Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1856-08-02

United States passed in conformity tnereto, OeinG
disregarded and nullifed by Massachusetts, we
desire no further intercourse with your State."
May b. permitted to remind your Excellency
that /" nulli6ed" is not word OF Massachusetts
growth, but that it is indigenous to the South,
and If you have any opprobrium to bestow upon
it, YOU can freely do SO much more appropriately
nearer home than here. The loyalty of Massa-
chusetts to the Constitution Of the United States
has been too often and too signally evinccd, in
critical periods of the country's history, to re-
Quire a further answer from me to this ungracious
suggestion but, were it otherwise, your Excel
lency is not the tribunal to decide for her ques-
ton involving her fidelity to that instrument. |
am not aware that the Executive of Alabama has
yet been made coordinate in judicial authority
with the Supreme Court of the United States, and
until it is, and not until then, will its opinion
upon such question be expressed with any pro-
prlety, or be entitled to the slightest considera-
ton.
With somewhat arrogant assumption of SUI
periority your Excel!ency expresses desire on
the part of the State of Alabama, to have Sc no
further intercourse with Massachusetts,
am not aware that there is anything to justi-
fy this assumption, in the condition of our re-
spective States, with reference to any of the ee-
ments that constitute the strength and charace or
of u civilized and Christian Commonwealth. In
their generously charitable institutions, their cx-
and railways, their liberal contributions to rcii-
gious and benevolent enterprises, and to the
literary, scientific and historical treasures of the
world, in the condition and spirit of their psO-
pie, find nothing that should prompt this desire
of non-intercourse on the part of the Executive
of Alabama, unless it be the contrast such inter-
course might suggest.
If this desire of your Excellency is gratifed to
its full and literal extent, while we are deprived
of the privilege of furnishing you with the pro-
ductons OF the free and intelligent labor of our
people, it will be slight compensation to know
that the paper manufactured in Massachusetts
mill and bearing the stamp of II respectable Mas
sachusetts firm, will not, as is the case with the
sheet now before me, bearing your Excellency's
autograph, be the vehicle of converting to us the
insulting and vituperative communication from
Chief Magistrate OF Alabama.
Your Excellency concludes your letter, the
whole of which have quoted, in the following
words ''Anl we wish to be free in FUTURE free
from insult from State whose citizens do not
recognize accountability for insult and libelOus
imputations upon the character of Southern
States and the citizens thereof.'' Your allusion
cannot fail to understand. You advance as
your chief and closing reasons for desiring no
further intercourse with our State, that one of
our Senators has declined u summo IS to "a per-
sOnal combat, and the other it is we'll known
would do SO in obedience not only to the laws
and sentiments of Massachusetts, but also of the
rules and order OF Congress, and even of the
statutes of Alabama itself.
find the following provision in the code of
that State, published in pursuance of an act of
your General Assembly:
EVERY person who gives. accepts, or knowingly
carries a challenge in writing or otherwise, to
fight in single combat with any deadly weapon,
either in or out of this State, on conviction,
must be imprisoned IN the Penitentiary tco
gears"
Because Senator of Massa: husetts refuses to
do what the laws of Alabama made peniten-
tiarv offence, your Excellency wishes no further
intercourse with our State.
in prior portion Of your letter you arraign
Massachusetts for an aledged disregard of the
laws of the land. and with singular inconsistency
at its close, you assert, as the browning reasons
of your displeasure, that she will not violate, in
the person of her Senators, law common alike
to Massachusetts, to Congress and the State
whose reresepntative YOU are. 5fs
In leaving your Excellency to reconcile this
inconsistency, and in terminating correspond
ence which ] deeply regret should have been
forced upon me by the unprecedented character
of your communication, will oaly add the ex-
preston of II sincere hope, that return to bet
ter counsels, and Il paternal spirit of comfy and
good will may bring the people of Alabama into
such relations with those of Massachusetts, rs
the claims of IA common country should inspire
and foster, ami that if there must be irreconcila-
bic dversites of opinion between them upon any
question of moral duty and of public policy,
they may hereafter find no such expressions from
their Chief Magistrate as you have deemed it
compatible with respective positions to adj
dress to me.
Your Obcdent servant,
HENRY J. GARDINER.
Ills Exceency JOHN a. WINSTON, Governor of
Alabama.
BURLINGAME CHALLENGED BY BROOKS
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
The contemplate Bully Brooks has met one
who is not afraid of him this time, and Massa-
chusetts man at that. Read what the Herald says
concerning the challenged
''Nr. Brooks narrative of the affair between
himself and Burlinga,ne. After giving the ante
cedents of tho affair down to the acceptance of
the challenge, he closes thus: He, Mr.. BurIip-
game, requires Inc to meet him in Canada, a dis
lance of 700 miles by the mail route, a route
running through the enemy's country, and
through which no man knows better than NJ, I.
Burlngame that could not pass without running
the gauntlet of mobs, of assassins, prisons, PEN
itentiarics, baifs and constables He knew that
could never get to Canada, and that were to
do 50, and he were to feel that never would get
back, he might as well have designated Boston
Commons. His requisition is Of SO preposterous
character that the public will appreciate it with
out comment from me. When he repudiated the
memorandum which was prepared by his friends,
and delivered in his own presence. felt some
sympathy for the agony of proud man driven
to dung wrong that he might retrieve the honor
OF his State, which had been furnished by unwor-
thy representatives. But this last condition is
worse than the former, and deliver him to that
condemnation in which honorable men in every
community will strongly intct have no further
demands upon him, but should he be screwed up
to the point of making demands upon me, l will
treat HIM rs a gentleman and meet him at any
convenient place on equal terms"
This was from Washington of the 23d. Another
Correspondent of the oath saws:
II learn that Mr.. Burlingame did not insist on
the Canada side as his ultmatum, but be had de-
clded ON that region place where the difficulty
could be arranged satisfactorily, without inter-
ruptIon; but as Mr.. Buringame wished to avoid
arrest he took carriage Immediately after send
Ing his reply to Mr.. Brooks, and met the northern
train 10 or IL miles from Washington, supposing
1t would be satisfactory. He did not stop to
ascertain whether BROOKS was willing to 2 700
or oOO miles into an enemy's country at this sea.
son OF the year. From What hear, / infer that
Mr.. Burlingame is desrous of satisfying Mr..
Brooks in any way. Ipresume it will be arranged
Tor them to meet somewhere south of the Cana
dian line, but at respectful distance from the
District of Columbia. There is report that Mr..
Brooks intends to challenge Mr.. Birmingham on
his return.
DECLINATION OF STOCKTON.
New YoRK, July "a.
Commodore Stockton has written the following
letter declining the nomination of the Presidency
rendered him by the seceders from the American
Convention in this city Our efforts to prevent