The Oxford intelligencer. (Oxford, Miss.) 1860-18??, 1860-12-12
The DO-NOthilgs.


THERE is a small remnant of Mississippians.
composed, chiefly, of men distinguished for q
blind devotion tothc Union whog in the pres
cnt crisis, are doing their utmost, by raising the
cry Of "co-operation !" TO ''chock thewhccls' Of
that great secession movement which is ANNA
ting the mass of the Southern people. We had,
few years since, "Know- Nothing" party in
the country. Wenowhaye, in the cooperation.
lists. of the day, a regular ado Nothing" party.
Not that they declare do-nothingism as their
policy. They are ''t6o smart for that Every
mon of them asseverates his belief that some
thing ought to be done, but we have not yet
heard of an instance in which any one of them
has been induced to commit. himself by defining
his position and declaring himself to be in favor
Of doing any specific thing. They seek, if pos
sible to draw you out, and learn what you think
ought to be DONE and when they learn that
if you are for doing anything Of positive char
acter-thcy are against that Thing, whether you
are disposed to do much or little In short, they
arc against everything, and in favor of nothing.
Their creed is wholly made up of negatons.-
They deny this however, and insist that they
are in favor of doing whatever may be agreed
on bya Convention of all the slavcholding
States. This looks, to the superficial observer,
like platform containing, at least one affrma
tive plank 1 but when we consider how unlikely
it is IN the first place, that all the slayehelding
States will send delegates to Southern Corrven-
ton, and how more than unlikely it is in the
next place, that the delegates, if convened,
would agree upon a common plan Of operations,
we can only regard the platform as an ingenious
sham, devised for the special purpose of securing
ado-nothing result
The policy OF the co-operationists Is expressly
prohibited by the Constitution, which provides
(Art l. Sec. 1O.) that mo State shall, without
the consent of Congress, . > . enter into
any agreement or compact with another State
We are complaining, at the present time, Of va
rious attractions of the Constitution on the part
of fhe Northern States; aud, so long as we are
members of the Union, 1t becomes us scrupu-
louslv to f,.lll all the obligations imposed upon
us by the cbm2act of union. We must secede
FIRST and cooperate afterwards /; and secession
in the very nature of things. must be theseps
rate act OF each seeding State The utmost
that can legitimateIy be done by any State prior
to her secession, is, informally TO ascertain,
through the agency of Commissioners, appoint
ed to confer with the authorities of other States
what are the purposes of the latter, in reference
to their future action. This is what Mississippi
proposes TO do. Those who demand that any
thing more shah be done, before we seeede, arc
cqntending, in effect that nothing shah ks done
They demand that all the Southern States shall
enter into compact Ridden by the COnstitu-
ton, believing, at the same time, that some one
or more Of the border States win refuse to be-
come parties 10 such compact. II all the South
ern States were agreed upon the policy Of Sc
cessiOn, we are afraid that these same s"Do-Noth-
ings" would insist upon eiA Concurrence Of
Massachusetts,; and if that State consented,
they would then como out, ''hatsfooted," for sub
mission. s#.-sf 49, .ls