The national Republican., 1861-02-14
For the National Republican.
Mr.. TooMBs AND THE GEORGIA
MANIEEST0
MANIFESTO

MAMIE tESlO.
have lust read manifesto, said to have
been written by Robert Toombs, and adopted
by the Georgia Secession Convention. II pur.
ports To set forth the causes which led to the
separation of the State of Georgia from her con.
federates.
Considering the character of the writer, and
the State whose Convention adopted it, it is q
remarkable State paper. Mr.. Toombs is q man
Of learning and talent, and has acquired high
reputation as Q statesman. Georgia is one Of
the largest and most respectable of the cotton
States. It is therefore surprising that, in an
appeal to the civilized world, they have staked
their reputation for intelligence and candor
upon . manifesto, remarkable for nothing but
reckless disregard for truth. 1t is false in the
whole and in detail-false in fact and in logic
false in what it states, as well as in what 1t sup
presses.
propose to notice only few instances, as
sample Of the whole. II says; :. -,
"The North demanded the application Of the
principle of the prohibition Of slavery to all the
country, from Mexico, and oil other parts Of the
public domain, then and in all future time. 1t
was the announcement of her purpose to appro
pirate to herself all the public domain then
owned or thereafter to be acquired BY the Uni.
ted States. The claim itself was less arrogant
and insulting than the reason with which she
supported it. The reason was, her fixed pur
pose to limit, restrain, and finally to abolish,
slavery in the States where it exists. The
South, with great unanimity, declared her pur
pose TO resist the principle Of prohibition to the
last extremity. This particular question, in
connection with series Of questions affecting
defeat Of prohibitory legislation. The Presi.
dental election Of 1852 resulted in the total
overthrow of the advocates of restriction and
their party friends. Immediately after this re.
suit, the ant-slavery portion Of the defeated
party resolved to unite all the Democrats in the
North opposed to slavery, and to stake their fu.
ture political fortunes upon their hostility to
slavery everywhere. This is the party to whom
the people Of the North have committed your
Government
or course Mr.. Toombs knew when he penned
this paragraph that it was a tissue of fslsehoods
and Misrepresentation from beginning to the
end for he is we'll acquainted wi h the politi-
cal history ofthe country. But it is not so much
the ssggestio talsi as the suppressio reri Of the
paragraph, to which desire to call attention.
The disposition which he says resulted in the
defeat Of prohibitory legislation took place in
1850. The Republican party was not organ.
lied till 1856. The intermediate time, Mr..
Toombs passes over entirely, with the exception
Of the Presidential election of 1852, which he
only mentions as giving rise to the Republican
party. propose to fill the chssm. That dis.
position which defeated prohibitory legislation
was known at the time, and ever since, as the
compromise measures of 1850. 1t was lauded
BY Mr.. Toombs as a great compromise, which
settled the slavery question forever. 1t was, in
the slang phrase Of the time, "a 6nality." Its
perpetual observance was considered Of so
much consequence that they signed the follow
ing pledge: = 4.
first Congress of the United States, believing
that arenewal of the sectional controversy upon
the subject of slavery would be both dangerous
to the Union, and destructive of its objects,
and seeing no mode by which such controversy
can beavoided, except by an adherence to the
settlement thereof effected by the compromise
acts passed at the last session of Congress, do
hereby declare their intention to maintain the
said settlement inviolate, and to resist all at
tempts to repeal or alter the acts aforesaid,
unless by the general consent of the friends of
the measures, and to remedy such evils, ifany,
as time and experience may develop; and for
the purpose Of making this resolution effective,
they further declare that they will not support
for the Office Of President or Vice President, or
Of a Senator or of Representative in Congress,
or as member Of a State Legislature, any
mhn, vi WHATEVER purty, WIN 10 hot hnoWu W Dt
opposed to the disturbance of the settlement
aforesaid, and TO the renewal, in any form, of
agitation upon the subject of slavery"
This declaration and pledge was signed by
forty.four members of Congress, and among them
WAS HenryCay, Howell Cobb, Alexander 3. Ste.
phens, and Robert Toombs. Thisdeclaration was
substantially adopted in 1852 as the basis Of the
platforms Of both the Wing and Democratic
parties, so that the defeat Of the Wing party
at the Presidential election of that year had no
connection with the slavery question. Both
parties preserved their organization till 1854,
when another political event, which Mr.. Toombs
passes over entirely, which dismembered the
Wing party and called into being the Repub.
can party. From 1850 to 1854 there was no
slavery agitation. At the beginning of the
latter, the Senate Committee on Territories re-
ported to the Senate, in substance, that to re-
peal the Missouri compromise would be de-
parture from the course pursued in 1850 by
the adoption Of the compromise measures Of
that session, and would involve the same
grave issues, violent agitation, and fearful strug.
gle, which had been settled by those measures
With q knowledge of the necessary conse.
quences Of the act, it was repealed, against
earnest remonstrance of the North, and no per.
son aided more in its repeal and yet he has the
audacity to prate about Punic faith.
1t was, then, the repeal of the Missouri com.
promise in 1854, and not the result of the
Presidential election of 1852, that led to the
formation Of the Republican party. 1t was or.
esni1ed to resist southeSn aggression, and for
But, Mr.. Toombs having given to the party
false paternity, proceeds, with about as much
csndor and truth, to state its principles and
purposes.
"They," says the manifesto, raised their
standard in 1Shc and Az
They entered the Presidential contest again in
1860, and succeeded. The prohibition of sla.
very in the Territories, hostility to it every.
where, the equality of the white and black