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SOUTHERN TRIBUNE ,
PUBLISHED WEEKLY, BY
W?I . B. HARRISON.
WM. B. HARRiIUnT i
asd > Editors. »
WM. 3. LAWTON, )
Letter from Cteu. ML B. LANAU.
To the Editors of the .llabama Tribune.
Gentlemen —Will you be pleased to
insert the accopanying letter in the co
lumns of your paper ? It was prepared
in reply to an invitation to attend a Mass
Meeting at Macon, Georgia, of the oppo
nents to the so called campromiac or ad
justment bill of Mr. Clay, and in favor of
the Missouri line 0f3336 3 30'; but not hav.
ing been finished in time f«>r that occasion,
1 desire its publication for the purpose of
laying my views before many of my
friends who have expressed a wish to learn
them.
In this letter, I have not entered particu
larly into a discussion of the practical fea
tures of the measures in question, but
have confined myself to an examination of
the general principles involved. But there
is one subject upon which, it is perhaps
proper that I should add a few words. I
refer to the controversy as to the boundary
of Texas. It fell to my lot while Presi
dent of the Republic, to become intimate
acquaiuted with the nature of the claim
connected with the Santa Fe country. —
The right of Texas to all the territory
east of the Rio Grande was considered as
indisputable as her right to any other por
tion of her possessions. This had been
asserted from the first and was never sur
rendered. During my administration 1
despatched a military force to Santa Fe
to establish our jurisdiction, and but for
unfortunate divisions in the command,
the object would have been fully accom
plished. Her right was discussed, and
fully recognised at the time of her en
trance into the Union. It is now prepos
terous and disgraceful to deny her title.—
The proposition made by Congress to pay
her ten millions of dollars for her country,
coupled with the alternative of having it
wrested from her by the federal bayonet,
if she refuses to accede to the proposal, is
only another proof of the high-handed and
arbitrary character of our Government,
and demonstrates the military despotism
into which it is running. What course it
is proper for Texas to take, I cannot now
pause to consider ; but must add that 1 am
most decidedly opposed to her accepting
thi3 plundered rights
and outraged honor.
The insertion of this hasty note and the
accompanying letter will greatly oblige,
Your obedient servan’,
MIRABEAU B. LAMAR.
[Here follows tbe letter of the Commit
tee of attend the Mass Meet
ing in this city, to which Gen. Lamar re
plied as follows :J .
Mobile, August 16, 1350.
Gentlemen —Last evening I had the lion
or to receive your communication, inviting
me attend a Mass Meeting of those oppos
cud to Mr. Clay’s Compromise Bill, and
favor of the Missouri line, to be held
at Macon on the 22d lust. Coming as this
invitation does, from many of my old
friends, acquaintances and neighbors, in
whose political sentiments and purposes 1
usually sympathise, it vvouldgive me great
pleasure, were it in my power, which 1
regret to say that it is not, to be present
on that occastion, to take counsel with
them upon the perilous circumstances in
which our country is placed. My desire
to allend is not diminished by the fret that,
there would probably be a diversity of
Benliment upon some of tbe points involv
ed , or that I might not bo able to conincide
entirely in all the measures approved by
the assemblage. Still, as we would have
one end in view—that of deciding upon
the best means of securing the rights of
the South and preserving the Constitution
—and as we would feel equally the mag
n tilde and importance of the crisis, we
could not fail to unite in a fraternal spirit,
and to separate as we should meet, friends
to each other, and foes only to the foes of
our country.
This I am induced to say because I am
nqt so fortunate as to agree with you in all
your views, as I infer them from tbe
tenor of your invitation. With the essen
ttaVobjecti of tho meeting 1 fully coincide,
bo far as they are intended to preserve the
constitution, and to oppose the free soil
aggressions upon the rigts of the South.
In your oppostioti to the bill of Mr. Clay,
1 heartily concur. But in the proposed
approval of the Missouri line of 36° 30’
I cannot unite. Nevertheless, I hope I
may be allowed to express freely my opin.
ions and sentiments to your assemblage,
which I will endeavor to do with thefrank
ric&s of a Georgian, and all the spirit of
| one who has no other desire than to share
: the fortunes of his friends, however dias
trous, and to fall with his country, if the
occasion requires it. If I know my own
heart, it is far truer to the cause of our
country than it is to its own tranquility
and peace, and 1 wish it to beat no lunger
when it falters toward the land of its birth
and affections. In the first place, gentle
men, I am opposed to all compromises
except the compromise of the Constitu.
tion. When our federal constitution was
formed, it was based upon a series of com
promises, nicely adjusted, and covering
all the diversified interests of the country,
and harmonizing them in the only manner
in which they could then or thereafter co
exist. The South at that time conceded
all that she could yield consistently with
safety and honor,and received in exchange
the guaranties of the Constitution and the
plighted faith and solemn oaths of the
North. At that time, this very slavery
question was one of the great vexed and
agitating issues, and its adjustment was
one of the foundation timbers of the Union.
