Year: 1859

|


The Southern people should nd hesitate to
examine freely, and to discuss tholoughly all
questions concerning the institufon Of slave
ry, and affecting the interests of the South,
which may be presented for thsir coasdera-
ton. Their enemies are moving heaven and
earth for their destruction. Eyery,scheme
which ingenuity, stimulated by sectional am
bition and hate, can suggest on tleir over
throw, is brought forward and sci n active
motion. The public opinion Of tie civilized
world is industriously sought to b arrayed
against them. The Northern pulpit is con-
verted into rostrum for forging cures upon
Shareholders in the desecrated nsne of the
Most High. The legislation o Congress is
invoked LysstiStanii-siasery safoss The
Judiciary department of the government is
sought to be re-organized with no ,ther view
but to make it an instrument ofSouthern
destruction. Emigrant Aid Societis are Or
ganized to drive the South from tn, terrific
ries and to swell the oyergrown power of the
North. The Northern press having the wi
dest circulation and largest infuence,is filled
with anti-slaveryism. Northern Falls of
Legislation resound with it. Northern Con-
ventions are constantly adopting the most in
fiammatory resolutions and Northern mobs
are ever ready to put in practise the teachings
Of Northern preachers by stealing away the
slaves of Southern owners. And this syste-
matte war, we are told by Seward, the great
Corypheus of Abolitionism, is to be continued
until the South is driven to the wall and forced
to surrender her rights. 1t is war Of aggres-
sion-a war for ertermanotia.


While all this is going onare Southern men
to put their minds to sleep and shut their eyes
and close their mouths, lest they may per-
chance furnish ammunition to the enemy" and
stimulate him to yet greater efforts in the
work Of ruin ? Does not even the brute in
stinct of selfpreservation, much less the in
telligence and manhood of freemen teach a
different lesson? Whatever others may ad-





to discuss, to agitate, and to advocate freely,
until this great struggle initiated by our would
be Northern masters, shall have been brought
to its close.


The question must be solved one way or
the other, sooner or later, and the only way
for the South to come off cOnqueror is to meet
the issue boldly, and dare to claim all and to
demand all to which she is entitled for the
maintenance of her institutions.


Does she need importatiOns from Africa to
enable her to run the race with the North in
the settlement of the territories and the for
nation of States ? Are the present federal
statutes prohibiting such importations in vio-
lation of the Constitution, the compact Of
Union between the States? Have Congress
a right to declare that the purchase of Negro
in Africa is piracy or robbery on the high
seas" and to punish it with DEATH ?"-
Are the people of the Southern States more
qualified to determine whether they need an
additional supply Of African laborers, than the
federal government? Are not all these legit-
innate questions for free investigation and un-
reserved expression Of opinios? Believing so,
we have from time to time appropriated our
columns to the subject; and in the pursuance
of our purpose still to do so, we have to-day
laid before our readers report of a speech de-
livered on the 22nd of May by Dr. Crump,
one of the most intelligent and influential citi-
zens of Lowndes county. His argument is
strong, compact and fonible. The reader
will not fail to note that the constitutional
view of the question is presented by him in
the same form in which it has subsequently
been presented by Mr.. Yancey, of Alabama,
and other enlightened Southern statesmen,
while in its economical aspects his reasoning
corresponds with the arguments more recently
advanced by Mr.. Stephens of Georgia


The array of facts and of logic in support
of this great slave trade movement seem to
us irresistible; but whether so or not, let
every Southern man investigate the subject
impartially and cast aside every obstacle to an
unbiased opinion