The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-12-05
/" A. Daniel Come to Judgment

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The Vicksburg Whig, in the excess of it
. desire to conceal the enormity of Black Re
publican crimes against the Constitution ant
the principles of inter State comfy, and tt
convince the people of the South that they
live under Consolidated government o
unlimited power, and are, therefore, compelled
to obey the edicts Of sectional majority
however repugnant to their sense of law and
rghts-reads us quite a lecture in the Sil
Oracle style upon recent article which ap,
peared in these columns rsaz- es-s.s
The Mississippian assuming as fact with
which every schoolboy ten years old in the
South is acquainted, stated, without special
reference, that the States in ratifying the
Union formed under the Constitution, reserved
to themselves 4tie right of reserving their
powers, respectively, when they might deem
such action necessary to theirsecurity and
protection. Whereupon the Wing says:
In late issusof the Mississippan we find
an article headed The Right of Secession" ;"
in which, among other things, the editor says:
As separate States they joined the Confede-
doubly sure, in so many aoords Joined upon tie
condition of their right to a0ithdraso." The
intelligent editor of the Mississippian, we
presume, has no desire to violate the truth of
history, and yet he has done so fagrantly in
the paragraph we have quoted and especially
in the part we have italicized. We say at,
s0itto,a fear of contradiction, and it is indeed
,chat every attentive reader of history must
kraoao to be the truth. that not a single State
Joined the Union upon any such condition, and
indeed upon any condition Of any kind.
Here the issue is directly joined. We are
charitably told that the editor of the Missis-
sippian is "intelligent"-that she has no
desire to violate the truth of history"-and
that yet sintelligent' as he is, and eager as
he is not 10 violate the truth of history"
he has 'tAisstated a fact which is familiar
to the veriest tyro within the sphere of the
circulation of his journal
Now let US see who it is that violates the
truth of history ? The Whig says that I" not
single State" not only did not come into the
Union "upon the condition of its right to
withdraw" bat upon "any condition
tchateuer''
To this statement of the Wing we will
oppose the direct, unequivocal and unmistaka-
BILE language of the act of the Convention of
the State of Virginia ratifying the Federal
Constitution. As Mr.. Calhoun has remarked,
there was powerful; opposition to the adop-
ton Of the Constitution. 1t originated, he
said, in the apprehension that it would lead
to the consolidation of all power in the Gov
ernment of the U. S. To guard against the
possibility of such a construction of the
power of the Government of the Union,
Virginia incorporated in the act Of ratification
the following words @aa
"We, the delegates Of the people of Vir-
ginia, duly elected in pursuance of a recon-
mendation from the General Assembly, and
now met in Convention, having fully and
freely investigated and discussed the pro-
ceedings of the Federal Convention, and
being prepared as well as the most mature
deliberation hath enabled us to decide thereon,
do, in the name and in behalf of the people
of Virginia, DECLARE AND MAKE
KNOWN. THAT THE POWERS
GRANTED UNDER THE CONSTITU-
z
PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES,
MAY BE RESUMEHBY THEM, WHEN
SOEVER THE SAME SHALL BE PER-
VERIFIED TO THEIR INJURY OR
OPPRESSION /; and that every power not
granted thereby, REMAINS WITH THEM
AND AT THEIR WILL" &c.
Here is the recorded declaration of the
great Commonwealth of Virginia, that she
ratified the Constitution and joined the Union
upon the express condition that she would
reserve the powers delegated to the
federal head "whensoever the same shall be
perverted to her injury or oppression and
that every power not granted remains with
her and at her will. a
Other States Joined upon similar expressed
conditions-conditions which were clearly i'm
Piled, however, from the nature of the
compact. Upon these conditions Virginia
was admitted into the UEion thus making
her construction the true and authorized de-
fnition and exposition Of the powers of the
government and of the recognized rights of
the States, for we presume that even the
Whig will not assume that the States do not
stand on q footing OF perfect equality in the
Union and that Virginia enjoys the exclusive
privilege of resuming the powers delegated to
the federal head when perverted to her injury |
or oppression
A no less glaring and inexcusable error of
the Whig, upon another point, will receive
attention tomorrow.