Rome courier. (Rome, Ga.) 1849-18??, August 21, 1851, Image 1

Previous Issue Next Issue

Clip Visible Area View Page Text View PDF

Newspaper Page Text0ftt£ YpLTJME 6. ME/I, THURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST 81, 1851. THE ROME COURIER IS ITBUSHED EVERY THURSDAY MORNIq BY A. Id. EDDEfi91.l9l. . Two Dollaiui net rtrtn'llo, il paid in advance s Two Dollars olid Fifty Cents If pntrl within fix tnonths j or Three Dollars ut tho enil of the your, natoo ot AilvoriuinR. LttoJft) AovKrtTteKMKNT# will bo inserted with otrlot attontlon lo tlia.requirements of the Inw, nt tho following rates i Four Months Notice, ■ Notice to Debtors ttntt Creditors, Sttlo ol Pcrsonnl Property, by Execu tors, Administrators, tea. flnlos of Land or Negroes, 00 tlnys, per square $1 00 3 25 ■ 3 25 ■ 5 00 , pur Bi)imru| t j Letters of Citation, - - • 2 75 Notleo for Letters of Dismission, - 4 50 'Candidates announcing their names, will be bltsrgcd $5. 00, 'wliich will be required in ndvanao. Husbands advertising their wives, will be charged 93 00, whioh must always bo paid In advance. All other advertisements will be inserted nt One Dollar per square, of twelve lines or less, for the first, nnd FiOy Cants, for each subsequent insor tion. Liberal deductions will bo made in fnvor of those who advertise by tho year. BUSINESS GABES. B. W. ROSS, 0GNT18T. Rome, Georgia... ..OfficeoverN. J. Ombcrg's Clothing Store. January 16,1851. FRANCIS M. ALLEN, WHOLESALE AND RETAIL Dealer in Staple and Fancy DRY GOODS AND GROCDRIES. Receivos uow goods overy week. *£0 Rome, Go., January 2, 1851. LIN & BIIANTLY. WARE HOUSE, COMMISSION & PRODUCE MERCHANTS, Atlanta, Ga. (^-Liberal advances made on any article in Store. Nov. 28.1850. ly A. D. KINO A GO. COTTO V GIN MANUFACTURERS Rome, Georgia. . Mny 0. 1530, ALEXtVDIIU Sc TIIAMMKI.L. ATTORNEYS AT LAW, ROME, GA. Nov. 28, 1850. tv. ROMAS ItARDKMAN. H OIURI.Z1 ». HAMILTON. HAMILTON Si HARDEMAN. Factors & (Jjaiiisi'm A1 srcliiats, SA VANNA1I, GEORGIA Oot. 3, 1850, 1 12m OIIAXin F HAMILTON. H THOMAS HASOSMAN It Alt OB.VI AN Sc HAMILTON, Warehouse & Commission Merchants, MACON, GEORGIA. ' Oot. 3,1S50. 1 12m. • PATTON St PATTON, attorneys at law, ■ ■ ■ Rome, Geoigia. '■<’ WILL Prilcileo In alt tlie Countlosof tlio Clioro ■oa Circuit 48 Sept. 5, 1830. 1 A. X. VAT-TON. J. r. rATTON. . W. p. WILKINS. attorney at law, Rome, Georgia.: llsrsa to Hon. n f. roiiTKit, ciiaih.kston, ». c., or at cavksfriso, on. Hon w. ii.imnnnwoon, hosik. <ja. Hon. WILLIAM KZ-AABD, nSCATUR, OA. Jut# 18,1850 41 ty O. \V. 1IEALL, iDRAPER AND TAILOR, Broad Street Rome, Ga. ” Ootobor 10,1850. J. n. DICK E 14 SON, DRUGGIST—ROME, GEORGIA. WUOLSSAt.a AND It UTAH, OKALKIt IN DRUGS, MEDICINES, FAINTS, OILS, DYE STUFFS, FE11KUMEKY, tic. October 10, 1850 Email Street. CO I E & C0LLIR. attorneys at law, Rome, Georgia. Feb. 1,1851. HOLLAND HOUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA 4; rprilS Lnr^o nml New Briok Hotel, nem tlie Rai l/'.JL, Uonil Depoi,i« now opened. It will be kept In ’ siicli style that vis Hots will not forgot to stop ngiln. f FniScngcrs on the com'.vill lmve nioio thnn nmple time to partake of the good moots nhvnye in readi ness nt the arrival of onuh train. Persons visiting the City,and slopping nt the Holland House, cult gut in- fonnotion and assistance in business j nnd-pass oil , .heir leisure hours in amusements connccled wiiR the V House T. c Post Office, Bunk Agency, Br kers nnd f oiher important offices will be in lie Holland House. Reference—Any ono who tin, or may step ono time. A. R. KELLAM, Proprietor. | WM. H. UNDKKlY(ltli)& J. IV. 11. UNDEIHV'tlllll. V - WILL PRACTICE LAW -i:'TN all the Countie* of tho Cherokee Circuit, (ox 1 J. cent Dado). They will both personalty nttend nil L^tltbCourts. J. W, lt. UNDERWOOD will attend L die Courts ot Jackson nnd Ilnburshnm counties of tlie P Western Circuit. Both will nttend tho sessions oftho I SUPREME COURT at Cnssvllle nml Gainesville.