The southern aegis. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1857-1862, 1861-07-20
oNes ro THE last pENK WHEN THE NIGHT AND TEMpEsr CLOSE
VOL. VINO. %.

nov than then, to acquiesce in this general
surrender of all their rights and powers to
a consolidated government, one an individ-
ed? [Jef. Cor. Vol. 4, p. $40.
Here I would ask in the same spirit, if
single State would have ratified the Con-
stitution, had it contained provision aat-
thoriaing Congress to call forth the force
Of the Union to coerce q delinquent State 2
Yet this was proposed and discussed, and
found no advocate, but was promptly OPP
posed and dismissed mem. con.
Within less than year previous to Mr..
Jefferson's decease, he expressed the opin.
ion that, -" Take together the decisions
of the federal court, the doctrines of the
President This was in John O. Adams adj
ministration and the misconstructions of
the constitutional compact, acted on by the
Legislature of the federal branch, and tits
but too evident that the three ruling branch
es of that department are in combination
to strip their colleagues, the State authori-
ties, of the powers reserved by them, and
to excrise themselves all functions, foreign
anu uOulGSJlC.
"And what is our resource for the pre-
servaton of the constitution? Reason
and argument? You might as well reason
and argue with the marble columns encir-
cling them. The representatives chosen
by ourselves? They are joined in the
combination, some from incorrect vie,Us of
government, some from corrupt ones, suffi-
cient, voting together, to out number the
sound parts, and with majorities only Of one,
t., or three, bold enough to !. go forward
care we then TO STAND TO OUR ARMS?
* "That must be the last resort"
* We must have patience and
longer endurance then, with our brethren
while under delusion , give them time for
reflection and experience of consequences;
KEEP OURSELVES IN A SITUATION TO
PROFIT BY THE CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS,
and SEPARATE FROM OUR COMPANIONS
ONLY WHEN THE SOLE ALTERNATIVES
LEFT are the DISSOLUTION OF OUR UNION
WITH THEM, OR SUBMISSION ToA GOVERN
MENT WITHOUT LIMITATION of powers.
Between these two evils, WHEN WE
MUST MAKE A CHOICE, there can be NO
HESITATION. BUT IN THE MEAN
WHILE, THE STATES SHOULD BE WATCH
Full TO NOTE EVERY MATERIAL UsURPA-
TIoN ON THEIR RIGHTS; TO DENOUNCE
THEM AS THEY OCCUR IN THE MOST
PEREMPTORY TERMS; TO PRO-
TEST AGAINST THEM AS WRONGS TO
WHICH OUR PRESENT SUBMISSION SHALL
BE CONSIDERED, NOT AS ACKNOWLEDGE
MENTs OR PRESIDENTS OF RIGHT,
BUT AS A TEMPORARY YIELDING TO
THE LESSER EVIL, UNTIL THEIR ACCU-
MUTATION SHALL OVERWEIGHT THAT
OF SEPARATION" ..-
"Sucb was the parting counsel, of the
great author of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and founder of the civil revolu-
ton of 1901, to his much abused and much
injured Southern friends, uttered scarcely
six months prior to his decease. This was
about three years subsequent to the Mis-
souri, restriction, which he viewed as q
marked sectional division of parties, by a
distinct geographical line, and hence more
to be deprecated than any division of politi-
cal parties heretofore existing.
He had met that crisis with much alarm,
LIKE THE SOUND OF FIRE BELL IN
THE NIGHT IT HAD AWAKED AND FILLED
HIM WITH TERROR" He considered it
as the KNELL OF THE UNION" "HUsH-
ED indeed it was, for the moment, but 1t
acas REpRIEvE only not a final sentence"
He then said, II have been one of the
most sanguine in believing that oar Union
must be Of long duration. I nosc DOUBT
IT MUCH, and see the event [of a rupture
at ITO great distance, and the direct coase-
quence Of this question:" Hence the en-
/ phatic parting words to his Southern
friends that | have above quoted, induce
them to further patience and longor end,s-
rance; not however to pass innovations
and INSPIRATIONS in silence, but "to de-
noance them as they occar, antI their acca-
mutation shall OVERWEIGHT THAT OF SEP
ARATIoN."
This was tbirty-six years ago. Have
not his Southern friends respected and
followed his counsel? They have never
theless continued the old recourse to "rea-
son and aryamaent," but as he then predic-
ted, it has had precisely the same effect
on their willful antagonists of the North,
as upon the marble columns that surround
the Halls of Congress. Thus it was thir-
ty~six years ago, and if reason and argu-
ment were then exhausted, and patience
and endurance have continued until now,
in the name Of Heaven what is meant by