New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-02-11
Ue6 ORLEANS DaiIp Crtsfent,
THE LOUISIANA SENATORS

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NANcs sIfE IoR oF LoTisLNh III Ln5 y g5i
WITHDRAWAL IRON THE q. S. hEN1IE
The following remarks were made by our Sena
tors in the U. S. Senate, after the reading o.
Loulslana's Ordinance of Secession:
MIR. Siidell: Mr.. President, the document which
the Secretary has Just read and which places or
the files of the Senate official information thai
i1oulaiaha mas ceased to be component part Of
tne6e once United States terminates the connec
ton of my colleague and myself with this BODY
The occasion, however justilies if it does not call
1or some parting words to those whom we leave
behind some forever, others we trust to meet
again ana to participate with them in the noble
task OF constructing and defending a new conted
eracy; which, If 1t may want at first the grand
proportions and vast resources of the old, will still
possess the essential elements of greatness, peo
PIE bold, marcy, homogeneous in interests and sen
timents, fertile SOIL an extensive territory the
capacity and the will to govern themselves through
the forms and in the spirit of the Constitution under
Whlch they nave been born and educated. Besides
all these, they nave an advantage which no other
people seeking to change the Government under
which they had before lived have ever enjoyed
they have to pass through intervening period o.
anarchy; they have in their several State Govern
ments, already shaped TO their hands, everything
necessary for the preservation of order the admin.
lstratlon OF justice, and the protection of their soil
and their property from foreign or domestic VIC
lence. They can consult with calmness and act
e.
date interest or future policy
But If we 90 not greatly mistake the prevailing
sentiment OF the Southern mind, no attempt will
be made to improve the Constitution; we shall
take 1t such as it Isl such as has been found sniff
Gent for our security and happiness so long as its
true intent and spirit lived in the hearts of ma
Jorlty OF the people Of the free States, and con-
trolted the action not only of the Federal but of
the State Legislatures. We will adopt all laws not
locally inapplicable or incompatible with our new
relations; we will recognize the obligations of all
existing treaties-those respecting the African
slave trade included We shall be prepared to as
sumo our Just proportion of the natona! debt to
account for the cost of all the forts and other pro-
perty of the United States, which we have been
compelled to seize in seltdefense, if it should an.
pear that our share of snch expenditure has been
greater than in other sections and above ALL we
shall, as well from the dictates of natural Justice
and the principles of international law as of polit-
ical and geographical atIinties and of mutual pc
cuniary interests, recognize the right of the in
habitants of the valley of the Mississippi and its
tributaries to its free navigation; we will guaran
tee to them free Interchange Of all agricultural
productions without impost tax duty, or toll of
any kind; the free transit from foreign countries
OF every species of merchandise, subject only to
such regulations as may be absolutely necessary
for the protection of any revenue system we may
establish, and Tor purposes of police
AS for such States of the Union as NAV not
choose to unite their destinies with ours, we shall
consider them, as we shall all other foreign ma
wish and we hope to part with them amicably !:
aud, so far as depends on us, they shall have no
proVocaton to pursue hostile course but in this
regard we, from the necessities of the case can
only be passive; it will be for the people of the
non-slaveholding States to decide this momenteus
question. This declaration, however requires
some qualification. Could the issue be fairly pre-
scented to the people of those States. we should
have little doubt of peaceful separation with
the possibility of complete, and the probability
of partial, reconstruction On basis satisfactory
to US and honorable to them; but, with the pres
ent representations in either branch of Congress
we see nothing to justify our indulging any such
expectation. We must be prepared to resist CO.
erci0n, whether attempted by avowed enemies, or
by hand heretofore supposed friendly by open
war, or under the more insdious, and therefore
more dangerous preteXt, of enforcing the laws
protecting public property, or collecting the rev.
enue. We shall not cavil about words, or dscuss
legal and technical distinctions we shall consider
the one as equivalent to the other, and shall be
prepared to act accordingly. U1'oque arbity,io
Pdrati. You will find us ready to meet YOU with
the outstretched hand of fellowship Or in the mailed
panoply OF war as you may will it; elect between
these alternatives.
We have no idea that YOU will even attemnt IN
invade our soil with your armies but we acknowl
edge your superiority on the sea, at present in
some degree accidental but in the main natural
and permanent, until we shall have acquired better
ports for our marine. You may, if you will it.
persist in considering us bound to you during your
good pleasure; you may deny the sacred and indie.
feasible right we will not say of secession but of
revolutlon-ay, OF rebellion if you choose so to
call our acllun-the right of every people to es-
tabsh for itself that form of government which il
may, even in its folly, if such you deem it. consider
best calculate to secure its safety and promote its
welfare. You may ignore the principles of our
immortal Declaration Of Independence YOU NAV
attempt to reduce us to objection, or you NAV.
under color of enforcing your laws or collecting
your revenue, blockade our ports. This will be
war, and we shall meet it. with different but equal
Ivy off mt NTn
sumption or introduction of any of your manufact-
ures; every sea will swarm with our volunteer
militia of the ocean, with the striped bunting
floating over their heads, for we do not mean to
give up that flag without bloody struggle il il
ours as much as yours; and although for time
more stars may shine on your banner our children
if not we, will rally under constellation more
and more respondent than yours. You
may smile at this as an mpoent boast at least for
the present, if not for the future but if we need
ships and men for privatceriDg, we shall be amply
supplied from the same sources as now almost eS
elusively furnish the means for carrying on, with
such uneXampled vigor, the African slaye.trade-
New York and New England. Your mercantile
marine must either sail under foreign flags or rot
at your wharves.
But, preermitting these remedies, we will PASS 10
another equally etieacious. Every civilized nation
now is governed in its foreign relations by the rule
OF recognizing governments de tdctO. You alone
invoke the doctrine of the de i1ue or divine right
OF lording it over an unwilling people strong
enough 10 MAINTAIN tnelt power within their own
limits. How long, think you, will the great naval
powers OF Europe permit you to impede their free
intercourse with their best customers for their yar
Gus iabrics and to stop the supplies of the great
staple which is the most important basis of their
industry, by mere paper block
ade? You were, with all the wealth and resources
of this great Contederacy, buta fourth or fifth
rate naval power, with capacities, it is true for
large and ia just quarrel, almost indefinite ex-
pansi0n. What will you be when not merely emas-
nOIntp1 Withlra of
warred upon by them with active and inveterate
hostility?
But enough perhaps somewhat too much of this.
We desire not to speak to you i'll terms of bravado
Or menace. Let US treat each other as men. who
determined to break off unpleasant, incompatible,
and Improbable relations, cease to handy words
md mutually leave each other to determine whe
her their differences shall be decided by blows or
by the code which some of us still recognize as
hat of honor. We shall do with you as the French
guards did with the English at the battle of Fonte
10Y. In preliminary skirmish, the French and
English guards met face to face; the English guards
'onrteously saued their adYersaries by taking off
heir hats the French returned the salute with
equal courtesy. Lord Hay, of the English guards, |
cried out. in loud voice: " Gentlemen Of the
French guards, fire. Count DAuteroche renlied |
n the same tone: "Gentlemen. we never fire first "
The English took them at their word, and did fire
irst. Being at close quarters, the effect was verv
destructive, and the French WERE for a time
brown into some Disorder but the fortunes of the
lay were soon restored by the skill and courage of
iarshal SAKE, and the English under the Duke of
suffered one of the most disastrous |
lefeats which their military annals record. Gen |