Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-06-21
The Florida ID emocracy-An Inside
View of Matters at Charleston.

Ida met on the 4th inst at Quincy. Two
sets of resolutions were reported By the bust
ness eommittee-one being the majority res
olutions at Charleston, and the other being
those offered by JEFF DAVIS in the Senate
After lengthy and excited discussion a
compromise was effected. which ratified the
secession at Charleston, adopted the majority
Charleston resolutions, sent delegates to
Richmond, and in the event the Baltimore
the majority of the Committee at Charleston,
empower ed the delegates to take steps for a
reunion.
The following extracts from the Florida
Sentnets report of the discussion gives an
inside view of matters at Charleston, and
shows the spirit which actuates the Democ-
racy of that State. Col. J. B. Owens, q del
egate to Charleston and a member of the
Committee on the platform. gave report of
his stewardship:
He said that the other delegates had sta
ted very fully all that had occurred in the
Convention, but they had not stated, neither
had the newspapers, that which took place
in the Committee room. He would do this
The South were represented on the Commit
tee by plain. honest men seeking nothing but
what was right. The Committee first spent
a day or two iii diminishing 10 find out each
others hands. The North being confident
of victory soon showed theirs, and commen-
ced the work which lasted six or seven DAYS.
frequently not adjOurning for dinner or tea:
and not retiring till twelve or one O'Clock
if ever there was warm and earnest work it
was in that Committee room, and there was
the waTmeSt battle that ever was fought in
the United States-there might have been
more elOquence but there never was more
earnestness. The North first tried to intimi
date them by bullying. but they soon found
that would not do. They were not prepared
to meet the cold steel, that was not in their
ethics, not part of their education-tbe
North told them they intended to have what
they wanted-they had the numerical
strength and would have matters as they
wished, the South had all the advantage In
the discussion, and the North were utterly
defeated and whipped out. At the close of
n speech which he Col. OVENS made in the
Committee room distinguished gentleman
from Connecticut walked up and took him by
the hand and told him he had knocked out
the last peg from under them-he had ex
hausted the argument and had not LETT them
an inch of ground to stand on. The North
begged him to recede from his demands-ad-
mitted that he was right. but said that thew
could not go home and fight the battle at the
North, and then proposed the adoption of the
Cincinnati platform without the dotting of
an q or the crossing of a IT, that they of the
MOI til could go home and construe it their
way as they had done before. while thew of
the South could continue ii their wayne
spurned 1t with scorn and contempt, said
that he would stamp upon it and spit upon
it. The Committee reported majority plat
form adopted by seventeen States, and a MI
nority platform. which contrary TO all
precedent in the Democratic party
was adopted. When the cotton States
seeded, it came upon the North
like a clap of thunder in a clear day-it
brought them to stand and they turned
white behind the gills. Col. Owens was here
very earnest and extreme in his denuDcia
lions OF. the Northern Democracy. and pro-
claimed them TO be entirely upsound aad false
to the South, he said that if the Baltimore
Convention were to hold out the Olive branch
and invite the South back and put ND a
Southern man on the platform, he would not
support him. Sooner than he would 90 TO
Baltimore under existing circumstances he
would lay his head on a block and suffpr If
to be severed from his body, or he would be
blown into ten thousand atoms He said the
object OF the Northern people was to acquire
political power. The South must never sur
render her rights. or place themselves in their
power, If they did the Yankees would coin
every drop of their blood into five cent pieces.
The North lived, moved, had their being at
the expense of the South, and they knew If.
He then entered into the advantages of slave
over free labor, and Institutions where sla-
very existed over those of free labor. Said
the North and the world could not exist with
out our cOtton-spoke of the absolute neces-
slty of the products of slave labor to the
world-lnstltuted comparison between the
result OF the concessions in Maria Antoinette's
time and our own-was earnest and vehe-
ment in his eXortatiOn TO the democracy to
take extreme and ultra Southern ground for
immediate and practical resistance-said that
he preferred disunion Il Thousand times to The
election OF Douglas: whom he denounced as
a traltorous scOundrel. He said that poor.
degraded Virginia, formerly the mother of
statesmen and heroes had fallen from her
high estate--the conduct of her delegation
IN Charleston and her action since had
brought infamy on the State. He believed
that II 1t were possible, the bones of her
Washing ton. her Jefferson, her Madison and
her Patrick Henry would rattle in their
graves and condemn the action of her deeeDe.
rate sons"
Gen. Milton, the nominee for Governor
spoke OF the deception of the Cass-Nichol-
son letter, and OF the Baltimore platform
He studied the Cass-Nicholson letter very
carefully in 184S, and came TO the concln-
sion that there was no Squatter Sovereignty
in it then and had so asserted in eYerv
speech he made in that canvass. He de-
nounced the Cincinnati Platform with the
Northern construction. but paliiated and ex-
cused the Florida Squatter Sovereignty res.
nln lion Ot 1S4I and 70
of Washington, Jefferson and Madison in re-
gard to Slavery and the changes of opinion
since in the South. He admitted that the
resolutions are undisguised Squatter Sow
e.eignty.-Said he thought he would have
voted for them had he been in The Lenisla.
ture at that time-that it was the popular
doctrine In lS47, but the State of Florida
changed her opinion in 1S4S One of the
resolutions adopted by the Convention in
Charleston was Black Republican. He dis
covered the fact and pointed it out TO one OF
the committee, who said that it was an ac-
cident and not so iniended.@This resolution
was the one expressing. q doubt whether
slavery existed under the Constitution in the
States and Territories. He said that it is
now time for the South to arouse 1t will
not do TO await The election of Black Re-
publican President. f"Now is the acceptable
time" Soon the Sonth will stand with
crossed hands, held out for the North to tie
and find herself bound in letters. Now is
the time for the South to maintain their
rights before the Black Republicans get pos.
session of the Army and Navy. He was
opposed to sending delegates to the Charles.
ton Convention. Those Southern men, John.
son, Stephens and Gov. Brown, who have
recommended the Southern States to send
delegates to Baltimore, like Esau of old were
ready to sell their country for a mess OF
pottageE' for the fiesh-pots of Egypt He
said that the Democratic marty nv its
compromises had tended to build up the Re.
publican party. In proof of this he referred
TO the vote of Birney candidate of the
Abolitionists for the Presidency, to Banks
late Speaker, formerly an eminent Demo
Graf, and Martin Van Buren, once the cher.
ished leader of the Democracy. Said that
the Northern Democracy saeing thar, oon.