Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-01-10

of the several States. Each state expressly
stipulated, as we'll for itself as for each and all
of its citizens, and every citizen OF each State
became solemnly bound by his allegiance to
the Constitution, that any person, held to ser
vice or labor in one State, escaping into anoth-
er, should not, in consequence Of any law or
regulation thereof be discharged from such
service or labor, but should be delivered up on
claim of the party to whom such service or
labor might be due by the laws of his State
Thus, and thus only, by the reciprocal
guaranty of all the rights Ct every State against
interference on the part of another, was the
present form of government established by
our fathers, and transmitted to us and by no
Other means is it possible for it to exist. If
one State ceases to respect the rights of another
obstrusively intermediates with its local inter
ests-if portion of the States assume to I'M
pose their institutions on the others, or refuse
to fulfil their obligations to them-we are no
longer united, friendly States, but distracted,
hostile ones, with little capacity left OF com
mon advantage, but abundant means OF reclp-
rocal injury and mischief.
Practically, it is immaterial whether aggres-
sive interference between the States, or dellb-
crate refusal on the part of any one of them to
comply with constitutional obligations, arise
from erroneous conviction or blind prejudice,
whether it be perpetrated by direction or indl-
rection. In either case, it is full of threat and
of danger to durability of the Union.
CONSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS oE SLAVERY.
Placed in the Office of Chief Magistrate as the
executive agent of the whole country, bound to
take care that the laws be faithfully executed,
and specially enjoined by the constitution te
give information to Congress on the state Of
the Union, it would be palpable neglect of du'
ty on my part to pass over subject like this,
which, beyond all things at the present time,
vitality concerns Individual and public securi
ty.
1t has been matter Of painful regret to see
States, conspicuous for their service in found
ing this Republic, and equally sharing its ad
vantages, disregarding their constitutional ob
legations to it. Although conscious of theil
inability to heal admitted and palpable socia
evils of their own, and which arr completely
within their jurisdiction, they engage in the
offensive, hopeless undertaking of reforming
the domestic institutions of other States whol
ly beyond their control and authority. In the
vain pursuit of ends, by them entirely unat
tainable, and which they may not legally at
tempt to compass, they peril the very existen
ce of the Constitution, and all the countless
benefits which it has conferred: While the
people of the Sonthern States conine their at
tention- -.otfieir own affairs, not presuming Of
tfciously to intermeddle with the social insti
tutions of the Northern States, too many ot
the inhabitants of the latter are permanently
organized in association to infict injury on
the former, by wrongful acts which would be
cause of war as between foreign powers, and
only fail to be such in our system because
perpetrated under cover of the Union.
1t is impossible to present this subject as
truth and the occasion require, without noticing
the reiterated, but groundless, allegation, thai
the South has persistently asserted claims anc
obtained advantages in the practical admins
tratior of the General Government, to the pre-
judice of the North, and in which the latte1
has acquiesced. That is, the States which Ell
ther promote or tolerate attacks on the rights
of persons and of property in other States, tt
disguise their own injustice, pretend or imagine
and constantly aver, that they, whose constitu
tional rights are thus Systematically assailed
are themselves the aggressors. At the present
time, this imputed aggression, resting as it does
only in the vague declamatory charges of po
litical agitators, resolves itself into misappre'
hension or misinterpretation of the principles
and facts of the political organization of the
new Territories of the United States.
What is the voice of history? When the
ordinance, which provided for the government
of the territory northwest of the river Ohio,
and for its eventual subdivision into new
States, was.adopted in Congress of the confed,
Grafton, it is not to be supposed that the ques-
tion of future relative power, as between the
States which retained, and those which did not
retain, numerous colored population, escap.
ed notice, or failed to be considered. And
yet the concession of that vast territory to the
interests and opinions of the Northern States,
a territory now the seat of five among the lar
gest members of the Union, was, in great
measure, the act of the State of Virginia and
of the South.
When Louisiana was acquired by the Uni
ted States, it was ap acquisition not less to the
North than to the South for while it was i'm
portant to the country at the mouth of the riv-
er Mississippi to become the emporium of the
country above it, so also it was even more i'm.
portant to the whole Union to have that empo,
rum; and although the new province, by rea,
son of its imperfect settlement, was mainly re.
garded as on the Gulf of Mexico, yet, in fact,
it extended to the opposite boundaries of the
United States, with far greater breadth above
than below, and was in territory, as in every.
thing else, equally at least an accession to the
Northern States. 1t is mere delusion and pre-
judice, therefore, to speak of Louisiana as ac.
QUESTION to the special interest of the South
The patriotic and just men who participated
in that act were influenced by motives fal
above all sectional jealousies 1t was in truth
the great event, which, by completing for us
the possession of the valley of the Mississippi
with commercial access to the Gulf of Mexico
impaired unity and strength to the whole con