The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-08-12


correspondent has sid nothing to this effect,
we incline to the opinion that the information
is premature.
MIR. Faulkner's eensorial Constituency.
Mr.. c. J. FAuL rNER, of Virginia, few
days ago favored the House of Representatives
with an exposition # the unsoundness of the
Wing party, and par icularly of General ScoTr,
with counter-expoition of the conservatism
Of the Democrats, particularly of General
PIERCE. The performance was supplement
to Mr.. FAULxNER's proceeding as signer of
the address issued BY the half dozen refractory
Wings, and embraced "reminiscences of the
growth Of his own convictions, and the nature
Of his services as ar upholder of southern in
situations.
"As early as the year 1896" Mr.. FAULK-
NER remarked, "my attention was in an espe-
cial manner drawn to that extraordinary con-
dition of things existing in this Confederacy,
exhibiting the virtual and practical nullifca-
ton of one of the most important provisions
secured by the Constitution to the South"
But, alas! Mr.. TAULKNER's career dates
little further back than the year which
he cites as the birth-time of his conser-
vative zeal; and it is said that the his
tory Of the perioI which seems to have
faded from his manOry scarcely harmOnizes
| with the character he has now assumed. His
Virginia friends remind him that, before the
"especaP' awakening Of 1916, he had done
as much as most men to further the worst OBJ
jects of Abolition warfare; and the hint is sus-
tanned by references to his public acts and
speeches in connection with the early move
ments of the friends of emancipation in that
State
As Mr.. FAuLKKER's speech will no doubt be
seized upon by the PIERCE committee as a
timely auxiliary, We may usefully supply them
with memorials of his "early" efforts, which
in his judgment constitute his title to censorial
privileges. They will form an excellent in
PRODUCTION to the campaign edition.
Our first extract is selected by the Virginia
Free Press from a speech delivered by Mr..
FAULKNER, when the subject of the right of an
ordinary Legislature to vote away slave property
was under discussion. Two plans were in
view-one for paying the shareholders for their
property, the other providing for the freedom
Of children of slaves born after specified pc
Rod. In regard to the former scheme Mr.
FAULKNER said:
"Sir, it wants practicability. You might well
attempt, BY one, to gather into macs The sands
now scattered on the endless margin Of the ocean,
as seek to remove the slave population by the
means which that gentleman contemplates. Two
hundred thousand dollars to be annually appro
priated by the State! Why, sir, it would scarcely,
alone, pay the costs Of transportation. How, then,
is the annual quota to be made up? By gift, or by
purchased II by gift, his views are visionary; il
by purchase, bis means arc inadequate Sir, Toe
can accomplish nothing by scholastic disputatons
about rights. The gOrdian knot must be untied-it
1t 10 by the strord; Asia must be udnquished-he coun
| y must Be saved"
The Alexandria (Va.) Telegraph gives us
further insight into his views on this PROPOSE
ton, in another extract from the same speech:
"why, sir, it is even rule of municipal law,
and use this merely illustration Of the great
principles Of society uiera to ut aiienun. non
iedas. To hold your properly as not to injure tho
property, still less the lives and happiness of neigh
, bors. And the moment, in the best regulated
communities, there is in practice departure from
this principle, you may abate the nuisance. II may
cause oss-but il 10 what our black lcttcred gentry
term damnuin obsqus injdria a loss for which the
| law affords no remedy.
"But cir it is said that society having conferred
| this property on the STAKEHOLDER, il cannot now
take il from him without adequate compensa
| tom by which ia meant full value. may be sin
guarin this opinion, but defy the legal research
OF the House to point me to principle recog-
missed by the law, where the community pays for
| property which 10 removed or destroyed because
1t is nuisance and found injurious to that society
There lie, humbly apprehcnd, no such principle
There is no obligation upon society to continue
your right one moment after II becomes injurious
to the beet interests of society; to compensate
you for the loss Of that the deprivation OF which is
demanded by the safety of the State, and in which
general benefit you participate as members of the
community. Sir, there 10 to my mind a manifest
distinction between condemning private property,
to be applied to some beneficial public purpose,
and condemning or removing private property
which is ascertained to be a positive wrong to So
cicty."
Upon the other plan Mr.. FAULKNER com
mented in strain which fairly exemplies the
temper in which he approached the subject
These are his reported words:
"That proposition operates alone upon the post
nofi-those who may be born after the 4th of July
lS40 Sir, do not mean 10 inflict upon this learn
ed and patient audience dry and metap ysical
legal argument, elaborated from the materials
which law library 90 readily furnishes, nor do