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SOUTHERN TRIBUNE, PUBLISHED WEEKLY, BY W.H. B . IURBISOX. The Randolph Epistles, ."So. I, (Concluded from First Page.) The Enhanced valve of Slave Proper ty', THROUGH A FREE ACCESS TO THE Mines. Heavy as are these deprivations and losses,they are not all. Hail the South been fairly dealt by, and shared in theseTerrito* ries in proportion to her contributions in men and money towards their acquisition, consequences of immense importance po litically, and of incalculable value finan cially, must have resulted from it. The South would have had free access to the mines witn her slaves, and her citizens, having ampler and readier means of work ing them than all others, would have mi grated thither earliest, and in numbers Pufficieut have controlled the destinies of the State. Thus would California inevita bly, and Utah and New Mexico, through the force of position and circumstances, have beemo Slave States, and augmented and improved the South’s political domin ion and destinies beyond estimate or mea sure ! Now look at the collateral results upon the enhanced value of Slave proper ty, coming from so vast a demand for Slave labor, as such a field for its profitable em ployment would have created. The present market values for men would have been trebled or quadrupled—but intending to be moderate,the average increase upon all conditions, at 50 per centum. The prosent numbers of Slaves in the Snuihern States are estimated to be 3,000,000, and allowing them an average value of SIOO (which is much below the present average market value) and we have an aggregate valuation ofSlave property amounting t051200,000,- 000, which a free access to the mines would have given an increase of 50 per ct and added $600,000,000, of value to the slave property of the South! And now for the tesults:— Through the action cf Congress. — in not exacting of California a Conventional Or dinance, relinquishing all title or claim to the public domain within her borders, be fore receiving her as a sovereigu State in to the Union, that domain has been suffer ed to escheat to the State, —with treasures, it may be sufficient to build up cities, and support an Empire, which may, in the c irrent half century, wield the scepture *'*' ovor cLia great Continent, and command the commerce of the world ! Through the action of Congress , —in le ceiving California into the Union without a reduction of limits, and organizing Utah and New Mexico, into tho Territories without abrogating the Mexican laws pro hibiting slavety, the South is deprived of every foot of the Mexican cession of Ter ritory, which, without her lavish contiibu tions in men and money;—and above all, her ratifying votos in the Senate, woulJ ne ver have been ours ! ! Through the. action of Congress, —the South is required to pay $75,000,000 of the $100,000,000 of indebtedness which the Terriitories have cost, and without re ceiving one doit of consideration for such a monstrous taxation; while the North, with larger numbers and greater wealth, through a tortuous and iniquitous taxation, is only to contribute $25,000,000 of the debt, though, through the despotism of numbers, she has applied and appropria ted, the entire consideration for that in debtedness, absolutely and exclusively to herself! 101 l me, men of the South ! of a civil ised people under the sun, — except ovk l iving brethren of free States, — who would thus have served any other civilized people under God’s protection, and in the world’s peace ! Is there a nation of sav ages, wlro after stripping you of all you had, and taken all they wanted, would keep the property, and yet make you pay for it, five times the value at which it was rated when you became the purchaser!— True, the Corsairsof the Archipelago who capture your merchantmen, impose a hea vy ransom on their restitution—but then when the ransom is paid, the property is restored to you. Point me to a people on the habitable globe, who would submit to be robbed and despoiled of their share in property, promising like this, the total extinction of all Government taxes, with large fortunes beside, to every unit of their population; and who, after the spoliation had passed into accomplishment, would submk to the further, the monstrous, and the debasing excalioti, of paying $75,000,- 000 of the money—cost of the acquisition —without having any dominion or domain over air acre or foot of it! It cannot be done! There are no such people; and may God forfend that there should be in ihis noble land of freedom and equality ! There is not a form of Government on the Globe, but this glorious Union of«. nrs, which would have sanctioned,-—nor a peo ple who inhabit it,—but these noble bre thren of ours,—who would have attempt ed, —nor they upon any other people but their brethren, —the crushing down of such a people under the weight of so many wrongs, and under the stress of such foul oppressions, rank injustice, and gall, ing indignities! Yet so it is! And so is it recorded — that among all the Senators, and all [the Senators and all the Representativesoftbe Free North and the Free West—not one man was to be found with that love in his heart, or that justice in his dealing, which would have spared the South and saved the Union from the blasting recoil of that mortal blow which cleaved an opening for California unshorn of her dimensions, and without a quiet calim of her treasures! — In form indeed, the Union survives, and for a life-time have I wished, in the Providence of God, that it might have lasted forever;—but how long can it cling together, after all the affections which for med it lie crushed and dstroyed—under the insupportable weight of these cumula ed oppressions! 