Year: 1860

: as triumphant vindcation of the State, il
a the position that she has assumed in relation


to the Constitutional rights Of the Southern
h States. Should it be agreeable and practica
1 BILE to comply with our request, we suggest
! that the speech be placed in the hands Of the
editor of the Mississippian at once for publ


cation.


Your ob't serv'ts.,


G. f. NELL,
. I----a4ss-a4 and others OF the Senate.


REPLY OF Mr.. WEST.


GENTLEMEN-I regret to be unable to com.


ply with your request to furnish a copy Of
the speech delivered by me on the occasion ol
offering certain resolutions in the Senate touch
| ing our State and Federal Relations.
Having on the occasion referred to spoken
without notes., and being unable to recall
either the language or the order in which my
: views were expressed, can not now report
them with sufficient fidelity.


The conviction, however, under which !
then addressed Ethe Senate, is still on my
mind The opinions | then uttered are well
remembered, and | take the opportunity which
your note presents to repeat them to those


who do me the honor to think them worthy


of repetition.


The resolutions offered by me assumed that


the designs of the anti-slavery party, now


overwhelminslyd dominant throughout the


Northern S les, not only looked to the ex-


clusion of sTafefy from the Territories Of the


United States, but to its extinction in the


States in whiehi exists. Beyond all doubt


thesparty nowSn power throughout the free


Sttes of the North is the abolition party


prePer-a party hostile to slavery as it exists


in the Southern States and organized with the


settled purpose to make war upon it. In its


origin this party sought the overthrow of
slavery in the States, by attempting to excite


instruction, by encouraging and melting
slaves TO flee from and rebel against the au-


thority of their masters. At this day, in the


maturity of its strength it deyelopes the same
tendencies and employs the same means in
4 form too palpabe to he mistaken.


The appropriation of the common Terrific
ry and the possession Of the balance Of politi-
cal power by the free States, do not fulfil the
aim of this party. The admission Of Califor-
MA transferred to them the political power in
the Union; but the event, though fatal to the
ascendency of the slave States, did not salts
| fly this party. 1t only emboldened them to
throw off all disguise. 1t is apparent that the
enticing of our slaves to escape and the refu-
| sal to surrender them have no reference to ter
ritorial aggrandizement, and is not reSorted to
| to prevent the extension Of slavery; and yet,
in this respect, we have more cause to COM
plain of them since the Compromise of 1850,
than before The legislation of the free States
since that event, under the influence Of the
abolitionists, has been marked by a settled
purpose to give encouragement to slave steal
ing and to entice slaves to escape from their
masters and by contemptuous disregard of
their constitutional Obligations to render up
fugitive slaves.


The people of the free States have, in the
most conspicuous manner, cherished and hon.
ored those who openly deny this obligation,
and have not only tolerated. but fostered asso-
cations of their fellow-citizens formed for the
purpose of systematic interference with the |
relation of master and slave in the Southern |
States. AT time when the free States have |
a majority in both branches OF Congress, with |
the certainty of speedy accesSions of power
by the admission of new States into the
Union, with the consciousness of absolute Sc
curity against encroachments by the slave
States, and with the conviction that the polit-
cal power of the slave holding section must
continue to decline, the abolition sentiment
has ripened into an actual hostile invasion Of
the territory of Virginia by armed abolition
insurrectionists from the free States When
We stood equal in numbers in the Congress Of
the United States, we were cajoled by friend
ly promises but now that power has passed
from our hands into others, we are insulted
and invaded as enemies. The successful ap-
preparation of Kansas by the free States is
followed by an attack upon slavery in the
States.


The truth is, no apprehension of the in
crease of slave States disturb the Northern
mind. The sagacious public men Of the free
hou rot oaf hat eli |
very has not advanced one foot beyond the
territorial limits which it had when the Union
was formed 1t has constantly diminished
They have looked to territorial aggrandizement
as means of putting an end to slavery IN the
States The South, conscious of this pur-
pose, has sought to preserve an equilibrium
merely as protection. The north has resist
ed the effort in order to deprive us Of this
protection. a


The feeling Of the Northern people is one
of impatience and disappointment at the tardy
operation Of the pressure upon slavery, in re-
ducing its limits and its strength The pros
perity of the slave States is an ofense which
they cannot forgive This impatience and
disappointment display themselves in language
of denuneiation and insult, in the insidious
circulation of incendiary publications, and in
acts Of open histiIity. We are treated as
enemies.


The evils under which we suffer nom this
cause are intolerable, and the more so because
they are the shadows cast before greater evils
to come.


We must surrender the hope that the de-
signs of the anti-slavery party are limited to
the exclusion of slavery from the territories.
1t is practically excluded, and yet at this mo-
ment, the hostility Of the Northern mind to
- e h. oia,ya 80
nant than at any former period. We cannot
reIy on the assurance SO often held out to us,
that there is conservative element at the
North capable of curbing the Abolition party.
The conservatism, if it exists, is too languid
and inactive All attempts to check the ris-
ing spirit of abolition have utterly failed. The
truth is, the great body Of the Northern peo-
ple are our enemies. Public opinion there is
manifestly in unison with the sentiments ex-
pressed by their Representatives in Congress I
the legislation in the Northern States is the
offspring of the popular mind there. They
choose the most Incorporate Abolitionists to
represent them in the national Government,
and place their State offices in their hands.
They boldly announce through their states
men, that slavery must cease. The threat Is
not qualified by the declaration that the States |
must either be all free or all slave States 1t |
is the strong man saying to the weak man,
you or must succumb.


The extinction of slavery is not the worst |
evil we have to fear. Under our national |
Constitution and Government, when one set to |
States, parties to the compact OF Union, say OF |
another set of States, you shall not share IN |
the common territory acquired, except on such |
terms as we may dictate; your domestic IN
stitutions are not such as we ike, ana you |
must reform them. You shall not enjoy IN |
peace the institutions which you have estaD-
lished, the threat involves the subverslon oil
the Constitution, and of the fundamental prln-
ciples which the Constitution and the mon
wepe designed to maintain. The right ofeach
State to establish and maintain its own domes-
tcinstitutions and to regulate them in its
own way. without the interference Of the peo-
pie of other States is paramount to the Union.
In order that this paramount right might be
secured, and enjoyed in peace, the Union was
formed. The Aboltionists aim to subjugate
us by the destruction fthe principle of State
sovereignty and independence. Forty years
Of our history is chiefly made up Of domestic
broils, debating and compromising, about the
claim to interfere with and control our domes-
| tic institutions, and at length we have reached
the point of actual hostility. A portion Of the
people of the free States have made an assault
upon the peaceful inhabitants of Southern
| State


The remedy for these evils must be found.
| It is not collision between factions of extre-
mists. The fruit of the statesmanship, the
press and pulpit, the legislation of the free
States is an attack upon the women and chill
dren of Virginia.


All ordinary remedies have failed; Congress
;s nowerless. or worse than powerless, the
popular branch being under the control Of Alb
oiit;onists The solemn judgment of the Su-
preme Court is treated with contempt. The
machinery of political parties is wholly made
/ ouate to supply the corrective. While the
election Of a President from the leaders Of the