The Southern tribune. (Macon, Ga.) 1850-1851, November 02, 1850, Image 2

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BQPTHERN TR IBUNK• EDITED I.ID PUBLISHED WEEKLY, BY W M. B . II A It li IsO A' . From the Southern Christian .Idrocote. Letter from Bishop Andrew. SOUTHERN' INDEPENDENCE. You need not be alarmed, Mr. Rilitor; I am not going to preach tieason or rebel lion, or any thing of that sort; nor am 1 going to enlist under the whig or demo cratic banner. Nor indeed would that be an easy task, for it would be somewhat puzzling in the present state of parties, to define with any very great precision, the confession of fai It which either would adopt. My creed is simple and short. I go for my country, my whole country, as represented by the indissoluble Union of all the States of our great Confederacy ; and I go for the maintainance of the rights and immunities of each separate Slate and territory. I repudiate war at any time if it can be avoided and especially all civil war between brethren of the same political household. It is ari ea«y matter to talk of it, and there may be no shud dering when we hear of it; hut the real ization will bring blood and ruin and heart breaking and agony, widowhood and or phanage, such as neither we nor our fa thers have ever heard or dreamed of.— Ruthless demagogues, either North or South, may talk of it in strains of flaming eloquence, because they hope by this means to mount into power or to maintain power already acquired; but it becomes the substantial yeomanry of the country upon whom the burdens of such a tiling must fall, the people from whose hearts anJ purses, the blood and treasure must flow by which such a contest is to be up held, it becomes them to ponder this matter seriously; to look well to the cost of such a struggle, and to its issues and gains. At any rate, let us resolve as Southern rnen, to proceed calmly, deliber ately, justly and patiently in our resistance to what we deem unjust aggressions of our Northern brethren. Let us exhaust every other argument and try every other means of redress before we indulge for a moment the idea of dissolving the Union of these States; and when this catastrophe comes, if come it must, let it find us at the last ditch, having tried every peaceably reme- dy, with arm and heart to defend ourselves. Well, hear is my creed ; and perhaps I owe to you and your readers an apology for obtruding upon you or them, any thing which might seem to savour of politics. In deed, I have during a ministry of nearly forty years, carefully abstained from nted dling with political strifes; but I am not sure but the present crisis in our national affaits demands that the ministers of Clod depart a little from their usual cautious policy; and while it is true that as messen gers of peace, they should avoid as far as jossible, all intermeddling with mere par ty strife, yet, in a momentious crisis like that which is now upon us, I know not why the ministers of God who have as deep an interest in the weal of the nation as any other class of citizens, should not be at liberty to give utterance fully and free ly to their convictions and feelings. By reference to the papers west and east, we find the Methodist preachers exerting themselves might and main, to prevent any compromise with tl>« South ; and not content with passing resolutions in their ecclesiastical assemblages, they have been recomtneded to address personal commu nications to members of Congressdemand ing that no compromise be made by Con gtess with “the slaveocracyand the ad vice has been followed, and no doubt with success. Perhaps it was at least consis tent that the men who have been so great ly instrumental in producing the popular excitement arid-fanaticism which scoffs alike at the teachings of tire Bible and the Constitution, and who in their chief eccle sias'ical assemblages have sanctioned a stupendous schemer of repudiation, should, irue to their native instincts, move heaven and earth against any action of the nation al legislature which might even remotely contemplate the peace and prosper ity of the Southern portion of she Republic. But enough of this. What about South ern Independence ? Very well, we slialj get to it quickly. In the first place then, we desire to see the South independent, on the subject of education. Time was in the memory cf even young men, when our wealthy Southern men sent their sons and daughters to Northern schools and colleges; and even now when there is no longer any excuse for it, many southern aristocrats send their sons and especially their daughters northward, to be polished; and a man who, perhaps, think you mad if urged him to subscribe SSOO to a Southern institution, setuls his daughter to a fashion ble boarding school in some Northern Ci- ty to spend some SI2OO per annum, when tor one half the sum he could have obtain