Daily national Democrat., 1861-02-05
The Gauntlet Thrown Down.

january. ne CoulleAceu oy declaring tnal
the Union was dissolved, and that those who
had appealed to the Constitution and to
justice" until they were no longer listened to-
were now prepared for the arbitrament of
the sword" Now, sir" said he, 'you may
see the glitter of the bayonet and hear the
tramp of armed men, from your capital to
the Rio Grande" Here is war talk for you,
but it is not hotter or palmer than some that
follows He says again;
"My own position, and my own demands,
as | will now give them, are considered the
demands OF an extreme person, and what you
who talk of Constitutional right consider
l treason. believe that is the term. | be-
lieve for all the acts which the Republican
party call treason and rebellion, there stands
before them as good a traitor and as good a
rebel as ever descended from revolutionary
loins What does this rebel demand That
these States have equal rights to go into the
common territories and remain there with
their property and be protected by the Cow
ernment till such territories shall become
States. We have fought for this territory
when blood was its price We have paid for
it when money was the price. | demand
only that l have leave to go into these terri
tories upon terms of equality with you, as
equal in this great confederacy, and enjoy
my own property receiving the protection of
n common Government until they shall come
into the Union as a Sovereign State and
choose their own institutions. | demand
second, that property in slaves be entitled to
the same protection from Government as all
other property, and that the Government
shall never interfere with the right of any
State to abolish or protect slavery in its own
limits. We demand that common Govern
ment shall use its power to protect our prop
erty as well as yours. We pay as much as
you do. Our property is subject to taxation.
We claim that that Government which re-
cognizes our property for taxation should
give 1t the same protection 1t does to your
property. Shall it not do it? You say, No.
You in the Senate say, No; you in the House
say, No; and throughout the whole length
and breadth of your conspiracy against the
Constitution there is one shout of No 1t is
the price of my allegiance Withhold it, and
you don't get my obedience. There is the
philosophy of the armed men that have
sprung up in this country, and | had rather
see the population of my own, my native
land beneath the sod, than that they should
support, for one hour such a Government |
Protection is the price of obedience every
where, in all countries. 1t is the only thing
that makes Government respectable. Deny
it, and you cannot have free subjects for cit |
izens. You may have slaves | demand |
third that persons committing crimes against
slave property in one State shall be delivered |
up by another State to which they may have
fled That is another of the demands of an
extremist and REBEL
But the argument of Mr. Toombs in defense
of the disunion movement, does rot differ
from any heretofore offered, and it is there
fore unnecessary to follow him through itI
He is for what the secessionists demand--it |
they can't get that, he asks that they be al
lowed to 60 out in peace-and if this is re-
fused, they will take war, trusting "to the
sword and the God of battles for security, |
tranquility and peace"
But Toombs is not whit behind the other
leaders of his party in this respective mean
that party which urges immediate and un-
conditional secession. They have triumphed
thus far, in South Carolina, Alabama, Missis-
sippi and Florida, while in these States the
party known as the Co-operationists have
yielded to them on the ground that the mi
nority of State should yield to the majority
The plan of the operationists to defeat the
disunionion movement, was, 10 have a con-
vention Of all the disahfected States, and in
fact all the Southern States, called for delibe-
ration, as in that event the convention would
have greater weight upon the rest of the
Union, and the States not favoring immediate
secession would overmatch in the number of
their delegates, those demanding immediate
and unconditional secession.
1t would appear that the position assumed
by the disunionists is such that they cannot
now recede. Toombs aud Wigfall are their
spokesmen, and have laid down the law. We
must have, they say, the demanded compro-
mise, peaceabe secession or war;
GARDNER, the Bristol (England) iailor, has
devised an improvement of the treadmill.-
The prisoners, at every step they take, call
up to view letter or word, and are thus
taught the alphabet and reading while they
are at work. "By degrees" says cotempo-
rary, they become able to read chapter in
the Bible"
That is what we would call threading" a
knowledge of the Bible into mans soul; a
barbarous custom long practiced by the Hot
tentots and Mohammedans to instil their reli
gion into the minds of those who had the in
dependence to think for themselves.
PACIFIC REruBnc-The following para