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“ERROR CEASES TO BE DANGEROUS, WHEN REASON IS LEFT TO COMBAT IT.”—JEFFERSON.
proprietors.
SERIES, YOL. 2.
ATLANTA, GEO., THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1859.
NO. 40.
{ft Jittellipcer.
THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1859.
SUBSCRIPTION
* pipes per annum in advance, $6 00
pA! lA-vwi Y i«r “ in advance, 4 00
“ “ in advance, 2 00
’ jf paid within six months, 2 50
if paid within twelve months, 3 00
"—" Sixth District.
g 0 n James Jackson has been nominated by
, t , Qainesvillc Convention, as the Democrat-
^uididate for the 6th Congressional District.
A c leant he had no opposition in the Con
vention. That’s right. Just as we expected.
Jackson is worthy of the position he occupies.
Opposition sera to think they could beat
him if they would try, but, generous souls!
they haven’t the heart to make the trial.—
Heir kind! to let Joe Brown, Jim Jackson,
an j j 0 } lU Underwood, run without opposi
tion!
Col A. M. Speer.
This gentleman has been nominated by the
Democracy of the 3d District, as a candidate
f ( , r Congress. We have known Col. Speer
from his boyhood, and from a long acquain
tance with him as a man and a politician, we
cheerfully endorse the nomination. We have
fought a number of bloody battles, politically,
g.le by side with him, in the 3d District, and
nur humble efforts shall all be directed to aid
him as far as we can, to bear the banner of
Democracy triumphantly through the present
canvass. Speer is worthy to bear that banner,
and worthily will he wear the honors of victo
ry under it.
li of Hon. ALFRED IVERSON, dr-
Ilvrrrd at Glfliit , July 14,18ii9.
The tender of a public dinner, and the high
ly complimentary demonstrations which you
liave this day made toward me, would ft 1 Line,
1 fear, with too much pride, if I did not feel
and understand that the foundation and ob
ject of the movement were to'endorse and ap
prove. in an imposing and emphatic manner,
the sentiments which I uttered in the Senate
i.f the United States, during the last sess-
ii. in inv speech upon the Pacific Rail
Road Bill.—And whilst 1 am not insensi
ble to the honor conferred upon me. per-
ouallv. by these manifestations of your
favor and friendship, I am more grati
fled t" consider them as a sign that your hearts
and the hearts of the people of Georgia are
•uund and right upon the great questions
which press themselves upon the public at
tention. and i! |*on which I am called to ad
dress you to-d ly. •
In a Government of such - peculiar and com
plicated form as our own—of such vast, mul
tiplied and important monitary, commercial
and political interests—of such extended and
extending territorial compass—questions of
( ,t grave and important character, arc ever
uri-iiig to interest and agitate the public ; to
awaken the solicitude, enlist the sympathy
ami arouse the energies of the statesman and
patriot. But of all the great subjects which
have excited the people, divided parties, and
threatened the peace and stability of the Gov
ernment. since its formation, none has produ-
imore sensation, more bitterness and more
danger than the question of slavery - in the
Southern States of this confederacy. And well
may it have produced these extraordinary ef-
fecifi. It is indeed a question o- paramount
importance, and will continue to grow wider
and deeper, in interest, until it swallows up
all others which concern the people of this
Union. It is not a question in which any one
‘.alone, at the South, is interested ; it is a
subject in which all are deeply concerned-
tin- rich man and the poo; man—the owner
of his hundred slaves and thousands of broad
acres, and the humble citizen, who never
mod a negro and never expects to own one
—all are vitally interested in the institution
of slavery and its preservation, sis it now ex
ists in the Southern States. Indeed, fellow-
citizens. if there lie one class of our jieople
mure interested in its preservation than anotli-
r. or all others, it is that class who “earn
their bread by the sweat of their brow.’—
Emancipate the slaves of the South, and what
would be the condition of the poor laboring
white man ? It is said that slave labor comes
iu competition with, and cheapens the labor
of the white man. Set the negro free, and
how much would that competition he lessen
ed ? The negro must live ; he must he fed,
clothed and housed—to obtain these necessa
ries of life, lie must labor ; these are all he
works for vow ; he would work for no less if
he were free ; in either condition, his labor
nines in competition with the white man to
that extent, and no more in the one case than
the other. If the whole black race at the
\iuth. was extinguished—wiped out of exist
ence. then there would be no labor left for
employment but that of the poor white man,
and his labor might lie increased in value ,
hut who snpposes that we shall ever get rid of
the biack race for centuries, to come, even
(herald they be emancipated ? Our Northern
brethren would not receive and keep them.—
The free black population of the Northern
nates, is confessedly the greatest curse which
afflicts that country. The Northern people
would l*e the very last on the face of the
faith, to welcome our liberated negroes
amongst themselves. Instigated by feel-
ings of fanaticism, envy and hatred to
wards the Southern people, they are ever ready
and willing to rtc */ them from us—that annoys
harasses and injures us. and gratifies their
malevolence ; but take away these motives,
and there is riot a free State in the Union that
would not prohibit the emigration of free
persons of color amongst them. What dis
position, then, could lie made of our four
millions of emancipated slaves ? Would they
he sent to Africa at the expense of the Gov
ernment ? To say nothing of the inhumani
ty "f subjecting them to a certain relapse into
Wbarianisni, the process of removal would
iankrupt the national treasury. Such a
heme would he impracticable and would
not tie attempted. ’Hie generous philanthropy
"four Northern brethren, would neverstimu-
i*t»- them to the expenditure of millions ujion
Millions of their money, to rid the Southern
Itople of their liberated negroes. No, sirs,
there would 1m; but one solution to this ques
tion. When our slaves are set free, with or
without our consent, they will lx- left upon
our own soil, still to complete, in an altered
condition, with the labor of the poor white
jnan. and to curse all classes with their vic
ious. degraded and disgusting habits. How
much better, then, would be the condition of
the poor white laliorere in our country were
’he negroes free ? How much more demand
would there he for white lalxir, and how
touch more profitable would it become ? To
the least of it, there could lie no material
jtnprovement. whilst in the social relations
i* tween the two classes, the very worst results
w crald follow general emancipation. Many
considerations connected with such a change",
crowe! upon the mind, all pointing to its ter-
effects upon the social condition, pros-
Kritv and happiness of the poorer classes of
°Ur white population, but time will notallow
tne even to advert to them upon the present
'Xeation. There is one view of the case, how
e'er, to which no sensible man, rich or poor
fhut his eyes ;—African slavery, as it ex-
xts in the Southern States, elevates the char-
Tj* a nd condition of the poor white man,
although he knows that there is a class farbe-
"" him. which looks up to him, yields to
“ m and obeys him. In political privileges,
personal rights and social intercourse, this
i , as# can never approach him, or interfere with
im. This fact elevates his pride, enhances
18 consequence, purifies his morality, stimu-
p * 1 * * * * 6 his ambition and enobles his manliness.
