The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-12-15
esnME soRER THouGHTS.o


The following extract is taken from COM
munication which recently appeared in the
Charleston News, a paper that claimed nfini-
ty with the democratic party until the cleo
tons of November proclaimed the fact that
that party, as national organization, had
ceased to exist We publish it for no other
purpose than as an indication of the feeling
that is manifesting itself at the Sonth upon
measure which has generally been regarded
as purely Southern in its conception, tenden-
cies and results-that was based upon a
Southern principle, and would work ineifa-
BILE good to the South:
MEssRs. EDIroRs.-The article in the Co.
lumbia South Carolinian, calling attention to
the position of the South with respect to our
Territories, is worthy of your Republication,
and the attentive consideration of the people
of the South. | agree with you, however,
that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in
the Nebraska-Kansas act was not the worst
feature in that act. BY itself it was eminent
ly proper that it should be repealed. 1t was
practical assertion of the power of excluding
the South, by the legislation of Congress,
from colonizing with our slaves the Terrific
ries of the United States We of the South,
especially in South Carolina, have ever main
tanned that Congress had no such power To
vote for the repeal of the Missouri Compro-
mise, therefore, was matter OF course which
not only our regard for our interests, but the
Constitution, required of our Representatives
If the Missouri Compromise had been mme-
diately repealed, the Southern States would
have been put in possession of all their rights
North and South of the line Of SO Ieg. 80 m.
Our Territories would have been open to an
equal colonization from all parts of the
Union. But unfortunately. this is not all
the Nebraska act accomplished. 1t substi-
tuted for Congressional exclusion, territorial
exclusion. 1t authorized the first settlers in
the Territorial Legislature to determine over
an immense dominion larger than the State
of New York, whether slavery should exist
in any part of it. Nor is this all. Being up
held and supported by the whole South in
Congress, it has established the principle, so
far as the South is concerned, that the Terri
torial Legislature shall be the arbiter Of
slavery extension forever in our Territories.
We are to be excluded by what Mr.. Calhoun
denounced as ''squatter sovereignty" which
he stigmatized as worse than Congressional
exclusion. There never was a more extraor-
binary and ruinous concession. But three
years before, the whole South denounced the
doctrine, and contended in Congress and in
our State Legislatures, that as equal proprie-
tors in our Territories. the Southern people
had right to enter our territory with their
slaves, and keep them there as property, I'M
til they became States. When State, slave
ny could be excluded, because not until then
was Territory robed with the attributes of
sovereignty. On a sudden, the whole South
surrender this high vantage ground of the
Constitution. They repeal the Missouri Com
promise, but substitute in its stead a more
outrageous and fatal principle. It is not at
all surprising to see General Shields General
Cas-, Douglas, DC, zealously contending that
the Nebraska Bill is far stronger anti-slave-
ry measure than the Missouri Compromise
that by its operation, the policy of antislaye
ry is established foreveri in all our Territories,
and that not another slave State can be ad-
ded to the Union. Coupled with the Home
stead Bill, our Territories must be commanded
by free population, flowing into them from
foreign nations and the Free States. They
advocate the repeal of the Missouri Compro-
mise as opening to Northern colonization all
our territories lying South of the Missouri
Compromise line. And will not these views
be practically realized by future events l
have doubt, as the writer of Some Sober
Thoughts" suggests that the free States will
take possession of all our territory up to the
Red River. And this is the fatal result of
abandoning our principles This is the bene-
fit the Nebraska bill is to confer on the South
In the whole history of politics there never
was a more sudden or more complete aban-
donment of principles than the Southern
statesmen evinced in supporting the Nebras-
ka bill.