The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-11-07

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extinguish but which the Democracy have
watched, through many dark and perilous
hour and which they have sworn to guard for
ever. But if we sleep on our posts, if we
yield one inch to the demands Of sectional
ambition, that moment we are lost-"lor ty-
ranny of late hath cunning grown, and in ner
own good season tramples down the sparkles
of our ashes.'
All of us who have the safety Of the Re-
public at heart; who labor for the liberty and
grandeur and independence Of the South,
within the Union if possible; without the
Union if necessary, they have determined to |
be not only opponents but enemies. Upon |
us as upon an enemy they denounce the Ter
rors and the pains of treason. 80 let it be. |
If it is treason to count our inherent soveT-
eighty. and our sovereign rights above all
other earthly objects, then are we traitors
If it is treason to hold the Constitution
higher than the Union born of the Constitu-
ton. then are we traitors. If it is treason TO
declare that we will never consent TO become
the vassals Of sectional majority, to warn
back from Southern soil the mlnlons OF
Aboltionsm, whether in the form OF Federal
armies, to proclaim that Southern honor ana
| Southern liberty are dearer to our hearts than
any Union in which we are degraded and
|
which defes its apostles and canonizes its
martyrs.
But how long is this Union song to be suSg
in our ears? How long are we to listen to
it Shall it be till the hour Of resistance has
passed away Till we are lulled into that
deep sleep from which there is no awakening
till we are ncrveless in the grasp of that
overshadowing powsr which threatens us
with annihilation. Or shall we declare that
we combat not only the enemy beyond eur
borders, but that party within our own limits
which asks US to compromise away our rights
and which procaims that il is treason to talk
of resistance to Black Republican aggression
Fellow Democrats, am no disunionst. No
Democrat is a disunionist. Only they are
disunonists who surrender in advance to the
enemies of theybouth.
They are DisunionistS because the conso-
idation of the Government in the hands Of
sectional majority would be the destruction
Of the Union constructed by our fathers on
the principles of justice and equality. For
my part, tellow-citizens if were compelled
to choose between the South without the
Union and the Union without the South, |
should say, give me the South,-her rights,
her liberty, her honor.
And who are these men that fooishly pre-
tend to be better Unionists than those who
made the L nion; to be better Constitutional
men than the defenders of the Constitution
You know them we'll YCT, know that they
have a valid claim to the title Of the 'CompFo-
mise party" If they are remarkable for the
magnifcence of their failures, they are equal
w remarkable for the insigniiicance Of their
successes. If they are distinguished by exu-
berance Of confidence they are equally dis
tinguished by deficiency of votes. Ii they
have been slow to come to the rescue OF the
South, they have been quick to surrender to
the North. If they have been fierce in their
dcnunc;ations of the champions of Southern
institutions, they have been the willing apollo
gists for Iorthern insolence. If they have
exhib .awoader'ui insincerity o. devotion to
thu cseof Southern rights, they have dis
p .Ga no less admirable nsincosity of OPP
Stion to Northern aggression. The senti-
.ent of the patriot stimulates their virtuous
adherence OF office seeking-the duty of the
citizen forbids them ever to refuse an office.
No one then can suppose that Mr.. Bell desir-
ed to be nominated for the Presidency by the
assembly which met in Baltimore, and, in
that city famous for monuments and COnven-
f tons. performed the melancholy task OF dis
nterring the skeleton of a deceased party
The history of Mr.. Bells life would suffice to
efface any such erroneous impression. Dur
ing political career of thirty-fve years, he
has challenged the pity Of .sympathizng
3 world by his frantic efforts to avoid Office
. 1t is, there GRE, by no means strange that he
should now be found engaged in desperate
struggle to escape the Presidency. In what
ever cloak disguised, in whatever cave con-
t cealed, he has been persued and captured by
t this remorseieSS monster. AS n jackson
e man, it overcamc him with seat in the House
0 of Representatives as National Bank man,
: it conquered him with the Speakership; as a
f Wing, it compelled him to surrender to the
e Senatorship it forced him TO capitulate TO
e the Senatorship again, even when he
0 sought refuge in the dark caverns of Know
e nothingsIn. 1t is now threatening him with
! the Presidency. Such is the sad fate of this
embodiment Of insolent diifidence and eleva-
: ted obScurlty.
e Such is the party and such is the candidate
S that seek to instruct us in the catechism Of
a the Union and the Constitution. Such is the
: party which would persuade us to make anoth.
: er and final compromise Of our rights
q t'cornproruise which would dcffSeF over &
i the mercy Of the North, and plunge us int
r the abysses of subserviency aud degradation
S Why, fellow Democrats, the history of tht
It country, from the foundation of the Govern
e ment down to the present time, has beef
/. nothing but a series of sacrifices which tn
b South has made upon the alter Of the Union
V In the very formation of the Constitution, W,
consented to exclude from the basis of repre-
c sentation two-iitths of our slave population
t By this COMPROMISED that can be called
compromise for which we receive nothing il
e return-we lose at this moment SeUenteel
: members Of the House of Representatives
S Next we consented to the abolition of tho
$ African slave trade-thc effect of which was
' to cut Off from the South the only source o.
f that labor which alone is suited to her climate
and her productions while the reservoirs Of
e Europe were left open to the North, from
9 which to draw those vast masses OF popula-
e ton which have built up her great cities, de-
yelope6 her agricultural and commercial re-
l sources, and conferred upon her that numer-
. ical superiority in this Union, through which
, she is now attempting to coerce and suhjugate
, the SOuth.
, These are some of the sacrifices made by
the South at the very foundation of the Gov
eminent. After that came the attempt to
consolidate the Government by means of
, great money institutions. and the conspiracy
through which the South, during long series
of years, under protective tariff system, was
plundered for the benefit of New England
manufacturing capitalists. When the Terri
tory Of Missouri Territory possessed Of
institutions assmuliating with our own-ask-
ed for admission into the Union, her prayer
was denied until law had been passed by
which the citizens Of the South, with their
peculiar property, were excluded from all the
Territory lying north of the line of SO de-
grees 80 minutes. To this compromise the
South submitted.
After the war with Mexico had increased
almost entirely by Southern valor the North
attempted to seize upon the whole, and to ap-
propriate it to her own purposes. She did
indeed lay violent hands on all territory lying
along the Pacific coast force California into
the Union with an anti-slavery Constitution,
and exclude the South from the Territory Of
Oregon.
To this compromise the South submitted
In return law was passed to enforce one of
the plainest stipulations Of the Federal Con
stitution-the rendition Of fugitive slaves
and this was called magnificent concession.
But even that law has been nullified through
out almost every Northern State, and, at this
moment, Southern man could not recover
his negro property in that section of the
Union without an army at his b7ck.
AS to the candidate of this Union saving
party-this candidate who boasts the breadth
/ OF his platform, and by the way it is broad
enough to hold every abolitionistS in the land
he was the first man to desert the South
on the question of the reception Of Abolition
petitions; he was believe the only Southern
man who admitted the power of Congress to
abolish slavery in the District Of Columbia
power which, in one of his speeches, he de-
clared ought to be exercised. He delighted
wrapped in his senatorial robes, and represen-
ting Southern State the home and the grave
of jackson and of Polk--to reecho the maud
lin sympathy of abolitionism for the well fed
negroes Of the South, and to shed over the
happy and contented slave, the tears which
the hypocrite shares with the crocodile. Next
we find him opposing the annexation Of Texas;