Its settlement—exactly as provided by
the constitution—was the very considera
tion of that instrument, without which it
would not have been formed,and upon the
failure of which, it would of necessity be
come void. Conflicting interests,peculiar
institutions, social equality and general se
curity being thus reconciled and establish
ed, and, as it was hoped,forever, the South
felt herself as safe in the enjoyment of her
rights, as any blessing can be made secure
by human pledges. The Federal Consti
tution became to her a sacred charter>
which, like Holy Writ, it would be profa
nation to increase or diminish.
This being so, how then can any com
promises, Californian or Missourian, which
modify, warp, or add to the relative duties
of the North and South, be tolerated by
any friend of the Constitution or the Coun
try l 'i iiey go to build up arbitrary regu
lations and make our most sacred rights
depend upon the mere will—the caprice
of selfish and unrestriced majorities.—
They change the whole character of our
government, and afford full license to
the strong to devour the weak; the
very evil which our federative system was
intended to avert. Surely the Southern
people cannot bo content to hold their
rights by no other tenure than this. Do
they flatter thefnselves that there is more
virtue in a compromise than there is in
the constitution ; and are they willing to
co-operate with the free-soilers in the de
thronement of the latter, and in the sub
stitution of the former? Yet this they
virtually did by their tame submission to
Missouri Compromise, and the very same
thing w ill they do again, more effectually
if the} support, accept, or tolerate any of
the abolition compromises now pending in
Congress.
When Missouri applied for admission in
to Union the Northern States in Congress
attempted to force her into free-soilism.—
Finding that they were notable to do this,
they then introduced inlothe act of admis
sion,a provision that no future Slate which
might he formed out of the territory of t he
United States above a ceitain latitude,
should be allowed to hold negro property.
I his they strove to make a part of the
fundamen.il law of the land; and, togive it
a sanctity and warrant of continuance, they
denominated it a compromise. Here was
a direct assumption of power to legislate
over slavery: a brand of infamy and deg
radation stamped upon the forehead of the
South, in the eyes of the world, and
a commencement of a policy of legislation
which it is now designed to continue, and
which, it tolerated, will never cease
as long as a vestige of the peculiar insti
tutions of the south shall remain. If con
gress has the right thus to prohibit slavery
north of 36 30, they have the same right
to exclude it south of that line. If we ac
quiescS in itis exclusion above this vision
ary moral equator, for the cogent reasons
they advance,how can we, in opposition to
the same arguments, resist its prohibition,
below that latitude ? Once surrender the
principle and we 6ut render every thing
1 am therefore, apposed to any recog
nition of that pretended compromise.—
I deny its validity and force. It was a
most flagrant usurpation of power—a pow
er intended to serve as a foundation upon
which the great lever was to be planted
that was to overturn tbe liberties of the
South. It was aimed for her destruction;
and that she did not give to it that prompt
and decisive lepulsion which a brave peo
ple should always give to every infringe
j inent of their rights, is to be attributed
to that lamentable disposition in the great
mass of mankind to prefer the tranquility
of despotism to that etfernal vigilance and
those fcaiful peiils which are necessary to
the maintenance of liberty. Whether the
south will heat the present assults upon
her constitutional lights, with the same
supineness that she succumbed to the Mis
souri aggression, is thequestion, now to be
determined.
Besides these objections to both “com
promises” in question, there are otliets of
a character equally cogent and impressive.
