The Southern tribune. (Macon, Ga.) 1850-1851, March 23, 1850, Image 2

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SOUTHERN TRIBUNE. t CITED AND PUBLISHED WEEKLY, BY W3I. B . HARRISON . Mr. Beiuiiiiips Letter. To the Editor of the Southern Sentinel , Sir—-In your last paper, a communica tion signed‘Muscogee,” closes with the following sentence: "If harmony and union are to prevail, let the opinions and policy of those who are selected as candidates be fully and freely expressed, and let the selection fall on no ultraist.” I know not whether this was meant for me or not. Indeed I have not been di rectly notified of my nomination as a can didate to represent the 2d district, in the Nashville Convention. All that 1 know, on that subject is, what I have seen in the newspapers, and what I have heard from unofficial persons. But as I think there can bo but little doubt of my having in fact received such nomination from the Demo cratic party by its representatives at Mil ledgeville, and also to some extent by its own primary action in some parts of the District, and as 1 am willing to serve if elected, and as this is not a time to stand upon forms, I will with your permission seize the oppoitunaty which the communi cation of “Muscogee” presents to express, through your colums, the opinions which I entertain on the subjects in question. I think then, tho following propositions are true. 1. That the North has already the will to abolish slavery every where in the U. States as soon as she can do it safely to herself. 2. That she is rapidly acquiring the power to carry out this will. 3. That of all the calamities which ever afflicted a nation, there have been none which would equal those which abolition would visit upon the Southern States. A few words upon each of these. The first you will observe, Mr. Editor, is only what you yourself assert in more energet ic and unlimited language in the same pa per, when you say. “it is the solemn and fixed determination of the Northern States to extirpate slavery from the confines of the American Union." Surely elaborate argu ment and citation of proofs arc not requir ed, to establish this proposiion. Wc can almostsee itstruth with our eyes. Where ever the North has hitherto been able to abolish slavery with impunity, she has in variably abolished it. The old Northern ; States were all, at one time, sla'e Staes. Each has abolished slavery within its own limits bylaw. The constitution to which the North gave her solemn assent requires her to surrender fugitive slaves who may be found in her midst, to their owners, on being claimed. Instead of observing this obligation, she knowingly and deliberately violates it as far as she can do so, without incurring physical penalty. In place of surrendering such fugitives she throws a round them a barrier of legal enctment, judicial interpretation and public opinion which to the master is impassable or passa ble only at the risk of his life. Every Northern State, with perhaps one or two exceptions, confined to those late ly admitted into theUnion,has passed laws, the wh'de aim of which is to render the constitution in this particular, a nullity that is to say, as much as in her lies the North, has already applied the principle of abolition to the slavery of the Southern States. She has done this not only at the expence of her faith most solemnly plight ed to the South, but in contravention of a most darling domestic policy of her own— that which seeks to include free negroes from her bonds—for what can she make of a rescued slave but a free negro] Ran dolph’s emancipated slaves to the number of some three hundred were driven out of Ohio as a3 a curse—had they been slaves unemancipated and fleeing from him, their legal owner, every door would have flown open at their approach for welcome and Concealment. Year after year her intre pidity in this sort of treachery, becomes more and more atrocious. About two years ago the pursuer of a fugitive slave was mobbed and murdered in Pensylva nia. Nothing has been done with the mur derers ; they have not even been placed under the ban of public opinion. The mob was not made up of riff-raffand scum neither. Professors in Colleges, ministers of the Gospel, figured conspicuously.— Even now, Pensylvania has a Maryland er in jail whom she found on her free soil seeking forhis runaway slave—put there on some other miserable pretext. The case is so glaring, that Maryland in lier sovereign capacity has had to take notice of it, and send thither her own counsel to try to have iustice done the man. Yet Pennsylvania is claimed to bo the North ern State which is infected with abolition in its mildest form. At the late great abo lition convention in Massachusetts it was made a boast, that no fugitive slave had been recovered from that State for the last seven years. Indeed the case there and in all New England, and the greater part of New York and Ohio, now is,that a fugi tive ftom the South is not only protected, but he is instantly made a lion of. Thou sands assemble to hear him tell his “expe rience to sympathize with him, to curse the slave ocracy. Such conduct is gloried in by ‘a moral and religious people.