ed a more solid education at home. And yet j. ssibly this same man would rise up in Congress and thunder most vehemently against the Northern notion of Southern inferiority. A few years ago, if a profes sorship in an academy was to be filled, a graduate from a Northern college was al most uniformly preferred ; and in the an nual announcement of the literary institu -1 tions of the country, it was uniformly her [ aided as the highest recommendation that it was to be under the charge of A. 8., a graduate of a Northern College. It is a notorious fact, that in many instances, Southern men greatly superior, morally and mentally, were defeated befnreSnuth ern boards of trustees, wholly beacause their opponents graduated North. And then when we got them, how many lectures were we doomed to hear on the subject of “thorough education” which means only, that education which was obtained at Northern institutions or imparted hv Northern teachers; all besides, was mere child’s play ; to be sure, after hearing at the commencement the most profound hints and the loftiest sort of promises, their employers were frequently fain to get rid of them, and often applied to the same source for a fresh supply, very frequently to run the same career of hope and disop pbintmen. We are not to he understood a9 making a sweeping censure of all Northern teach ers. Such is not by no means our inten tion. We gladly admit many honorable exceptions. There have been not a few excellent teachers from the Northern Staes who have detneafted themselves modestly, and have made permanent and valuable citizens of the country hut with out doubt, we have been favored with a large supply of an opposite description.— But we rejoice to witness in this respect, a very great change for the better. It is not regaided as a very desirable recommen da ion to say of a teacher, he is a graduate of a Northern College. The thing is reversed, and to have a diploma from a Southern College is beginning to lie looked on as a much higher recommendation for public favor; so that the academies and colleges of the country are fast passing into the hands of Southern teachers, and the people are at last beginingto make the astonishing discovery that Gteek and Latin and science in all its branches, can be just as well taught by Southern men on South ern soil, as any how or any where else.— l hail this as an auspicious change. And permit me to say, that we are mainly in debted for it to the influence of the de nominational schools and colleges of the South. But we have only faiily en'ered into this work. The Southern people will not have met their entire responsibil ity till all the children of the country are brought within the reach and influence of schools, academies and colleges. Our doc trine is, bring the facilities and education within the reach of all the people. The State Legislature ought to do this, but as there are generally so many political schemes to further and feed out of the public treasury, and the represents:ives are not always as wise as King Solomon, we think that this important work must be mainly performed by tbe friends of the different denominational institutions of the South. They must not think of resting on their arms; father they must push an the glorious work which they have so au spiciously commenced. Your influence, your patronage, your money must not be withheld till your institutions are amply furnished and endowed. The truth is, if we love Southern Independence, our sons and daughters must be educated at home. We have been if possible, still more suberviant and dependent on the north for our reading. Northern brains and northern hands, have provided us with books, from the printer to books on the loftiest subjec t of intellectual effort. How few books have been written by Southern authors! No! that the sons of the Southern are a race of intellectual pigmies; their contributions to the periodical literature disprove this sup position. W hat then is the cause—are we too indolent, or have the educated men of the coutry who haveheretofore been found mostly among the wealthy, regarded book making as too great a drudgery? And as they had not the stimulus of w anting bread to urge them forward in the career of au thorship they have ingloriously permitted talents of the highest order to be burred. Alas that it should have been so. But whatever may have been the cause, the state of things indicated above exist almost universally throughout the Southern coun try: and if we would compel our Northern friends to respect us we must change our habits. Our men of mind who can wield the pen of ready writers must lay them selves out to advance the interests of south ern literature,whether necessity cnfnpels or not. In the periodical literaturj of the country, we have indeed been a lijtlemore zealous; hut even in this respect bur sup port of some