Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1860-02-04

|
lands in those States ccded to the Union. il is
worthy of remark that the North reserved TO
herself the right to those in her States. We
gave up everything; they gave zip nothing.
The sales of the public lands have amounted
to Sl50,000,000 of which they, as we'll as
we, have rcaped the benefit Suppose that
IN these new States the local law of slavery
had existed. How would we have stood :?
! There would have been fifteen slave States.
with 30 Senators and l22 Representative
/ while the North would only have had nine
/ States, aud proportionNte representation -
Therefore, if tire law of slavery had followed
the cession, we would have had 80 Senators
to their IS and 122 Representatives against
thelr92 ! bring this TO view to show that
tho South has always been ready to concede
to and maintain the Union We had these
means and we voluntarily gave them up
When say we, | mean the South, Virginia
| beng the chief donorof the territory. The
next acquisition of territory was in April,
lSo3, by purchase from France, the non
slaVeholding States then having majority of
one, The States that were to come in were
two for the South and seven for the North.
the result giving tho North fourteen aud the
South ten When the acquisition of I.ouisi-
ana was made, we agreed that the local law of
that !" ""ritory should remain in force, and
thr, law provided for slavery. If that law
ba, been applied, the South would again have
acquired u vast prcdomnancc over the North.
| She would have had numerical majority.
aud the only addition which the North could
have had was Maine, which was about benr
fadmittcd in the Union 1t then became of
vast importance TO create another difficulty.
They saw the power about to depart from them,
and when Missouri came up for admission the
struggle was renewed
| No, this was no frnatcai opposition. Fa-
naticlsm had not then commenced. 1t was
a mere contest for power, aud the Northern
majority in Congress refused to admit Mis-
souri,, They were equal with us and their
action looked to power for the future. 1t
was determination on their part to hold
the control OF the country, when, uufortu-
nately for the South, voice came from her
tor compromise Now, compromise
should be something in which both parties
make concession. This was not such an
one. The South proposed that line should
he drawn at $500, aud that all the territory
North of that should be given up to free. soil
institutions: but no provision was made for
territory this side AS the matter then ctood.
| the North gained Wisconsin, Iowa, Oregon,
Nebraska and Kansas, and the South only
Missouri, Arkansas and Il part of the Indian
terfitory--the last of which is yet to be tes-
ted. We gave ground where giving ground
was destruction, and gave the North u sufi-
eient number of our voters to produce the
result we are now feeling. The letter of
Jefferson, written in 1920, relative to the
Missouri Compromise, to which he alludes
to the ominous signs of the times, striking
ON Grn LII Al,
ing that ga geographical line once conceived
never be obliterated," J" and that he considered
it the " knel of the Union" was then read. I
You observe the remarkable language of Mr.
Jefferson. Is that not prophecy? Has not
every word been realizod2 That line has now
begun to be traced in fire, and prt in blood
The line was drawn, but we supposed that
it would not be marked in the soil, and we
left it. Fifteen years aftcrward there began
to tinkle a little bell which has grown loud
er aud louder, till its changing may be heard
all over the Union. 1t is the bell of fanati-
cism. In 1885 petitions began to be pre-
sented to Congress for the abolition of slave
ry in the District of Columbia. They were
met, am sorry to, !, as our Southern men
too often meet those movements--by com
promise Do they not see that this is but the
entering wedge, and that it will 60 far to ef-
feet slavery throughout the country? Con
gress determined that these men had "A right
to petition, Now, if England and France
were IN alliance, would there be rieht for
the subject of one to petition against the
institutions of the other? Is there not
condition implied, that if England does not
like the Government of France, she shall not
interfere with it? Was not that the princi-
pie in which our Union was founded, and
yet Congress admitted these petitions and
laid them ON the table, saying that they had
no right to 90 further, there giving a foot.
hold to that agitation, which has since shaken
the country. 1t is important in this aspect
OF afiars, to know that it was foresecn by
those on our outposts. will bring to your
attention the effort in the Senate by Mr.. Cal
houn, in 1888, to stopsthese fanatical inter
ferences, and the results he predicted would
follow. A portion of enc of Mr. Calhoun's
speeches On the right Of petition, was here
read, In which he contends that the South
was degraded by the. reception of such petit
tions by Congress, and that If its legitimate
consequence ensued, she could not stay in
the Union. Can any commentary on these
words he stronger than the proceedings of
the recent meeting in the city of Boston in
which we arc told that they fthe petitions0
had succeeded in producing the results whic,
the greatlprophet hid foretold2 Inanetlier
part of the same speech AIr. Calhoun said