Neither Mr. Clay’s bill, nor the Missouri
line, is a compromise at all. They are
simply capitulations on the part of the South
—sunonders as absolute and complete as
that which Ampudia made at Monterey
and Cornwallis at Yorktown. In each of
them we are called upon to give up nearly
every thing in dispute, and to recehe no
thing in return. The Free Soilers have
not made, nor do they propose to make
any concessions to us. They call upon
our delegates in Congress to vote with
them in support of a measure which they
themselves admit, is founded upon a deep
abhorrtfnce of our most vital institution,
and is designed to shield the national ter
ritories from its foul pollution ; and in
compensation for this, our self-abasing vote
they promise—to do what ? They prom
ise to restore to us a constitutional right of
which we hiy e been violently deptived for
many years—the right of recovering our
fugitive slaves —a promise, however,which
every body knows to he fallacious and de
ceitful, and which cannot be fulfilled be
cause the State authoiities of the North
will never permit it. And thus for an
imaginary good, never to be realized, we
are to place ourselves in the disgusting at
titude of ratifying the wrong and confirm
ing the calumnies of which we affect so
much to complain. And this we are told
is a compromise—an adjustment—a paci
fication. " Solitudincmfaciunt, p%cem ap
pellant.” Surely the South will never be
guilty of conduct so suicidal and degrading-
It is bad enough to bear the wiongs and
calumnies that are heaped upon us, with
out sanctioning them ourselvescnd making
them indelible. In giving their aid and
co-operation to those anti-slavery measures
of our enemies, the Southern members in
Congress become the most fearful aboli
tionists, and cruel accusers of their coun
try’s institutions and integrity. And this
is one of the great objects of the present
proposed compromises ; it is to make the
South instrumental in her own degradation
and destruction. By voting for and sus
taining such measures (the bill of Mr.Clay)
she necessarily adopts and ratifies the sen
timents and principles upon which they
are predicated, and thus by her own act
she places her slave property out of the
pale of the Constitution and the protection
of the Government, and denounces the
holding of it as an infamy and a crime.—
What greater victory can the Free Soilers
desire than this ? What broader founda
tion for their future operations ?
Thus much, gentlemen, 1 have felt
bound to say in a spirit of frankness arid
freedom, and with a profound solicitude to
advise only those things which may be for
the benefit of our common country. View
ing all compromises, violative of the con
stitution, as fatal to the South, I cannot
yield my assent to any ; and I am free to
confess that I would be as ready to take
up arms tomorrow against the Missouri
compromise as against any other, whose
boasted purpose should be the subversion
of our rights and the degradation of our
character. No compromise can ever be
intended for our good. We desire none.
Give us the Constitution and we ask no
more. We do not wish the North to sur
lender to us any of her fundamental rights;
and why should we surrender any of ours
to her ? 1 hat which she so imperiously
demands of us, is not pretended to bo .ne
cessary to her interest, prosperitp and
welfare—it is demanded merely as a con
cussion to her infuriated fanaticism and
arrogant assumption of moral superiority.
And shall the sacrifice be made ? God
forbid.
I consider, gentlemen, the condition of
the South as eminently perilous, embar
rassing and painful. It is impossible to
contemplate it without feelings of horror
| and dread, amounting almost to despair.
j Not only her prosperity and happiness,
but her very existence is identified with
an institution which it is impossible that
; she can surrender, or even permit to
be touched by the savage band of fanati
cism, without involving her in a train of
calamities, which the imagination cannot
easily conceive nor the pen describe; and
yet against this very institution the whole
world is colleagued, and is now prosecu
ting an unrelenting war, as if no misery,
nor life, nor ruin were involved in its over
throw. Behold her begirt by foes ; assail
ed by every hand and calumniated by eve
ry tongue. There may be some apology
for foreign denunciation ; but what possi
ble excuse or paliation can bo rendered for
the frightful persecution of those who arc
united with her in the same Government.
who have long prospered upon the fruits
j of her industry ; who have never received
from her even the shadow of a wrong, and
who are bound by every obligation that
I man can contract or honor impose, to suc
cor and sustain her—to respect and vindi
[ cate her rights as their own, aud to rejoice
in her prosperity and happiness ? These
were the promises of the Union ; and yet
in the very face of all solemn pledges of
peace, friendship and security on the part
of Northern States, they have never rested
day nor night in their fanatical pursuit of
our destruction, as if this were the sole de
light of their existence, and the only rea
son of their connection with us. Every
energy of the mind and soul is brought
into active operation against the South.—
The press, the pulpit, the college and
school, and indeed all the institutions of
the North are made to minister to this
great malignant end, and are continually
sending forth their Stygean streams of
falsehood, vituperation and slander. Even
the women and children are taught in their
daily prayers to invoke, with the spirit of
a Puritan, and the ostentation of a Phari
see, the maledictions of Heaven upon our
heads ; so that this Union, which was in
tended to be a shield and bulw ark to every
section—which was expected to make of,
the States a political Pleiades, shining to
gether in harmonious brotherhood, has
now assumed the aspect and cha.acler of
a ferocious Confederation of malignant
powers fur our utter ruin and desolation.