6 walks erect in the dignity of his color and
and feels that he Is a superior being,
w'th more exalted powers and privileges than
J cers, and he enjoys all the proud advanta-
V* of that superiority. Emancipate the
and the distance between the slave, and
. e distance between the two classes is at once
evened—the white man sinks and the neg-
k r J se8 ‘ until all distinction is sooner or la-
d r 10 rt,_and both assume a degraded equality.
r jw is it in countries where slavery does not
irf ■ Compare the condition of the poor
ot« slassss in the Northern sad Southern
States of this Union. In the former, the poor
man is the dependent and servant of the rich,
with acla88 a class above him and none below
him. In the latter, he is free and independ
ent, with a class far below him in the scale of
political, intellectual and social power. There
the distance between him and his rich neigh
bor and employer is marked and degrading—
here it is measurably and almost entirely ex
tinguished, there the poor man who enters
the rich man’s house on business or other ob
ject, takes a seat in the kitchen, or
stands ip the outer Hall and transacts his bu
siness with the lordly aristocratic proprietor;
he no more presumes to enter the parlor or
take a seat at the rich man’s table, than the
veriest slave in all the South would do the
same things here. At the South and all over
it, the honest, decent poor man and laborer,
visits his rich neighbor on business or pleas
ure, with the confidence of a freeman, and
with an assurance of hospitable treatment.
He is invited to the parlor, or otherconveni-
ent and decent room—he partakes of the so
cial meal at the table of the owner, and is
treated with civility, respect and kindness.—
What a marked condition of the same class iu
different sections! how much more proud,
more elevated, more enviable and happy the
position of the Southern than the Northern
man! Let slavery be abolished in the Southern
States, and the condition of the poor laboring
whites would soon become worse than that of
the similar class at the North. The North
ern people 1 toast of their superior knowledge,
of their more general diffusion of education
amongst all classes, whilst it is a well ascer
tained fact, more ignorance prevails amongst
their laboring classes, than in any other por
tion of our country. They can read and
write and cypher, hut as lor a general knowl
edge of men and things, they - are compara
tively profoundly ignorant; they know little
of their own and less of other countries. At
the South, though the poorer classes may not
be so far advanced in book learning, their
general knowledge of men and things, is far
more extensive and useful.
Mixing as they do witli the higher and
more educated classes, they acquire a knowl
edge, and take an interest not only in relation
to the affairs of their own country, but of for
eign lands—they are familsar with the current
polities of the day—with the operations of the
Government. They are, in short, the best in
formed, most intelligent, most proud, patri
otic and happy poor class of any nation in the
world. This superiority is, to a great extent,
attributable to the existancc of slavery
amongst us, and the elevating tendencies of
that Institution, and the poor man knows and
feels it. When tin - Northern fanatic is told
that his continued aggressions upon that insti
tution, will drive the South to disunion, he
tauntingly' replies, that a large majority of the
Southern people do not own slaves are not in
terested in the maintenance of slavery', and
and will not permit the slaveholders to break
up the Union—no greater mistake in my opin
ion, was ever made—no greater delusion ever
existed. The poor man at the South knows
too well what would bo the result of abolition
designs—he knows what would he the effect of
emancipation—he well understands that if
slavery be abolished the value of his own la-
tea - will lie diminished, his political and so
cial condition lowered, and his personal safety -
jeopardized. Set the negroes free, and the
rich man foreseeing the danger, and dreading
the evils that are sure and soon to follow, can
escape them by removal to a free State or some
other safe and quiet home. The poor man
must remain upon the soil, to encounter the
ravages of that “black plague,’’ which would
cover the land. And that is not all, the eman
cipation of our slave population would sooner
or later lead to a war between the races, the
most bloody and fatal which ever stained the
annals of any - country - . The brunt of that war
would neccessarily be horn by the poorer clas
ses of the white population—the effects would
fall mainly upon them, and they would reap
a rich harvest of all those terrible evils which
follow in the train of internecine wars. It is
true that the loss to the slave holder and the
country would be incalculable—the emancipa
tion of four millions of slaves, worth, at the
present prices, more than three billions of dol
lars, would be a blow to the wealth and pros
perity of the South, which it would take cen
turies to repair , but the slaveholder would
have his broad acres, his.houses and lands,
his rents and profits to fall hack upon—tho’
greatly injured if he did not flee, lie could yet
survive and live; whilst the poor man, like
his brother laborer at the North, would be
come “the hewer of wood and drawer of wa
ter” for the rich and powerful. Yes, sirs, the
poor people of this country are more interested
in the maintenance of slavery than even those
who own the negroe-. I think I understand
the feelings and sentiments of the people of
this State upon this great subject, and 1 ven
ture the opinion that if the question was put
to-day to the people of Georgia, whether the
negroes should be set free in the country, nine
out of ten of those who do not own a slave,
would vote in the negative : nay, more, they
would take up arms, if necessary, and fight to
the deatii to prevent the infliction of so great
a calamity. Yes, fellow-citizens, the preserva
tion of slavery in the Southern States is in
deed of incalculable importance to us all. I
might enlarge upon this subject until I would
swell my remarks to a good sized volume, but
neither my own strength, or your patience,
would permit such a discussion. Slavery must
be maintained—in the Union, if possible—out of it
if necessary—peaceably if ice may—forcibly if ire
must. The voice of the Northern abolition
ist and the Southern sulimissionist would cry - ,
“The Union—it must and shall be preserv
ed.” My voice and yours is, “Slavery at the
South—it must and shall he preserved, until
in our own good time, our interests and our
philanthropy shall decree its extinction.’ Is
the institution in danger iu the present Fede
ral Union ? This is a great, important. mo
mentous question. lake the commandments
in scripture upon which •‘hang all the law and
Prophets,” upon this great question hang the
interests and fate of millions. Jf it be in dan
ger, then our interests, our honor, our peace,
and prosperity, nay our safety and self-preser
vation demand that we shall avert the dan
ger and flee from the wrath to come whilst
we have the power to es«qx - . 1 know that
there are manv Southern men who believe or
affect to Ixdieve, that the institution of slavery
is on a safer foundation now than it has ever
been since the formation of the Confederacy.
Some of these parties are honest in their views
whilst in others, “the wish is father to the
thought,” and in many selfish considerations
give utterance to sentiments and opiuions
which are not seriously felt or entertained.—
Mv own opinion is, that the institution of sla
very in the Southern States is not only in
danger, but without a prompt, bold, firm and
manly course on their part, is doomed to in-
evitable destruction. The evidences of the
truth of this proposition are numerous and
unmistakable. Upon the present occasion, I
can only glance at a few of them—their histo
ry is written upon the outspread pages ot the
times, and in characters so large that “he who
runs may read.” 'Ihe first dawning of Nor
thern hostility to Southern slavery was ex-
bitited upon the admission of Missouri into
the Union. I need not detail the circumstan
ces of that exciting and eventful period of our
historyv-they are as familiar to you and all
the American people as “household words.
In the violent opposition of the Northern
States to the admission of Missouri because
slavery was tolerated by her Constitution, the
Southern people recognized a decided hostili
ty to their “particular institution” amongst
the masses of the Northern States, and a de
sign to circumscribe its area, to prevent its
extension, and finally to abolish it altogeth
er.