— ■ .All business entrusted lo them will lie promptly and ■.Willfully attended i o. V OFFICE next door to Hooper 5s Mlteholl,"Biienn ■ Vista House,’*Wimo, Gn„ nt which place one or both Hnli tlwnys ho found, except absent on profession!! B.hsiness, KM Jan ,23, 1851 FEW COTTON GINS AT HOME, ©A. VJTHSTANDINR our Shop has been Jos troyed twice within the Inst two years, once by *r npd.oncc by fire, we are ngtiin manufacturing tuperior Cotton Ulna,and have pro pored ourselve any amount of orders with w/iicli we miiy be pred. We arc not tanking Premium-Gins, or Wa nt Offis, nor do tve claim all the,experience.that » acquired in the ari of (Jin making, bat we aretnose-' i’iihout banting. sa> that we. arc willing to- happening s side by aide with any made in tire Unt- [J.;,*- —Tit t ice, nnd compere qual ly— J • ‘ •- - f day will ' Lellfcl* from ProT.' IMcltcr. Columbia, fs! C.) July, 1851. Gentlemen : Much as I have wished lo be with yon on tho Fourth of July, I find (hat I shall bo obliged Io deny myself tho pleasure of mingling With you on that day, doubly solemn to every lover of his country in tho present year. 7 But your invitation to join the crouding citizens on the auspicious dav, at your breezy mountain village, re quests the invited fellow-citizens “to give his views in writing at length,’’ should it not lie convenient for him to go to Greenville.— I oboy your summons. Not that 1 could vainly hope to say any tiling new on tho gieat subject which occupics'nll our minds and all our souls ; or that I could urge any arguments which have not already occurred to you oh the question of Union or Disunion —fully debated and ample written upon ns it has been now ihoso eighteen months—but simply to contribute my mile, however small it may be, to n cause which I consider of the last importance to Carolina, to America, to all mankind, and to send you one more bough—il will bo a simple branch, but it shall be fresh and green—for the festive wreaths which you will be weaving for this important Fourth of July. Accept then, kindly, the following words, not according lo their intrinsic value, but measuring them by the spirit in which they arc offered. 1 am, with great regard, gentlemen, your very obedient, FRANCIS LIEJ3ER. Fellow-Citizens : This is the Fourth of July I There is a fragrance about the month of July delightful and refreshing to every iriond of freedom. It was on the sixth day of this month that Leonidas and his martyr band, faithful “/o the lawi of their ■ country,” even unto dentil, sacrificed themselves, not to obtain a victory—they knew that that was beyond their reach—but tojdo nioro—lo leave to their Slate and their country, and to every successive generation of patriots to the end of timn, tho inomoiy of men that could “obey the law,” and prepare theinsoives for a certain death for their country ns for a joy- ful wedding feast. It was on tho ninth day of this month that the Swiss peasants dared make a stand nt Sempach against Austria. Then, ns now, tho drag-chain of tho chaj-iot of advancing Europe—that memorablo duy wlion Arnold Wiokslried, seeing tbnt his companions hesi’oled befoie the firm ram part ol lances levelled against them by the Austrian knights, cried out : “Friends, I’ll make a lane for you I Think of my dearest wife and children !” grasped, ns he wns n man of gieat strength, a whole bundle