Nor is the South exempt from insidious
foes in the bosom of her own society.—
Her arch-enemies have their agents and
emissaries everywhere scattered through
the country, whose duty it is to preach the
virtues of submission and to depict the
horrors of resistance. In their estimation
the greatest patriotism is a patient resig
nation to injury, and the highest of all pos
sible enormities is self-protection. The
better to secure our confidence and to prac
tice upon our credulity, they unite with us
in our denunciations of “the abolitionists”
and say that we have many just causes of
complaint against the Northern States;
but as soon as the slightest allusion is
inada to thenecessity of some action on
the part of the South, the cry of disunion
is raised ; and without proposing any rem
edy themselves for acknowledged grievan
ces, they oppose every measure suggested
by others. If in defiance of their clamors
the faithful patiiot shall still persist in de
manding redress, he is at once denounced
for a disunionist and marked for proscrip
tion. No wonder then, under these cir
cumstances, that the cause < f the South
should languish within her own boundaries
and that many of her sons should be found
in the ranks of her foes; for in those
ranks, there is not only safety, hut also for
tune and promotion—gold for the dastard
and station for the traitor. Domestic
Esaus! they sell their birth-right for a
mess of pottage.
This is ceitainly a deplorable condition
for a fiee people. It is well calculated to
tty the souls of men. If all hope have not
forsaken the South, it is because her reli
ance is in the justice of a righteous provi
dence, and in the integrity of her princi
ples and purposes. It is to be hoped that
she has too much virtue to despair. But
where lies the path of safety? Shall we
appeal to the great written charter of A.
merican freedom ? This she has already
done and found it is waste paper, but the
ghost of a dead Constitution. Shall she
appeal to the honor, humanity and justice
of her persecutors ? This too, she has al
ready done, and was spurned from their
presence with indignity and scorn. They
but mocked at her calamity and rejoiced
at the prospect of her speedy destruction.
Thu* surrounded and hunted down by the
deadliest of all foes—the hell-hounds of
fanaticism and harpies of faction—the ques
tion naturally arises, what is her best
course to pursue in so great an extremity ?
This, gentlemen, I presume is the chief
question proposed to be discussed at your
mass meeting. It is one certainly of great
and exciting interest—whose magnitude
can hardly be percieved, inuolving in its
decision the eternal destinies of the whole
continent; and all who seek to have any
in its determination, should never lose
sight of the high responsibilities they as.
sume.nor the vast consequencies which are
to flow from their decision. Above all
things they should avoid turbulent and an
gry passions which obscure the intellect
and pervertthe moral sense. I canliardly
suppose that the opinions of an humble
citizen like myself, can be of much impor
tance to the pnblic; nor would I now
think it necessary to avow them, if I were
not invited to do so by those in whose
good intentions and sound discretion 1
have every confidence. Such as they are,
you are welcome to them; and should
they not cotiespond with your own ; as I
fear they will not; you must remember
that nothing but profound sense of duty
could induce me to place myself in a posi
tion where I have everything to peril and
nothing to gain.
The course then, gentlemen, which I
would advise the souch to puisne in the
present crisis, is plainly this—she should
say to her Northern brethren—‘your con
tinued aggressions upon our rights, peace
and safery, can no longer be borne—the
institution of slavery which you seek to
destroy is identified with our existence; it
is to us a matter of life and death ; and if
you do not immediately and forever aban
don your purpose of wresting it from us,
and reducing us to utter ruin and despair,
we shall consider the confederacy as dissolv.
ed by your act, and will protect ourselves
accordingly.’ This appears to me the
alternative left to the South, We see
thatthe Northern States are bent upon
our destruction, that all their movements
tend that way; that they are determin
ed to force us into the abolition of
slavery, and of consequence to plunge
us into greater horrors than ever befel
a civilized people. The setiment is now
publicly avowed by the most prominent
of their leaders and acted upon by all, that
the emancipation of southern slavery is an
obligation higher than all others, and
above any oath to support the constitu
tion ; and the government of the United
States, controlled and administered bv
those acting upon this fantical sentiment
has become, in their hands an instrument
for the furtherance and final achievement
of this unhallowed end. Certainly this
leaves the South no possible escape from
tbe iuin that menaces her, except through
the door of secession. This is her only
hope.
