten to
nulify any act of Congress of as much impor-
lance as the one under consideration, the whole
country from this point to Canada, and such
portions of the Southern people as sympatize
mainly with Northern movements, would at once
be thrown into state of ferment, and the
executive would be compelled by the force of
public opinion to send rs many troops as were
at his disposal to Sullivan's Island or other
points on the coast of that State to endeavor to
overawe her.
But it is not necessary for me to argue further
to show that there are serious obstacles in the
way of the execution. of the Fugitive slave law
OF 1850, or of any Legislative provision to carry
out that feature of the Constitution. The eX-