* It was but the other day that a whole steam boat load of slaves was stolen from the city of Washington, during the sitting of Congress, almost in the face of the sun, and in open defiance of law. Having ex tirpated slavery from her own soil, the North is now ready to go beyond it. She is now ripe to abolish slavery iti the Dis trict of Columbia, in all the’ U. S. forts, arsenals, dockyard*, ships, &c She can hardly be restrained from instantly pounc- ‘ ing, at every hazard, upon the District of Columbia. The apprehension of deter mined resistance on the part of the whole South is barely sufficient to rein her in.— The Union is a partnership, in which all the members are equals and entitled to share profits, and divide losses. This part nership since it has been in operation has acquited nearly 2,500,000 square miles of ten ilory of land. But such has been the hatred of the North to slavery, that tramp ling under foot this characteristic and es sential quality of every partnership—this first dictate of the sentiment of justice even in its rudest state of developcment, she has appropriated, or is appropriating to herself three fourths of all of this rich acquisition, and is prosecuting a fierce claim to third a of the residue—to half of Texas. Almost every Northern State has, in some form, announced the principle that i slavery must he abolished by the general government in all places in which it has ju risdiction over the subject, and that it must he excluded from all places in which it does not now at present exist. Yeta while, she would be understood by this to point at the district of Columbia and the territories only. But the genaral welfare clause in the constitution is her pet clause. Rapidly becoming a majority large enough to com mand every branch of the government, it needs but her favorite interpretation of that clause—that is a liberal one, to give her jurisdiction over slavery in the States as well as in thedistrict of Columbia and the territories. Mr. Wm. H.Seward, ‘the ris ing star of the North’ thus delivered him se f little more than a year ago,in a studied address to the people of Cleai eland, Ohio, “Slavery can be limited to its present bcunds—it can be ameliorated—it can be ami it must he abolished, and you and l ran and must do it." When did he ever mis take the beat of the public pulse I Tli 1 tone of Horace Mann, Tbad. Stevens, Col. Bissell, each representing a distinct section of the North—New England—the middle States-tlie Northwest, in their late speech es, what does it proclaim but war to the knife, unending war upon slavery 1 will these different sections repudiate these men 1 It were fatuity to believe it.— Are not the voices of the whole one bun died and forty membeis of the House from the North tuned in unison ? and what are they,the faint echoes of the cease less howls of their mighty constituency I The sentiment of abolition, universal abo lition pervades the Northern mass, like gravity does mutter. 2. That the North is rapidly acquiring the power to carry this sentiment into ef fect. She is doing this, by seizing to her self all ot the public territory, by fright ening slavery out of the border slave btatis, by the well founded expec.ancy of the early annexation of Canada; by ahsoib ing into her bosom the whole tide of foreign emigration atnonting fr0m250,000 to 300, 000 peisons a year—by establishing a sys tem of laws—tariffaud others, which pours into her lap annually millions of the sub stance of the South—by growing into a size which according to the law of our present organization, will soon give her the legal control of the purse and sword of the whole nation, and which in short, will en able her to wield all her strength of what ever kind or h >\vever acquired, agaimt the South, to the very best advantage— whilst this is going on at the North, the South moulders away—a black population flows in upon the South Atlantic and the Gulf States, and by and bye, under a sense of the coming catastrophe, a w hite one in constantly increasing volume flows out. The decreasing remnant of whites, growiug more and more disspitited.w ill in the end bo easily crushed under the united mass of the negroes and the North. The North as rapidly acquiring the power to abolish slavery at her mere pleasure— Abolition therefore is