“In native swords,and native ranks,
Iler only hope of safety dwells.”
No true friend to the South can any lon
ger doubt tlie fact that the extirpation of
slavery is not only resolved upon by the
Northern States, but that they regard its
accomplishment as a matter of certainty.
The only question with them is the best
manner of effecting it. One portion of
the anti-slavery party, impatient of delay
are diposed to attempt it at once, without
any regard to conseqences; whilethemore
temperate and calculating portion, equally
bent upon the purpose, are laboring to
achieve it by less preciptate and perilous
action. The one, is not unwilling to resort
to fotce; the other, however, desirous to
avoid a conflict which might endanger
success, and in which they could not hope
to escape from their full share of heavy
blows to prefer to work by slow and sure
degrees, and to throw their cmls around
us so artfully as not to excite alrrm until
they have us full bound for the sacrifice;
and then, (I fear not until then) when the
fatal blow is about to descend upon us, we
shall see the folly anti madness of our
present suicidal conduct, and shall perish
as all other supine and foolish communities
have perished, who lie down to sleep,
whilst the enemy is bat’ering at the
gates.
Foreseeing the catastrophe, it is crime not to
provide against it. The designs of the enemy
are no longer masked—we now fully compre
hend them,and seeing thatall things are tending
to their accomplishment, 1 would put the ques
tion to every Southern man, whether he does
not think it high time that something should he
done to avert the approaching calamity, and to
p lace his country and her institutions in a 9tate
of greater security? Her cannot hesitate to an
swer jes. Then what is his remedy? If he
can devise a better one than that of secession, let
him name it. In my opinion, this is only mea
sure adequate to the occasion,and so fully satis
fied are our enemies of this truth —so confident
are they that separation is the only means of
salvation to us, and defeat to them—that they
have not scrupled to indicate their intention of
detaining us in the confederacy by military force
—an intimation which fully confirms tho danger
of our situation, and increases the necessity of
our withdrawal.
I am not wanting in duo respect to the Ameri
can Union, nor a just apppreciation of its value,
but no otic will pretend to say that the present
is the union of the constitution—the union es
tablished by the sages of tho revolution—the
union that was to “ensure domestic peace and
tranquillity;” but another great dynasty erected
upon its ruins—a Russian empire which makes
a Hungary of tho South. Such a Union cannot
be desired; it is a curse instead of a blessing; wo
never entered into it nor should we any longer
endure it; it should be dissolved immediately
if tho North do not pause at once in their agres
sion and give us back the only charter with all
its guaranties and securities, unimpaired and
unrestricted. If the present Congress, then,
in defiance of remanstrances, should adopt any
of the abolition nicasuresnow pending before
it, I would recommend the Southern States, as
soon as possible, to hold a convention, duly em
powered to organize a Southern Confndercy,and
to make all necessary arrangements for tho
public defence.
I advise this course, riot from choice hut from
necessity. We are forced by our enemies into
the alternative of retiring from the Union, or of
remaining in it upon terms altogether incompati
ble with honor, peace or safety. They do not
hesitate to avo— their hatred and abhomn.e
of us, and pblucblicly to proclaim that thT
connection with us is a degradation to
This, itself, is no very unreasonable .
for separation ; but how doubly keen 1
afflictive does the insult become when *
know that tbe scorn and contempt of our f ( *'
is founded upon that very submission
we so wofully mistake for a virtue jj
can they respect us when we do not respe"
ourselves? Our irresolution is the basis ofX
presumption. That we should desire to
in the Union under all these circumstance,
outrage, defamation and contumely, and
the certainty too of ultimate ruin, is a , pe •
of infatuation, of insanity, as inco’mprchenXl!
to me as it is lamentable.
The chief argument of those who are opp OM(i
to this measure of redress, is directed rather to
the fears than the understanding of the Southern
people. We are told that sanguinary war win
be the tmrned.ate consequence of a dissolution
of the Union. This may or may not be. I
depends upon the disposition of our enemies
and it is more than probable that they will fi D s
as many arguments in favor of a peaceful sepa
rat.on as ourselves ; but if this should not be t/, e
case ; if they shall rashly resolve on war I am
confident of one thing, that the direst calami’
ties that can possibly result, will be insignifi.
cant and trifling in comparison with those which
follow in the wake of abolition. I w j||
stop however, to place them in contrast; but
will proceed to say that 1 can not percieve'anv
thing so tenible in war that we should avoid it
at the sacrifice of ever} thing which gives val.
ue to life,—honor, freedom, and social equality.
