The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1862-01-09

dlsheartened by the GOODNESS with which theil
overtures were received, and also by the fate
OF the Lopez expedition, returned discounted
10 the United States.
In 1857, Mr.. Mason of Virginia, announced
as a fact, on the floor OF the Senate, that the
British Government had changed its opinion
on the slavery question, but an early occa.
sion was taken BY that Government TO con-
tradict the assertion of Mr.. Mason, the Duke
OF Argyle declaring that he was instructed BY
her maJesty's ministers 10 do so.
Blind as we have all been TO the catastro-
phe that awaited US, unconscious as were the
people, both at the North and at the South,
OF this preconcert among a few leaders in the
different states, we can now trace, step by
step, the progress of the conspiracy, and read
the history of the last thirty years without
an interpreter; we can understand the mo-
tive OF the Texan rebellion, the war with
Mexico, the persistent efforts TO secure Cubp,
the flibustering expedition to reopen the
African slave trade. We can appreciate,
too, the caution with which the plan of the
rebellion was concealed. and especially the
adroitness with which the people were al
lowed no time for reflection, no opportunity
tor action, their consent assumed on the plea
OF necessary haste, and the acts of secession
pushed through the conventions, as charged
by the Georgian editor, with no regard TO
popular rights and under circumstances of
excitement and frenzy, by fictitious Inajori-
ties.
The doctrine of secession, earnestly as it
had been advocated, failed to convince the
capitalists, the planters, and the common
sense statesmen of the South-even in South
Carolina.
A few years since, Mr.. Boyce of that state,
late a member of the House of Representa-
fIvpS in an o1draSS IN tho nao,to oC,or.Lo-.
ing that by secession they would lose the
vitality OF a state, that they would exist only
by tolerance, a painful and humiliating spec
tacle, that it would involve a sacrifice of the
present, without in anywise gaining in the fu-
ture, emphatically declared, "Such is the in
tensity of my conviction on the subject, that
if secession should take place, of which |
have no idea, for | cannot believe in such
stupendous madness, | shall consider the in
s%titution of slavery as doomed, and that the
great God in our blindness has made us the
instrument of Its destruction
TESTIMONY OF ALEX. H. STEPHENS.
Even so late as the autumn of 1860, and
after the presidential election that announced
the defeat of the slave-power which had so
long ruled the country, the leading men of
the South who had not been in the plot bat
tied m~anfully against it. On the 18th of
Nov, last, $780, Mr.. Stephens, of Georgia,
now the VIce-President of the rebel Confed-
eracy, delivered a long and able speech in
the Georgia House of Representatives, in
which, in answer to the question whether
the Southern States should secede in conse-
quence of Mr.. Lincoln's election, he said =
"My countrymen, | tell you frankly, can
didly, and earnestly, that | do not think that
they ought"
Reminding them of the sacred obligation
resting on them to be true TO their national
engagements, he exclaimed
If the Republic is to go down, let us be
found to the last moment standing on the
deck, with the Constitution of the United
States waving over our heads" And this
sentiment was greeted with applause.
He expressed his belief that Mr.. Lincoln
would do nothing to leopard their safety or
security, and showed them the wisdom of our
system with its checks and guards. He re-
minded them that the President was power
House of Representatives was largely against
him, and that there would be a majority of
four against him in the Senate, and referring
to a remark that no Georgian, who was true
to his state, could consistently hold office
under Mr.. Lincoln, reminded them that such
office could be honorably held, for it would
be conferred by the approval ola Democratic
this exposition was received
with ''prolonged applause"
Mr.. Stephens frankly avowed that he would
never submit to any Republican aggression
on their constitutional rights to preserve the
Union, but insisted that all their rights could
be secured in the Union, and emphatically
declared, THAT this Government of our
with all its defects, comes nearer l
the objects of all good Governments than
any other on the face of the earth, is my set
conviction" sHave we not at the
South, as well as at the North, grown great,
and happy, under its operation ?
any part of the world ever shown such
-apid progress in the development of wealth,
md all the material resources of national
and greatness, as the Southern States
lave under the General Government, not
all its defects 2"
Mr.. Stephens then, with philosophic skill,
that the Institutions of a people con-
titute the matrix from which spring all their
characteristics OF development and greatness.
Look" he said, sat Greece. There is the
fertile soil, the same blue sky, the same
NETS and harbors, the same Egean, the same
there is the same land where Ho-
ner sang, where Pericles spoke; it is the
anne old Greece-but it is living Greece no
nore.' He pictured its ruin of art and civ
and traced that ruin to the down
all of their institutions. He drew the same
esson from Italy and Rome, once mistress B
( the world, and solemnIy warned them
where liberty is once destroyed, it may
ever return again.
Coming back to the State of Georgia, ne
eferred to the anxiety ofmany there in 1850
secede from the Union-and showed that
1850 the material wealth of Georgia.
5 a member of the Union, had nearly, il not
ute doubled.
He spoke of the prosperity in agriculture.