The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-12-27

nave the power by Congress FtU promote the gene
! raj welfare of the United States :" bv apy means
they deem expedient, why should they not assai
ana overthrow the institution of slavery in the
oouth! Ihey are responsible for its continuance or
| eA'stence, In proportion to their power \ major
lty IN Congress, according to their interested and
| perverted views, Is omnipotent The inducements
10 act upon the ubject of slavery, under such cir
euuistahces' were so imperous as to amount almost
| to moral necessity
10 make, however, their numerical power avail
! able to rule the Union, the North must consolidate
their power. 1t would not be united on any matter
! common to the whole Union-in other words on
any constitutional subect-tOr such subjects di-
visions are as likely to exist in the North as in the
South Slavery strictly a sectional interest
II this could be made the criterion of parties the
North, the North could be united in its power, and
thus carry out Its measures of sectional ambition,
encroachment and aggrandisement. To build up
their sectional predomnance in the Union, the Con-
sntution must be first abolished by constructions
but that being dOne the consolidation of the North
TO rule the South, by the tariff and slavery issues
was IN the obvious course of things
The Constitution of the United States was an ex-
pertinent The experiment consisted in uniting un-
eer one government different peoples living in diff
ielehI cNmates, ana having different pursuits of in
dusTy and institutions. 1t matters not how care
1uy the limitations of such government be laid
down in the Consitution-its success must at least
depend upon the good faith of the parties to the
constitutional compact in enforcing them It is NOT
IN the power of human language to exclude false
ln'erences, constructions and perversions in any
constitution; and when vast sectional interests are
TO be subserved, involving the appropriation of
countless millions of money, it has not been the
usual experience Of mankind that words on parcb-
ment can arrest power. The Constitution of the
United States, irrespective of the interposion of
the states rested on the assumption that power
would yield to faith-that integrity would be stronr
er than INTEREST," and that thus the limitations of the
constitution would be observed. The experiment
has been fairly made
The Southern States, from the commencement or
the Government have strven to keep it within tbe
orbit prescribed by the Constitution The exneri
ment has failed. The whole Constitution, bv the
constructions of the Northern people has baan
swallowed up by few words in its preamble. In
their reckless lust for power, they seem unable to
comprehend that seeming paradox. that the more
power Is given to the General Government the
weaker 1t becomes. Its strength consists in its
generality and limitations To extend the scona of
Its power over sectional or local interests, is 10
raise up against 1t opposition and resistance In
all SUCH matters the General Government must me-
cessarlly be despotism, because all sectional or
local interests must ever be represented by mi.
nority IN the Councils of the General Government
having no power to protect itself against therule
OF the ma jOrity.
The majority, constituted from those who do NOT
represent these sectional or local interests will CON
trol and govern them. A free people cannot sub
NIT TO such in government. And the more it en-
larges the sphere of its power, the greater must he
the dissatisfaction it must produce and the weaker
IL must become On the contrary the more if ab
STAINS from usurped powers and the more faithfully
IL adheres to the limitations of the Constitution the
stronger it is made The Northern peopIe have had
neither the wisdom nor the faith to nercaiva tbot
TO observe the limitation of the Constitution ~ ba
only way to its perpetuty.
Under such government there must of coursa
be many and endless ''irrepressibIe conflicts" ba
tween the two great sections Of the Union The
same talthlessneSs which has abolished the Consti
tuition OF the United States will not fail tn c,rry
out the sectional purposes for which it has been
abolished. There must be conflict, and the weak
er section OF the Union can only find peace and lin
erty IN an independence of the North The reDeat-
ed efforts made by South Carolina, in a wise con-
serVausm, 10 arrest the progress of the general
government in its fatal progress to consolidation
have been unsupported and denounced as faitbIess |
to the obligations of the Constitution by the very
men and States who were destroying it by their
usurPaIlons. IL Is now too late to reform re-
store the government of the United States All
confidence in the North is lost in the South The
falthlessnesS OF half century has opened gulf of
separation between them, which promises or en-
gagements can fill.
1t cannot be believed that our ancestors vouId
have assented to any union whatever with the peo
pie OF the North if the feelings and opinions now
existing amongst them had existed when the Con- |
stitution was framed. There was then no tariff !
no negro tanatcism. 1t was the delegates from |
New England who proposed in the Convention |
which framed the Constitution, to the delegates !
from South Carolina and Georgia, that if they |
would agree to give Congress the power of reru- |
latng commerce By majority, that they would |
support the extension of the African slave trade for
twenty years. African slavery existed in all the |
States but one.
