Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1861-01-18

oOutneTn people from OaliIOrnla, whose mineral
wealth. fertility of SOIL and salubriy Of climate,
is not surpassed on earth; by prematurely fore.
ing her into the Union uuder Constitution,
conceived in fraud by a set Of adventures, in
the total absence Of any law authorizing the
formation of a Constitution, fixing the qualiRca-
ton Of voters, regulating the time, place. or
manner Of electing delegates, the time or place
Of the meeting Of such Convention. Yet all
these irregular and Unauthorized proceedings
were sanctiiei by the fact that the Constitution
prohibited slavery, and forever closed the doors
of that rich aud desirable territory against the
Southern people. And while the Southern mind
was still burning under humiiating sense Of
this wrong, it refused to admit Kansas into the
Union upon Constitution, framed by authority
of Congress, and by delegates elected in confor-
nifty to law, upon the ground that slavery was
recognized and protected.
1t claims the constitutional right TO abolish
slavery in the District of Columbia; the forts,
arsenals, dockyards and other places ceded to
the United States, within the limits of slaveho!d-
ing States.
1t proposes q prohibition of the slave trade
between the States, thereby crowding the slaves
together and preventing their exit South, until
they become improbable to an extent that will
force the owner finally to abandon them in self
defence.
1t has, by the deliberate Legislative enact
ment of large majority of the Northern States,
openly and fagrantly nullifed that clause of
The Constitution which provides that
y"No person held to service labor in one
State.' under the laws thereof, escaping into
another shall in consequence of any law or reg
ulatiou therein, be discharged from such service
or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of
the party to whom such service or labor may be
duen
This provision of the Constitution has been
tspurned and trampled under foot by these
a Ls.wl.n, Ia Il
for good, since all attempts to enforce the Fugi
tive Slave Law under it, made felony in
some of these States, high misdemeanor in
others, and punishable in all by heavy fine and
imprisonment. The distempered public opinion
OF these localities having risen above the Consti-
tuition and all other law, planting itself upon
the auarchical doctrines of the "higher law, 4"
with impunity defes the Government tramI les
citizen.
! II has, through the Governor OF Ohio, as
openly null6ed that part of the Constitution,
which provides that
! "a person charged in any State with treason,
felony or other crime, who shall flee from justice,
and be found in another State, shall, on demand
of the executive authority of the State from
which he fed, be delivered ur, to be removed to
the State having jurisdiction of the crime
In discharge of official duty, had occasion
within the past year, to demand Of the Governor
of Ohio, I" n person charged in the State (of Ten
nessee) with the crime" of slave stealing, who
had fled from justice and was found in the State
of Ohio The Governor refused 10 issue his war
rant for the arrest and delivery of the fugitive,
and in answer to letter of inquiry which ad-
dressed him, said: "The crime of negro stealing
not being known TO either the common law or the
criminal code of Ohio, it is not of that class of
crime contemplated by the Federal Constitution,
for the commission of which am authorized, as
the executive of Ohio, to surrender fugitive
! from the justice of a sister State, and hence
declined TO issue warrant" &c. thus delibe-
rately multiplying and setting at defiance the
clause of the Constitution above quoted rs well
as the act Of Congress of February 18th, 1898,
and grossly violating the ordinary comfy exist
ing between separate and Independent nations,
much less the comfy which should exist between
sister States of the same great Confederacy, the
correspondence connected with which is herewith
transmitted.
1t has through the executive authority of other
States, denied extradition of murderers and ma
rauders.
i 1t obtained its own compromise in the Cbnsti-
tuition to continue the importation of slaves, and
now sets up a law, higher than the Constitution,
to destroy this property imported and sold to us
by their fathers.
| 1t has caused the murder of owners in pursuit
of their fugitive slaves and shielded the muir
derers from punishment.
IL has, upon many occasions, sent its emissas
ries into the Southern States to currupt our
slaves, induce them to run off, or excite them to
IinsurrectiOn.
1t has run off slave property by means Of the
" underground railroad" amounting in value to
millions Of dollars, and thus made the tenure by
which slaves held 10 the border States so pre-
cariOus as to materially impair their value.
1t has by its John Brown and Montgomery
raids, invaded sovereign States and murdered
peaceable citizens
1t has justified and "exalted to the highest
hOnors of admiration, the horrid murders, ar
sons, and rapine of the John Brown raid, and
has canonized the felOns as saints and martys.
q, 1t has, through certain leaders, proclaimed tC
the slaves the terrible motto. "Alarm'to th'
sleep, hle to the dwellings poison to the food anC
water of slaveholders.'
a, IL has repudiated and denounced the decision
of the Supreme Court.
4 1t hasassailed our rights as guaranteed by th
plainest provisions of the Constitution, from th
floor of each house of Congress- the pulpit, tn
hustings, Nhe school room, their State Legisla
lures, and through the public press, dividing an'
dsruptiDg churches, political parties, and civi
governments.
IL has, in the person of the President elect
asserted the equality of the black with the whit
race.
, These are s'me of the wrongs against which W
, have demonstrated for more than a quarter Of
Il rehlufy, hoping, but III valhi LOT ulelr feufess
until some Of our sister States, in utter despai
of obtaining justice at tire hands of these lawles
eonlederaies have resolved to sever the tie
: which have bound them together, and mantaiI
: those rights out of the Union, which have bee
!. the object OF constant attack aud encroachmen
:, within il.
4 No one will assert that the Southern States o
people have, at any time, failed to- perform, full
, nd in good faith all of the duties which the Con
: stituton devolyes upon them
r Nor will il be pretended that they have, at an
q lime, encroacheA or attempted aggression upo
u the rights OF "a Northern sister State. The Gov
e ernment was tbr many years under the control Q
d southern statesmen, but in originating and per
fecling meas Ares of policy, be il said TO the pei
\, petual honGf of the South, she has never attempt
ed to encrohch upon a single constitutional rigf
I, of the North. The journals of Congress will nc
y show even the introduction Of single propositio