only a question of time. Some thirty or fifty years off. 2. What is abolition 1 It is certainly universal Bankruptcy to all those States in which slavery may be found existing when it is proclaimed—it is almost a-; certainly the extirpation of the whole white race. The 3000,000 slaves now in the South are worths 1,200,000,000. By the time abolition comes, they will probably have doubled their numbers and their value. The loss of 2,000,000 of dollars, whether it conics in the twinkling of an eye, or is spread over half a dozen years, connot but re sult in indiscriminate bankruptcy. The incomes of Cotton, Sugar and Rice plant ers will be cut down to nothing—stiil they will be better off than any otherclasss “f the community savetbo hoarders of gold; they will still have their lands—being all the lands which are choice. From these they may draw a precarious support, such as are out of debt—but they will have little or nothing to buy with from the mer chant—to pay the mechanic —to supply to laborits wages. The occupations of these latter classes will be utterly gone until a new system—a new order of things can be slowly and gradually, if at all, constructed out of the old disrupted fragments. This is the most favorable, the mildest effect which can be anticipated from abolition. But, in addition to this, we may look for honors, such as have not been seen since the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus—and were not then. A war will break out be tween the white race and the black, which, from its nature, must be a war without quarter, without mercy, without any civil ized usages—a war which shall spare nei ther age nor sex, nor condition—a war in which women shall pray for unpolluted death, as a delivcrence beyond price. The Notlh having decreed abolition, will, of course, assist in executing her own decree. She will not take tho 6ide of the whites who will be heaping upon her curses and anathemas as the author of the evil. Join ing the negroes, the united forces over whelm the whites—all of the latter are killed, except, perhaps, some miseiable remnant which may, like the outcast Sem inolcs, find a temporary refuge in the ev et glades of Flot ida, or like the aboriginal Britons, escape into some inaccessible Wales. In the end, the allies fall out, too. The North begins to covet the rich lands and the happy climate which have fallen to the lot of the negroes. She picks a quarrel with them, Then comes a war.— Then peace, on condition of a large slice of territory to the stronger poicer. This process being repeated a few times, the black race will be driven into the Atlantic, as the Red is being driven into the Pacific. This, 1 take it, is the kind of thing abolition will be. If I am l ight in these positions, it is plain what should be the object and the duty of I the Nashville Convention. It should be to provide a remedy for the coming evil, that is to say, to devise some means by which the fixed determination of the North to abolish slavery shall he abandoned, or if that is impossible, by which her acqui sition of the power to abolish it may be attested. The remedy must be adequate to the accomplishment of one of these two things, or manifestly it will prove a mere delusion and a snare. Now, I have no doubt the Convention will have in it wis dom en< ugh and patriotism enough to hit upon and to recommend for adoption such a r rnedy. Should the one selected be found within the Union, it will afford me sofuraa I am individually concerned,high gratification should it not, still I will ac cept it even at the expence of the Union. I consider escape from the evils to which I have alluded, a matter to be weighed, even against all the honor and all the profit of an alliance with Mr. Webster and Se ward, Mr. Cass and Mr. Bissel.Mr. Corwin and Mr. Mann, Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Wil mot, Messrs. Van Burcn, and Stevens, (Iliad.) Root, Allen, Tuck, Giddings, Gates, and their respective associates and followers. Most assuredly l will notsup port any remedial measure which looks to a dissolution of the Union, except in the language of “Muscogee,” “that shall be the last and only honorable alternative.” This I believe, to be what, not only the 2d district, but the whole South, would have me do. And the will of that district 1 would hold to be a law to me whether it agreed with my own or not—any thing else would he a misrepresentation instead of a representation of the district. Thus, sir, you have my opinions upon some leading points in the slavery question —upon the objects and duty of the Nash ville Convention and upon the course which l should pursue if honored with a seat in that Convention. Other kindred topics in vite to discussion, and these might no