The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1860-11-15

IL ACC2dNLL a. go
secession" says a telegram from Wash
ington to the Charleston Courier. South
Carolina does not nulify, she only secedes
by the resignation of the Federal officers
in her courts and ports and thus Blu
chanan avoids the performance of his
constitutional duty.
We are not sure that a State has the
right to seccde, and it certainly looks rea-
sonable that having become a joint part
ner in a perpetual partnership, it is de
pendent on the will of tie majority Of the
partners. Viewing the matter in this
light, the President as the executive
agent of the whole is bound TO resist the
ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the firm, using the
means provided by his sovereign employ
ees to suppress INSTRUMENTATION IN mem
berships. Notification is virtually Sc
cessIon, and rice rerSa-for it IS ilnpossi-
Bile to practice either one except as a de-
pending contingency of the other
Therefore, to resist the one is to prevent
the other as a result.
But the question here arises What is
the character of the prcvocation of South
Carolina for secession? Has tie Union
violated any of her State rights? Ger
tainly not. What, then, IS the provoca-
ton? Why, a majority have exercised
their constitutional right Of choosing an
administrator of the laws, which choice
is adverse to the will of the minority
South Carolina ~rcsists the Constitution,
and the imperative duty of President IS
emphatic and prompt action to bring her
into subjcction-peaccably if he can, for
if he must.
We have been talking of secession only
as a contingent-it has not yet culmi-
mated, nor will it. The conservative in
terestS Of the South are too powerful and
dependent on the Union to submit to
a hasty precipitation into so dircful q d.
lemma,-and what is more, they comprise
the real strength and war-making means
of the South. Even already this conser-
vatire clement is ~denouncing the scccs-
sion movement in unmeasured terms in
business correspondence, and pro-
nouncing its leaders to be selfish and am
bilious disturbers of the public welfare.
There will be few weeks of fermentation
among the disunion orators, when the
bile will have disgorged, and the conser
yatiye feeling will prevail, and all will 60
on in harmony.
--Gcorgia and ALBANIA are also Sight
ly afflicted with the disunion mania, but
it is not so y~irulent as in South Carolina
it is more conservative in lis tone, though
more revolutionary in its development,
and confined to the few of Yancey's stripe.
Gov. Brown of Georgia, unlike Gov. Gist
Of South Carolina, does not recommend q
Southern Convention, but, in his special
message on the subject, advises a system
of reprisals upon the manufactures of un
friendly Northern States. Weextract from
an abstract Of his message:
Gle recommends the enactment Of laws
authorizing the seizirg of such amount Of.
money or property of any citizen CT such Of
Tending and faithleSs State for indcmnifying
the losses of the citizens of Georgia. lie re.
commends legislation to drive the manufac-
tured articles Of such offending States from
Georgia. lie says Georgia has the right as
soou as Northern goods are brought into
Georgia, to tax them as she deems proper
He advises the passage of a law taxing goods
and merchandise twenty-five per centum, in
troduced after the first Of January, if manu-
featured in or brought from Massachusetts.
|ermont, Michigan, Maine, Rhode Island,
~New-York, Wisconsin, or other unfriendIv
States, and Che tax to be RENTED when the
unfriendly legislation is repealed. Should
such legislation prove Intellectual he recon-
mends the repeal of all parts of the penal and
civil code, protecting the lives, liberties, and
properties of the citizens of the States where
such unfriendiy laws exist. He says, in my
opinion the time for bold and decided action
has arrived and he is unworthy the confidence
of the people of Georgia, who refuses to vim.
dictate her honor at any cost, and maintain
her Constitutions rights at every hazard
He believes the legislation recommended will
tend to strengthen rather than weaken the
ties of the Union Of the States. 1t will destroy
sectional controversy, and narrow down the
issue to a contest between individual States.
He says, if the Legislature fails to enact laws,
he recommends that the people should rise in
their might and at the sallot-box demand
their enactment. The Governor entertains no
doubt of the right of each State to Gecide and
to act for herself, so long us all the States
abide in good faith by the constitutional OBJ