It was not only the violation of a constitu
tional right, but a manifestation of implaca
ble hostility to the “Institution” itself. The
goutli saw and felt it in this light and resented
the dangerous and daring attack. The con
troversy was angry and bitter. The north
pressed the subject with that obstinate and
unyielding tenacity and acrimony which al
ways accompany fanaticism, and the South,
to ‘preserve the Union,’ with short-sighted
wisdom yielded to a degraded and unconstitu
tional arrangement, which has subsequently
been the fruitful source of still more degrad
ing and insulting exaction from the North.—
If the Southern States, had then, planted
their feet upon the Constitution and demand
ed their rights as the only condition upon
which they would remain in the Union, we
should never i*^ a * n have heard of Missouri res
trictions, Wilmot Proviso’s, or Squatter Sov
ereignty. A weak man never secures ths for
bearance of his more powerful enemy by sub
mitting to a wrong or compromising a right—
his safety lies only in a firm and manly resist
ance at the outset, a resistance if necessary,
even unto death. It has been the constant
readiness of the Southern people to snbmit to
unconstitutional aggeession and wrong, “to
save this glorious Unipn,” that has whetted
the appetite of Northern fanaticism and made
the Northern Abolitionists bold and defiant
in their arrogant and dangerous demands. It
remains to be seen whether once more and
again, the South will be lulled to sleep by the
the “Union’s” syren voice, and be lead on to
inevitable destruction. Having made an en
tering wedge, by the Missouri restriction, to
wards the accomplishment of the final over
throw of slavery, the spirit of Abolitionism,
alarmed at threats of disunion from the South
although feebly uttered, rested fora brief pe
riod. It broke out again in a few years and
presented in the form yt petitions to Congress
from all the Northern States, demanding the
abolition of slavery in the District of Colum
bia.—The South, by a natural effort successful! v
resisted this unconstitutional' insulting and
dangerous innovation upon her lights; but
the spirit of anti-slavery at the North was fed
which instigated the brethreu of .Joseph to
conspire his death, and which doomed him to
exile and Egyptian bondage, filled all their
thoughts—poisoned all their words and black
ened all their deeds during that exciitingemd
excited contest. If they had succeeded, do
you suppose they would have been satisfied
with the mere possession of power ? That
power wouidhut have stimulated them tooth
er and more fatal assaults upon the rights of
tjie Southern people.
In ages and in all countries fanatii i an grows,
more ravenous and veracious as it devours the
victims of its fury. It feeds and feeds until
alj being consumed, nothing is left to gorge
its gloated maw. And so wit^flte fanaticism
of the Northern States. What but envy, ha
tred, and malic could have stirred up so much
sympathy for the deserved chastisement of a
contemptible paltroon, even though it was
done iu the Senate Chamber of the Capitol ?
If a Southern Senator had been chastised in
the same place and in the same manner for a
personal insult or injury, what Northern man
or Northern Press would have raised a voice
in condemnation ? It would have.given them
unmitigated pleasure. It was no sympathy
for Summer’s person, that produced such
by the contest, and fattened into such huge j furor of indignation and Excitement through-
proportions, that in a few years it swallowed’—-*■.— “ ’
up the great Whig party of that section, and
threatened the overthrow of all opposing ele
ments. The Wilmot Proviso and the outra
ges of 1850 were the bitter fruits of that
creasing and rampant power of abolition
on the one hand, and the submissive and
yielding temper of the Southern States on the
other. The Wilmot Proviso—which was to
shut out slavery fiom all the territories ac
quired from Mexico, and from all that might
be acquired in the future from auy and every
quarter. If Empires were obtained with the
blood or treasure of the Southern people,
they were to be consecrated to freedom, and
the South and her institution forever exclu
ded. The manly voice of a few Southern pa
triots, the voice of the Southern Rights Par
ty of Georgia, and some of her surrounding
sister States, drove the North slowly and re
luctantly into the Compromise Measures of
1860.
Fellow-citizens, there are doubtless some
here to-day—there are thousands elsewhere
iu Georgia, and the whole South, who thought
them “wise, liberal and just.” They were
advocated and supported by many Southern
men, equally as honest, and much wiser than
myself—they have been acquiesced in by the
Southern people and especially in a most for
mal manner by a majority of the people of
my own State. It does not become me to
speak of them with severity or harshmenss—
a proper respect for the opinions and actions
of a majority of my fellow-citizens leads me
to characterize their adoption only a most un
fortunate and dangerous political error. The
territories acquired from Mexico were obtain
ed with the blood and treasure of the whole
country, they were the common property of
the people of the United States. The South
ern people were entitled to - an equal enjoy
ment of themtoils full free and untram
melled possession of the common property, as
their Northern brethren—they had the un
doubted right to emigrate to these territories,
and carry with them any and all property
which they owned at home, and which was
recognized and secured to them as property
by the Constitution of the United States, and
by the constitution and laws of their own
States. Having thus the unqualified right to
go into the territories with tiieir slave prop-
arty, they had the necessarily resulting right
of protection in the enjoyment of that prop
erty, during the existence of the territorial
government, as a matter of constitutional ob
ligation, and of sheer justice to the Southern
people, it was the duty of Congress, immedi
ately after the acquisition of these territories,
to organize territorial governments, not only
without a prohibition as to slaver} - , but pro
viding for its regulation and protection in case
it either existed in, or should enter any of
them by the voluntary emigration of the
Southern people. But how it was ? The Nor
thern abolitionised Whig Party having the
majority in the House of Representatives, ob
stinately refused to organize governments for
those territories, except with a provision ex
cluding slavery. Such a bill passed that
body, but the Southern Senators, aided by the
votes of Northern Democratic Senators, re
sisted this foul demand and defeated the infa
mous proposal. The consequence was that no
territorial governments were formed. The
rabble hordes of Northern abolition gold dig
gers rushed in thousands to the golden fields
of California. The Southern slave holder
having no protection for his property, and
dreading the hazzard to which it would be ex
posed, kept aloof, even from this land of “milk
and honey,” and the political destiny of the
country was settled against us. The South was
entitled to California. It is a notorious fact
that all mining operations can be carried on
more certainly and more profitably with slave
than with free labor. The annual cost of the
former is only his personal expenses of rood,
raimen and medicinal attention, and the in
terest upon his value and price—he is subject
to the absolute command and control of his
owner, and is always at hand and constantly
engaged in the duties and labors, which, to be
profitable must be closely applied. If the
public land California had been surveyed up
and offered in market, as had always been
usual upon the acquisition of new territories,
and if the Southern people had been guaran
teed protection and security to their slave
property, thousands of her adventurous and
enterprising sons would have sought their
homes and fortunes on the shores of the Pa
cific, and California would have been a slave
State. The North knew this—hence their re
fusal cither to organize % territorial govern
ment with protection to slavery, or to survey
aud sell the land. If the South then had act
ed with rnniily firmnes—if it bail said in au-
thoritive language to the North; “We are
entitled to an equal participation with you of
this common inheritance—we are entitled as
joint owners to go into it with our slave prop
erty—we are entitled to its protection under
law whilst there, and we demand these rights
—if you yield them, well—-if you refuse them,
we separate from you.” If this had been the
united and determined voice of the Southern
people, territorial governments would have
been formed at once, slavery would have had
legal protection—it would have taken root
and speadover the country, California would
have been a slave State, and the South would
have been spared the hurailitating injustice of
the Compromise Measures of 1850. But un
der the delusive and fatal protext of “saving
the Union” the South again surrendered a
right, and submitted to a wrong.
This was the bitter fruit of that violent,
widely extended, and all absorb!ngj’ostility to
Southern slavery, which had then seized and
held the Northern mind iu bondage; and yet
from a party and a people who bad the pow
er and the will to inflict so great an outrage
upon nearly one half of this Union, it is
thought and said that we are to apprehend no
danger ! These gross violations of Soutuern
lights—this reckless trampling upon Southern
feelings, was but a faint evidence of that dead
ly hostility to slavery which prevaded and
yet prevadcs the Northern heart, and only a
dim foreshadowing of what was, and is in wait
for us in the future. The demon of abolition
as he stood forth in gigantic propotions in the
memorable contest of 1856, could not bur ar
rest the attention, excite the fears, and arouse
the indignation of every Southern man. For
the fl;st time in the history of the Republic-
candidates for President and Vice President
were selected from one section—ran upon a
sectional issue and voted for alone by that sec
tion and upon that issue—opposition to slave
ry—what did this mean ? Did. they merely
wish to get possession of the government to
eniovthe “loaves and fishes ’ of public pat-
enjoythe
ronage. . . ..
