The hydraulic press., 1861-06-22
State Secession Convention.


at Sacramento on the 1lth inst, so far as
they were of interest, have been perused by
most of our readers. In some respects, it
was the most remarkable assemblage that
ever convened in this country. 1t enacted
proceedings which put those of the celebrat-
ed Hartford Convention to shame. Treason
was not only recognized, but openly sympa-
thised with, and resistance to the Constitu-
ton and laws applauded as an act of merit
on the part of those who are in armed rebel
lion to destroy both.
With not more than a half dozen excep-
tions, the Convention was composed of
Southern men by birth, most of whom are
professional office-seekers, aud many of them
at this time actual office-holders. Their
a street recognition, With spice of peculiar
affection thrown in on election and conven-
ton days. These men-or rather, these
adventurers-have had control of public
affairs in California ever since the adoption
of it's Constitution. Now, when power
is passing from their hands, never to return,
they grow desperate in their wrath, and seek
to overthrow the Government, since they are
forbidden to control it.
Heretofore it has been too common with
politicians to practice dissimulation in their
dealings with the voters. They have usual
ly adopted long rigmaroles of meaningless
resolutions, which they denominated "plat-
FORM" susceptible of almost any interpreta-
tion that "a good democrat" chose to put
upon it-always having direct reference to
the success of the party. But in this in
stance there were no disguiSes. On the
contrary, the best and plainest of Saxon was
used to embody the sentiments entertained
by the Convention. 1t proclaimed at once
its secession character by voting down
series of Union resolutions, and adopting
others which boldly sympathise with the
cause of the Southern Confederacy. If the
Union cannot be preserved under "Constitu-
tional guarantees" says the Convention,
"then it was in favor of the recognition of
the independence of the Confederate States,
and treaty of amity and peace between
them and the United States Government, as
the only alternative which will terminate the
horrors of civil war;" etc.
Unconstitutional guarantees" in this case,
to be robbed and insulted without resistance
or retaliation; that it shall suffer rebel
flag to wave from the dome of the National
capitol, where for eighty-four years the stars
and stripes have held an honorable and ex-
alted position. 1t means that treason shall
be sanctioned by organic enactment, and
1t means, III fine, anything that will excuse
and encourage the yllainous attempt now
being made to disrupt and dismember this
glorious Republic.
The resolutions of the Convention accuse
the President of violating the Constitution,
and of a usurpation of power sin borrowing
and appropriating money, raising armies and
increasing the navy without the authority of
| Congress" They also denounce the Morrill,
| Tariff, and recommend the democratic"
doctrine of resort to free trade.
What will strike the reader as a most sim
| gular feature of these resolutions is, that
| emanating from men who have for years
been paupers upon the bounty of the Gov
ernment, the batteries of their malice and
dislike are all aimed against it. The Gov
ernment, in their view, has been wrong in
everything-the Southern Confederacy in
nothing. No word is uttered in depreciation
or reprobation of its acts. The capture of
Fort Sumter is never once alluded to; the
enrolment of hundred thousand troops to
assail and possess the capital, was fact ap-
parently unascertained by the Convention.
1t had no knowledge of traitor named
Davis being clothed with executive authori-
ty and presiding over government erected
within the prescribed limits of the Govern
ment of the United States, in defiance of that
Constitution for which it professed SO much
hypocritical veneration. These were things
| which the Convention did not desire to know,
more than the man hopes to see ghost who
shuts his eyes while passing through grave
yard.
Treason has no justification and we'll this
| Convention knew it, Thus wise discretion
was exhibited in abstaining from any sickly
censure of it which would have been known
| to be heartlesS and insincere.
|
No REsoURcEs.-The poverty of the South
has been most lamentably exposed since the
commencement of the present war. 1t was we'll
known the new Confederacy lacked navy that
it had few, if any manufactures for arms and
munitions of war that its soldiers would be COM
PEELED to derive their subsistence, their uniforms
and their weapons from Northern sources; that
the blankets on which they slept, the shoes