The idea, that they would be made to paw that
tribute to their Northern confederates, which tbev
had refused to pay to Great Britain; or that the |
institution of African slavery would be made the
grand basis OF sectional organization of the North
10 rule the SOUTH never crossed their lima tons
The union of the Constitution was union of slave
holding States. 1t rests slavery, by prescribing
representation in Congress- for three-hfths of our
slaves There is nothing in the proceedings of tho
Convention which framed hn IL,
that the Southern States would have formed anv |
other Union; and still less that they would have
formed Union with more powerful non-slave-
holding States, having a majority in both branches
OF the Legislature of the government
They were guilty of no such foIly Time and tbe
progress of things have to ally altered the relations
between the Northern and Southern States since
the Union was established. That identity of feel
ngs, interests and institutions which once existed
is gone. They are divided between apricultu-
raj and manufacturing and commercial States
between States holding and non-slayeholding |
States. Their institutions and industrial pursuits
have made them totally different peoples That |
equality in the government between the two sec |
tlons OF the Union which once existed no longer !
exists. We but initiate the policy of our fatbeI |
in dissolving union with non. n.saveholding con
tederates, and seeking confederation with slave
holding States.
Experience has proved that saveholdinr States
cannot be safe in subsection to non-slaveholding !
States. Indeed, no people ever expect to preserve
their rights and liberties unless they are in their
own custody. To plunder and oppress where plum
der and oppression can be practised with impunity
seems to be the natural order of things The airest
portions of the world have been turned into wilder
nesses, and the most civilized and prosperous com
munitieS have been impoverished and ruined bv |
antl-sIaVery ianatlclsm The people Of the North |
have not left in doubt as to their desiuns and
policy. United a section in the late Presidential
election, they have elected the exponent of their
policy one who has openly declared that all the
States of the United States must be made free
States slave States.
1t is true that amongst those who aided in his |
election, there are various shades of anti-savery
hostility. But if African slavery in the Southern |
States be the evil their political combinations affirm
it to be, the acquisitions of an inexorable logic
must lead them to emancipation. If it is right to
preclude or abolish slavery in a Territory whv |
should it be allowed to remain in the States? The |
one is not at all more unconstitutional than the |
other, according to the decisions of the Supreme |
Court of the United States And when it is con-
sdered that the Northern States will soon have the
power to make that Court what they please and |
that the Constitution never has been anv barrier !
whatever to their exercise of power, what check |
can there be in the unrestraned counsels of the
North to emancipation? There is sympathy in as
sociation, which carries men along without prin-
ciple but when there is principle, and that prip. |
ciple is fortified by long existing preiudices and |
feelings, association is omnpotent in party inhu-
ences.
In spite of all disclaimers and professions, there
can be but one end by the submission by the South
to the rule of a sectional anti-slavery government
at Washington; and that end, directly or indirectly
must be the emancipation of the slaves of the
South. The hypocrisy of thirty years-the faith
lessness of their whole course, from the commence
ment of our union with them-show that the people
of the non slaveholding North are not, and cannot
be safe associates of the slaveholdng South, under
common government. Not only their fanaticsm
but their erroneous views of the principles of free
governments, render it doubtful whether separated
from the South, they can maintain a free govern
ment amongst themselves. Brute numbers with
them is the great element of free government.
majority is infallible and omnipotent "The right
divine to rule in kings" is only transferred to their
majority. The very object of all constitutions, in
free popular governments, is to restrain the ma
jority.
Constitutions, therefore, according to their the
ory, must be most unrighteous Inventions restrict
ing liberty. None ought to exist, but the body
polite ought simply to have a political organiza-
tion, to bring out and enforce the will of a ma
Jority. The theory NAV be harmless in a small !
community baving an identity of interests and pur-
suits, but over vast State-still more over a vast
coniederacy, having various and conflicting inter
ests and purSuitsit is a remorseess despotism. In
resisting it, as applicable to ourselves, we are vim
dicating the great cause of free government, more
important perhaps to the world than the existence
of all the United States. Nor in resisting it. do we
tend to depart from the safe instrumentality the
system of government we have established with
them requires. In separating from them we in
wade no rights-no interest of theirs. We violate
no obligation or duty to them. As separate indie
pendent States in Convention, we made the Consti-
tuition OF the United States with them; and as sep
arate independent States, each State acting for
ITSELF we adopted it. South Carolina acting in