It would be paying a compliment to the
keen sagacity and statesmanship of hose able--
and adroit leaders who controlled that move
ment, to suppose that such was the only, or
the main object of their struggle; nor did they
disguise their object—their battle cry was
down with the Democracy—down with the
accured slaveocracy of the South—freedom
shall reign eternal and universal over the
American States. The Republican papers in
all the free States teemed with the most abu
sive and vituperative articles not only against
slavery but against the Southern people—a
hatred more bitter and vindictive towards us
than ever ruled or rankled in the tory breast,
during thfcRevolution toward the immortal
Whigs ofthat glorious and memor able period
a jealously and envy mete violent than that
out the Northern States, it was no personal
dislike to Brooks as a man, it was a deep root
ed and violent hatred to slavery and the Sou
thern people of which he was the noble and
I,, honored champiou. Who but a people steep
ed in fanaticism and malice arid lost to all
sense of justice and forbearance toward their
Southern brethreu, could have presented a
mere man of straw for the highest office in
the gift of a great nation, and railied to his
support upon a sectional issue, the electoral
votes of nearly one half of the State of this
union ? What is to be expected of such a par
ty when firmly seated in office and looking to
slavery as the only impediment to the consol
idation and continuenco of its power ? It has
already violated every constitutional obliga
tion which it could violate with impunity.—
The right of the Southern people to a peace
ful and prompt reclamation of their fugitive
slaves, guaranteed by the constitution and pro
tected by law, has been despised, contemned
aud trampled under foot. Congressional stat
utes enforcing the right have been openly re
pudiated by legislative enactment in many of
the free States, in others it has been resisted
and set at naught by organized mobs and ren
dered utterly valueless to the Southern peo
ple. Organized societies have been formed
in all the free States, and largo sums of mon
ey raised to pay abolition Pirates for stealing
away the slaves of the border States to harass
irretate and injure their lawful owners.
In short the conduct of the masses of the
northern people exhibits more bitterness aud
hostility towards their Southern brethren,
than ever marked the bloody contest of bor
der nations since the world began. They are
this day, the most unscrupulous, the most
violent anil vindicative enemies which the
Southern people have on the face of the wide
earth. I speak of the abolition hordes of the
North and the Black Republican party of (lie
free States. I admit that there arc exceptions.
The interest of the commercial classes in the
large cities, smothers their fanaticism, hut
like a hidden volcano, its fires are only pent
up for the present to burst forth at a future
day, carrying devastation and death in their
train. The Democracy of the free States, al-
ied with their Southern brethren in political
contests, and looking to them for the obtain-
meet of political power, has for many years,
given the constitutional rights of the South a
manly support ; but like an army in the face
of a superior and more vigorous foe, doubtful
of its position and conscious of inferiority, it
has kept up, as it, were, only a retreating fire
whilst it ranks liave been constantly been
thinned by dissertion and death, until at
length it has surrendered nearly every inch
of ground to the enemy. From the begin
ning of this abolitian war, to the pn sent day,
not a man lias gone over to the sound Democ
racy, from the tree-soil ranks, whilst the les
sening anil wavering hosts of tne former,
have year after year melted away before their
fanatical enemy like the snows before the rays
of a burning sun.
Whatever others may say—whatever dedu-
sive hopes may be entertained to the contra
ry, I consider all lost at the North. The con
stitutional sound Democracy of the free States,
if not dead and buried, are paralized and pow
erless—even the bold, gallant—once sound
and unflinching Douglas—once the able and
manly defend jr of Southern Rights, lias
yielded to the storm and bowed his*thick anil
stubborn neck to the yoke. He has not it is
true, gone over “hag and baggage” to the
enemy, anil announced hisallegience to them,
but he stands to-day with one foot in our
ranks and one in the ranks of our mortal foe ;
aud he is surrounded by the very flower of the
Northern Democracy, who arc ready to follow
him, laxly and soul, “horse, foot and drag
oons” into the enemies’ camp whenever his
honest convictions or his selfish interests may
speak the word of command. Judge Douglas
has been accused of deserting the South and
carrying off thousands of the Northern Dem
ocracy with him in the Lecompton war. He
deserted us, it is true, in that important and
exerting struggle, out it was not in my opin
ion, a voluntary desertion—he was lorced to
his position by the public sentiment of Ids
own section—he was borne along by a current
which he found himself unable if willing to
resist. The great mass of the Northern Dem
ocracy, driven inte straits by the swelling pow
er of the abolitkmitionists, had seised upon
the luresy of “squatter sovereignty,” ns a
safe and middle ground between the Wilmot
Proviso of the North on the one hand, and
tho “Congressional Protection” doctrine of
the South on the other. They were either
not bold enough or honest enough to take t e
true Constitutional ground of securing equal
ity to the people of all the States by Congres
sional enactment—they retreated to the plau
sible, but delusive aud rotten ground of “pop
ular sovereignty,” hoping to bamboozle their
Southern Allies, and at the same time resist
the assaults of their Northern opponents.—
They have done neither. The Southern slave
holder sees through the fiimsev texture of this
frail covering to his constitutional rights—the
Northern abolitionist scorns and rejects it as
too rough and tedious and pathway to the
goal of Ids party’s ambition and success. He
chooses a more direct road to the suppression
of slaveiy in the territories, and demands its
exclusion by Congressional prohibition. Of
what benefit to the South is the “squatter sov
ereignty”, doctrine of Donglasand his follow
ers? Let Kansas speak. The South was enti
tled to Kansas, and if justice had been done
her, she would have taken Kansas. I disa-
agree with these Southern men who as an ap
ology for the surrender of Kansas to aboli
tionism, assert that the soil and climate of that
territory are unshited to slavery. Its soil and
climate are precisely those of the border coun
tries of Western Missouri, anil it is a notori-
our fact that in no part of the Southern States
is slave labor more profitable than in Western
Missouri. The census tables of 1850 exhibit
the fact that slavery had increased in a great
er ratio in the State of Missouri, for the pre
ceding ten years, than in any other slave
State in the Union, and that increase was
mainly confined to the Western portion of the
State, contiguous to Kansas. The staple pro
ducts of that Region, are wheat, Indian corn,
tobacco and hemp—the latter is the most
profitable, and yields more money to the hand
than the cultivation of cotton in the planting
States. I was informed by an intelligent aud
reliable gentleman, who emigrated at an ear
ly day, to Kansas and carried a few slaves with
him, that he could realize from the culture of
hemp from three to six hundred dollars per
annum to the hand. Where, in all the South
can slave labor be more profitable employed ?
If the negro race can live and multiply and
thrive in Missouri, why may it notin Kansas?
Kansas was contiguous to slave States, espe
cially to Missouri—the natural tendency of
emigration to Kansas was from the neighbor
ing slave States. If there had been Congres
sional protection to slave property in Kansas,
the Southern people would have felt an abid
ing security in taking their negroes into that
rich and beautiful country - Emigration
would have poured into it from Missouri and
the neighboring slave States, and Kansas
would have been ours. But how wag it?
Congress refused to give legal protection to
slave property in Kansas and lett slave hold
ers to the tender mercies of the squatter sov
ereigns who were precipitated upon her soil
by the Northern abolition emigrating aidso-
cities, to make it a free State. No prudent
man would carry his slaves into the territory
under such circumstances. Slavery is prover
bial!} - tiintd and will not go where it is not
made safe in advance from the fangs of that
verocious serpent, which is ever ready and
eager to swallow and devour it.
