Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-08-12

+ Here the charge is made By Benton il
s the most solemn &C: Of his life, that the so
: called Democratic Administration and Sen
ate "has done and is doing" what amount.
to the basest betrayal ever perpetrated b,
: the government in suppressing and conceal
ing the evidences of ''scheme to bring o,
a separation of the slave from the free
States" With all these schemes it i.
seen there is corruption fund attached
{ Every negotiation looking to acquisition.
in the South to give preponderance tc
slavery is attended by millions from the
Treasury, which owes its riches to free
labor. and they are lavished to bribe the
officials, foreign and domestic. who make
and ratify what may we'll be called slave
trade treaties--treaties to extend the area
OF slavery and lead to new importstions.-
The pregnant note quoted points the pu blic
eye to the hidden mine which threatens the
integrity of the Union. Cupidity and am
bition work with fearful advantage in the
sc cret sessions of Senate which has now
become mart Of speculation in the public
lands, public contracts and public Offices.
from the highest to the lowest; and as a
consequence speculation in the power of
the government at home and abroad.
When the vast powers of this mighty
country can be welded in secret couclave
its money power and physical forces
| giVen'a direction, invisibly, from which
they cam OF be diverted more than the wat
ers of Niagara when the leap is taken
Benton's dying denuncia,ion of The Admin
istration for "suppressing and concealing
the evidence of a foreign negotiation" tend.
ing to destroy the Union should make a
durable impression, especially when the
Administration is absolutely under the con-
trol of Southern faction VIGOROUSLY hos
tile to the Union.
1t is great mistake TO attribute to per-
sonal animosities the absofb bling feeling ex-
hibited in this last scrip of Benton's pen,
and in his last conversation with me touch
ing the designs of Southern schemers
against the Union. His simple narrative of
the growth of these designs, written Just
before his illness, shows that his anxiety
was the result of prolonged meditation, op-
Grating on the master passion of his heart
his love OF country and the institutions
that made i, happy.
/ quote passage, from which it appears
that Mr. Madison and Mr.. Clay at the be.
ginning entertained his views, and believed
that there was q settled conspiracy against
the Union, which W ould be constantly fos-
tered in the South by corrupt and ambitio US
men, who would always find in the slave
question ailmeut for the strife they sought
to engender 20 break the confederacy and
rule apart, as they could not the whole
Benton thus points to the origin, and traces
the movements Of this plot:
~In the year 1880 some Southern politi,
clans having some private griefs of their
own to, redress. and some ambitious objects
of their own to accomplish, conceived that
a separation OF the States, and the erection
of a new Republic South, was the WY to
accomplish their purposes. and at that OBJ
ject Ohe segregation OF the States South
Of the Potomac) they went to work-pre-
iexting Their operations with ",he oppres-
sions of an unconstitutional protective |
tariff" With this view, and upon this pre-
text, the first Southern (South Carolina)
Convention was held in November, 1889, !
which passed the ordinance of notification
and secession--declsring the revenue laws !
null and void, fixing the first dav Of Feb |
ruary, then next ensuing. for the secession,
(unless Congress in the meantime should |
abandon protective tarff,) and levying a
army to maintain her attitude. The jack
s,,r Iarn of horan,ho, l..
nouncing the penalties OF high treason cn
all who should commit the overt act" un-
der that ordinance, and the full be lief that
he would do what he said, ba lied that pro-
ject, and gave birth to the tariff compromise
of s33, by which protective tariff (ss pre-
text of secession) was laid aside, to be sub
stituted by the slavery agitation, generated
out Of the alarm Of the slave States for !
their lives and property through fear of the
anti slavery "aggress;crs, encroachment
and crusades' of the North against the
South. The substitution was instant and
notorious. On returning home from Con-
gress, Mr. Calhoun told his friends that the
South could never be united against the
North on the tariff queStion-that the sugar
interest oil Louisiana would keep her out
and that the basis of the Southern union
must be shifted to the slave question; aud
shifted accordingly i Immediately was
lncontinently, all the notification news
papers opened for a secession for that new
cause, filling the country with alarm fr the
safety of slave property, and spreading the
terrors of servile insurrec,ion -inevitable
OF the abolition designs. The
whole South immediately took fire. Before
the month Of June--that is to say, in ,ess
than three months after the protective tariff
pretext for secession had been laid aside -
the new pretext had becn installed in its
place, and 80 fully developed as to be seen
by all observers. Mr.. Clay saw it, and on
the 2sth of May, in letter TO Mr., Madison,
expressed his spprehensions Of this new
danger, and declared his disbelief OF any
foundation for the alarm which was attempt
cd. Mr.. Madison Immediately replied. re-
both his apprehensions and his
and. in a brief paragraph, fixing
all the points-dlte, locality, actors, pretextI
and mode OF operation--in this new phase
Of the secession movement, and branding
il with As much reprobation as the amiable
moderation of his temper would permit
That letter becomes a starting point in this
inquiry which history will seize upon and
find IN it the key which unlocks the door
lhat..gives the inside view Of all the machin.
stions which have led to the present porten- ,
tiuus slavery agitation. n that letter to .
Mr. Clay he kaid.