doubt, be expanded to advantage, but en gagements, which will not be put off, re strain me from the undertaking. The papers of the District will much oblige me, by laying this communication before their readers. HENRY L. HENNING. Mr. Toomb’s Letter. ( Copy.) Washington, D.C.. March 11, ISSO. *iit: 1 have received, under cover of your favor of ihe 25th ult., the resolutions passed by tbe late General Assembly of the State of Georgia. J he Bth resolution of the series declares that it will become the immediate and im perative duty of the people of this State (Georgia) to meet in convention to take into consideration the mode and measures ot redress, upon the happening of either ot the four contingencies : Ist. The passage of the Wilmot Pro viso by Cong: ess. 2d. The abolition of slavery in the Dis trict of Columbia. 3d. The admission of California as a State in its present pretended organiza tion. 4th. The continued refusal of the non slaveholding States to deliver up fugitive slaves as provided by tho Constitution.” The happening of either the first, second or fourth of these contingencies would jus tify the proposed measure, hut, in my opin ion, the happening of the third contingency would not warrant it. And I deeply re gret that a just cause should he endangered by the assumption of such an unwise and untenable position. Congress has the ex press power to admit new States. The admission of California under that power is purely and solely a question of Congres sional discretion, and would present nei ther a just nor a sufficient cause for State interposition, or revolutionary resistance. It would neither present a case of the usurpation of power. I cannot but believe that its insertion was not based upon a just regard for tbe public welfare, but that it was prompted mainly by that disposition to promote local party schemes and objects which so eminently marked and disgraced the action of the majority of the General Assembly. Asa representative of the people of Georgia, I shall exercise this constitutional discretion without reference to the opin ions of the General Assembly, and shall vote for or against the admission of Califor nia, as in my judgment, will best promote the public interest. Asa citizen of the State, I shall oppose the action proposed by the Legislature, even if California shall be admitted against my vote. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. 'TOOMBS. To His Excellency, Gtorge W. Towns, Governor of Georgia. Thirty-First Congress. FIRST SESSION. In Senate, March 13. Mr. Douglas presented the memorial of William M. Gwin and John C. Fremont, Senators, and G. W. Wright and Edward Gilbert, Representatives, of the State of California, accompained by a certified copy of the constitution of that State, and the credentials of the Senators elected by the Legislature thereof, requesting, in the name of the people of California, admis sion as a State into the Union. Ordered to lie on the table and be printed. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. Mr. Seward presented ten petitions of citizens of different counties in New York, praying the abolition of slavery in the Ter ritories and the District of Columbia, &c- Also, a petition from citizens and electors of West Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, asking, that whenever a persou shall be arrested as a fugitive slave in any State other than that in which he is held to ser vice, he shall not be delivered to the mas ter or agent.unless on the finding of a jury. The Secretary then read one of the petitions as follows : “ Petition for the establishment and pro tection of freedom in the Territories of the L nited States.and against the admis sion of more slave States into the Union. 'To the Congress of the United States; “The undersigned, citizens and electors of the State of New York, residing in Hamilton, in the county of Madison, res pectfully pray, that slavery and the slave trade may be expressly prohibited by act of Congress, in all the Territories of the United States ; and that no State shall hereafter be admitted into the Union, un less its constitution shall expressly prohib it the introduction or existence of slavery within its limits. “Hamilton, March, 1550.” On the question being put to lay the petition on the table the yeas and nays were as follows : Yeas—Messrs. Atchison,Benton, Butler, Clemens, Davis of Mississippi, Dawson, Dickinson, Foote, Hunter, King, Mason, Pratt, Rusk, Sturgeon, and Yulee—ls. Nays —Messrs. Badger,Baldwin, Chase, Clay, Corwin, Davis of Massachusetts, Dayton, Dodge of lowa, Dodge of Wis consin, Douglas, Felch, Hale, Hamlin, Jones, Miller, Phelps, Seward, Smith, Un derwood, Upham, Wales, and Webster— -22. So the question of reception was not laid on the table. The Vice President said the question recurs on the motion to receive. The motion was agreed to, and the pe tition was received and referred to the Committee on the Territories. Mr. Sevvaid then presented the three oiber petitions of a similar character. Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, objected to their reception. The \ ice President put the question to receive, and it was agreed to by a majori ty of IS to 13. These petitions were then severally re ferred to the committee on the Territories. SLAVERY SELECT COMMITTEE. The following gentlemen have been named as the Select Committe of Thirteen 5)11 Mr. Foote’s proposition, viz : Mr. Clay, chairman ; Messrs. Webster, Phelps, Cooper, Cass, Dickinson, Dodge, jr., Mason, Soule, Butler, Mangum, Beil, and Berrien. Mr. Benton introduced a resolution to the effect that the said committee should not take into consideration anything which relates to the admission of the Stale of California into the Union. Mr. Webster said from what I have seen sir, and from what we have all seen and heard, within the last month, my own per suasion is, that no benefit is likely to arise from any attempt to draw up a series of resolutions for the settlement of all the questions now in agitation. I see no hope that such a series of resolutions would pass the two Houses of Congress. At the close of my remarks on Thursday, 1 signified that l should take an opportunity, as ear ly as might be convenient, consistently with the rights of others, to say wdiat I had to say on the subject immediately embra ced by the resolution if the chairman of the Committee on the Territories [Mr. Douglas,] anti the amendment proposeil to it by the honorable member from Mis souri, [Mr. Benton,] Upon the direct] subject of the admission of California, un der the circumstances, I have not a parti cle of doubt. lam clear in the opinion, that the true course—and the only course of proceeding efficiently—is to keep that measure separate; and 1 am prepared to vote for the admission of California exactly as she presen ts herself with her boundaries ’precisely as they are; and I hope, in a very short course of observations addressed to the Senate, to show, that if the question were now here before us, aud we were ourselves to prescribe boundaries for Cali fornia, we could not make any boundaries lor that State better than are provided for by her own constitution. In order to make out this, I propose to say something upon the nature of the country the extent of the Territory, and whatsoever else may appropriately belong to the question of ■! o boundaries of States in that quarter of >iie world. In short, I incline to think it expedient—quite expedient—to proceed in that course of legislation which the President has suggested, in his message transmitting the constitution of California. Mr. Cass said that as long as I have a vote to give, I will faithfully carry out the spirit of the articles of Texas annexation ; and I will not look behind their guaranties. I will abide by them, and I am prepared at all times to say so. * * * * In relation to a compromise Mr. Cass said i “Tbe Missouri compromise fine is, therefore, as much out of the question as the Wilmot Proviso." HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Mr. King presented the following con current resolutions of the Legislature of New York, and he moved that they be laid upon the table, and printed ; desiring that, in the first instance, they should be read. The resolutions were read, as follows : CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS. State of New York. In Senate, January 16A, 1850. Resolved, (if the Assembly concur,) That, as the Federal Constitution was for med and adopted expressly to secure the blessings of liberty to the people of the United States, and their posterity, there fore, the Federal Government ought to relieve itself from all responsibility for the existence or continuance of slavery or the slave-trade, wherever it lias the constitu tional power over those subjects ; and our Senators in Congress are hereby instruc ted, and our Representatives are reques ted, to use their best efforts to procure the passage of laws, that will effectually and forever put an end to the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Resolved, (if the Assembly concur,) That the determination indicated by the Gov ernors’ Message., and the resolutions of the Legislatures of various of the slave holding States, and by the Representatives of such States in Congress, to extend do mestic slavery over the Territory acquired by the late treaty of peace with the Repub lic ot Mexico, we feel bound to oppose by all constitutional means ; and recognizing the constitutional power of