The loss of Kansas to the South was the
legitimate and inqyitjble Jpiit of the “Squat
ter Sovereignty” elements of the Kansas Ne
braska Bill, as construed and enforced by its
Northern authors and friends. They were
enough in themselves to produce that result,
but as a part and parcel of the influence and
power of the freesoil sentiment of the North
ern States, the administration of even Gen.
Pierce gave way to his bold and impudent de
mands and put over Kansas a batch of free
soil Governors and other Federal Officers to
warp with official patronage and influence,
the sentiments and political acti-.n of the peo
ple. Nebraska was a Northern Territory giv
en up by all parties to be free institutions—
Kansas was a Southern Territory and ought to
have been subjected to Southern control; hut
yielding to the pressure of Northern Anti-
slavery hostility and the strong current to
make Kansas a free State—to appease the
morbid appetite of the abolition monster, who
shook his bloody fingers at the President, lie
reversed the natural and appropriate order of
things and appointed Southern men Govern
ors of Nebraska, and Northern men for Kan
sas ! And the present administration, though
professing the greatest regard for Southern
rights and the most profound indifference, as to
the political fate of Kansas, has followed the
example of its “illustrious predecessor, and
beholp the array of Northern Free-soil Gov
ernors over Kansas.—Reeder, Gary, Shanon,
Walker and Medary, all hailing from the same
section, all of the same section, all of the
same materials made, and all consecrated and
devoted to the same great end of making
Kansas a free State, anil thus Kansas was lost
to the South. If the Southern States had
planted their feet upon the firm plank of their
sovereign Equality and constitutional rights
when Territorial Governments were formed
and demanded protection to their slave prop
erty by federal laws, during the existence of
the Territorial Governments as a condition of
remaining in the Union, we should have never
been cursed with the wretched uncertainties
or unmea ning generalities of the Kansas Ne
braska bill and the thousand ills of which it
has been the prolific source. Will it he al
lied that under that bill, slavery has been
established in New Mexico ? Who believes
that it will become permanent or be main
tained as the settled policy of that Territory ?
It has been adopted through official intrigue
under the influence of official patronage and
power— it was covetly and suddenly done—it
took the South, as well as the North by sur
prise. But the North would even now and
lie fore this have overcome and obliterated it
from the Territorial statute book, by her
hordes of abolition scum sent there Ly her
emigrating aid societies, “to regulate the do
mestic institutions of the people,” if she had
not reserved it as an element of agitation and
success in the Presidential campaign. When
ever she chooses she can wipe it out in twelve
months. She has only to bring the guns of
her aid societies to bear upon the doomed
land and slaver will flee from it as it did from
Kansas. No, ftfllow-citizens, give no legal
and tangible protection to slavery, and it will
never plant an abiding foot print in any Ter
ritory of the United States. I shall not stop
here to argue the doctrine of congressional
protection to slavery in the Territories, nor to
combat the errors of “squatter sovereignty.”
I take the occasion to confess that I was once
the, ailvocata of the latter heresy—carried
away by its an tractive but delusive sophistry,
which, like the ‘-ignis fatuus,” lures only to
destroy, and without serious examination in
to its truth and general bearing, and looking
at it as the only alternative of the Wilmot
Proviso, I was ready to take it as the “best we
could get.” I was wrong and I admit, re
gret and recant the error. Subsequent inves
tigation and reflection soon 'convinced me
that the only true theory in relatian to Terri
torial Government in the Union, is that both
the power and the duty are conferred and con
ferred and impose upon Congress to pass
laws for the protection and regulation of sla
very, wherever it exists or may exists or may
exist upon the common soil. I am well con
vinced of the truth and propriety of this doc
trine of salvation declared to men in the sa
cred word of God, bur whilst I insist upon the
absolute right of the Southern people to legal
protection in the possession anil enjoyment of
their slave property in the territories of the
United States and the power anil duty of Con
gress to give such protection, I utterly deuy
the power of congress under the constition or
otherwise, to prohibit slavery from entering
the territories, or of abolishing it, if there. —
To regulate and protect the property of the
citizen is one thing—to deprive him of it, is
another and altogether different thing. One
is not only within the power of all Govern
ments, but is one of the main objectsand ob
ligations of all Governments. The other can
not be done in our Government and under our
Constitution, except for the “public use” and
not then without just compensation to the
owner. Such is the language of the Federal
Constitution. Tin's light of the Southern peo
ple on the one hand, and this power and duty
of Congrcs on the other, are, l hope and be
lieve, fast becoming the settled doctrine of
the Southern people and will sooner or later
he demanded by them, with a spirit and pow
er which cannot be resisted. But this doc
trine, so dear as it is, and ought to be the
South, will never he recognized or admitted by
the North, whilst the South is divided in sen
timent or undivided in action. The Black Re
publican party at the North scouts it. The
Northern Democrace shrinks from it. It will
never be granted or acted upon, until the
South, united upon it, speaks in authoritative
positive and derermiued language to the North
and tells it, “we are entitled to this right —
we must have it—if we cannot get in the
Union, we will seek it out of the Union.” If
the South ever brings its united mind anil
heart up to that point, then her Constitution
al rights will be respected and conceded by the
Federal Government • hut without such a
bold, manly and decided course, what are wc
to expend from the Northern States, or from
Federal Legislation ? Look at the pesent con
dition and future prospects of public sentiment
in the free States—at the present and future
state of political parties in Congress. Thera
are a few sound and true Northern men still
lingering in the Senate, nearly every vestige
of sound Northern Conservatism in the other
house, has elready been extinguished—four
years more will give to the abolitionists the
control of the Senate—1861 will witness the
inauguration of a free soil President, and then
with both brandies of Congress, and an aloh-
tion Presl 'ent, the Supreme Court, the last
barrier to fanatical encroachment will soon
give way, Vacancies upon that bench of stern
old men will occur by nature, or be made by
CoDgressional legislation, to be filled by the
creatures of party dictation, until that august
Tribunal will bow its neck to the yoke of un
relenting fanaticism, anil then the acts of an
abolition Congress, sanctioned by an abolition
President, will be upheld by thedeciees of an
abolition Court and enforced if necessary by
the bayonets of an abolition army. The gieat
high Priest of the abolition church, AVm. H.
Seward, has already declared in bold and
vaunting terms in the Senate of the United
States, “the Supreme Court must recede, or
the Supreme Court must be rel'orced,” and he
has more power and influence over the Black
Republican party of the North, than the Pope
of Rome has over the Catholic world. It is
in vain to hope that a reaction will take place
in the Northern mind and. that a sound con
servatism will ever agian rule the Northern
heart. We have heard that cry ai d that hope
repeated again and again, for more than twen
ty years, and yet the spirit and power of abol
ition have continued to spread, increase and
etTengthren, until now, they control the pol
itical action of nearly every free State in this
Union, and openly proclaims the intention of
widing oat slavery in all the American States.
