Arkansas true Democrat., 1861-01-19
Letter from Gen. Yell.
Pine Bluf, Jan. 9th, 1s61

"' .1D. ion' ne Arkansas State Ga zette oi this date, makes the following re. marks on the speech made by me. nj the State house, on last Monday night:
 on Monday night, Gen. Yell delivered !, s,eoc,, at ,he ota'e-house, in which he declared for ont ana ou. secession, without any regard to co.opera. tlVe aet,on among the southern States His sneecb was wen rec''ved oy the secessonists present.n
 Fms Is all that the editor says of the speech Very fortunately for me. men of the iirst standing from every part of the State heard that speech, and are no doubt much surprised at such a statement.- Knowing the editor as do, I did not ex- Pect nun to say any thing favorable of my speech. But had reasons to suppose that no man in his right mind, would have made sucn statement, when there were so many 'h'sl l5ent men present who could bear wit ness to all that was said l have not time now to write out all that was said by me on that occasion. But as have now before me, the head notes from which l snoko I snail give the substance of what said un- ter the two heads. secession and conven. tion: All that was said by me about se- cessloh anu convention, was said under ehese two heads. Those remarks are the oh'y ones now Tn controversy It will be iecoilected by all present that I spoke first l of parties and the crises secondly of self-de- ffenre, 'rneh tof law. Showing aiI act that did not carry with it the force of it's f'nai execution was worse thaa no law at all For those only who were disposed to obey simple command were trammeled with It, while the worst portion of com munlty who were restrained only by the lear of It's execution, finding it could not be executed would not obey it, and that this pnnclple applied to governments as well as to laws. VI
 then spoke of national governments, the United States government, and of mutual eompacts, concluding these heads by show. lhS that the compact made and enter ed into Tor the mutual benefit of all, had been broken by ten of the northern States, and that the federal government by permitting thls outrage upon southern rights to be committed, and quietly submitting to the same, had thereby ac9uiesced in it, becoming parttceps crine'nis to this fragrant outrage on the institutions of the South, and the com pact broken as to all the States. That great i government of which we were all once so fond, did not now exist except in name and form. The public sentiment and acouies- cence of the people, the vital force of the government had been withdrawn. A few old patriots fingered about the capital, striving against probabilities, and hoping agalnst all hope that the great temple of liberty might again be reconstructed.
 As to >ecession, 1 stated in substance. that the United States government had Annade tayall the States acting as States, and when 1t was ratified, it was done by the people acting through the States; that no one would question that the States were independent sovervignties at the time they entered into the compact. If so, they could not part with sovereignty without an express grant to that effect No presump. tlon could arise as to q State surrendering her sovereignty. Then from this it ap 1 pears that the States made mutual com pact Tn making the federal government, in which they were all mutually interestcd- 1t was for the mutual protection and benefit of all-hence there was no provision made tor the Unlt9d States government to inter- iere between States or to aid in eoercing seeding States.
 The federal government had all those powers given to it by the States, which 4were deemed necessary for the protection of the rights of all And in making the constitution which was the power of attor. ney under which the federal government was to act, one interest of the South was deemed paramount to all others; and it is evident to all, that if the fugitive slave clause hal not been lnseHel ill the consti- tutlon, 1t never would have bean made or ratified. The fugitive slave clause in the constitution was deemel of so much imDor- t'nce to the South, as to become the kew stone ot Inc arch, npon which the whole Superstrnetnre was erected Then if this clause "t the constitution has been violated and all the constitutional laws made under It have been made null and void by ten of the northern States by State action. and the federal government by non-action has aeqmesced for four years, the government has thereby become part cps crineinis in the illegal and unconstitutional acts of the North. and is thereby precluded from set ting up the plea of secession against any southern State. After the federal govern ment has permitted our rights to be flag. rantly outraged for years-rights secured under one of the plainest enactments in the constitution--and been forced to bow to public opinion in the North. it would be nonsense now to stop to argue the right of secession. The only question now is aCtion.
 The excuse that the personal liberty bills were considered void acts, only shows that the whole government may be paralyzed. ant our rights rendered insecure even by unconstitutional acts of the North. For they are as fatal to our rights as if no fugi tive slave act had been passed. It only shows the greater necessity for State action in self defence. If the federal government was made for the mutual protection of the interests of all, and she has not been able to protect our most vital interests, our in. terest m the government has ceased. Our interest m the government having ceased. this State with all others in like condition. occupies an independent position. If wr were to continue with the federal govern ment we should by consent or acquiescencc do so hy sovereign enactment.
 then compared the condition of tbe country now with the condition and causes oi dispute as to secession during the admin istration of Gen. Jackson. showing that the condition of the United States now was very different from what it was then, and that the issue then was not to be com pared to the issues and questions now be- fore the country. and that Gen. Jackson dld not contend in his day, that State should not resist if her ~irhts had been palpably 4ll fagrantly ,utraged. The day has never been in this country when any intellectual patriot of the land would contend that one half of the States were bound to submit to policy set up by the ether, that had for it's object the overthrow of the soeial order. and best internstr ai