half a dozen quarterlies is the amount of proof we give of our xpprecia tion of that higher and more permanent class of our periodical literature. Our weekly newspapers indeed are namerous, and many ofthem conducted witl decided ability; yet it is true in this resjiect as in others, that Northern influence h*s comp i led to a great extent the weekly issues of the press throughout the Union. It may he true that in this particular matters are greatly changed for the better; l^utstill our newspaper press is very far from being de cidedly southern in its character; nor will it be so till our men of talent become more industrious with their pens. If our newspaper press must necessarily exert en untold amount of influence in fashioning the political and moral sentiment of the country, is not every genuine Southern patriot sacredly bouud to contribute talent and inflence to make this instrumentally what it ought to be ? But our people are so devoted to money that with many of them tbe price is a much more important consideration than the intellectual chatacter of the paper. They regard any paper as cheap at a dollar a year, no matter whether it be infidel or Christian, decent or vulgar. The price of the sheet and its size are the only important points of inquiry. Now,it is notorious,that from NewYork Philadephia, and other Northern cities, newspaper are sent out all over the land, all of them at a low price, and many of them openly and covertly infidel in their character and demoralizing in theirtenden. cy. And these have a large circulation at the South, and exert a very pernicious in fluence. This evil tendency must he cor rected and these publications supplanted by Southern publications of a better character. We hail with pleasure every indication of awakened Southern energy and well direc ted enterprise; and we especially give a warm greeting to every enteiprise. indica tive of awakeuad zeal in he Sorthein church: Every missionary or Sunday school association, every ne.v book, the product of Southern mind at and heart, in terests us. Every ably conducted and well sustained weekly, monthly, and quarterly, encourages our hope of a bright future for the South, And permit me to say in this connexion that I look forward with the most cheering confidence to a bright, a glorious—because a useful—career to the forthcoming Sunday School Journal, to be issued from your office, under the care of our church. It will have a glorious field in which to operate. The seed will be good and with the descending dews of God’s blessing it can not fail to do a great of deal good. Let the church South, pursuetheii onward course and God will make her a blessing and a praise in the earth. But if we have been dependent on the North in the foregoing respects, has our condition been less hurniliatuing in refer ence to matters of a different sort? Were we not in the habit of sending to the north for flour? dwelling as \ve do, in a country where a great abumdance <f wheat can he raised, wiih the first water power f r nulls? Living in a country abounding in iron ore and wood or coal, as we might prefer, the north furnished us with most of our tools and castings. Dwelling in a country pro ducing wool to any extent, the north fur nished us with our summer and winter clothing. In a country where is no lack of hides or of any facitlity for tanning leather, and with a market at the door, we have per mitted the east to supply us with shoes ; and in almost every thing even down to brooms and axe helves we have formerly been wont to look to yankee land for sup plies. I can well recollect the time not twenty years since, when any proposition for the application of Southern enterprise to tbe important schemes for the improve ment of the country, was met by the craven declaration from southern lips, “O the South can do neither; the Yankees can do these things.” But thank heaven, tilings ate changed, and still changing with as' tonishing rapidity. The fanaticism of Northern men is fast drawing us to ask why should we any longer he tributary to meu who fatten on our tradeand ilien insult us. We have ample materials at home to furnish almost every thing we need; let us apply ourselves to the developeraent and improvement of our abundant resourcesof wealth and prosperity; and thestern resolve of the Southern people to improve these resources cannot be mistaken. We intend to make our own bread, and meat, and clothes; already we compete succesfully with nothern factoiiesin all the coarse cot ton fabrics. Our machines ofevery descrip tion may be manufactured at the South* Our railroads are traversing our country in all directions, filling up valleys, piercing mountain barriers, and bringing into con nection widely separate points. Prosper ous villages and citties are growing up alJ along these lines of communication. Ag ricuhure is improving and we