1 must repeat it! Not a man of the North nor of the West, would rally to the Sonth’a side, to protect her rights from spoliation and her pcsture from digrace, in the admission of California, though it involved her exclusion from the soil for which she so gallantly shed her 1 blood, and lavished out her treasure! Ay verily, every Senator and Representative North of Mason and Dixon’s line, and North West of the Ohio—voted persist ingly and to a man, for the admission of the State, just as she came here, without a precedent relinquishment or reduction of limits! Bu>, woe upon our domestic broils and collisions. Southerners! for my indig nant amazement at this concentrated hosti lity to the rights of the South, as I regarded it, —was soon lost in the wonder and the sorrow with which I read, —that no less than thirty.one Southerners (four in the Senate and twenty-seven in the House) had joined with the Northerners in this baleful and most perilous experiment upon the forbearance and the nerves of the South! F i om tho bottom of my heart should I rejoice, could I see in this measure, no deeper wrongs to the South, nor imminent hazards to the Union, —than were seen, (we presume) by these gentlemen—but my judgment instructs me,that it is plenary to the biim of the one, and perilous to the brink of the other ! But that I may do such justice to all, as they have done to themselves, —here are the affirmative votes of the Southerners for tho admission of California; Let them speak for them selves : In the Senate: Messrs. Clayatul Under wood, Whigs—and Messrs. Benton and Houston, Democrats. In the House :— Of Tennessee, Messrs. Anderson, Gentry, Watkins and Williams, Wbigs ; and Messrs. Ewing, Johnson and Jones, Democrats. Whigs, 4—Demo crats, 3. Os Kentucky: Messrs. Breck, John son, Marshall, McLean, Moorhead, and Thompson, Whigs,—and Mr. Mason, De mocrat, —Whigs, 6—Democrat, 1. Os Maryland : —Messrs. Bowie, Evans and Kerr, Whigs,—and Messrs, Hamilton and McLanne, Democrats. Whigs 3 Democrats, 2. Os Delncarc : —Mr. Houston, Whig, —l.—No Democrat. Os Missouri: —Messrs. Bay, Bowlin > Hal! and Phelps, Democrats 4.—No Whig. Os Virginia: —Mr. Hamond, whig, 1— No Democrat. Os North Carolina: —Messrs. Caldwell and Stanly, Whigs, 2.—No Democrat. Totals.—ln the Senate—Wbigs, Ken. tucky 2 —Democrats Missouri and Texas, 2—Totals in the House, Whigs, 17, — Demoorats, 10. Had these Southerners been united with their Brethren, from the moment these territories were acquired,—and remained firm to our rights and united of purpose— all the probabilities are, that the South would have had free access to the mines, and that the public domain would have been cared for, and screened from escheat, —and to say nothing of other most import ant resits, both political and monetry, —the consideration alone, of the vast enhance ment in value, of tho slave-property in those Stales respectively, which those Southerners represented,— should have been temptation enough, to have prompt ed a trial of the effects of Union upon the rights and fortunes of the South. Cast an eye over the following table, showing the States which these Southerners represent ed—tbe estimated number of slaves in each tinder the current census, in round numbers—their present value, —and their enhanced value upon the contingency of the South having access to tho mines : Here it is: E«timatad Average Additional No. of values at values slaves in present tliro' access each. rates. to mines. Delaware, 2,000 $ 1,000,000 $ 500,000 Maryland, 85,000 42,500,000 21,250,000 Virginia, 400,000 215,000,000 107,500,000 N.Carolina 200,000 100,000,000 50,000,000 ! Kentucky, 200,000 100,000,000 50,000,000 Tennessee,22o,ooo 110,000,000 55,000,000 Missouri, 100,000 50,000,000 25,000,000 Texas, 50,000 25,000,000 12,500,000 $322,750,000 This sum of 6322,750.000 has been cer. tainly lost to these eight States through the course that was taken in reference to Cal ifornia, and in which, to the extent I have stated, their Senators and Representatives have shared. Had they united their strength to that of other members from the South, the results could not have been more disastrous than they have proved and might have entirely succeeded, and enriched with these heavy profits—tho important States whose Representatives they are ! The present number has been prolonged much beyond the limits I had designed it to reach, and yet does not embrace all the matters I had intended to include in it.