Washington telegraph., 1856-09-10
Mr.. Buchanan's Southern Record.

Southern Record. We pursue the sub
ject this week, availing ourselves of the
compilation of facts in the Nash0iue Ban
ner, from which we so literally quoted
last week.
In 1887, JOHN C. CALHOUN introduc-
ed into the Senate of the United States a
set of resolutions in which the subject of
slavery is generalized upon in a very art
full and ingenious manner, but which, in
their real import and practical bearing,
afford not the slightest guarantee to the
South, so far as any actual, bona .tide re-
cognition of her rights is concerned. =.
The substance of theresolutions above re-
ferred to, says the Bonner, is thus stated by
leading Democratic journal, the Charles
ton Mercury, a decided and able support
er of Mr.. BUCHANAN's election, in an
article intended to show that he is pre-
eminently entitled to the confidence and
support of the South. The Mercury
says =
at will be observed that these reaolu-
tions assert:
1. The rights and sovereignty of the
States, and the duty of the Government
to protect them against all dangers, Do
MEsTIc as well as foreign
2. They condemn any interference what
ever, by the citizens of one section, with
the domestic institutions of the South, as
subversive of the Constitution
3. They condemn any legislation by
Congress which interferes with the stabil-
ity of the domestic institutions of the
South, and bind it to resist all attempts
at Its being used by one section of the
Union against the other.
A. They recognize domestic slavery as
an essential ["important," not Essential" !"
is the word used in the resolution, ele-
ment of the social organization of the
South, and any assault upon it as viola
tion of faith between the two sections.
5. They condemn any attempt to inter
fere with slavery In the District of Colum-
bia.
6. They recognize the right of the peo-
pie of a territory, when forming State
Constitution, to decide the question of
slavery for themselves"
Mr.. BUCHANAN voted for each and all
of these resolutions In this connection,
however, We are met by the grave and
important fact, which it Will be well for
Southern men to consider carefully: that
these resolution were also, at the same
time, voted for by SILAs WRIGHT, of
New York, the warm friend and ardent
supporter of that man, whose name, SEW
ARDS perhaps excepted, is more odious
than any other to Southern minds-we
mean MARTIN VAN BUREN; and that
they were also supported and voted for by
JOHN NJ. NILES, of Connecticut, another
dangerous and influential Free-Soiler In
view of these facts, the Banner comes
thus pertinently to the point, and asks
"How happened this concurrence of
opinion between Martin Van Buren, Silas
Wright and John M. Niles, on the one
hand, and all of the Senators from the
slave-holding States, with Mr.. Calhoun, at
their head, on the other?"
And answers the query so pregnant
with interest, by telling the plain, unvar-
nished truth, which cannot be successfully
cOntradicted
''The answer to this question is obvious:
There is not in the whole of those resolu-
tions the most distant approximation to
an assertion of the rights of the citizens
of the South, under the Constitution, to
remove with their slave property to any
territory of the United States already free,
and be protected by the United States,
in the secure enjoyment of that property
so long as the people of the territory
remain in a territorial condition
There is not, in any one of those resolu-
tions, the slightest approximation to re-
pudiation of the great Freesoil principles
the principle of the Wilmot Proviso-
the principle, that is, of the constitutional
power of Congress to prohibit the intro
duction of slavery into any territory be-
longing to the United States, which was
already free territory
And more than this: These resolu-
tions were, at the best, nothing more than
a temporary expedient, which served per-
haps well enough, all things considered, to
harmonic whichever conflicting opinions
might have existed at that time; to recon-
cile whatever jarring interests the success
of which might have been just then at
hazard
Practically, We say these resolutions
were of no value, for, temporary in their
nature, they were liable either to be ex-
plunged or abrogated, by the passage of
such resolutions as wonld impair their eff
feet, in the event of there being majori-
ty in favor of such action in the Senate.
Besides, Mr. BUCHANAN had truly said,
in 1886, while consenting to- the admis-
sion of Arkansas as a Slave State, that
the Missouri Compromise had settled the
question of Slavery so far as the Terrific
ry acquired by the cession of Louisiana