The Oxford intelligencer. (Oxford, Miss.) 1860-18??, 1861-02-27

have taken the incipent steps for the consummaton
of the result And the rest Of the slayehoding
States are hanging by single thread to the Union
the slender thread of hope-that guarantees may be
devised which shall yet secure to them their rights
But even they proclaim, that without such guarantees
their wrongs ntolerable and they win longer
endure them. Can any man believe that the seees-
sion Of four sovereign States, under the most solemn
circumstances the determination of Others to follow
as soon as the constituted authorities can be called
together and the universal sentiment of ALL that the
Constitution of the United States has been virtually
repealed, and that every saveholding State has Just
ground for secession-can any believe that this
is Fictitious condition Of the public mind Of the
South, produced by brawlng politicians and disap-
pointed demagogues, and net the calm, deliberate,
profound utterance of people who feel in their in
most souls That they hive been deeply and hagA-tly
wrongcds The pre- umpdoa clearly is that there is
something in the attitude of the Government which
portends danger and demands resistance. There
must be cause for this intense and peryadng sense
of injustice and of injury.
1t has been suggested, by those who know little
of the people of the South as they do of the Con-
stitution of their country that all this fernent is
nothing but the result of mercenary spirit the
part Of the cotton-growing States fed by Utopan
dreams of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and wealth. to be realized
under the auspices Of free trade, in separate Con
federacy of their own. II has been gnyely insinua-
ted that they are willing sell their faith for gold
that they have only made pretext of recent events
to accomplish forcgone scheme of deliberate treach
A. III,
in anything these States have said or done for
this extraordinary slander, it is of course superiu
Gus 10 add The South has, indeed complained Of
the unequal administration of the Government. Her
best and purest statesmen have openly avowcd the
opinion, that in consequence of the partial lcgsla-
tion of Congress, she has borne burdens and expe-
rienced Inconvenience, which have retarded her
prosperity, while they have largely contributed TO de-
velop the of the North. But grievances Of
this kind, unless greatly exaggerated, never would
have led to dissolution of the Union. They would
have been resisted within it, or patiently borne until
they could be lawfully rcdrcssod So far from con
tending for arbitrary right to dissolve the Union,
the right to dissolve it merely technical grounds,
the South sets 50 high value good hth that she
would never have dissolved 1t for slight and Temporal
ny wrongs, even though they might involve such a
violation, on the part of her eonfederates, of the
terms of the compact us released her from any fur
ther obligation of honor II is therefore, preposter
Gus to say, that any dreams, however dazzling, Of
ambition aud avarce, could have induced her to dis
regard her solemn engagements to her sister States
while they were faithfully fulfilling the conditions of
the contract We know the people Of the South;
and we can confidently affirm, that If they had been
assured that all these golden visions could have been
completely realized by setting up for themselves
long as the Constitution of the United States eontn-
ued to be sincerely observed, they would have spin
ed the mptaton to purchase national greatness by
perldy. They would have preferred poverty, with
honor to the gain of the whole world by the loss of
their integrity
When it was perceived that the tendency Of events
was inevitably diving the South to disunon, a coud
ton from which she at first recoiled with horror then
she began east about for considerations TO reconcile
her to her destiny Then, for the first time, was 1t
maintained, that instead of being loser, she might
be gamer by the measure which the course Of the
Government forcing upon her. 1t was alleged
that good would spring from evil that the prospect
of independence was brighter and more cheering
than her present condton-that she had much to an
cipate, and little to dread, from the contemplated
change But these considerations were not invented
to justify seccssion-they only adduced as mo-
ves to reconcile the mind to its necessity. Apart
from that necessity, they would have had little
weight in determining public opinion, as the small
dust of the balance. We do not believe, when the
present controversy began, that the advocates Of
what is called disunion per Sc, men who preferred
Southern Confederacy upon the grounds of its ntrin
sic superiority the Constitutional Union of the
United States, could have mustered a corporal's
guard. The people of the South were loyal to the
country, and if the country had been true to them
they would have been as ready to-day to defend its
honor with their fortunes and their blood, when
they raised its triumphant flag upon tine walls Of
Mexico.
1t has also been asserted ground of dssatisfac-
tion with the present Government and of desire to
organize separate Government of their own, that
the cottongrowing States intent upon reopefng,
as a means of fulfilling their magnificent visions OF
wealth. the African slave-trade. The agitation OF
this subject at the South has been grievcusly msun-
derstood One extreme generates another. The
small party among ourselves, who we're determined
not to be oudone in extravaganza. They wished to
show that they could give a Rowland for an Oliver.
Had abolitionists never denounced the domestic
slave trade as plumber and robbery, not a whisper
would ever have been brathed about disturbing the
peace of Africa The who were loudest in their
denunciatiOns Of the Government had, with very few
exceptions no more desire the trade re-opened
than the rest of their countymen but they delighted
in teasing their enemies They took special satisfae
ton in providing hard nuts for abotionsts to crack
There we're others not at all in favor Of the trade
who looked upon the law unconstitutional which
declared it to be piracy. But the great mass of th'
Southern people were content with the law it stood
They and are opposed to the trade-not because
the traffic in slaves is immoFal-that not among
US believes-5ut because the traffic with Africa is
traffic in slaves. Ii is system Of Kidnapping ant
man-stealing which il abhorrent to the South
, is to the North; and We venture confidently to pre-
dict. that should southern COnfederacy be formed
+ the African slavetrade is much more likely to b
re-opened by the old Government than the new. Th
conscience Of the North viii be less tender when ]
has no Southern sins 70 bewail and idle ships vii