Weekly North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1858, 1854-11-08
LETTERS TO THE KERR DINNER,
TEAcHEY's DEror, Dupfn County, |
September 25, 1854. {

GENTLEMEN: Your letter of the 4th instant honor I
lug me with an invitation to public dinner to be
given to your representative in Congress, the Hon.
John Kerr, on the 2sth instant, at Yanceyville is
before me- I regret exceedingly my inability to
comply with your request. Ny long absence from
home will require that all my time and attention
should be given to my private business.
am truly pleased at this manifestation of approx
al given to your distinguished representative for his
course "the bill to organize the Territories of Ne
braska and Kansas" You, in my opinion, do no
more than justice in adding to the confidence already
reposed, by this new acknowledgement of gratitude
for his faithful public service. -
. agree with you in the importance that your peo-
pie attach to the momentous issues likely to grow
out of the present agitation at the North on the
question Of slavery" and trust you will indulge
me with few reflections which the time suggests.
The first question is Why the agitation at the North
and what has been done to excite the public mind
in that section to make them threaten hostile leg
islation against an interest which claim is pro-
tected by the Federal compact. retrospect of our
conduct as members of confederacy, is suggestive
of the following pertinent inquiries Have ever
any of the Constitutional rights ofthe North
Have we withheld the protection of any inter-
est pertaining to their persons or property? Have
we ever manifested the least disposition to resist
them in their liberties, to Illustrate their prosper
ity? Have we ever indicated any intention to dis
turb their domestic tranquility? Or have we ever
refused to provide for the common defence, or to
promote the general welfare? Or finally, might /
nation of the Federal Government, that we have
shown an unwillingness to obtain? Can we be up
| braided by the North for the dereliction of any
Constitutional duty? No, gentlemen, escutchc-
on is clear of any offence arising from commission
of wrong or omission of duty towards our Northern
friends and this storm is raised over heads
in all its fury for other under heaven, than
that we will not allow the North to use the common
| agent the General Government, to exclude from
the occupancy of common property. You may turn
into the simple fact, that the North desires to
strict us in the use of property-the Territories
| which belong as much to one section as another,
and they seek 20 do it with that power which is
much agent as theirs. To illustrate the gross
injustice, the atrocty Of this attempt, let us sup
pose Massachusetts,, any other Northern State,
should send an armed force to the Territory of Kan
sas, with instructions that it should not permit
| shareholders to enter and occupy any portion of
that country. Would not this be rebellion against
| the Constitutional authority of the confederacy?
Where is the difference if she should do the same
thing through her representatives in Congress? The
mode of doing it. whether by force or law, may
more or less irritation, but does not affect the
question of authority. If she claims the right as
member of the confederacy to say what species of
property you may or may not carry into the Terri
tory, she might just well contend for the power
| to exclude you altogether, your exclusion by the
one mode or by the other, would be practical es-
tablshment of two "eastss" in American sovereignty,
This distinction would necessarily entail upon us
civil, moral, and social degradation. Does the part
| we have ever been called upon to perform in our
! political drama justify any such degradation? Whe-
ther in peace or in war have we not been as peers
with our Northern friends? What battles have
er been fought for the protection of our honor or
defence of our country but that our blood has flowed
equally with theirs? What of the civil political
renown country has obtained but that the South
contributed her full proportion? Our country has
in la fir,af c.afn pf fsp.
significant mbecility to a rank among the first
tions EARTH What has caused such an astonish-
ing development of her resources but Southern cap
| ital.
From compilation of facts furnished me by
friend in the Treasury Department, find that the
exports of the domestic products from the United
States from 1921 to 1868, amounted in round num-
bers to So COO 000,0 600. This has been our trading
capital. What we have consumed whether produced
in this or that section of country has added nothing
to the national wealth. 1t has only received any
substantial addition from our exports that out of
the large amount given above, two-thrds were COM
posed of three articles, cotton, tobacco, and rice,
! exclusively the products of slave labor. The other
third composed of breadstufs, spirits manufactured
articles, &C., produced at the North as well as
| at the South but have no means of aScertainng
the proportion. 1t is not extravagant to claim at
least third of the latter for the South, which
would give sevenninths of the exports of the coun-
| try to the slaveholding section. contemplation
of these facts Should inspire with the conviction
that we have fully done duty under the Federal
compact in promoting the general welfare, and also
with manly resolution to resist any unjust oppres-
sion. Before finishing with these exports, let US
see who has reaped the most if not all the advan-
tages of expectation. The shipping interest of the
country is owned mostly at the North, and while we
have no right to charge the general government with
their superiority in this branch of industry we do
claim that the monopoly which our laws give them
in the coasting trade and which is burden on our
section, is owing to Southern hberality. Yet how
deaf are they to any call of gratitude The State of
Maine has lately indicated by her election, that she
is ready and ripe for crusade against Southern in
terests. She has abolitionzed her whole Congress
sonal delegation. Yet she still enjoys this monop-
oly of which, if she deprived, it would beggar
thousands of her citizens. With what grace then
can she molest us? Is it because we allow her to
live as it were upon the fruits of our labor? Yes,
gentlemen, not only do we furnish the exports and
give the North the exclusive right to transport them
when these exports return to this country in the
shape of goods, wares, and merchandise we adjust
our tariff of duties in such manner to protect
those branches of industry which are in a measure
peculiar to the North. The South has, indeed, cla-
mored against the injustice of these tariff duties but
she has never asked from the government any egis-
lative protection to any interest peculiar to her own
section. mention these facts, which are familiar
to ALL to show that in the first place, it has never
been policy to sectionaize the legislation of Con
gress; and in the second place, to show with what
fidelity the Southern people have always acted in
maintaining the national sentiment which pervades
Constitutional authority to exclude from the Ter
ritories with our slave property and we have acted
in such manner to give them no excuse for thei'
Dresenf hostile attitude agree with YOU that If