The bold and daring declaration of the great
leader of the Republican party in his speech
at Rochester, last fall, that freedom and slav
ery cannot exist together in the snme Govern
ment and that one or the other must fall, was
but the echo of the popular sentiment all ov
er the free States. It has been repeated on
the floor of the national Congress; it has
filed the public press; it has been re-echoed
from the hustings Rf many popular assemblies
and will be the great shiboleth in the cam
paign of 1860. The Northern clans are to be
mastered to the war cry of “down with Slav
ery,” and’the black flag of “universol eman
cipation” will be raised aloft, never again to
be furled until it shall waive in triumph over
a disgraced, degraded and destroyed South, or
met at the threshold by a manly spirit of Sou
thern resistance, be briven back to its native
regions to lead on the dark destiny any for
tunes of a seperate Northern Governments—
May such lie its fate—and such will be its fate
and its only mission, if the Southern people
are only true to themselves, true to their
Rights, their interests and their honor—.true
to that spirit of independence, and those sa
cred principles of civil and religious liberty
which animated their immortal sires in the
struggles of the Revlution.
I know not how others may look upon the
triumhph of the abolitionist in the Presiden
tial election of 1860, but I do not hesitate to
declare for mys If, that I should consider it as
a declaration of war against the institution of
slavery in the Union, and a foreshadowing
of a settled policy and action of the Federal
Government. I cannot stop to enlarge upon
the process by which such a result would be
reached - With every branch of the govern
ment in the hands of a party steeped in the
wormwood, of anti-slavery hostility, ambitious
of succe s. and maddened by opposition, no
stone would be left unturned, no means neglec
ted no effort untried to accomplish its diaboli
cal purposes. In the Union, its powers would be
omnipotent. The rejection of slave States
and admission of free States, iv< uldsoon swell
their majority in both Houses ot. Congress to
an overpowering and irresistable number, a-
gainst which the feeble voice of the South
would he raised in va*n. The reversal of the
Dred Scott decision—the exclusion of slavery
from the territories by Congressional enact
ment, the repeal of the fugitive slave law, the
the abolition of slavery in the District of Col
umbia, tho imposition of high protective tariffs
to burthen and cripple slave lalxir in the
South, in short, the exercise of every power,
for which an excuse may be found or inven
ted. calculated to weaken the institution and
finally dc troy it, would lie the fust and early
fruits of their daring and malignant experi
ments. U the South submits to one, she will
submit to anoth -r, and to all of these abomin
able and damnable aggressions, until she will
find herself botu unable and unwilling to re
sist a decree of universal emancipation. In my
opinion, the true safety of tiie South, as well
as her true honor, dictates a firm and manly
resistance to the first success of the abolition
party, which shall be founded upon opposition
to slavery, and looks to its overthrow in the
Union. If, therefore, the Republican party of
the free St ites, which is only another name
for the abolition party, shall present section
al Northern candidates in 1860—shall run
them as sectional candidates, and upon a sec
tional platform of opposition to Southern sla
very, and shall elect them by a sectional,
Northern vote it would, in my opinion, be suf
ficient cause and ample time foi seperation.—
I care not in wliat specious form of words,
such a sectional platform may he made, if the
spirit of anti-slavery shall he its soul and its
antimating element—if hatred to slavery and
those who uphold ;unl defend it shall be the
controling power over the Northern masses,
and sh til carry them to the polls to vote for
their abolition candidates and thus the true,
sound, conservative men of the North and the
South shall he borne down and defeated, it
will be time, for the Southern people to look
to the safety of their “institution,” and to
seek it, if need lie, iu the formation of a
Southern C* *nfcderacy.
Anil now you will ask me how is that to be
done—by wliat steps and through what pro
cess is such an object to be accomplished ?—
Fellow-citizens, I an; but an humble man,
with little pride of opinion, and no great con
fidence in my ability to suggest or advise a
plan for the attainment of so important a re
sult. It is indeed a momentous subject. No
question which has occurred since the times
when our f there commenced the revolution
ary struggle, and declared their independence
of the British crown, liras arisen or could .arise
to half its importance—none would deserve a
more serious consideration, or would demand
the exercise of greater wisdom, courage anil
patriotism. Is', however, the Southern people
were convinced of the necessity and propriety of
such a movement—if they were satisfied that
their safety required it. that their honor de
manded it, that their interest; called for it
anil were united, there would be no lack of able
and patriotic statesman, to devise the steps,
form the plan, perfect the structure, and in
augurate a Government, which would be the
“wonder, the glory and pride of the world.”
With an experience of more than three quar
ters of a century in Republican Government,
with the defects of our present system seen,
felt and understood, with the lights of the
past, the intelligence ot' the present and the
inspirations of the future, we should he able
to form a Government more perfect, and more
stable than any upon which the world ever
looked. Doubtless, the ftiost proper, ready
and certain mode of forming a Southern Con
federacy, if the Southern people were united in
the wish to do it, would lie to hold a (’(inven
tion of all tlie slave States, declare their inde
pendence of and separation from the North,
form a Government and put it into immediate
operation. Then would follow, as a matter of
course, ail amicable adjustment between tlie
two Governments, Northern and Southern, of
all questions arising out of their former asso
ciation—a just and honorable division of the
public property and the public debt of the old
Government, and a friendly arrangement of
all luture relation's, interests and intercourse.
I know that many entertain the opinion that
a separation could not take place without
bloodshed and civil war. There would not,
in my opinion, be the least danger of such a
result. What motive would impel the North
ern States to make war upon the Southern
Confederacy ? Nations do not go to war, ex
cept to resent an insult or injury, to gain an
advantage, or accomplish some important and
attainable object. What object could be' hoped
to be accomplished by a hostile demonstration
on the part of the States from which we may
have separated ? Would it he to force us back
into the Union with them? Vain, foolish,
impotent thought! No man of common sense
in all the North—no statesman would ever
entertain it for a moment. To invade and
conquer the Southern States and force them
back as revolted and subjected colonies into a
fraternal embrace with their impe rious mas
ters ! never-never. The sagacious statesmen
who would guide the councils of the Northern
people would know too well that such an ef
fort would be fruitless—nay, worse than fruit
less—it would be wicked and suicidal. The
Southern States contain a white population of
eight millions, and could in such a contest
raise and maintain an army of a half million
of inen, equal to any troops in the world ; and
fighting on their own soil in defence of their
country, their rights, their honor, their altars
and their firesides, would be invincible. Defend
themselves against the North! they could
stand against the world in arms. There are
but two instances in modern times, in which
a nation Un.ted, though weak, has ever been
invaded am! conquered by a foreign foe Mex
ico was overcome by the arms of the United
States ; but Mexicans are a feeble race, ami no
match for the courage, skill, and physical
prowess of the Anglo-Americans. Hungary,
with less than eight millions of people, was
conquered by Austria, but it required the aid
of the colossal power of Russia, and the treach
ery of her own sons, to bow her neck to the
yoke of the oppressor. Talk of driving the
South back into the Union when once she cuts
loose from it! The thought is preposterous,
ridiculous and foolish. No, sirs, no attempt
would ever lie made to force a re-union of these
dismembered States. The North might hum
ble herself at our feet and beseech us to try
once more the pleasures of her fraternal em
brace ; and if the terms of the proposed co
partnership suited us—if sufficient guarantees
could be presented and agreed upon for the
future preservation of our rights in another
Union—if we could be impressed with sufficient
faith in their fidelity and honesty, we might
again form, with our old friends, a bond of
Union, and try our fortunes once more in an
American Confederacy; but not otherwise.
