Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1856-07-12

trne now that if this Constitution shall be palpabiy
broken or shall utterly fail in its Objects as the Ar
ticles Of the Confederation failed then there oiU be
no more Union. The Constitution is the bond of
the Union, and the attachment of the people OF GU
the States to the Constitution is the life of the
Union We know also, felow.citizens that this
Constitution was established in spirit Of compro-
mise that it is to be strictly construed; and that
the objects of the Union will be most surely accom-
pshed and the rights of the States most effectuay
guarded by close and just observance OF all the
grants and limitations of the instrument.
At the formation of the Constitution all the States
save one, were slaveholding. Slavery was recog-
nized in the Constitution as part OF our political
and social system; and even the slave-trade was
continued by it to certain tme the majority of the
free States, who were most interested in it. urging
with much zeal the continuance OF the traffic. 1t
was provided that three-ffths of the slaves should
be represented in Congress, and that laws should be
passed to enable owners to recover those escaping
from service. North Carolina has two members OF
the House of Representatives based on slave popn-
lation, who are thus represented both as property
and as persons. 1t was also provided that new
States might be admitted into the Union; and, by
clear implication slaveholding States as we'll as Free
But for these provisions, the Constitution would
never have been adopted and as it was, North
Carolina once deliberately rejected the Constitution,
and was one Of the last States to accept it. refer
to these facts FIRST to show the nature and extent
of our Constitutional rights in this respect and
secondly, to remind you of the anxiety and jealous
care with which forefathers protected and guar
ded their rights and liberties.
The people of the North, finding that the insttu-
ton Of slavery was not profitable to them, on &C.
count of The nature of their climate and SOIL sold
their slaves to the people of the middle and Southern
States, and pocketed The money They did not
really emancipate them, as they protested to do
They did not attempt to COLOMBO them IN their ma
tive land, Africa. That would have been an expen-
sve philanthropy; and it might have been useless
and have failed, the present colony of Liberia
may fail of its objects; but, like sensible people,
they disposed of this species Of property to those
who could use it to more advantage and prof: than
they could and invested the proceeds of the sales in
lands, ships, and factories. This was all very well.
We heard little then, from that quarter, of the al
legged san of slavery. No meetings were then held
in Boston, New York, and Providence, to protest
against the extension of the institution over South
ern territory and to denounce Shareholders as Grim
inals before God and man. 1t was question of
SOIL and climate, anu dollars and cents; and just
where interest led there Northern brethren fol
lowed. Nay, more than this: The slave-trade was
prosecuted in that quarter with an eagernesS and
with cruelty not exceeded by the SpaniardS them
Selves and to this day. slave ships fitted out in
Northern ports and used in this traffic between AT.
RIGA and Cuba, in defiance of the policy and laws of
this country, and of all civilized nations. No such
trade, fellow citizens exists, or is countenanced in
these saveholding States. The best and the most
his native shores, the people of the South.
Such being the record of our Northern brethren
on this subject, with what Justice with what consis
tency, with what honesty can they now turn upon
u.s. and demand that we shall be limited in our pro-
gress as people. and that our institutions which
we inherited aoith them, and in part derived from
them shall not havefree this continent?
The extension Of slavery will not add one to the
number while it will improve the condition of both
master and slave. Nor will the institution take
root and flourish in any territory where the great
staples of cotton, tobacco, rice sugar. and hemp
not cultivated; so that, thus regulating its own pro-
gress by the demand which nature and commerce
may make for it, it will not interfere with those fields
and departments of labor and industry, which are
best suited to the white race. Wemay safely assert
that but for slave labor large portion of the fertile
lands of the Southwest would have been still unre
claimed-lands, the cultivation of which has added
so largely to the commerce and power of all the
States and which constantly pouring their floods
of wealth into New York, and other non-slavehold-
ing ports. And we may also assert that in Pc
cunary point of view, the institution has been of
more benefit to the people of the free States than it
has been to u.s. The financial policy of the federal
government has always favored the Northern peo-
pie. Three-!ourths of the revenues of the govern
ment are collected and dsbursed north of the State
of Virginia. The policy Of the planting States has
always been for obvious reasons that of Free Trade
of arativey unrestricted commerce. The
tariff averaging thirty per cent ad valorem and that
with but slight compromising results to herself for
the benefit of the industrial operations and interests
of the North. Yet with all these disadvantages,
with Northern vessels monopozing her carrying
trade, and with system Of revenue and finance
constantly operating against her. the South not only
contributes largely to support the North with her
breadstufs, her rice, and her sugar; but she sup
plies the world with tobacco, and the looms of all
New England, of all old England, and of France and
Germany with her cotton.
Gentlemen, threats are borne to US from the North
of a dissolution Of the Union The public mind,
comparatively calm here, is greatly excited there.
1t is the excitement of injustice ana aggression on
the one hand, and the calmness of frcemen on the
other, determined in the last resort Defend and
if need be, to die by their rights We told that
the North will! not only not submit to the extension
of slavery but that they will continue their aggres
sons until slavery ceases to exist. Good men, in all
portions of the country, disturbed by serious ap
prehensions The mere thought Of the destruction
of the Constitution, and the consequent disruption
of the Union, is sad and painful but the danger ap
pears to be at hand, and must be confronted and
boldly dealt with Gentlemen, I tell you here and
now, as all true men in the free States likewise
this day proclaming, that in my humble opinion.
the people of the North would not, if they could,
and that they dare not dsss0toe the Union
The institution of slavery, in its operations and
results, is the conservative influence which, next to
mutual dependence and revolutionary associations,
holds these States together. The great staple Of
cotton ITSELF which can be produced for expectation
alone by slave labor, gives employment to not less
than five millions Of persons in England and to
million in the Northern and Eastern States We
know that the cultivation of cotton elsewhere is de-
creasing and that the Southern States are the only
part of the world where it is increasing. Cut off
this crop from the free States, dissolution would
do; and what would be the instantaneous effect
upon their manufacturing interests? Look, too, at
the production Of breadstus to say nothing of the