The Oxford intelligencer. (Oxford, Miss.) 1860-18??, 1861-01-30

holding confederates and seeking confed-
Grafton with slayeholding States.
| Experience has proved that slaveholding
States cannot be safe in subsection to non
slweholding States Indeed, no people can
ever expect to preserved its rights and liberties
unless these be in its own custody. To plum
der and oppress, where plumber and op-
preston can be practiced with impunity,
seems to be the natural order of things. The
fairest portions of the world elsewhere have
been turned Into wildernesses, and the most
civilized and prosperous communities have
been impoverished and ruined by auti-slayery
fanaticism. The people of the North have
not left us in doubt as to their designs and
policy. United as section in the late Pre-
sidential election, they have elected as the
exponent Of their policy one who has openly
declared that all the. States of the United
States must be made free States or slave
States. 1t is true, that amongst those who
aided in his election, there are various shades
of auti-slavery hostility. But if African
slavery In the Southern States be the evil
their political combination afiirms it to be,
the requisition of an inexorable logic must
lead them to emancipation. If it is right to
Fpreclude or abolish slavery in Territory,
why should it be allowed to remain in the
States The one is not at all more uncon-
stitutional than the other, according to the
decisions of the Supreme Court of the United
States. And when it is considered that the
Northern States will soon have the power to
make that Court what they please, and that
the Constitution never has been any barrier
whatever to their exercise of power, what
check can there be, in the unrestrained coun-
sells of the North, to emancipation There
is sympathy in association, Which carries
men along without principle; but when there
is principle-and that principle is fortified
by long-existing preudices and feelings, as
sociation is omnipotent in party Influences.
In spite of all d iselaimers and professions,
there can be but one end by the submission
of the South, to the rule Of a sectional anti
slavery Government at Washington; and
that end, directly or indirectly, must be-
the emancipation Of the slaves of the South.
The hypocrisy of thirty years-the faithcss-
ness of their whole course from the COM
mcncement of our Union with them, show
that the people Of the non-slayeholding North
are not, and cannot be, safe associates of the
slave-holding South, under Il common Govern
rneut. Not only their fanaticism, but their
erroneous views of the principles of free
Government, render it doubtful whether, il
separated from the South they can maintain
a free Government themselves.
Numbers with them is the great element
Of free Government A majority is infallibe
aud omnipotent. "The right divine to rule
in Kings" is only transferred to their ma
jority. The very object Of all Constitutions,
in free popular Government is to restrain
the majority. Constitutions, therefore, ac
cording to their theory, mnst be most un
righteous inventions, restricting liberty
None ought to exist; but the body polite
ought simply to have apolitical organization
to bring out and enforce the will of the ma
jority. This theory may be harmless in I
I, small community, having an identity OF in
terests and pursuits; but over vast State
still more over vast Confederacy, having
various and conflicting interests and pur
suits, 1t is remorseless despotism. In re
sisting it, as applicable to ourselves, we ar
indicating the great caise of free Govern
ment, more important, perhaps, to the world
than the existence of all the United States
Nor in resisting it do we intend to depar
from the safe instrumentality, the system @
government We have established with them
requires. In separating from them we invad
no rights-no interest Of theirs. We violat
no obligation or duty to them. As separate
independent States in Convention, we mad
the Constitution of the United States wit
them; and as separate and Independent
States, each State acting for itself we adopt
: cd it. South Carolina, acting in her sovereig
, capacity, now thinks proper to secede fror
the Uulon. She did not part with ht
; sovereignty in adopting the Constitution
E The last thing State can be presumed
( have surrendered is her sovereignty. He
| sovereignty is her life. Nothing but clea
e express grant can ALLEVIATE it. Inference ha
f no place. Yet it is not at all surprising tn;
: those who have construed away all the linn
r tatious of the Constitution, should also /
2 construction claim the humiliation Of Il
h sovereignty of the States. Having abolishe
e all barriers to their omnipotence, by the
r faithless constructions in the operations
e the General Government it is most natur
: that they should endeavor to do the san
o towards us in the States. The truth is, th'
e having violated the express provisions of Il
Constitution, il Is at an end as comPa'
e 1t is morally obligatory only on those wi
e choose to accept its perverted terms. Sou
e Carolina, deeming the compact not only Vi
# lated in particular features, but virtual
a / .h,t;s1od ~ ho- Nortbnrn ronfederatps wit