— In the course of another number,l propose to touch upon topicsof even higher interest than any brought to notice in this : such as the meelingofthe Naskille Convention— Non-intercourse—Secession all embra ced in that most vital of questions which ever was submitted to the Southern peo pie:—ln the present position of public af fairs, WAAT SHALL BE DONE ? RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE. From the Southern Press. THE RANDOLPH EPISTLES. Fuels and Reflections foi- the Southern People. NO. 11. The const lutionally of the Act of Admission —ls California of right and in law a member of the Union?—Her constitution void—The incapacity of Congress to re suscitate it—lllustrations and analogies —CanCongress repeal the Act of Admis sion?— Can the Supreme Court take cognizance of the question?—The State the ultimate expounder — Secession — Massachusdtt and the admission of Texas Partition of the Federal property Syr. Fellow-Citizens of the South : In my last I referred to ih<* insufferable wrongs and injustice inflicted upon the South, by the Act of Congress admitting California into Union, — but unwilling to tax your patience further, l of purpose refrained from broaching in that paper, another question of the very greatest im portance, and indissolubly allied with that measure: I mean its Constitutionality. 1 propose now tonotce this very impoitant feature of the Act of admission, and to make the issue for public consideration and judgment,—whether California is, or is not, —of right and in law, a member of the Union? If the United Stats had had no share in the conquest or cession of California, — and a number of adventurers, wholly un connected with tnis Government, —had invaded and vanquisced it, — proclaimed their Independence and maintained it, and established an Independent Republic,— not a doubt could be mooted, —but that the proceeding would have been valid, and constituted it a Government both de jure and de facto ; but why?—Because the con quest would have made the domain, the jurissiction and the sovereignty all theirs, and absolutely and exclusively so. Bu’ the actual state of tilings was variant from this iu every particular. Not an iota of the eminent or useful domain, or of the territorial jurisdiction,—or of the sover eignty, was coferred upon or vested in these California adventurers when they migrated thither,—nor since has been, unless it was done through the Act of Con gress of the 11th instant admitting her into the Union. All these rights and attributes were vested conjointly and exclusively in the co-States of the Union, and Congress is constituted their attorney in fact by the Constitution, to administer them. In Con gress, then, as the Federative agent of the States,--is exclusively vested all powers to “dispose of” or to make “a!l needful rules and regulations” concerning the ter ritory of the Ucited States, and to hold and exercise jurisdiction and sovereignty over it Congress may, if it will, and aught to, when it can, —and the population and circumstances of the public domain admit ofit, —to confer upon the people who in habit it, the appropriate jurisdiction for governing themselves, —by conferring on them a Territorial form of Government, and asigning them their boundaries, and 1 have no hesitation in saying, that Congress failed in its duty, (and the Free Stales were exclusively to blame for it,) in with, holding such jurisdiction and powers of legislating fur themselves, from the people of California; I go further, and admit fully that Congress might, if it would, have dis pensed the people of California from pass ing under the regime of a Territorial Gov. ernment, and have invested them at once with sovereign powers, thicugh an Act of Congress empowering them to call a Con vention, to form a Constitution, and to or ganize a State Government. It is plain then, and I repeat, that the whole powers, both of jurisdiction and sovereignty over domain out the limits of a State, are ex- clusively vested in Congress by the Con stitution: It is plain, and I repeat,—that Congress had the power to delegate such jurisdiction or sovereignty, either or both to the people of California, but that with powers to delegate either, it in fact dele gated neither to them. Hence, as ma’ter of fact it is sure, that the people of Cali fornia did not derive either jurisdiction or sovereignty, from that source, and as mat. of law it is incontestible, that they could net have deived it from any other: Fur thermore: the Executive of the United States was invested with no other jurisdic tion thither; than such as was incident to a mere military occupancy; and surely such military jurisdiction was wholly in adequate to the constituting of a civil Gov ernment, and whould not have been alien able and transferable to others, if it were: Therefore, the Executive Department of the Government having no civil sovereign