The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1860-10-05
Correspondence Between James L.
Orr and Amos Kendall.

Among the important epistles now sub
mitted TO the people is the correspon-
dence between Colonel Orr, of South Car
olina, and Amos Kendall. Mr.. Orr wrote
to Mr.. Kendall requesting his sentiments
on the "issnes' and topics now agtating
the public mind. Mr.. Kendall replied,
but failed to satisfy Mr.. Orr, who writes q
second letter, in which he says:
"Tregret to learn by 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 n Black-Republi-
can 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 impair
! ed by the recent conduct of some Of her
sons"
Mr.. Orr solicits an exposition of this
"ready relief" and says:
| as it wise, If we do not mean 10 submit
to such consequences, to allow a Black
Republican President to be inauguratcd,
and put him in possession of the army,
the navy, the treasury, the armories and
the arscnals, the public property-in fact,
the whole machinery of the Government,
with its appendicitis and appurtenances
| If the South should think upon this sub
,cct as ! do, no Black Republican Presi-
dent would ever execute any law within
her borders, unless at the point Of the
bayonet, and over the dead bodies of her
slain sons.
81 have profound and abiding affec.
| ton for the Union of our fathers, and
deeply deplore the existence Of the caves
which are rapidly tending to its destruc-
ton. During the whole of my Congress
ional career, | sought to tranquilize sec
tional strife When | first entered the
House, the Abolition party, headed by
Gddings and Wilmot, numbered eight;
ten years have rolled away and now the
party is a majority of the whole House.
Is it not time that the South should begin
to look to her safety and independence
Mr.. Orr, it is hardly necessary to say, is
n distinguished South Carolinian, and has
been Speaker of the House of Represen-
tatives. Mr.. Kendall was Postmaster
General under jackson. He is man of
rare sagacity, of unwavcring Democratic
faith, Southerner by birth, jealousy OPP
posed to abolition in any form, and ever
a trusted friend and honored counselor of
the President, under whom he took office
We subjoin extracts from Mr.. kendall's
letter, and commend them to our rca.
ders.
Quoting from Mr.. Orr, portion of the
words we have cited above, Mr.. Kendall
says:
II shudder at such sentiments coming
| from one whose sincerity can not doubt.
| The time was when 100000 men rendered
their services to the President to aid him
if necessary in executing the laws of the
United States; the time will be when 200,-
OOO will volunteer for like purpose,
should resistance be made to his lcgiti-
mate authority, no matter by what party
he may be elected.
There seems to me TO be in the course
recommended to the South, in the event
of Mr.. Lincoln's election to the Presiden-
cy, n iutuity little short of madness
Would you pull down the canopy of heav-
en- because wrong and crime exist beneath
it? Would you break up the earth on
which we tread because earthquakes
sometimes heave it and pcstilence walks
its surface? This Union, sir, is too pre-
cous to the people it protects, North and
South East and West, to be broken up,
even should Black-Republican be elect
ed President next November. Should the
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.
81 admit that the grievances which you
enumerate are hard to be borne; but a few
Southern men are not without response
bility for their existence. The general
sentiment of the country, North and
South, at the close of the Revolutionary
War. was anti-slavery. 1t has changed in
the South, bat remains unchanged in the
North.
"You have long had in the South q
small party of able men whose ann has
been to destroy the Union; that, as pre-.
liminary 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 obnoxious to the gen
eral sentiment of the North; that they
have dragged after them the true Union
men of the South, partly through their
fears of being considered laggard in their
devotion to Southern interests, and partly
through ambition for political distinction;
to make the Democratic party as odious
as possible at the North they became the
advocates of slavery on principle, justified
the African slave-trade, and denounced
the laws prohibiting it.
sin your published letter you Justly
condemn the seceders from the Charles
ton Convention, who, you think, ought to
have remained and prevented the nomi,
nation 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 has riven asunder the
Democratic party, and apparently threat
ems 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.
Nov, take it upon me to say that a
more latitudinarian and dangerous claim
| OF power in Congress never was advanced
by Fedcralists of the Hamilton school,
The assumption that they can lcgislate
for the protection of slave property leads
logically and inevitably to the conclusion
that they have power to legislate for the
Territories in all cases, whatsoever. If
you can put your finger on the grant of
this power in the Constitution, please put
it also on its limitations, if any can be
found. Upon this principle Congress may
acquire an empire outside of the organized
States, over which it may exercise unlim
tied power, governing MS the Roman Sem
ate did their conquered provinces.
"liow do you propose to prevent the in
auguration of Black-Republican Presi-
dent, should such an one be unfortunate
ly elected? Will you come to this city
with an armed force, and attempt to pre-
vent an Inauguration by violence2 In that
event force would be met by force, and
there would be instant civil war, in which
the country and the world would declare
the South to be the aggressor.