The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-10-05

Correspondence Between James L. Orr
and Amos Kendall.

Among the important epistles now SUBJ
mitted to the people is the correspondence
between Colonel Orr, of South Carolina,
and Amos Kendall. Mr.. Orr wrote to Mr..
Kendall requesting his sentiments on the
issues" and topics now agitating the pub
lie mind. Mr.. Kendall replied, but failed
to satisfy Mr.. Orr, who writes second
letter, in which he says:
Il regret to learn from your letter, that
you dissent from my recommendation that
the honor and safety of the South require
its prompt secession from the Union, in the
event of the election of a Black Republican
to the Presidency. You say your mind is
equally clear that the South has long had
peaceful remedy within her own reach, and
has it still, though impaired by the recent
conduct of some of her sons"
Mr.. Orr solicits an exposition of this
"ready relief" and says:
els it wise, if we do not intend to sub
init to such consequences, to allow Black
Republican President to be inaugurated,
and put him in possession of the army, the
navy, the treasury, the armories and the ar.
senals, the public property-in fact, the
whole machinery of the government, with
its appendicitis and appurtenances If the
South should think upon this subject as 1
do, no Black Republican President would
ever execute any law within her borders,
unless at the point Of the bayonet, and over
the dead bodies of her slain soDs.
I" l have profound and abiding affection
for the Union OF our fathers, and deeply de-
plOre the existence of the causes which are
rapidly tending to its destruction. During
the whole of my Congressional career, l
sought to tranquilize sectional strife. When
l first entered the House, the abolition par
ty, headed by Giddings and Wilmot, num~
bered eight ; ten years have rolled away,
and now the party is majority of the
House. Is it not time that the South
should begin to look to her safety and inde-
pendence ?"
Mr.. Orr, it is hardly necessary to say, is
a distinguished South Carolinian, and has
been Speaker of the House of Representa-
tives. Mr.. Kendall was Postmaster Gen.
eral under jackson. He is a man of rare
sagacity, of unwavering Democratic faith,
Southerner by birth, zealously opposed
to abolition in any form, and ever trusted
friend and honOred counselor of the Presi-
dent, under whom be took Office. We SUBJ
join extracts from Mr.. Kendall's letter, and
commend them to our readers.
Quoting from Mr.. Orr, a portion of the
words we have cited above, Mr.. Kendall
says:
81 shudder at such sentiments coming
from one whose sincerity cannot douot.
The time was when 100000 men rendered
their services to the President of the United
States; the time will be when 100000 will
volunteer for like purpose, should resis
lance be made to his legitimate authority,
no matter by what party be may be elected.
"There seems to me to be in the course
recommended to the South, in the event of
Mr.. Lncon's election to the Presidency, a
futurity little short of madness. Would
you pull down the canopy of heaven, be-
cause wrong and crime exist beneath it =?
Would you break up the earth on which we
tread because earthquakes sometimes heave
it., and pestilence walks its surface? This
Union, sir, is too precious to the people it
protects, north and south, east and west, to
be broken up, even should Black Repub-
lican be elected President next November.
Should an attempt be made, an united
North and three-fourths of divided South
would spring to the rescue. No. no, the
remedy for the evils of which you justly
complain, are to be found within the Union
and not among its bloody ruins
Il admit that the grievances which you
enumerate are hard TO be borne but few
southern men are not without responsibility
for their existence. The general sentiment
of the country, north and south, at the close
of the Revolutionary war, was antislavery.
1t has changed in the South. but remains
unchanged in the North.
"You have long had in the South small
party of able men whose aim has been to de.
stroy the Union; that, as preliminary to
their main design, they have sought to break
up the Democratic party; that their means
for accomplishing this end were to act with
it, and force upon it every possible issue OBJ
nOxous to the general sentiment of the
North; that they have dragged after them
the true Union men of the South, partly
through their fears of being considered lag
gard in their devotion to southern in terests,
and partly through ambition for political
distinction; to make the Democratic party
as odious as possible at the north they be-
came the advocates of slavery on principle,
justified the African slave trade, and de-
bounced the laws prohibiting it. ~
"Jn your published letter you justly con-
denim the seceders from the Charleston Con:
vention, who, you think, ought to have re-
manned and prevented the nomination of a
candidate who is obnoxious to the South.
Do you not perceive, sir, that the secession
was part of the programme for breaking
up the Democratic party?
"What is this principle, the non-recog-
milton OF which las riven asunder the DEM
ocratic party, and apparently threatens the
dissolution of the Union? 1t is that it is
the right and duty of Congress to legislate
for the protection of slave property in the
Territories. .cq aas
"Now, l take it upon me to say that
more latitudinarian and dangerous claim of
power 10 Congress never was advanced by
Federalists OF the Hamilton school. The
assumption that they can legislate for the
protection OF slave property leads logically
and inevitably to the conclusion that they
have power to legislate for the Territories