The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-09-19
From the Augusta Dispatch.
An Interesting Document.
MILLEDGEvnLR, GA, |
- On TQE1

pressing invitation to Barbecue, to given to
Col. Robert McNlillen, the Southern Rights can
didate for Congress in the Eighth District, on
the first Tuesday in September next But Off
cial engagements forbid me the pleasure of its
acceptance. Morgan Court will be in session
at that time.
Ny personal acquaintance with Col. McMillen
is limited, but know him by reputation as
gentleman of high moral worth, brilliant talents,
and sound republican principles. Such men
am pleased to honor, and sincerely trust the |
great cause whose banner he bears, by the uni
ted voice of the Southern Rights party of this
district may be triumphant
The contest in which the people Of Georgia,
in common with her sister slave-holdng States,
are engaged, is one of vital importance. 1t in
wolves the destiny of the South, and the fedora
tive character of our system Of government. 1t
is waged upon the right of State peaceably to
secede from the Union. The Gubernatorial can
ddate Of the Southern Rights party maintains
the affirmative, and the candidate Of the submis-
sion party The negative of this great question.
The one, that the right necessarily results from
the reserved sovereignty Of the States, and the
nature of the confederacy and the other, that it
exists only as a right Of revolution. The former
insists that the General Government has no right
to coerce a seeding State and the latter that
such seeding State must depend for the main
tenance of its position upon the stout hearts
and strong arms Of free people" The one I'M
hesitatngly and boldly avows that il Southern
State were to secede, he would not obey requi-
stion by the federal government made upon him
as the executive of Georgia, for troops to force
her back into the Union and the other declares
he ''would convene the Legislature Of the State,
and recommend them to call convention of the
people," to instruct him in an emergency in
which the impulses of true Southern hearts
should be a sufficient guide.
The great issue then, repeat, Is the right of
State to secede from the Union, and the cor
relative absence of any right on the part of the
federal government to force such State back
| into the Union. 1t cannot be evaded by the
senseless clamor, "Unionl" "Ths glorious
Union" The integrity of the Union is not as
sailed by theSouthern Rights party in Georgia.
tanning the rights resulting from the sovereignty
Of the States It's real enemies are those who,
from behind il, as 'masked battery" level their
destructive artillery against its strongest out
posts by counselling submission to aggression,
injustice and robbery, because, like "a wolf in
sleeps clothing" they come under the hypo-
critical garb Of compromise. Then let vigilant
people look well to the true and only issue in
voIved in the pending campaign-the right of
State peaceaby to secede from the Union
l would not, if time and space justified enter
into any argument in favor of the affirmative of
this ISSUE believe it is understood by the
people. 1t has been q cardinal tenet of the Re
publican creed from 179s down to the present
day, maintained by Jefferson and Madison and
Macon, Lowndes and Troup, and all the distin-
guishcd statesmen of that school, who properly
understand the theory of our government, and
whose hearts beat responsibility to the great
American sentiment, which is at once the parent
and the soul Of constitutional liberty. Argu-
ment is not needed to elucdate or enforce it. II
the people, shaking off the trammcls of party,
submissionists and selfish tradesmen in the
great mart of political bartering, will obey the
honest impulses of true Southern sentiment,
they will require no argument to array them on
the side Of truth, their hearth-stones and the
Constitution.
To dctract from the Importance of the issue in
public estimation, il is insisted that it is mere
abstraction"-that it will be enough for Georgia
to determine it whel she shall be called upon
TO exercise the right of secession. This is but
one of the hundred subterfuges of those who
man the masked battery" The issue is vital
1t has not been made by the State of Georgia
nor by the Southern States. 1t has been forced
upon us by Federal aggressions. 1t has been
distinctly rendered by high authority. 1t was
rendered by Henry Clay in his great speech upon
the compromise bills" lie said 'if resistance
is attempted by any State, or by the people Of
any State, he will lift his voice. his heart and his
arm in the support of the common authority of
this government" He has distinctly proclaim
ed the policy ofthe Cabinet to be coercion, if any
State should attempt secession. This issue,
then, is upon u.s. Shall we not meet it? Shall
we ingloriously shrink from its decision? 1t is
true that to past aggressiOns Georgia has deter
mined to offer no resistance. But the right to
resist, and to resistpeaccably, without the terror
of federal bayonets, she cannot yield and now
she is called upon to make the decision. Let
her meet it with frmness and unanimity.
Whoever observes the signs Of the times can
not fail to see that the right Of secession will
probably at no distant day assume the form and
magnitude of practical Importance The South
is in a permanent minority in our Federal Legs
lature. The tone Of Northern fanaticism abates
not in its frenzy and insolence 1t presses on
rapidly to the consummation of its diabolical de-
signs. And what check has the South upon its
progress Have we any under the established
rules Of parliamentary law? Can we expect any
justice at thu hands of the present Freeson Ex-
ecutive and his Cabineti Can we effect any
thing by argument and appeals to the reason of
our Northern oppressors? Can we obtain shell
ter under the broad shield Of the Constitution
mol All these are impotent as paekthread TO