New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-05-01

~ uuH iDe pr0teCH0n or tne J0YSPnINenE.5 me
climate and soil of the Northern States soon proved
unpropitious to the continuance of slave labor,
while the reverse being the case at the South,
made unrestricted free intercourse between the
two sections uDfriendly.
The Northern States consulted their own in
terests by selling their slaves to the Soath, and
prohibiting slavery between their limits. The
South were willing purchasers of property suitable
TO their wants and paid the price Of the acquisition
without harborng suspicion that their quiet
possession was to be disturbed by those who were
not only in want of constitutional authority but by
good faith as vendors prevented from disquieting
Title emanatlng from themselves.
AS soon, however, as the Northern States that
prohibited African slavery within their limits had
reached number sufficient to give their repre-
sentation controlling vote in the Congress- q
persistent and organized system of hostile measures
against the rights of the owners of slaves in the
Southern States was inaugurated and gradually
extended. series of measures was devised and
prosecuted for the purpose of rendering insecure
the tenure OF property in slaves.
Fanatical organizations, supplied with money by
voluntary subscriptions, were assidously engaged
in exciting among the slaves spirit of discomfort
and revolt Means were furnished for their escape
from their owners, and agents secretly employed
to ence them to abscond. ...
The constitutional provision for their rendition
to their owners was first eyaded then openly de-
nounced as violation of conscientious obligation
and religious duty. Men were taught that it was
merit to elude, dsobey and violently oppose the
execution of the laws enacted to secure the per-
formance of the promise contained in the constitu-
tional compact. Often owners of slaves were
mobbed and even murdered in open day, solely
for applying to magistrate for the arrest of
fugitive slave.
The dogmas of the voluntary organizations soon
obtained control of the Legislatures of many of the
Northern States, and laws were passed for the
punishment by ruinous fines and long continued
imprk onment in jails and penitentiaries, of cit
zens of the Southern States who should dare ask
aid Of the officers of the law for the recovery of
bv
theater Of agitation and aggression against the
clearly expressed constitutional rights of the Con-
gress, Senators and Representatives were sent to
the common councils of the nation whose chief
title to this distinction insisted in the display of
spirit of ultra anaticism, and whose business was
| not to promote the general welfare, or ensure do
mestc tranquility, but to awaken the bitterest
hatred against the citizens of sister States by vio
| lent denunciation of their institutions.
The transaction Of public affairs was impeded by
| repeated efforts to usurp powers not delegated by
the Constitution for the purpose OF mpalrng, the
security of property in slaves, and reducing those
States which hold slaves to condition OF interi-
| ority.
Finally, great party was organized for the pur-
| pose OF obtaining the administration of the Gov
ernment with the avowed object Of using its power
for the total exclusion of the slave States from all
| participation in the benefits of the public domain
acquired by all the States in common. whether by
| conquest or purchase sur rounding them entirely
| by States in which slavery should be prohibited,
thus rendering the property in slaves SO insecure
| as to be comparatively worthless, and thereby an
Initiating in effect property worth thousands OF
| millions of dollars.
This party, thus organized succeeded, in the
month of November last, in the election of its
candidate for the Presidency of the United States
In the meantime, under the mild and genial climate
of the Southern States and the increasing care for
the well being and comfort of the laboring classes
dictated alike by interests and humanity, the Afr
| can slaves had augmented in number from abou,
six hundred thousand at the date of the adoption
of the Constitutional compact to upwards of foul
millions.
| In moral and social condition they had been
| elevated from brutal savages into docile, intel
gent and civilized agricultural laborers, and sup
piled not only with bodily comforts, but with care
full religious instruction under the supervision of
| superior race. Their labor had been SO directed
as not only to allow gradual and marked amelio
| ration of their own condition, but to convert hun
dreds Of thousands Of square miles Of the wilder
| ness into cultivated lands covered with O prosper
Gus people. Towns and cities had sprung into ex
istence, and rapidly increased in wealth ant
population under the social system of the South.
The white population of the Southern slave-hold
ing States had augmented from about 600 a
the date of the adoption of the Constitution t.
more than 100000 in 1860, and the production
of the South III cotton rice, sugar and tobacco, TO
| the full development and continuance of which tn
| labor of African slaves was and is indispensable
had swollen to an amount which formed nearly
three-fOurtbs of the exports of the whole United
| States, and had become absolutely necessary tC
| the wants Of civilized man.
| With interests of such overwhelming magni
tude the people of the Southern States were
driven by the conduct of the North to the adoption
| of some course of action to avoid the danger
| with which they were openly menaced. With th
view the Legislatures of the several States invited
the people to select delegates to Conventions tt
be held for the purpose of determining for them
selves what measures were best to be adopted tt
meet so alarming crisis in their history.
Here it may be proper to observe that from
period as early as 1898 there had existed in all o
the States of the Union party almost unnter
ruptedly in the majority based upon the creed tina
each State was in the last resort, the sole Judge
as we'll of its wrongs as of the mode and measur,
of redress. Indeed it is obvious that, under thu
law of nations. this principle is an axiom a
applied to the relations of Independent sovereign
States, such as those which had united themselye
under the Constitutional compact.
The Democratic party of the United State
repeated, in its successful canvass in 1886, th
deduction made in numerous previous political con
tests, that it would faithfully abide by and uphold
the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Vir
gina Legislatures in l799, and that it adopted thos
principles as constituted one of the main founda
tons of its political creed.
, | The principles thus emphatically announced EN-
brace that to which [ have already alluded
the right of each State to judge of and redress tn
wrongs of which it complains. Their principle
were maintained by overwhelming majorites G
the people of all the States of the Union at dill
ferent elections, especially in the election of MI
Jefferson in 1905, Mr. Madison in 1909 and MI
| Pierce IN 1907.
In the exercise of right so ancient, so well es
tablshed, and so necessary for self-preservatioI
the people of the Confederate States in their Con
ventions, determined that the wrongs which the
: had suffered and the evils with which they wer
menaced, required that they should revoke the de
, egation of powers to the Federal GOvernmer
which they had ratified in their several Conver
. tons. They consequently passed ordinances II
suming all their rights as sovereign and indepent
ent States, and dissolved their connection with th
+lNn Of t,p 1TFnD lANlTr do N
proceeded to form new compact amongst chem
: selves, by new articles of Confederation whc
t have been also ratified by Conventions of the SCI
eral States with an approach to unanimity far e.
ceeding that of the Conventions which adopted til
n Constitution of 1887. They have organized the
y new Goyernmentn all its departments. The fun
r tions of the Executive, Legislative and Judlci
G Magistrates are performed in accordance with th
!, will of the people, as displayed not merely in
j. cheerful acGuiescence, but in the enthusiastic SUI
Il port of the Government thus established by then
e Selves and but for the interference OF the Cover
ment of the United States in this legitimate exc
+ else of people to self government has been ma
e iested in every possible form.
II Scarce had you assembled in February las
81 prior even to the Inauguration of the Chi
IS Magistrate you had elected, when you expresst
your desire for the appointment of Commissioner
u and for the settlement of all questions of disagree
Is ment between the two Governments upon prl
9 ciples of right, justice, equity and good faith.
w It was my pleasure as well as my duty to c6Epe
a ate with you in this work of peace. Indeed, IN
!, address to you on taking the oath of office, aad
1f fore receiving from you the communication OF u
20 resolution had said that, as necessity, bot as