can secure all the necessaries, and mostofthe luxuries oflife. Within oursnlves we have the finest watering places and magnificent mountain scenery for those who travel for pleasure, and why not our Southern sea. ports import for us all we want from foreign shores? More hereafter. JAMES O. ANDREW. gouthci'ii Bights .Heeling in Ogle thorpe. A large and respectable number of the citizens of Oglethorpe convened this day in the Court House at Lexington, for the purpose of taking some action upon the late acts of Congress—upon the contin ued aggressions of the North—the uncon stitutional admission ofCalifornia.the State convention, &c., &c. Upon motion of J. W. Moody, Esq., Dr. W. W. Daven port, was called to the chair, and upon mo' tion of T. E. R. Harris, Esq., Dr. F. J Robinson and John A. Bell were requested to act as Secretaries. The chairman having briefly stated the object ofthe meeting, Dr. James W. Price moved the appoinment of a committee of five to prepare resolutions for the action of the meeting : whereupon, the chairman appointed Dr. James W. Price, Dr. J. S. Sims, J. H. Mc.Whorter, Esq., R. M. Fleming, Esq., and Charles S. Meriwethet. The committee having retired, upon mo tion of D. C. Barrow, Esq., the following letter from lion. Charles Dougherty, of Athens, Ga., was then read, and the senti ments uttered in it, highly applauded. Ct.ARKESVII.LE, Oct. 13, 1850. My Dear Doctor — * * I hare only time to say, that in my humble opinion, if the South note submits calmly to the late policy of the General Government, touching the question of slavery, it will be but an in vitation to the North to commitfur her ag grisstnns on our rights. 1 trust in God 1 may be mistaken in this opinion, if the South should tamely s limit, which J far she witl. In my judgment the South should do some thing by way of resistance. The hind, and mode of resistance is she question in wyj ,Jg ment. lam no disunionist. That must be the last and desperate ran dy, if r< me y it can be called. All remedies, in my opinion, will prove fruitless, unless the South can be united and induced to join in their application. 1 hare not time to speak of the remedies which have or may be suggested for our wrongs. In my judgment, any remedy would be effectual if the whole South was united in its enforce ment.. The policy of the Government has resulted in the exclusion of Southern slave holders from the newly acquired Territories and it is useless to discuss the question of constitu'ionali'y. The practical result is and will be the same as the po it ire enact ment of the I Til mot Proviso—and yet it is said we should not resist. The next step will be the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and then it will he said, that the interest we have i the Ten Miles Squa e is too small to just fy resistance ; and ccr t inly it is true that we hare a greater in terest in the new Territories than in the Ten Mi'es Square. Then the slave trade between the S a'cs will be. attached,, and if abolished or prohibited, it will be said that such a measure would render the slaves in s he planting States more valuab’c, and we will be railed upon to submit again ; and so on until our strength is frittered away. — The North will never do but one thing at a time. They will do nothing which of itself would be. so destructive of our rights, bu t that some would say it was not sufficient fo } resistance. If the North will give any assurances that they now will stop their aggressions, I might consent to let them take the Territo ries and appropriate them to themselves. — But they will give none. So far from it, they trill continue, if not enlarge their de mands. Is it possib’e that Georgia will do less than invite the siavcholding States to meet them in Convention, to unite with them on submission and silence, or on some mode of resistance ? I have time to say no more, and repeat my regret, that I cannot be with you. — Hoping that Oglethorpe may prove herself worthy of the crisis, 1 am, sir, your most obedient servant, CHARLES DOUGHERTY. Dr. James S. Sims. The committee of five having now re turned, reported through their Chairman Dr. J. W. P rice, the following preamble and resolutions, which were read and laid on the table until after the speaking was concluded : Whereas, a period has arrived in the political history ofour Government, which demands from the whole South a position at once firm and unyiel®ng. We ask not the dissolution of this- once glorious and happy Union, nor to burst asunder the chords which now together; but to continue connection with it, we must re. ceive assurances that our future rights will be respected, and our just and constitu tional claims guaranteed to us and our pos terity. ‘‘Sixty years have passed since the Northern and Southern States entered into a treaty for the common defence and general welfare. We joined that