Congress, to prohibit, by positive enactment, the ex tension of slavery into free territory, our Senators in Congress are hereby instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use their best efforts to insert such a positive prohibition into any law they may pass for the government of the Territories in question. Resolved, (if the Assembly concur,) That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to res ist, firmly, and to the utmost of their abili ty, and by such positive legislation as may be necessaiy, the extension ofhumanslave ry, or the jurisdiction of Texas over any part of New Mexico. Resolved (if the Assembly concur,) That we have learned, with great satisfaction, that the people of California have adopted a cons ituti. n, which is entirely in accor dance with the spirit of the free institutions < f our country ; and our Senators in Con gress are hereby instiucted, and our Rep resentatives requested, to aid in the pass age of such laws as may be necessary to admit that State into the Union. Resolved, (if the Assembly concur,) That the people of this State are desirous of preserving inviolate, the Federal Union, and that they will strenuously oppose all attempts, from whatever source they may emanate, or under whatever pretence they may be made, to effect its dissolution. Resolved, (if the Assembly concur,) That the Governor be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolutions to each of the Senators and Representatives from this State in Congress. By order of the Senate. WM. HENRY BOGART, Clerk. State of New York. In Assembly, February l\th, ISSO. Resolved, That the Assembly do concur in the passage of the foregoing resolutions. By order, JAS. R. ROSE, Clerk. Mr. Preston King moved that the rules be suspended, in order that the motion to print might be considered now. The question ; "Shall the rules be sus pended ]” was then taken, and decided in the negative—yeas 107, nays 63, as fol lows : Yeas —Messrs. Albertson, Alexander, Andrews, Ashman, Bennett, Bingham, Bissell, Booth, Bowlin, Brooks, Buel, Burrows, C. Butler, T. B. Butler, Calvin, Carter, Casey, Chandler, Cleveland, Cole, Conger, Corwin, Crowell, Dimmick, Dis ney, Dixon, Doty, Duer, Duncan, Dun ham, Durkeo, Fitch, Fowler, Freedley, Fuller. G erry, Giddings, Goodenow, Gor man, Gott, Gould, Grinnell, Hammond, Hampton, Harlan, Hebard, Henry, Hib bard, Hoagland, Howe, Hunter, Julian, Daniel P. King, George G. King, James G. King, John A. King. Preston King, Leffler, Horace Mann, Job Mann, Mat teson, McLanahan, It. M.McLane, Moore, Morris Nelson, Nes, Olds, Otis, Peaslee, Peck, Potter, Putnam, Reed, Reynolds, Richardson, Itobbins, Robbinson, Root, Itumsey, Sackett, Schoolcraft, Silvester, Spalding, Sprague, Thaddeus Stevens, Stetson, Taylor, James Thompson, Wil liam Thompson,Thurman,T nck,Uiulerbill, Van Dyke, Vinton, Walden, Waldo, Wentworth, White, Whittlesey, Wildrick, Wilson,Winthrop, Wood, and Youn"— 107. IVajrs-Messrs. Alston, Anderson, Ashe, Averett, Bay, Boyd, Breck, A. G. Brown, Burt, J. P. Caldwell, Clingman, W. R. W. Cobb, Colcock, Deberry, Edmundson, Alexander Evans, Ewing. Gilmore, Green, Haekctt, Hall, Hamilton, Haralson, Isham G. Harris, Haymond, Hilliard, Holliday, Holmes, Howard, J. IV. Jackson, James L. Johnson, Jones, Kaufman, La Sere, Marshall, Mason, McDowell, F. E. Mc- Lean, McMullen, McQueen, McWillie, Morse, Morton, Orr, Parker, Phelps, Pow ell, Ross, Savage, Shepperd, Stanly, F. p. Stanton, Richard H. Stanton, Alexander H. Stephens, Thomas, John B, Thompson, Toombs, Venable, Wallace, Watkins Well born, Williams, ar.d Woodward—63. So two-thirds not voting ; n the affirma tive, the rules were not suspended. And the motion to print lies over for de bate. Correspondence of the Charleston Washington, March 12 I wish to impress upon your reade very important fact, and I assure 1 lemnly, that it is a fact .well known u,* 0 ! here, who are conversant with the sen-t --ents of a majority of the Northern me bers of both Houses. Their minds made up to admit California, and to „ J vent the further extension of slavery only in the newly acquired Territorial but Mr. Seward spoke the sentiments ri this majority, when he stated the law 0 compact to be unconstitutional which idud for the admission of three more slave States from the Territory of Texas 9 They would not halt as they now do f single instant, did this majority of Northern members not feel some doubt about the true Southern sentiments and designs They are fearful you may be in earner though they dont believe you are. Still there is a doubt, and which might make the immediate admission of Californ a dangerous, and they prefer waiting. Mr Seward honestly expressed the contempt which the North feel on the subject of your