It bos been suggested that trouble would
grow out of a division of the public domain,
and other property of the United States—the
army, the navy and materials of war- It is a
mistaken apprehension—no difficulty, what
ever, conld or would arise from that
source. If an arrangement could bo made,
each government would most naturally and
properaly be allowed to retain the public'lands
within its boundaries. The largest share fin
quantity might fall to the North, bnt the
fcouth would err* little for that—-retaining
those within her own limits, she would wil
lingly surrender all claim to the mountain
peaks and sterile plains of the Northern prov
inces. The army and its material are noth
ing, in case of seperation, its present elements
would soon dissolve and be merged with the
masses of its own respect!** section. We
could soon reconstruct an army of any size,
which the exigencies of our country would
justify or demand. The fortifications and arm
aments paid ojit of a common fund, would
belong to the party; on whose soil they were
found at the time of seperation. 'The ships of
war lying in Southern parts, or commanded
at sea by Southern officers, and brought into
Southern ports, would Ml to us, and we
should want no more—if we did, we could
build them. The public buildings at Wash
ington City, costing over twenty millions of
dollars, being on Southern soil, and in the
Southern Confederacy, would "belong to us,
and they are worth more than all the public
property, of any value or importance. But
the South would hold a sword over the North
ern States which would compel a fair and ami
cable settlement of all such matters. The
National debt, in case of a seperation, would
fall upon the old Government—certainly we
would be bouud in good faith and honor, to
pay our proportion of it, and so we would, if
the North gave ns justice in other matters;
hut whether we should pay at .all, how much
we should pay, and when or how, would be
questions for us to decide. The settlement of
this one question of the public debt, now
amounting to nearly one hundred millions of
dollars, aud not likely to be diminished, would
draw atter it, and as a necessary incident to it,
amicable and just arrangement and settlement
other questions—negotiation and treaty
—would soon close the door against all dis
putes or difficulties on these points.
No, fellow-citizens, there would be no earth
ly difficulty in the way, of a peaceable sepera
tion. If the Southern people were united and
determined, to take the step, the way would he
easy and plain. No war would ensue, not a
gun would be fired, except in joy at our deliv
erance ; not a drop of blood would be shed—
no quarrell would arise between the two sec
tions, over the spoils or trophies of our former
association. The mutual interests of the two
Governments and people, and more especially
the superior interests of the Northern section,
would produce treaties of friendship, ot com
mercial and personal intercourse which would
secure peace and make us more observant of
the rights of each other, than we are now in
the present “glorious union.” These would
be the immediate necessary and certain results
of a seperation willed by a united South. But
I admit that the prospect of a harmonious un
ion of all the slave States, in a great move
ment like this, would be dull and doubtful
under any, except extreme circumstances.—
Circumstances might arise which would unite
them all, and bring about prompt, decided and
successful action. Any act of the Federal Gov
ernment in the hands of a dominant abolition
party, looking to the general emancipation of
the slaves of the Southern States would, I
have no doubt, arouse a universal spirit of re
sistance at the South, and lead to iinm diate
disunion. But for any cause less powerful
than some wanton aggression upon Southern
rights, it would be scarcely possible to unite
the Southern States in a spontaneous and gen
eral revolutionary moment. The border
States, lying contiguous to the Ni rth dread
the effects of separation, upon the safety of
their slave property. Forgetting, or closing
their eyes to the fact that both the motive to
a I duct their negroes, and the opportunity to
the negro for escape, are a thousand times
stronger and greater in the, Union, than they
could possibly be in a separate Governments,
they urge this as a great bug-bear in the way
of any movement tending to separation, or
even the manly assertion of our rights iu the
Union. Why, sirs, what guards or guarantees
now exist against the wholesale abduction of
the slaves of the border States, or their escape
into the free States ? none, save the domestic
ties and fidelity of the slaves themselves anil
watchful vigilance of the owners. 'The North
ern people arc allowed by our Constitution
and laws, as well as by social courtesy, to come
amongst us at pleasure, they travel with im
punity in every State, county and neighbor
hood, and have abundant opportunity to in
culcate insurbordiuation and seduce our black
population from their allegiance. The facili
ties for escape now, are quite as great, if not
greater, than they would be if we were separa
ted by a national dividing line, whilst the out
side pressure upon the slave towards escape
and freedom, and his security from reclamma-
tion, are far more powerful and effective than
they ever could be in the other condition.—
None, under the Constitutional guarantees, we
cannot exclude the NorMiern Pirate from our
soil—in a seperate Government we would be
an alien and a stranger, without the ever to
enter, except by legal permission. Now, all
the laws which Congress has passed for the
c ipture anil rendition of fugitive slaves, stand
as a dead letter upon the statute book. What
are they worth to the Southern people ? Not
tlie value of the paper aud ink "with whicL
they liave been recorded. In a seperated State
and independent Government, the abduction
and detention of our slaves from the service of
their owners, would lie cause of war, or of re
taliating merasii res of resentment and redress
and the overruling cupidity and commercial
necessities of the Northern people—the para
mount importance to them of peaceful rela
tions with us, and of enjoying the benefits of
our trade and social intercourse, would impel
them into treaties with us, which would af
ford infinitely better guarantcese against the
abduction of our slaves, and for the return of
those who might voluntarily escape. Give me
the power over the commercial relations be
tween the North and the South, anil the foot
prints of Southern slaves North of Mason &
Dixon's line would be “like angles’ visits,
few and far between.” If a stray negro should
now aiid then escape and flee into that far and
free country, be would be caught and sent
bsgik to his owner in less time than lie occu
pied in his vain race for freedom. The Notli-
eru people may be controlcd by their interest—
they never have been governed by constitu
tional obligations, and never will be when
there is a negro slave in the case.
But whilst I am satisfisd that the people of
the border States are mistaken in their opin
ions and fears in this matter, still it is a pow - -
erful, perhaps a controlling objection in their
minds to the formation of a seperate confede
racy of tlie slave States. These and other
considerations, both local and general, would
in all probability, prevent a common concur
rence of all the Southern States in a move
ment towards separation, even for causes
which might be held sufficient by a majority
of them, and I doubt whether a general Con
vention could be obtained to consult upon
the common safety and to consider and decide
the question of disunion-; or, if such a con
vention was assembled, whether anything
like unanimity would prevail in its counsels.
Hew then, shall those States less than the
whole, or even less than a majority, satisfied
of the necessity, policy and sai red duty of
some action looking to their security out of the
Union—how shall they proceed towaids the
accomplishment of that object ?
Fellow-citizens, the action of a single State,
except under circumstances enlisting the
strong sympathies of her contiguous sisters,
might lead to defeat and disaster. If South
Carolina had resolved herself out of the Union
in 1832 on account of the alledged operations
of an odious protective Tariff, which at one
time was said to have been seriously consid
ered and contemplated, she could not have
resisted the combined opposition of all her
sister States, and the power of the Federal
Government, upheld as it was by the approv
ing voice of the country. The gallantry of
her sons would have maintained a hard strug
gle against Federal coercion, either in the
form of Federal laws or Federal bayonets;
but they would have been forced to yield at
last, and resume their former position as a
State in the Union. Whatever therefore,
might be my convictions of the unconstitu
tional and dangerous aggressions of the Nor
thern States and the necessity and propriety
of a Southern Confederacy to secure the rights
interests and honor of the South, I should lie
slow to recommend or approve the secession
of a single State, without the probable
co-operation of her coterminous sisters, and
still leas against their expressed will and
wish. But whenever a respectable number of
tho Southern States convinced of the necessity
or policy of seeking their safety or happiness
in a new Government, shall determine upon
such a step, they can accomplish that object,
if not without difficulty, at least without
bloodshed or civil war.