league with them as equals: its strictly defined powers were to he exercised for the equal good of all parties, and its benefits and burdens were to be equaly shared. But our allies at the North have grown strong under the fostering protection of this great treaty, and are no longer content with the equal conditions upon which it was form ed,” and gone on making many exactions, and having advanced far in a series of mea sures which if unresisted, must eventuate in the overthrow of our slave institutions. Ihe history of the causes of the present crisis is in the history of ever growing de. mands on the part of the North, and of as constant concessions from the South. Vir ginia owned an immense Territory to the North west of the Ohio river, but for the “sake of the Union, she gave up this fine country, larger than all the Southern States of the old 13, and thus suffered her own ci izetis to be excluded from its bene fit—for it was then a slaveholding Terri tory,and the act of 1787 abolishing slave ry there was passed chiefly by Northern votes, and as Mr. Madison said, ‘without ihe shadow of Constitutional authority.’— Although Virginia, for the sake of the “general welfare,” submitted to an ag gression so great, she, looking to the bal anceol p over in the Union, annexed one condition, that not more than 5 States should be firmed out of this Territory.” let, even this has been violated by the North, and “22,336 Square milles of its area, more than the average size of all the free States east ofthe Ohio, lia\e gone to constitute the future State, of Minne so a. M “In 1790, the South had as many votes in the Senate, and only eight less in the House. In 1817. that North had a majority of iwo in the former body, and twenty-five in the laiter. If was accordingly, on the application of Missouri in 18i9-20 for ad miss in into the Union that the pretension was first set up that no new slave S ate should enter the confederacy. A clause prohibiting slavery was inseited in the hill for the admission of Missouri,” and her people determined to reamain without the Union with a regularly organized govern* metit as a separate, independent State, un less the Federal Government undertook to subdue her and convulse the country by civil war. In this State of ihe question, the South had only rti remain firm, and the N nth would he forced to yield, but as usual the South was weak enough to re treat from her ground, and in her love for the Union, she submitted to a provision forever prohibiting slavery in all that part of the Territory of Louisiana (except iMis s uri itself,) which lies Nor h of 36° 30'— the Southern boundary of Virginia and Kentucky. The South thus lost without an equivalent,five sixths of what was already a slave territory,pur* chased by thecommon treasure.Sheretained only 110,000 square miles for the emigration of her own citizens, and surrendered 065,000 to the North, yet, even this so called compromise, for ced upon us by Northern votes, is now spurned by tlie free States. They have derived all the possible benefit from it on this side of the Rocky Mountains,and they refuse us the poor advantage which it would secure, of 204,383 square miles out of 867,541 on the other side.” Here the battle for power and aggres sive measures against the South com menced ; arid viewing as we do the past and the present wrongs which have been sustained by tbe South, in relation to your peculiar domestic institutions, we claim as your right to be heard in your defence, trusting the merits of your cause to an en lightened and patriotic people. Soon af ter the adoption of the Missouri Compro mise line, by the act of Congress, petition after petitions poured in upon that body from abolition associations and petticoat politicians,praying the abolishment of slave ry within the District of Columbia; many firm nnd noble spirits were found, who pronounced their reception violative of the constitution, and much more their reading, while the warm and entliusinstic debates which thrilled the Hulls of Congress, was the s longest evidences of the danger of tampering wiih the subject. The advo cates for abolition cause continued to in crease, and p:essing their claims every session, until the most daring opponent to their nefarious schemes, shrunk from the contest, and the Halls of Congres were literally flooded with their detestable doc uraents. The next step in the political drama was the prohibition, of tl'io clave trade in the District of Columbia— bill to abolish slavery there and the C o n tinual flooding of the South with i ncen . diafy pamphlets, through the mail, anim. portant part of the machinery ofthe Gov ernment, for the purpose of exciting to insurrection the slaves of our country which would have been considered a ju S t cause of war. And last of all, and which the South has just ground for complain, was the admission