New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-05-03

Rentation a controlling vote in the Congress,
persistent and organized System Of hostile measures
aesnst the rights ii the owners of slaves in the
sa9ashgrn States was inaugurated and gradually
extended. Al series OF measures was devised ant
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 entice them to abscond.
The constitutional provision for their rendition
to their owners was first evaded, then openly dc
nounced as violation of conscientious obligation
ndregious duty Men were taught that it was 8
merit to elude, disobey and violently oppose the
execution of the laws enacted to secure the per
formance Of the promise contained in the consttu
tional compact. Often owners of slaves were
| mobbed and even murdered in open day, solely
for applying to magistrate for the arrest Of 8
fugitive slave. ws....
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
impris onment in jas and penitentiaries, of citi
zens Of the Southern States, who should dare ask
aid of the officers of the law for the recovery Of
their property. Embodened by success. the
theater OF agitation and aggression against tie
clearly expressed constitutional rights of the Con
gress, Senators and Representatives we're sent to
the common councils Of the nation whose CHIEF
title to this distinction insisted in the display of 8
spirit of ultra fanaticism, and whose business was
not to promote the general welfare, or ensure do
nestle tranquility, but to awaken the bitteres
hatred against the citizens of sister States by yo
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 impairing the
security OF property in slaves, and reducing those
States which hold slaves to condition of inferi
GRITTY
Finally, great party was organized for the pur
of obtaining the administration Of the Gov
eminent, with the avowed object of using Its power
for the total exclusion Of the slave States from al
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 o.
milliona of dollars.
This party, thus organized succeeded, in the
month of November last, in the election of it,
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 fol
the webeing and comfort of the laboring classes
dictated alike by interests and humanity, the Afri
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 beer
elevated from brutal savages into docile, intelli
gent and civilized agricultural laborers, and sup
pleu uOt ouiy Will Douiy coHtOTlS, DuG WIN 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 landa covered with a prosper
Gus people. Towns and cities had sprung into ex
istence, aud 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 $50 600 a
the date of the adoption of the Constitution tt
more than s,t00,00p in 1860, and the productions
of the South in cotton rice, sugar and tobacco fol
the full development and continuance of which thu
labor Of African slaves was and is INDISPENSABLE
had swollen to an amount which formed nearl,
three-fourths of the exports of the whole United
States, aud had become absolutely necessary t
the wants of civilized man.
With interests of such overwhelming magni
tude the people of the Southern States wert
driven by the conduct of the North to the adoption
of some course of action to avoid the DANCE
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 IL
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 uninter
rnptedy in the majority based upon the creed tha
each State was in the last resort, the sole Judge
as well of its wrongs as Of the mode and measure
law of nations, this principle is an axiom a
applied TO the relations of independent sovereign
| States, such as those which had united themselve
under the Constitutional compact.
The Democratic party of the United State
| repeated, in its successful canvass ia 1886, tht
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
ginia Legislatures in l799 and that it adopted those
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 the
wrongs Of which it complains. Their principles
were maintained by overwhelming majorites o.
the people of all the States of the Union at diff
ferent elections, especially in the election of Mr.
Jefferson in 1905, Mr.. Madison in 1909 and Mr.
Pierce in 1862.
In the exercise of right so ancient so well es
tablished, aud SO necessary for selt-preserv ton
the people of the Confederate States, in their Con
Rentions. determined that the wrongs which they
had suffered and the evils with which they were
menaced, required that they should revoke the del
egation of powers to the Federal Government
which they had ratified in their several Conven
lions. They consequently passed ordinances re.
sHming all their rights sovereign and ndepend
ent States and dissolved their connection with the
other States of the'Union. Having done this they
proceeded to form new compact amongst them
selves. by new articles of Confederation, which
have been also ratified by Conventions of The sew
ceeding that of the Conventions which adopted the
Constitution of 1887. They have organized their
new Governmental all its departments The func.
tons of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial
Magistrates are performed in accordance with the
will of the people, as displayed not merely in a
cheerful acquiescence, but in the enthusiastic sup
port of the Government thus established by them
selves, and but for the interference of the Govern
ment of the United States in this legitimate exer.
else of a people to self-government, has been man
ifested in every possible form.
Scarce had you assembled in February last,
prior even to the inauguration of the Chief
Magistrate you had elected, when you expressed
your desire for the appointment of Commissioners
and for the settlement of all questions of disagree
ment between the two Governments upon prin-
ciples of right, justice, equity and good faith.
1t was my pleasure as well as my duty to cooper
ate with you in this work of peace Indeed in my
address to you on taking the oath of Office and be-
fore receiving from you the communication Of this
resolution, had said that as necessity, not as
choice, we have resorted to the remedy of sepa-
rating, and henceforth our energies must be di-
rected to the conducting of our own affairs, and
the perpeuty of the Confederacy which we have
formed. IT just perception of mutual interest
shall permit us to peaceaby pursue our separate
political career, my most earnest desire will then
have been fulfilled.
1t was in furtheranee of these accordant views
OF the Congress and the Executive that made
choice of three discreet, able and distinguished
citizens, who repaired to Washington. Aided by
their cordial cooperation and that of the Secretary
Of State, every effort Compatible with selrespect.
and the dignity of the Confederacy was exhausted
before allowed myself to yield to the conviction
that the Government of the United States was de-
termned TO attempt the conuuest of this pennIa