Let the States i f South Carolina, Geor
gia, Alabama and Mississippi, become ani
mated by a common spirit of Resistance to
Northern aggressions--let them become con
vinced that their safety, their interests or
their honors demand a separation from the
North and the formation of an independent
Government for themselves and their posteri
ty and a concerted and determined movement
by them would draw e eryother slave State
into that policy and compel them to join,
sooner or later in a So lithe n Confederacy
Unless conciliated and reconciled to their for
mer associates and the Union. Bv the con
cession of additional and satisfactory Consti
tutional guaranties, those four States c uld in
twelve months bre ik th bonds of this Union
so far asunder that no power on earth could
ever re-unite them. Let any of them, through
a Convention calle 1 by authority of its Legis
lature, solemnly resolve that the true policy
of the South was to form a seperate Govern
ment and express a willingness and readiness
to join any of her sister Southern Sbites in
the formation an I maintainance of such a
Government - Le. her invite in an imposing
and solemn form b11 others agreeing with her
in opinion and object, to appoint delegates to
a convention to be held at a time and place
designated, for th * purpose of declaring thei
independence anii setting up a Govemmen*
for themselves. Let such Convention of the
States suggested or others meet and in obedi
ence to the will and wish of tiieir constitu
ents, declare their indepenpence of the pres
ent Federal Gover n nent ; frame a Constitu
tion and Government and proclaim themsel
ves to the world, a free and independent na
tion. Would any effort be made to force
them back into the Union? How and by
whom? Could the Federal laws of the old
Government he e;;forced over /sovereign States
thus united anil d -termined to be free ? Fed
eral laws aud Federal officers would be alike
powerless and imp tent. Would ships of war
be sent to blockade our ports, o enforce the
collection of Federal revenues, to cripple or
destroy our trade and break up our inter*
course with Foreign nations ? Vain attempt !
The million and a half of cotton bales produ
ced by these fon r States, to say nothing of
other articles of e x n< >rt, would buret asunder
every barrier which Federal power could
throw around them. Prohibited by our own
laws from passing i nto aud through the ad
joining States of ihe Government, these im
mense objects of commerce aud wealth would
find their way t * the ocean anil over it and
to the other countries in spite of Federal laws
or Federal guns. Any attempt to shut out
such a supply fi in the cotton looms of the
old world, would set all Europe in a blaze and
bring to our aid the liberating navies of every
commercial nation. Would an attempt be
made to*invade a* *1 conquer us as rebels w th
Federal arms and Federal armies ? The first
Regiment that crossed Mason Dixon’s line on
such an errand, would be the signal for the
rising up of thousands of stout hearts and
stalwart arms, ev n in those Southern States
that had not johi« 1 us, to drive the abolition
invaders back to their deus. Who can for a
moment suppose that the other Slave States
would either stand indifferently by, or join
in*a movement of the Federal Government,
usurped or controlled by Northern abolition
ists, to strike down the spirit of Southern re
sistance and coerce their kindren and friends
into degrading submission ? No, sire, tbe
very first attempt at Federal legislation look
ing to coercion—the very first military move
ment towards our conquest would arouse the
sympathies of all our sister Southern States,
and drive them out of the old and bring tln-m
with hasty steps into the open aud inviting
arms of the new Republic. Such would
be the inevitable ■ feet of any hostile deinon-
strtaion against the new Confederacy, and no
such demonstrat .ou would be made. Nor
would it matter v hetlierany effort were made
or not, to coerce th • seceding States into their
former position i ; the Union. A new Gov-
once formed and put into operation would at
tract all the other slave States to it, no human
power could hold them off. The attractions
of a common ini crest and a common sym
pathy ; of a common race, language and re
ligion ; of common danger, insult and inju-
; of kindred associations and kindred in
stitutions ; of similar pursuits and similar
objects; of a like origin and a like destiuy,
would be as potent as tlie all-powerful aud
all-pervading natural laws of attraction and
gravitation, to unite, fasten and bind them
together by a bond too strong to be broken by
the combined efforts of all the nations of the
earth. No, fellow-citizens let a Southern
Confederacy be once formed by even a few of
the slave States, and all the laws which con
trol human action would stamp their impress
upon every southern State of this Union aud
be irresistable.
And now, for wh it cause, and on what oc
casion shall such a movement be made by any
of the Southern States ? This question is al
ready answered, to a certain extent, by the
solemn declaration of our own State, enuncia
ted at Milledgeville in the Convention of De
cember, 1850. That Convention was not one
formed by voluntary primary meetings of the
people assembled in small numbers, aud as
usual in such cases, controled by a few lead -
ing and ambitious men—it was a Convent'on
■ailed by the Giivemor un< ler the authority and
instruction of the legislature—tlie Delegates
elected by the people '*f the several Counties
under the usua’ rule ■ and regulations of law
they were chosen after a protracted and hea
ted contest, in whicl ill the objects and bear
ings of the proposed Convention were fully dis
cussed and considere ! by tli. people—it was an
authoritative and imposing Convention, com
posed of some of the ablest and best men of
both political parties in the State—it, spoke
the voice of tlie people in unmistakable lan
guage, and although there was a large and re
spectable party in the State, which did not
think that the Convention went lar enough,
yet they acquiesced in its final action
and its solemn Resolutions of resis
taiice in the future. I may safely say that
if the people of Georgia were never before or
are not now, united upon any other political
subject, they are uniu.d upon the Platform
framed by thatfConveution. The 4th Resolu
tion ofthat Platform declares, “That the State
of Georgia in the judgment of this Convention
will and ought to resi t, even (asa last resort)
to a disruption of every tie which binds er to
the Union, any action of Congress upon the
subject of slavery iu the District of Columbia,
or in places subject to I he j urisdiction of Cou-
gress, incompatible with safety, domestic tran
quility, the rights and honor of the slavehold
ing States; or any act suppressing the slave
trade between the sla\ i-hofi ling States; or any
refusal to admit as a St .te any Territory here
after applying because oi the existence of sla
very therein; or any act prohibiting the i; tro-
iluction of slaves into the Territories of Utah,
or New Mexico ; or any act repealing or ma
terially modifying the laws now in force for
the recovery of fugitive, slaves.”
Since the adoption of that Platform the un
mistakable voice of most of the Southern States
has applauded and approved it, and expressed
their determination to stand by Georgia in its
maintainance, "‘even to the disruption of all
the ties that bind them to the Union.” Now
let any one of the provisions of that Platform
he violated by an aboli ■ ion Congress, and t he
Union would be dissol . od in less time than it
took to form it. It w aid not, in my opin
ion, live another year. So far so good—come
what may, the true-hearted Southern man,
who is ready and willing to risk the alledged
and apprhended ilangi re of separation and a
Southern Confedcrrcy, has the consolation to
know that Congress can do neither of the acts
embraced and prohibited in that bold and de
fiant declaration without producing disunion
aud bringing about the ultimate aud perma-
net protection of our institutions in another
and better Government. Let tbe abolitionists
of tlie North, take the Federal Government, if
they can, anil put our pluck to the test by vi
olating any portion of the Georgia Platform.
Lei them do it if they can—let them do it if Huey
will—let them do it if they dare. But is there no
other cause, no other action of the free States
which would ju-tify seperation and pr u dy
produce it ?
Fellow-citizens, I have sai elsewhere The
election ot a Northern President, up m a sec
tional and anti-slavery issue, will be co sider-
ed cause enough to justify secession. Let the
Senator from New York, [Mr. Seward,] or any
other man avowing the sentments and policy
enunciated by him in Lis Rochester speech,
be elected President of theUuited States, and,
[COXCLFDBB OX SECO.NB PA«£.]