separating from them. They do not believe it can be done. They believe that you are divided in the South in sentiment They say, the South has talked about separation and disunion, that it is all stuff and nonsense, and mere wind. That the Southern people have no idea of anything of the kind; that the South could not be driven off if the North was to do their best to get rid of them and the cursed insti tution of slavery together; that the South are noisy, and threatening through their delegates in Congress, who are kicking pu a rumpus in Washington only to gains little popularity and deputation; that the North should vote them down at once, and have done with it; and that ever after tbev will be as quiet a3 lambs ; that if any at. tempt at disunion is made it will be put down by a proclamation, as was done bv General Jac kson; but if the South should go further than it is expected or believed at the North, that thy dare go, then troops and volunteers will enter such Southern States as are troublesome, and side with the friends of the Union in restoring peace, and hanging the ringleaders; that if Messrs Calhoun, Mangum, Mason, Davis,Birt, Toombs, Ci.ingman, and other leading members of eithet House should atemptto leave their seats and return home to their constituents, in consequence of any act being passed by Congress, as they have some of them threatened to do, then that the Government will act promptly, arrest and confine them there until all is quie ed, not allowing them to go homo after threa tening to excite rebellion. These are facts. These things the North rely upnn, for they do not believe that the South are in earnest; so far from it they believe it to be the mere braggadocia of a few dissat isfied Southern politicians. This shows the importance of the people of the South ern States acting together at this time, and meeting in Convention at Nashville; for while there is any doubt in the North ern mind that the South are, or are not, divided, no justice or forbearance will be shown towards the Southern States by Northern Legislatures, or people, or by Congress. Let people of the South act decidedly in favor of’that Convention. Its ohjcc s are peace, unity of sentiment, and a desire to save the Union, if it can be sav ed by a unanimous declaration from that body, of w hat the Southern States demand. If the Convention debate the matter peace ably tlie Executive will not interfere, fur ther than what has already been under stood to have been decided upon by the President and his Cabinet. The Pres ident will issue a Proclamation about the 20th of May, calling upon all the citizens of the South to be on their guard, not to be led astray,or take any part in the Conven tion if its design shall lake a treasonable direction. A military force will be order ed to the neighborhood ofNashvilie, and Gen. Soott, (with troops, and to coop erate with Gen. Taylor in putting down any attempts to dissolve the Union,) will be ordered to that section of the country to sustain the General Government, should it be found necessary to arrest any of the parties w-ho may take part in what the Government may proclaim to be treason able to the Union. The Sieges of 1849.— Tlie past yearwillbi memorable in the military history for t/ie extra ordinary number of important sieges which oc curred. Tlie Loudon Times gives a summary view of these sieges: “No less than ten great cities or fortresses of Europe were invested and attacked —some oftlicm places of historical ren' own, which had been exempt for ages from the direct violence of and enemy. In Italy, Rome and Venice were captured after a protracted and regular siege of a most remarkable character- Genoa and Acona were reduced by bombard ment the revolutionary garrisons being unable to suffice for their complete defence. In Denmark tlie fortress of Fredercia successfully resisted the besieging army, and enabled the royal forces b; a rally to turn the fortune of the war. In d> c Palatinate, Landau was invested without but Kastadt was taken witli some loss and delay* by the Prussians. In Hungnrytlie abortive sieg es of Comorn and Peterwardcin maintained ll |el ' invincible reputation ; whilst the heroic defence of Temcswar and the storm of Buda must b® considered the most brilliant exploits of that fa |a war. In most of these reinarksble cases, It® ne cessityof acting against fortitiod towns an positions arose from the circumstance that tb ,t revolutionary party placed more reliance on j** strength behind tbe walls of cities than in 1 field. (O’lt is believed from the experiment‘d Becqucrel, R. Hunt,and Sit Jahn Herschel, 1 nt no distant period we shall be ablo t° * portraits and landscapes, by tho Daguerreanp r cess, with all the charms of truthful colorifS