The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-03-01
SENATOR WILSON, AND HIS POSITION.

SENATOR WILSON, AND HIS POSITION
| The following correspondence between SEN
ator Wilson and the editor of the american
Organ, appeared in the columns of that paper,
on the afternoon Of the 10th inst. As we were
about leaving Washington for few days, its
insertion in the Era was deferred till our re-
turn
From the American Organ
SENATOR WILSON, OF MASSACHUSETTS
We have Just received the answer of Senator
Wilson to letter addressed to him by us two
days since, and submit the correspondence to
our friends and the public. If Senator Will
sons emphatic response to our inquiries does
not check the progress Of the enemies of the
American party" in their mischevous at
tempts to identify our party with abolitionism,
we underrate the intelligence of the people of
the South.
Opposed as Senator Wilson and all the North
have been and now are to Slavery, we may at
| least reiterate our former opinions on the sub
| ject, that the Southern States have less to fear
| from him than from those Forney and Pierce
Democrats who resolved, at Columbus, Ohio,
finally to eradicate Slavery We shall com
nent fully on this subject hereafter.
go WASHINGTON, Feb. IL, 1855.
! DEAR SIR: Referring you to my editorials
! for the last two weeks, have to ask you how
far have correctly represented your views in
my comments upon your letter of 10th January,
and the articles in the Boston Bee, which / have
copied? In other words, Do you or not rec
ognise the doctrine of State rights, so far as to
permit the several States to regulate the ques-
ton of Slavery in their own mode within their
State limits Do you or not entertain the opn-
ion that Congress has power to interfere with
Slavery in the States DO you or not recognise
that higher law" doctrine, which permits you
as Senator to disregard the binding obliga-
tons of the Constitution? Does the american
organization in Massachusetts embrace the
question of Slavery amongst those for the regua
ton of which that organization was formed?
Your answer at your earliest convenience
will oblige your obedient servant,
| VEsPAsIAN ELLIS,
| Editor American Organ.
Hon. Henry Wilson, U. S. Senate.
| SENATE CHAMBER, Feb. 10, 1855.
DEAR SIR: My answer TO your inquiries will
be brief and explicit.
LIST. / fully recognise the doctrine of State
rights, in its application to Slavery, as we'll as
to any other matter of public concern.
The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of
1
that doctrine.
The whole subject of Slavery within State
limits should be left absolutely to State legisa
ton.
I'd. My response TO your second question is
| included In my answer to your first. do not
entertain the opinion that Congress has any
power to interfere with Slavery as it exists
under State laws.
Sd. Every man who believes in God must
necessarily believe that there is law para
mount to all human law, and that this law is to
be obeyed by men in public and private life,
rather than any human law IN conflict Nth IT,
But l see nothing in the Constitution of the
United States, as understand the Constitution
Of the United States, which requires me, as a
Senator from Massachusetts, to do anything in
conflict with the law of God. If l thought
otherwise would not take an oath to support
the Constitution of the United States
4th. The American Organization in Massa-
chusetts does not embrace the question of Slave
~ among those for the regulation of which it
was formed.
The people of Massachusetts have fixed opin-
ions, in which most of the members of that
organization fully concur, against the support
or allowance of Slavery by national legislation.
They entertain the most profound conviction
that the harmony and repose of the country,
and the highest interests of the master and the
slave demand that the National Government
should be relieved from all connection with and
responsibility for Slavery, and that this disturb
ing question should be left to the people of the
States where it exists.
While they do not seek to impose these con-
victions and opinions upon their feow-citizens
of other States, or to prescribe them for not
fully concurrng in those convictions and opin-
ions, they will submit to no dictation or proscrip-
ton from any body of men or section of the
country.
/, as Senator from Massachusetts, shall
claim for the opinions of her people all the
freedom Of utterance, and all the influence upon
the action of Congress, and the administration
of the Government, which Senator from Vir-
ginia can claim for the opinions of the people
Of the ancient Dominion.
Yours, truly, HENRY WILSON.
Tesposidn Ellis, Esq.
Mr. Ellis is slaveholder-an endorser of the
Compromise measures of 1850. an opponent OF
the agitation of the Slavery Question. He is
in the habit of denouncing Abolitionsts in the
columns of his paper, and of stigmatizing the
Anti-Slavery sentiment of the North, as "high-
err law fanaticism." he claims for the Ameri-
can, or Know Nothing Order, that it is now
the only National Party; that it alone can save
the Union; that it is the great bulwark of the
Constitution and the Union, against "higher
law fanaticism on one side, and notification
fanaticism on the other. And the assumption
be makes from day to day, in his "Organ," is
that the American or Know Nothing Party has
resolved to "ignore" or "sink the Question Of
slavery, and is pledged to resist its agitation,