of Calfi.rnia as a State and granting to Utah and New Mexico, territo rial form, of Government, containing the „ sential principle, of the Wilmot Provi.o, by leaving the Mexican law in lull force,*by which the South is forever excluded from equal parti, cipation in a territory of 446,638 square mile, large enough to make eleven Slates equal to Ohio. The South paid her .hare, and, a. we shall see, far more than her full share of the ex pensc of the Mexican war. Os the gallant vol untcers who fought her battles, she furnished 45,640, and the North 23,084—but little more than half as many. The South sent one man out of every 26 of miliiary age—the Northonly one out of every 124. Then, why is it that this newly acquired Territory is to be alone appro prirted to the use of Northern adventurers’— We ask, if the blood and treasuje of the South was not expended in obtaining this golden tre» sure—to which every part of God’s creation is admitted and welcomed, except the poor spurned and down-trodden South—to whom it most rightfully belongs,while upon the plains of Mex ico, the bnnes of many of her noblest sons are now bleaching. Then, again, we ask, why are we not entitled to an equal apportionment of her soil, and the golden treasures buried be. neath her sands—except upon the principle, that might gives right ’ Not one foot of the land do we possess in that widely exetended territory, upon which we dare place our peculiar species of property. And still we are told the South has all she desires—the Wilmot Proviso is no, in existence—“go up and possess the land while the Mexican Provso exertsa more dreaded influence, than Pharaoh’s host of frogs and lice. But the storm is still gathering, anil the muttering of the distant thunders portend the approach of greater evils: and where slavery is thus hemmed in—“localized and discouraged,” Senator Chase, proposes, ‘that ariti slavery sentiments are to bemade the indisoensihle condition of appointment to the Federal offices; and by thus bribin'* Southern men to the treachery, the war is to he carried on to the last fell deed of all theaholition of slavery within the States. “ I lie slave States have hut 30 votes in the Senate, and two of these (Delaware) can hardly be counted upon in theirdefence Nor is it possible to increase her strength by new Slates. Rufus King, long since avowed that the object of the North, was political power; arid this has been already obtained in the immense territorial acquisition of which the North has come in possession. The Northwestern Territory, lying east of the Rocky mountain to over 700,000 square miles, added to this Minesota, 22,000 square miles,all of Oregon containing 300,- 000 square miles, making a grand total of territory appropriated by the North to herself, of over one million square miles. and now having appropriated all of Cali fornia, Utah and New Mexico, and cut uff from 1 exas 80,000 square miles, she will have one million six hundred and fifty thousand square miles of the publiedomain for her own peculiar use: while the South can alone claim the paltry amount of 600,- 000 square miles of all the territory ob tained since the formation of the Govern ment, with no prospect of ever extending her territorial limits or increasing her Ic gislative strength; and in this alarming sit uation, the South has no hope but her own firmness. She wishes to preserve the Union as it was, and she must therefore, insist upon sufficient guaranties for tbe ob. servance of her rights and her future po litical equality in it. The additions which have already been made to the North, through territorial strength.would give her the three-fourths required to amend the constitution, and abolish slavery at her pleasure, if we can suppose that she would take the trouble to enact an amendment to do that which Mr. Adams declared could he done without it, under a half dozen clauses in the constitution as it now stands. We call upon the whole Southern people to look this subject full in theface. Weigh it if ell—and decide upon it calmly and dis passionately. Suffer not the intrigue of de signing politicians, who value the interest of the South in proportion as it can confer of fice upon them, to delude you away four the support of principles essential to the protec tion of your homes andfiresides, and the fu. lure perpetuity of our Government and the prosper ity of the people. The cry of Union, Union is already made to ring from the mountains to the seaboard, which is, says Mr. Toombs, “ the masked battery from behind which the Constitution and the rights of the South are to be assailed —and let the South mark the man, who is for thcUnion at every hazard and to the last extremity—he will be the imitator of the base Judean, who for thirty piecesof silver, thretv away a pearl richer than all his tribe. —~ But no longer do fed by such appeals to your