Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1860-03-02
.ausc was to be slave State, a cause for

lisunion."
Surely no one c1n mistake the position
of the senator. If the people of the free
States, who believe slavery to be what Hen
ry Clay said it was, "a curse" "a wrong
II griryous wrong" that mo contingency
could make it right" should refuse to ac-
quire territory "because it was to be slave
territory he would make that refusal
"cause for disunion." The Senator has
laid upon our desks an address, delivered
in the capitol of the State he so ably and
faithfully represents and in this address ]
find this declaration
"The election of Mr.. Seward, or any
other man of his party, is not, per Sc, justi-
fable grounds for dissolving the Union.
But the act of putting the government in
the hands of men who mean TO use it for
our subjugation, ought TO be resisted, even
TO the disruption of every tie that binds us
to the Union"
On the 9th of July, the Senator from
Mississippi, (Mr. Davis,) whose ability and
large and varied information are acknowl-
edged by the Senate and the country, de-
livered an elaborate address to the People
of his State. by common consent, the
country recognizes the Senator from Mis-
sissppi as one of the foremost leaders OF
his section and of his party, and his opin-
ions command attention and consideration.
In this address the honorable Senator says
"For myself, say, as said on former
occasion, in the contingency Of the election
Of President on the platform of Mr.. Sew
ards Rochester speech, let the Union be
dissolved. Let the great but not the great
est of evils, come"
On the l1th of November, 1858, after
his return from visit of several months
to New England, the Senator addressed
the people Of his State at jackson. In this
address, the Senator is reported to have
said, "if the Republicans should elect a
President, the question would be presented
what should the South do? For his part,
he had but one answer to gre. When that
happened, when the government was in
hostile hands, when the presidency and
houses of legislation were controlled by the
enemies of the South, he ,oas for asserting
the independence Of Mississippi; /; he cas for
immediate witkdra,oal from the Union.
And in view of the aspect of public affairs,
the honorable Senator advised the people
of the South TO turn their old muskets into
MIME rifles, prepare powder, shot, shell,
ammunition of all kinds, and Notifications,
so as to be ready against any emergency"
The Senator from Alabama (Mr. Clay
early addressed the Senate upon the reso-
luton introduced by the Senator from Vir-
ginia (Mr. Mason), and in this speech,
prepared with the elaborate care that Sen
ator is accustomed to bestow upon the sub
iects he discusses here, the Senator assumes.
in effect, the position that it is impossible
for the people of the South TO live under a
Government administered by the Repub-
lican party. He asks:
''Do you suppose that we intend 10 bow
our necks to the yoke; that we intend to
submit to the domination of our enemies
that we intend TO sit here in your presence
as hostages for the good behavior of our
conquered people--a people who viii be
under your administration, not as sover-
eigns to rule but as subjects to be govern
ed?
In response, the Senator says:
II make no predictions, no promise from
my State but, in conclusion, will only say,
that if she is faithful TO the pledges she has
made and principles she has professed !; il
she is true to her own interest and her own
honor if she is not recreant to all that
State pride, integrity, and duty demand,
she will never submit to your authority.
/ will add that unless she, and all the south
ern States of the Union, with, perhaps but
two, or at most, three exceptions, are not
faithess to the pledges they have given,
they will never submit to the government
of President protesting your political
faith and elected by your sectional major
ity."
When the Senator from Alabama took
his seat, the Senator from California (Mr.
Gwyn) rose, and declared that he consid-
cred at as the inevitable result, that the
South should prepare for resistance IN the
event Of the election OF Republican Pres
ident" The Senator went on TO argue that
the South must, could, and would, dissolve
the Union, if the Republican party succeed
in the coming election. That the Senator
went on to show how the South could carry
out the scheme Of disunion how she could
seize the public property within her limits;
that, by doing so before the Government
passed into the control of such an Admins
tration, it could put it out of the power Of
the Administration to administer the Gov
ernment in that portion of the country. And
he declared that "it is impossible for Re-
publican President to administer this Gov
ernment over the slaveholding States Of the
Confederacy and that ''the election of a
Republican President is the inevitable de-
struciion of this Confederacy,"
The Senator frcm North Carolina (Mr.
Clingman) assures us that in the South
eThere are hundreds Of disu1ionists now