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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