If it is then inevitable, let it come; vv e must
meet it as our fathers did before us, with “stout
heirts and sharp swords;" and having justice in
our side we cannot fail to have victory also-
We shall have our border strifes—formidable
invasions— sudden incursions and bloody retail
utions; all very hurtful, no doubt, but as hurtful
to the foe as to us; and surely we shall be able
to endure them as long he, having a better rea
son for the war ; he fighting for fanaticism, des.
potism and military rule, and we for our lives
and homes—for our women and children—for
truth, honor, justice and political rights. Nor
can the struggle last always—it will have a ter
mination, and when the storm and tempest shall
have passed by, we shall he left in the enjoy
ment of a brighter day and wo will then be able
to sit down in peace and safety under our own
vine and fig-tree, and talking over our brilliant
career of arms, rejoice in our establishment of a
government, less fanatical, and more just and
forbearing than the one which is now seeking
to devour us. So, gentlemen, you percieve that,
ifall the scenes of blood and carnage anticipated
by the submissionists, should he realized to the
fullest extent, they will not be without their
glorious and happy results, and they cannot ex.
cend the trials an sufferings which our revoiu
tionajy patriots encountered for those very rights
and principles which it is our purpose to regain
and re-establish There is no disguising the
the truth, that the South has as many high and
just complains against the North, as the colonies
had against the mother country. Our situation
is much more alarming than that of the colonies
at tho commencement of the revolution. But
if onr long endurance of insult and submission
to wrong have rendered us too timid and effemi
nate to vindicate our rights and character—if in
losing our social and political equality we have
lost our virtue and valor too—then let us yield
at once ; and ceasing to from our windy warof
words, obey the conqueror and kiss the rod.
Let it not bo forgot, however, that our contin
ance in the Union without some unexpected
change in the views and feelings of the anti
slavery party—will doom us, beyond all doubt,
to a far deadlier struggle than that which the
submission party are desirous to avoid. In
steering from Scylla we shall he wrecked upon
Charybdis. We shall be thrown, by the tri
umph of abolition, into all tile horrors of a do
mestic and servile war—a war which wili have
no parallel in atrocity and cruelty, and which
must leave the Southern country a bleeding vic
tim—a land of suffering, mourning and desola
tion. There is no uncertainty as to consequen
ces. The Northern Stoles will never permit
our black population to enter their country.—
The gates will be closed against the negroes in
all the abolition States. The consequence will
be, that when we shall be finally driven by the
combined powers of corruption, harrassment
and force into the emancipation of our slaves,
they will have to remain amongst us; and the
impossibility of their doing this in peace and
safety must be apparent to every mind. Tbe
freed slave and the master cannot dwell together
on terms of political and social equality. Such
a thing would only be rendered impossible by
the recollection of their former relative po«-
tions, but it is forbid by the laws of God sad
nature. It cannot be. Thus, as I have already
said, tho success of abolition will throw the
two rares into a fearful conflict—a conflict
which admits of no compromise but death
—no quarters but the grave—no termination be
in extinction. I desire that the South tnsyb®
saved from this awful tragedy. I desire lb® 1
she may escape from it, becettse it is revolting
to every sentiment of humanity—because ll> erf
is no possible reason for such a horrible csW'
troplie—because it is unmixed evil without d*
remotest hope of good. And yet it is inevitable
if the South falters in her duty to herself- I J,n
not opposed to tire emancipation ofoursla' e!
solely on account of the universal bankrupt l )
and pecuniary ruin which it would create; but
more on account of those very calamitie* 111
which 1 have just alluded ; it will lend to tl |(
total butchery and destruction a race whose
fare and happiness every Southern man t
hound to consult as well as his own; and ' icW
ing the subject in tiiis light, I cannot but bo 1
ns one of the highest duties of the patriot an
philanthropist to oppose every act and m ea,ur
which may have the remotest tendency tobuf?
nhout this unhappy stale of things. Me am '
slaves are now dwelling in peace and bar
together—satisfied with each olhar—w® w
their moderate labor, arid they with our kin
care and protection ; and ho who seeks a
lent disruption of thest; good relation* c
mean the welfare of The neg ,n - but