jurisdiction in California, had none to con fer on the people thereof, and consequent ly did not and could not have conferred any! Now the foregoing premises, in right andin fact, and in all their particulars, are absolutely incontestible; and tbe people of California, having no jurisdiction or sovereignty whatever to constitute them selves a State, —it must follow, that every act they have done, involved in the issue under debate, — tbe calling of a Conven tion, — the forming of a Constitution, — the conferring of Execntive Legislation and Judicial jurisdiction and powers on themselves, — and more palpably still,- the appointment of Senators and Repre sentatives to the Congress of the United Sta'es, —were, and aie, radically and in curably unconstitutional, and null an void! There cannot be a doubt of it, nor will it ever be disputed by any one wl o bears in mind, what every one cognizant of the ac tion and powers of Congresss, knows and admits, —that California did n t derive any constitutional authority from Congress to perform or legalize those acts, nor could have derived it from any other source. Taking this to be so, and it must follow, that the Constitution of Callifornia and the whole State Organization under it, are and were ab initio absolute nullities. This brings us to the main point in the case ; Can Congress revive and give effect to an act long since defunct and void in its in ception,—and to the doing of which Con gress itself was originally and is always incompetent, that is to say, to making of a State Constitution ?—The very statement of the question carrins the answer along with it; for no one will pretend, tha t Congresss could originally have formed the constitution of Callifornia, and how could it revive, what it was powerless to create?—Under our institutions none can form a constitution for a State, bnt the people themselves whom it is to bind and protect; —and even they, if inhabiting A TERRITORY DESTITUTE OF ALL TERRITO RIAL organization ; are incompetent to such a service, uniill an act of Congress invests them with the authority; for Con gress can delegate powers to others, which it cannot exercise i'self; just as it passes laws which it ca nnot execute. Congress may accept or reject a Constitution when prof, sered with a view to the admission of a State, — but it cannot change it, and still less can it substitute another to suit itself. L nder the Constitution, Congress may ad mit “new States” into the Union; but then they must be real States, bringing with them valid constitutions formed un der a due authorization, from competent authority, Now if my reasonings be sound, the Constitution of California was as imbecile for service, as a bit of unsolid parchment, up to the very moment of ad mitting her into the Union : and if it be. came valid then, Congress must have made it 60, —and lias thus, under an authority to do no more than admit a Stste,—through a single organic fiat of sovereign omnipo tence, CREATED A SIATE: MADE A CON STITUTION FOR HER : APPOINTED HER SEN ATORS AND representatives: and re CLIVED HER INTO THE UNION ! It is tIIUS, iiat all, —that California became a State and is now in the Union! It is nothing but this pestilent dnti slavery fanaticism, which shuts out truth, experience and con ducts them to the results, which when scrutiny exposes, their judgements, must revolt at. Bring the very men who have supported this monstrous measure to the j tests of analogies, and they will admit in • every instance you put to them, that Con-1 gress is utterly incompetent to give valid ity and force to an act which was once, and iu its inception, absolutely void for the want of Constitutional authoriiy to pass it. If on the decease of a United States Marshal, a Judge of United States District Court, should undertake to ap point and commission another, —there is not one of these members of Uongress who would not admit that such an appoint ment and all acts done under it, would be absolute and incurable nullities, and that Congress, though originally competent to have invested such a power in tbe Judges would be utterly powerless to retract up on the Marshal’s acts, so as to give the least validity or force to any of them. If during the illness of a United S'etes Dis trict Judge, the President of the United Slates were to appoint and commission a Judge iu his place to perform his judicial duties, (even though the sick Judge should die within an hour after such appoint ment was made, and before any ju dicial act had been performed,) every body knows, that every such Judicial act per formed by the new Judge therafter, — would be entirely null and void from the radical vice of unconstitutional ity inherent in the original appointment:— The com missioning the Judge anew, could have had no retro-active effect whatever,and all the powers of the Executive and Con gress would have been inadequate to vali date them. In the cases I have put, no one will question the legitimacy of the consequences I have deduced from the hy p itlieses to