The Shasta courier., 1860-02-18
Letter from Senator Gwin.

held at Tammany Hall JAN sth, 1860:
My DEAR SIR Most gladly would avail
myself of the invitation to join with you, and
the venerable society over which you preside, |
in celebrating the forty fifth anniversary of the
battle of New Orleans, did not my official du-
ties here forbid my absence from my seat in
the Senate.
The first years of my life were spent in the
intimacy of the Patriot Hero whose greatest |
military achievement you are abont to cele |
brate My earliest political teachings were re-
ceived from his lips. During his life l was
honored by his friendship and confidence. His !
great deeds and sage counsels have been
the especial objects of my yeneration, and |
have ever esteemed it a sacred and pleasing
duty to do honor to his memory, as well from
respect TO deceased behefactor and friend as
from love for my fellow citizens, to whom his
example and advice are of such inestiIaahle
value. ss
Never since the foundation of the Govern
ment has there been time when the American
people could refer to the precepts and bright
deeds of Andrew jackson with more profit to
themselves and their couptr7 than the present.
Never was the Union which he loved so dearly,
and tor the integrity of which he fought SO
bravely in the field and toiled so noby in the
camp and in the Cabinet, in such imminent peril
as it is now. Never was it SO necessary as now
for every American patriot to repeat in spirit
and in truth the noble determination which he
uttered, and which has become the motto of the
nation The Union must and shall be preserv-
ed" In this one sentence is eptomized the en-
tire duty of every good citizen, the entire
reer of the warrior sage, and the entire lesson
which he taught his countrymen during his
long life of disinterested public service.
The Union which jackson vowed to preserve
was the Union ofthe Constitution-the Union of
co-equal and coordinate soyeregnties-the
Union which the ambassadors of the old thirteen
Confederated States framed for the benefit and
the protection of the rights of all-the Union
| by which minorities secured against the
| oppression assaults of majorites. That
Union is now assaied in its very essence, by
large and powerful sectional party, under the
lead of bold, ambitious, bad men. A crusade
has been declared against the institutions and
rights of fifteen States, which, if not arrested,
and crushed out by the patriotic masses, North
and South, must inevitably lead to the disrup-
ton of the Union and the overthrow of the
! Government. From the rostrum, pulpit and
press, the orators, preachers and writers of this
sectional organization promulgate treason, in
| surrection. murder, arson and robbery. The
vocabulary of insult and invectves is daily ex-
| hausted against inhabitants of every slavehold-
ing State, and the intention is openly avowed
1
system which those States have adopted and
cherished. Within a few weeks we have seen
| sovereign State invaded by armed, band of
ruffians, whose purpose it was to excite the
| slaves to insurrec ion-to put arms in their
! hands to assassinate their masters, and spread
death and desoation throughout the Southern
States and we have seen the murderous acts of
| these traitors excused and palliatad by leading
| presses, preachers and orators connected with
| tl,,
nominated and supported for high and respon-
sible offices who have openly endorsed and ap-
proved the seditious doctrines of which John
Browns raid was the natural result; and we now
see the purpose declared by this sectional ma
jority to elevate to the Presidency of the Repub-
lie one who sustains the doctrine that there is
an irrepressble conflict between the North and
South, which will endure until one or the other
is subdued. 1t is not astonishing therefore, that
the minority, whose rights and honor thus
assaied, should resolve to defend themselves,
and resist aggression by seeding from COM
| pact which has ceased to be equal
| should be wanting in candor and patriotism
did conceal from you my honest conviction
that unless the aggressive and danti-consttutional
party in the Northern States is defeated at the
| ballot box by the conservative men of the Re-
public, the Union is in imminent peril. | ex-
press this opinion uninfuenced by self-interest.
The State which have the honor to represent
in part is far removed from the scene of the con-
flict, and in standing for the just constitutional
| rights of the South, we have other motive
than patriotism and devotion to the principle
that the Union must and shall be preserved"
1t is particularly fitting that the Empire State
should lead the van in defense of the Constitu-
ton and its compacts for it was that State
! which was the first to suggest and advocate its
| adoption.
| Three years in advance of any other State,
| the Legislature of New York. on Sunday July
| 81, 1882, passed set of wise and patriotic res
! olutions, condemning the inadequacy and weak
| ness of the old system OF the Contederacy, and
| demanding national constitution. They re-
solved that it is the opinion of this Legislature
that the present system of these States expose
the common cause to a precarous issue, and
leaves us at the mercy Of events over which we
have no influence; a conduct extremely unwise
in any nation, and at all times aud 10 change
OF which we are impelled at this juncture by
reasons of peculiar and irresistible weight; and
that it appears to this Legislature that the afore-
| going important ends can never be attained bv
partial deliberations to the States separately;
| but that 1t is essential to the common welfare
that there should be, as soon possible, a con-
| ference of the whole on the subject and that it
would be advisable for this purpose, to propose
to adopt the measure Of assembling n general
convention of the States specially authorized to
revise and amend the Confederation, resersing
right to the respective Legislatures to ratfy their
| determinations"
The danger is great and immediate, but 1t is
in the power of the conservative masses at the
North to avert it, and to restore peace and hap
| piness to our own distracted country. Let them
invoke the spirit of jackson, let them initiate
his lofty, comprehensive patriotism" let them
!" fix his precepts in their hearts, and let them
announce in thunder tones throughout the
length and breath of the land that /" The Union
must and shall be preserved" and faction will be
awed into silence, and the voice of treason
hushed forever.
remain my dear Sir, very faithfully yours,
WM. NJ GWIN.
Hon. Isaac v FOWLER, Grand Sachem of the
Tammany Society.
C.co Tba ran re