Year: 1861

yentlon, We advocate Its calling together.

 WE SEE that number of the citizens of Des Are have addressed letters to Hon. B. c. ToTTEN, and R. s. CAN'T Esq, of this county, both of whom are aspirants to po- sition in a State Convention to mark out the course to be pursued by Arkansas in the present condition of the country, should a vote of the people determine to call together such a body. Each one of the gentleman, above named appears to have been requested to define the position which he would sus- tain, in the Convention, as best for our State to pursue. and each one has framed his reply, at some length From our reading of Judge TOTTEN's letter, we deduce his posi- tion to be, that every possible means should be resorted to and exhausted, in order that the just demands of the South for her consti- tutional rights, be recognized and accorded by the North, before he would consent to withdraw Arkansas from the Union, and If such a movement " to which our statesmen of most moderation look for safety, shall achieve no good, and it is made apparent that South ern rights and the equality of Southern States can no longer be maintained and protected in the Union 1t is our duty to remember that the rights of life liberty, and property are more sacred than the government which was made merely for their protection" And then comes the moment, thinks the Judge, for a disruption of the government.

 Judge ToTTEN's position is the same as the one which was assumed by all true friends of the Union, immediately upon the upheaving of the national difficulties, after the past Pres idential election and has been the basis of their action since. With what success, a review of the affairs of the political world since the assembling of Congress in November last, must determine A committee of thirty three was formed in the House, and one of thirteen in the Senate to take into cOnsdera- ton the national troubles, and, if possible, to fix upon some honorable plan of adjustment, which would be satisfactory to those States North and South, whose principles of govern ment did so much conflict as to produce all our troubles and woe. Several plans have been suggested by Southern members of both the committees, but all have met with opposition, save few honorable exceptions, from the body of Representatives and Senators of the Northern Republican States. They have re- fused, as yet, to recognize the right of prop erty in slaves, which is the very thing tho Southern States have asked, and the only plan, with honor to themselves, upon which we can fraternize, and henceforth keep the bonds of union with the constellations of the North" And in the meanwhile. Mir. LINCOLN, contrary to the expectations of those |" statesmen of most moderation" and every one else who anxiously looked to him in the hope that he would give expression to wish or plan to conciliate the disturbed elements of our country, before he would attempt to be inaugurated, has maintained a strange and forboding silence as to what was best to be done in this crisis, and appointed to seats in his Cabinet SEWARD and CHAsE-men who are more abhored and distrusted by the South ern people than himself, his platform, and the rest of his party. Thus instead of pouring oil upon the troubled waters, has he wdened the flood gates of agitation.

 This being the actual state of things, we think Judge ToTTEN's plan has simply come too late for any practical use in shaping the course of Arkansas. And we think he will arrive at the same conclusion before the as- sembhng of our State Convention, from the fact that 1t does not convene until the 4th of March, the inauguration day of the Black Republican President; and all the Southern States nearly, with the exception of our own,