wit: that acts originally void and defunct for want of constitutional sanction, —by no galvanic process of Con gress, can be heaved back into life, and thus acqure a validity they had never pos sessed ; and every sound-minded man, who will put aside his pre-judgments and give fair scope to his conscience, will gen eralize these conclusions, and apply them to alll acts whatsoever, void and defunct ab initio for the want of constitutional au thority. In the cases I put of the void acts of the Marshal and the Judge, it is to be noted, that though insusceptible, of revi val, the ends they aimed would s:ill have been attainable by investing those officers or others with powers to perform them all over again; and so of California. By re minding her back to anew Convention called under the sanction of Congress, she might, if she would, (and if Congress had not prescribed a reduction of limits) have readopted entire her present Constitution, but then all ils force and validity would have been exclusively derived from the second Convention, which could have had no retro-active or reviving force whatever upon the first Convention, or any of its proceedings. If higher and weightier au thority, or more cogent reasoning is need ed to establish that the people of Callifor nia could not constitutionally wrest from Congress, its jurisdiction and sovereignty over the Federal domain, and constitute a Sovereign State and Goveanment over it, without the primary sanction of those to' whom the whole right of domain and do minion belonged, and that Congaess could not create a Stale, nor receive into the U nion, any community of men which was not a State, in the sense of the Constitu tion, let me refer you to the unanswered and unanswerable demonstrations recently made by Senators Berrien and Butler in the Senate of the United States. I think I may now assume it as proven that as the people of California did not de rive the authority to constitute a Govern ment over the property and territory of the co-States, from Congress, in whom the whole jurisdiction and sovereignty adequate to such a function of sovereignty was exclusive vested by the Constitution; and as they dul not acquire it through an expulsion of the Federal Authoritiesfrom both the dominion and the domain, through revolution and con quest, they were wholly without authority in the premises, and of course void of all consti’ulional capacity to have organized a State Government over the properly of others and without their consent • and hence, California Constitution and all proceedings under it,arc and were ah initio, absolutely null AND void!—/ think I may also as same it as proven,—that it was past all the powers rs Congress to resuscitate an emhryo thus abortedf/om the. womb of legislation and dead-burn, by breathing into it anew the breath of life / This being so, all the skill of statesmanship and all the per ver - sion of sophistry arealike defied,to elude the corrollary, that, California is neither a Constitutional State nor Constitu tionally in the Union. To all this it may be answered by, President Fillmore— Admitting all you say to be constitutional doctrine still Cal ifornia has been already received into the Union: The thing has been done: How can it be undone ? Randolph of That which is not Constitutionally done, is not done at all—Congress itself can undo what it had no right to attempt, nor power to accom pish. Presidrnt F.— But the admission of a State imports a contract with tlieco States and rights are already vested under it, and Congi ess is without jurisdiction to an nul a contract itself has made, against the consent of thh co contracting party. 11. of R — ls Congress may not undo,that which being void in itself, may need no undoing beyond a declaration of its nulity; —then, the matter sounding in contract and the United Slates being a party to the controversy, the case is brought within the jurisdiction and congizance of the Federal Courts and may be adjudicated thither. Prcs't F. —True, —were it not that the question of the Constitutional admission of a State is exclusively a political 'one, and the Supreme Court of the United States is w ithout jurisdiction in all questions of that nature. R. R. —That objection would be valid if the question was exclusive\y political, but that is not the case here, —as may readily be illustrated. Supose California should cla'm the public domain by virture of the escheat, and that the United States should contest her right to it:—That would be a controversy, which no authority but the Federal Judicial power would be cornpet. ent to decide; —and as the escheat of the domain, would be the only issue in the cause,—the vital point to be de ermined would necessarily be,— whetherCatifornia was constitutionally in die Union or not, for if she was not. there could have no es. cheat, nor resulting divestiture! I will not assert that the Court will take jurisdic tion of the question,—but if it should, I have a strong opinion and a trust, that it will pronounce that act ofadmission an in- curable nullity and absolutely void! Sould the objections, 1 have thus taken the liheity to attribute io the President, be adjudged valid, by Congress on the one side, and by the Court on the other, each should peremptorily decline all jurisdiction over the question, (and let U3 suppose it would be so) —it would be monstrous and absurd to say, that the complaining States would have no right to be relie'ed against an act, palpably unconstitutional ex ennees sis, and wrongfully and most injuriously affecting their rights and their interests.