Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-05-08

! The climate and soil Of the Northern States soon
proved uRpropitious to the continuance Of slave Ia
bor whilst the waS the case at the South
Under the unrestricted free intercourse between the
two sections, the Nor hern States consulted their
own interest by selling their slaves to the South
and prohibiting sia' cry within their limits The
South were willinC, purchasers Of property suita
BILE to their wants. End paid the price of the acquls
ton without h' rboring suspicion that their quiet
possession as to be disturbed by those who were n
hblted no. only by want of constitutional author
ty, but ~ good faith vendors, from dsqueting
| title eD anating from themselves
As soon, however as the Northern States that
prohibited African slavery within their limits had
re- ched number sufficient to give their represen-
tation controlling voice in the Congress, persist
ent and organized system ofhostie measures against
the rights of the owners of slaves in the Southern
| States was inaugurated, and gradually extendeo-
| A continuous series of measures was devised ana
prosecuted for the purpose or rendering insecure
the tenure of property in slaves tanatlca organiZa-
lions were assiduousy engaged in exciting amongst
the slaves spirit Of discomfort and revolt; means
were furnished for their escape from their owners,
and agents secretly employed to entice them to a6-
scond; the constitutional provision for their rendl-
ton to their owners first evaded, then openly
denounced as a violation of conscientious obligation
| and religious duty; men were taught that 1t was
merit to elude, disobey, and violently oppose the
execution of the laws enacted to secure the perform
of the promise contained in the constitutional
! compact owners of slaves were mobbed and even
murdered in open day. solely for applying to mag
istrate for the arrest of fugitive slave the dogmas
of these voluntary organizations soon obtained con-
| troll of the legislatures Of many of the Northern
States and laws passed providing for the pun
ishment by runous fines and long continued imprl-
sonment in as and penitentares, of citizens Of the
Southern States who should dare to ask aid OF the
officers of the law for the recovery of their property
Emboldened by success the theatre of agitation and
aggression against the clearly expressed constitu-
tional rights of the Southern States was transferred
to the Congress; Senators and Representatives were
sent to the common councils of the nation, whose
chief title this distinction consisted in the display
| of spirit of ultra fanaticsm and whose business
was, not " to promote the general welfare or ensure
domestic tranquility" but to awaken the btterest
hatred against the citizens of sister States by violent
denunciaton of their institutions; the transaction
of public affairs mpeded by repeated efforts TO
usurp not delegated by the Constitution for
the purpose Of impairng the security of property in
slaves, and reducing those States which held slaves
to condition of inferiority. Finally, great party
organized for the purpose of obtaining the ad-
ministraton of the government, with the ayowed
object of using its power for the total exclusion Of
the slave States from all participation in the benefits
of the public domain acquired by all the States In
common, whether by conquest or purchase; of sur
rounding them entirely by States in which slavery
should be prohibited of thus rendering the proper
ty in slaves so insecure to be comparatively worth
less and thereby annihila:ing in effect property
worth thousands Of millions Of dollars. This party,
thus organized, succeeded in the month of Novem
Der last, in the election OF its candidate for the
Presidency of the United States
In the meantime, under the mild and genial eli |
mate of the Southern States and the increasing
and attention for the well being and comfort Of the
sboring class dictated alike by interest aud human
ty the African slaves had augmented in number !
from about 600 at the date OF the adoption of
the constitutional compac to upwards of 600 900.
In moral and social condition, they had been eleva
ted from brutal savageS into docile intelligent and
civilized agricultural aborers, and supplied not only
with bodily comforts but with careful religious in
struction. Under the supervision of superior race,
their labor had been directed as not only to allow
a gradual and marked amelioration Of their own
condition. but to convert hundreds of thousands of
square miles Of the wilderness into cultivated lands
covered with prosperous people; towns and cities
had sprung into existence, and had rapidly increased
in wealth and population under the social system of
the South; the white population of the Southern |
slaveholding States had augmented from about l.,
$50 900 at the date Of the adoption of the Consttu-
ton, to more than 100000 in 1860; and the pro-
auctions of the South in cotton rice sugar and to-
bacco, for the full development and continuance Of
which, the labor OF African slaves was, and is, in
dispensable, had swollen to an amount which formed
nearly three fourths of the exports Of the whole
! Uuitei States and had become absolutely neceS
sary to the wants of civilized man.
With interests of such overwhelming magnitude
mperilled, the people of the Southern States were
driven by the conduct of the North 20 adopt some
course of action to avert the danger with which
| they were openly menaced. With this view, the
Legislatures of the several States invited the people
to select delegates to Conventions to be held for the
purpose of determining for themselves what meas
ures were best adapted to meet so alarming crisis
in their history.
| Here it may be proper to observe that from
period early 1885, there had existed in all of
the States Of the Union party, almost uninterrup-
tedly in the majority, based upon the creed that
each State in the last resort, the sole judge
we'll of its wrongs, as of the mode and measure of
redress. Indeed it is obvious that under the law
Of nations this principle is axiom as applied to
the relations of Independent sovereign States such
as those which had united themselves under the
constitutional compact The Democratic party of
the United States, repeated in its successful can
! vass in 1856 the declaration made in numerous
previous political contests, that it would faithfully
abide by and uphold the principles laid down in the
Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1898 and in
the report of Mr.. Madison to the Virginia Legisla-
TUE in 1899; and that it adopts those principles
constituting one of the main foundations of its po-
! litical creed"
| The principles thus emphatically announced, en-
brace that to which | have already adverted, the
| right of each State to judge Of and redress the
| wrongs of which it complains These principles
were maintained by overwhelming maiorities of the
| people OF all the States of the Union at different
elections, especially in the elections of Mr. Jefferson
| in 1905, Mr. Madison in 1909, and Mr.. Pierce in
| 1852
In the exercise of right so ancient, so we'll cs-
tabshed and so necessary for sefpreservation, the
! people of the Confederate States in their Conven-
ton, determined that the wrongs which they had
suffered, and the evils with which they were men,
aced, required that they should revoke the deega-
| ton of powers to the Federal Government which
they had ratified in their several Conventions. They
consequently passed ordinances resumng all their
rights as sovereign and independent States and dis
solved their connection with the other States of the
| Union.
Having done this, they proceeded to form a new
compact amongst themselves, by articles of con-
federation, which have been also ratified by the
ventions of the several States with approach to