Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1855-01-05

and administered by officers of their own selection.
We have seen one Chef Executive officer after an.
other, both in State and National Governments
elected by the people, and installed in office quietly
and without disturbance, and again returning to the
walks of private life In two instances in Nation
al Government on the demise of the President of the
United States, the Vice President has succeeded
quietly that station And in own State ii ap-
pears that than once, upon the vacation of the
gubernatoria Office, the powers of Governor, in &C
cordance with the provisions of the Constitution, have
been exercised by the Speaker of the Senate for the
time being without hindrance and without detriment
to the State thus testing time and again. system
of Government under various circumstances and
gencies, and showing ready acquiescence on the
part of our people to forms and laws prescribed by
themselves
In view of these things, the question naturally su
gess itself to every rejecting and patriotic mind
this system be preserved and perpetuated Will il
be maintained in all its beauty, harmony and useful
ness, and transmitted unimpaired TO those who come
fer US Or does it contain within itself the seeds
of disease vicious principle which la.
ter will work its dissolution ?
Hitherto, Notwithstanding the occasional Earring oil
some dscordant elements, it has proved eminently
successful. But it is believed that it only con-
tinue to be SC, by strictly combining the action of
National Government 10 lis limited constitutional
sphere leaving the States the free and unInterrup
ted exercise of all the powers reserved to them tc
the peOple-by the observance of spirit of Justice
mOuerdlOn anu lOfOeaTdnce towards e3cn Otner, Oy
the different States of the Union and their people, and
by faithful compliance with all their obligations
constitutional and legal.
If on the contrary the powers of the General Gov
eminent, Instituted by equals, and made for the bene
fit OF US all, are so perverted and welded to make
war upon particular secton--f the peculiar in.
situations of the Stale of that section are to be un-
ceasingy assailed by those who have properly and
rightfully no concern in the mater-if Const tu-
onal rights and the laws passed to give them prac-
teal effect, 10 be utterly at naught and in
their stead rampant and sef-sancfed fanatcism is
to rule. then the days of republic will have been
numbered, and we shall cease to be united people
We cannot shut eyes, and ought not if we
could to the spectacle which has lately been pr
ted in the slavehodng states of this Union, and
to the efforts which have been made unfortunately
with too much success, array section against
tOn, and people against people.
We have been charged with aggression, when we
have been the party aggrieved; we point for exam
pie, to the cons utional provision for the reclama-
ton of our property, and ask for the execution of
the law passed to give it practical effect. We are
told by many that that law must be repealed, and by
not few, that there is higher law" than the
Constitution itself, in the breasts of Northern free
men, and that the free North is not to be made a
hunting ground for the slaves of the South We
ask to he admitted to an equal partlc patton in the
common inheritance and common acquisitions of the
country and content to leave with every people
the settlement of it's own domestic relations in its
own way. But we told that slavery must be
confined to its present limits, and that there shall be
more slave territories or slave States.
The day may come, perhaps it will be too late,
when our Northern brethren will discover that the
Southern States intend to be 'equals in the Union,
or independent out of it,
God grant that this dire alternative may never be
presented TO us! Hitherto we have been singularly
blessed people, and if we wise and walk in
His way, we have every reason to believe that a
wonderful destiny awaits us.
May He SO incline the hearts of us all that may
cease to do evil and learn to do we'll and that we
may sacredy maintain in all their integrity, the go-
rious institutions handed down to by our ancestors
and transmit them unimpared to latest posterity