— All must admit the right to be undoubted, though the remedy be undelegated. The l ight and remedy remain with the States who are the parties to the compact, and of necessity, its ultimate expounders, when tho judicial power is incompetent.— Both of them belong to the reserved and not to delegated powers,—and of course the Constitu tion lias not provided a mode for their enforce ment. The reserx ed powers not being Fedetal but State powers,—cannot be exercised Feder ally (if I may coin a word) or conjointly, —but each State must decide and act for itself; — and because the power is a reserved pow er, and be. cause it has not been delegated through the Constitution, I maintain, (for I do not hold with Aunification) that it cannot be exercised under it. A State which would right itself in such a conjuncture, must retire from the Union,— for when oppressions are suffered within it, which the Judicial Department is powerless to redress or to remove, in the language of Judge Barbour, “THE ONLY RIGHTFUL REMEDY IS SECESSION ! ’ But we must not roll the Free States of their right, for it is New England which lias the first claims to authorship in the doctrine, that the unconstitutional admission of anew State would authorize the secession of nny of the old ones. As far hack as 1803, did New England denounce the acquisition of Louisiana as uncon stitutional, —ami maintaining that the admission of new States under the Constitution, was lim ited to such,as should be formed out of territory within the limits of the Union at the date of the Constitution, — she menaced secession for the, unconstitutional admission of Louisiana in 1802, as she alleged that act to be. But much moro recently, (March 3, 1843) —and upon the first dawn of the prospect of rc-annexirig Texas to the Union, — the famous John Quincy Adams drew up, a number of New England members of Congress, signed and addressed a very memora ble manifesto ‘<o the people of the Free States,' in which they declared among other things that: “VVe hesitate not to say, that .dnneration ef fected by any act or p o eeding of the Federal (lovernment, or any of its Deparinents would be identical with dissolution. It would he a viola- lion of our National Compact its objects, designs, nnd the greet elementary principles which en tered into its compositon.” At the very next session of her Legislature (1843-4) Massachusetts, trailing in the wake of her boldest and greatest statesman, promptly re solved that, “The project ofthe annexation of Texas, unties arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive the State to a Dissolution of the Union.” Again at the succeeding session of her Legis lature, (1844,) she solemnly declared, that. The Constitution contains no power whatever, to admit new States or Territories without and. be yond the bounds of the Union, as established xchen it was formed and adopted” To the proposition to unite Texas as n slave State, “she made answer calmly,and deliberate ly and firmly, Massachusetts will never consent to enter into any such relations And she finally declared that the Act of Ad mission “would have no binding farce whatever upon the people Massachusetts'. ' You were incontestibly right in vour doctrine, Massashusetts, ifyou believed that the admission ofTexas would bean unconstitutional act-((ot no one but yourself could decide that matter for yfi —but then, august Madam, there was no way in which you could have avoided entering into ‘such relations” with Texas, or of prevoting the ad admitting her from having any “ binding fore® whatever upon the people” of your State, but by throwing \ourself upon your reserved rights* picking up your bonnet and walking out ol th» Union! And pray, most gracious Madam, «'b J ‘ would Massashusetts and New England ba fC to say, should the South, embracing your doctrin® nnd maintaining your principles, and having 8 * much right to complain as you had—that Con gross had admitted California into the tlai 9ll ' out of Territory foreign to the Union in l* r • " but the far graver and weightier objection jnat it had admitted her without any previous Con stitutional organization—but through a sing' 9 tyrannous fiat had done irreparable violet) 9 t° tiie Constitution, in creating a State —providing her a Constitution—appointing her Senalo rs "|’ Representatives, and admitting Iter into tW Union—l repeat, what would they have to ")* if the South seceded from the Union! Hut mind you though, nion of the Soutn •