Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-01-11
"The master mind of the so called Republican

Federal Government, and assigns as reason the
friendship of that party for what he denomlnaes the
slave system. He declares the Union between the
States having slave and free labor, to be incompat
BILE, and announces that one or the other must dis
APPEAR He even asserts that it was the pupose OF
the trainers of the Government to destroy staue pro-
erty and cites as evidence of it the provision for an
amendment to the Constitution. He seeks to alarm
his auditors by assuring them of the purpose on the
part of the South and the Democratic party to force
slavery upon all the States OF the Union. Absurd
as all this may seem to you, and incredulous as you
may be of its acceptance by any intelligent portion
of the citizens of the United States have reason to
believe that it has been nculcated to no small ex
tent in the Northern mind
1t requires but a cursory examination OF the Con-
stitution of the United States but partial knowl-
edge of its history, and of the motives of the men
who formed it. to how utterly faacious it is to
ascribe to them the purpose of interfering with the
domestic institutions of any of the States; dut y q
disrespect for that Instrument tanatical disregard
Of its purposes should ecer induee q majority, how-
erer large to seek by amending the Constitution to
perrert it. from its original object and to deprire
you Of the equality achich your fathers bequeathed
to you Isay let tile star Of Mississippi be sn"tched
from the constellation To shine By its inherent light,
If 1t must he So through all the storms unit clouds
Of acar."
An imperfect abstract of the speech, sent North
ward by telegraph, misrepresented the Senator from
Mississippi in many particulars, but chiefly in max
ing him advise Mississippi to go out of the Union,
if the Democratic candidate for President was de-
feated in 1860 What he did say on the occasion
has been printed under his own revision, and we
take therefrom the extract we have quoted 1t is
plainly stated that " he who may read, and
understand under what juncture of affairs General
Davis would advise Mississippi to such protection
elsewhere than in violated Union.
nccnII ,xyth die
tnguished soldier and statesman of the South, have
been, in one form another foreshadowed on re-
cent occasions by other public men in the same por
ton of the Republic. 1t has not in every instance,
been done with equal precsion-and clearness 1t is
to be understood, however that when Southern
men are compelled to speak Of secession, they have
reference to the contingency of President elected
and controlled by a party inspired by the desire,
the purpose and the will to bring about condition
of things described by.Seward and proclaimed by
HIM as "A GREAT TRUTH" In that sense, we
read the resolution just unanimously adopted, among
other resolutions, by the Governor and Council of
the conservative State of North-Carolina:
"Resolred That the Union of the States can only
be pcrpetuated so long it continues to be Union
of equals We are still devoted to it. and would
behold its dissolution with profound regret; yet, if
zoe cannot ho!d our slce property, and at the same
time enjoy reposs andaranqulity in the Union, zee
posterity, to establish nem forms md to profile mew
guards tor oar o,on security and meH being; rely
Ing for success in doing the righteousness of
our cause, and on the support of that Providence
who signay guided and succored our ancestors
in times O.. danger"
What were the circumstances under which Gov
ernor Seward announced the brutal and bloody " IT.
repressible conflict" dogma? What light do sub
Sequent events pour upon the motives with which
hp wrnt l ucpd he left
of Colonel Forbes, published Immediately after the
John Brown raid, are still fresh in the public mind
1t is not forgotten that in the one written to Dr.
Howe, under date Of May 6, 1858, Colonel Forbes
says
ION Saturday list of May) had an Interview
with Senator VIM. H. Seward, of New York, hav-
ing been introduced to him through letter of a
leading Abotionist, DIR. Bailey, OF the Fra ment
.rulty into the whole atter in oU its behring's He
expressed regret that he had been told, and said
that he in his position, ought not to have been il
formed of the consequences. In part agree with
him, and in part differ
Nobody doubts that the phrase. the whole mat
ter" refers to John Browns concocted plan for ef
fecting the abolition Of slavery. Brown and Forbes
conspring together for the same end, but they
differed in the details of their plots Brown insist
ing upon an actual armed invasion, and raising the
standard of instruction upon slaveholdng soil, and
Forbes preferring the safer mode of running off
slaves in large numbers and all along the border
of the slave States. They finally agreed upon a
linked plan" in which the Forbes element greatly
predominated land while both these men were to
be enlisted as practical agents, the whole affair was
to be under the supervision of a committee. All
this was agreed upon, according to Col. Forbes, in
the Spring or early summer of lS57,-over two
years ago. In February, 1858, Forbes visited
Washington for the double purpose of getting his
own pay and OF breaking up the project which
Brown and he had agreed to carry into effect Ac-
cording to his letters, he revealed this plot to
eral prominent gentlemen in Washington, among
whom were the late DR.. Bailey, and Senator Sum
ner, Seward and Hale and pressed upon them the
extreme Importance Of stopping Brown in his cru
| SADIE He was engaged in this work up to May,
| 1853 ,-the date of his latest letter to Dr. Howe
The Journalg Commerce in New York has stat
cd that it had learned from Forbess som lps v
| that he told Governor Seward ILL., The New York
Times, in subsequent article in Governor Stewards
behalf not denying that Seward die hear ALL insists
that he told Forbes the thing must stop.
| This much then is clear. Governor Seward in
May, 1858, knows of this contemplated crime Of
John Brown against the peace and sovereign life o.
| Virginia
| We repeat that to denounce Southern members o.
Congress for~expressions thrown oft in the heat
of debate, is to take superficial view of our pre-
sent troubles What do the Southern pcopl.
think? What do their newspapers say? DO the
members of Congress express what is so thought OF
said? If they do who shall complain? If they dc
not then their constituents will speedily say so
and settle the account with them, without our in
reference.
We are asked why we do not utter words of de
nunciation against the men of the South, who thus
avow purpose, under such certain and expressed
contingencies, to go out of the Union. We answer
that if we were Southern in our associations as W.
are Northern; if we loved Mississippi as we love
Massachusetts,; if our family, our children, ou
hopes our everything were all there as they are al
here; if we believed that any political party wer
in possession of the Federal Government to do wha
it may well enough be supposed in the South tina
Republicans would do in relation to slave institu
tons, which is to destroy slave property, and if al
we had for oursef or our children bound up il
those institutions, then would We do and say wha
we have quoted Jefferson Davis as doing and saying
1t is said that, during the present session of Con
gress, the Southern men do all the talking, Will
Il u IL r.