Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1859-09-23


Das~ Gov. Mcaae, Of Mississippi, now a candi-
date for Congress denounces Douglass, and says
the Souah must send delegates to tho Charleston
Convention who will demand different interpreted
ton Of the Cincinnati Platform from that which is
now given il, and IL this be refused that said dele
gates withdraw, nominate southern candidate,
and insist upon all the rights of the South at all
hazards. What are the rights Of the South, in
with slavery? They arc,-frst: The
right to the undsttrbed possession of slaves in the
slave States, and full recognition of the institu
ton il exists there, under tho sanction Of the
federal Constitution, and the authority of State
sovreignty and, second, the right to carry slaves
into any of the Territories of the United States
and to he there protected in that right in accordance
with the Constitution and the decisions of the
Supreme Court.
The first of these rights is undsputed, and the
most ianatica do not propose to disturb H. The
second is denied by leading northern democrats who
declare that slavery can exist nowhere except under
the sanction of positive law; and those democrats
who are too intelligent to openly endorse
this absurdity, and yet oppose the extension
of slavery, resort to that ingenious device
-sQuater sovereignty, in order to deprive the
South of a constitutional right, in an unconstitu-
tional manner. Gov. McRae has always been
democrat, and as such we ask him who originated
this monstrous device2 and who reduced it to
practice? Stephen A. Douglass, the future nominee
of the Charleston Convention, is the author of it,
and not one southern democnt-if we remember
rghty-voted against the bill which closed the
Territories against the southern STAKEHOLDER, and
deprived the South of one of its constitutional
rights, by means of ruse for which southern de-
mccrats propose TO reward its author with the
Presidency. We do not mean to argue that the
South has not been grossly wronged-we feel
acutely, the degraded condition to which it has been
reduced by democrats-but we mean to argue that
neither Gov. McRae nor any other democrat has a
right to propose the extreme remedy of disunon for
wrongs he has helped to innict and that too, whilst
still adhering to the party to which the South owes
all the injustice so Indignantly complained of.
Prior to the time when democratic demagogues
commenced the game of winning votes by pander-
| ing to morbid anti-savery sentiment in the North
the equal rights of the South in the common Terri
tories, had not been questioned except by squad
of despised aboltionists whose efforts to disturb
those rights were treated with contempt. But as
the fanatics increased in numbers, the democratic
leaders, of both sections, deemed it polite to pro-
pitate them first by one concession and Their
another, until the Nebraska-Kansas Bill, and the
doctrine of non-inervention as effectually exclude
slavery from the Territories as if the federal Con
stihton had; from the beginning, SO ordained it,
Having thus inch by inch, driven the South from
its equal rights in the common Territories Of thu
Republic, how stand the democratic leaders in the
South? Stung, to madness, by consciousness o
their own culpabe agency in wronging and degrad
ing their own section, one division of that party
the fre-eaters-is for disunion, the only remedy
the only balm for wounded honor and the only
hope for restitution of rights so ANONYMOUSLY
surrendered. The other division as patient unde
wrong, willing TO infict it, is ready to hug tn,
Traitorous Douglass TO its bosom, and follow out t.
its Legitimate results the foul conspiracy to rob thu
Government at whatever cost to the South. Leav
ing out of view their detestabe motives if we car
have any preference, between these two divisions
. it is for the 6re-ealer whose spirit berays thu
lingering existence of some of tic clements O
honest patrotism-sensitvene on point of honor
and impatience under wrongs. But for that diyi
sion which denies Congressional. protection to tn
stakeholder, and advocates squatter sovereignty AM
alien suffrage, entertain feelings which we vii
not express. Tie jingle Of federal dollars and tn
insignia of federal Offices shape their political set
mcnts and actons-and what they have BEEN let
bankrupt treasury and a wronged and dishonorc
, South explain.