of tho enemy’s pikes, buried them in his breast, and made a breach, so that over him nnd the knights whom he had dragged down with him his brethren could enter the hostile ranks and with them victory for Switzer land nnd liberty ; nnd Arnold’s carcass, mangled and trodden down, became the cor ner-stone of the Helvetic Republic, It was on the fourteenth day of this month that the French, awoke from lethargy, into which an infamous despotism had drugged them stormed and conquered that castle of tyrnn- ny, tho ominous keys of which Lafayette sent o our Washington, who scarcely kept them to the last day of his life, so that every visi ter could see them, as the choicest present evSr offered to him to whom we owe so much of our liberty nnd of the existence of our great Commonwealth. - And it wns on this day that our own forefathers signed that Declaration of Independence which many of them sonled with their blood, nud which the olhors, not permitted to die for their cause, soon after raised to a great historical reality liy the boldest conception—be on- grafting, for the first time in tne history of our kind, a representative and complete poli tical organism on a confederacy of States, nicely adjusted, yet with an expensive and assimilative vitality. These nro solemn recoiled ions. As tho pious Christian recounts the sacrifices and the victories of liis church, with burning grati tude and renewed pledges to live worthy of them, so dues the fervent patriot rouiember these deeds, with rekindled affections and re solutions, not to prove uuworthy of such ex- nmplos and unmindful of so great an inheri tance ; tiut, on the contrary, to do whatever in him lies to transmit tho talent he hus re ceived from his talhers undiminished, and if God permits, increased, to his. successors Vet there are those in this country who daringly protend to make light of the great boon received from our fnthers—of this, by far tho greatest act of our history—of that act, by which wo stand forth among the na tions of iho earth—-tho Union. There have been patriots as devoted ns outs-—Ihoro have been sprending nations like ours—Ihoro have been bold adventurers pressing on into dis tant regions beforo ours—there have been confederacies in antiquity nnd modern times besides ours—hut there has never been a Union of free States like ours, cemented by a united reptescalation of the single Slates nnd of the people at largo, woven together into a true Government like ours ; le’vinf; seperate what ought to be sepernted, nnc vot uniting the whole by broadcast nnd equal representation, changing with tho changing population, so that wo cannot fall into a dire Poloponosinn war, in which Athens and Sparta struggled for tho leadership; that intonecine war into which all.,other confed eracies have fallen, nnd in which they have buried themselves under their own ruins, un- loss they had slowly glided into submission to one Holland, or one Austria, or ono Borne. Many federations indeed have had to hear the larger part of both the evils. There are those who pretend to make light of the Union ; there are those who wilfully shut their oyes to the many positive blessings she has bestowed upon us, and who seem to forget that the good which the Union with her Supremo Court,or any other vasl and lasting institution, bestows upon men consisU as much in preventing evils as in showering benefits into qur,.-l“ps. There are thoso who wUl.n?* »e° or hear what is iu^rifour own eyes m other coun- erntnny, for instance—that living, _ el bleeding, ailing, witting, humbled com- mentatory on disunion. Ah,! fellow-citizens, you can but fear, nnd justly fear, that of c is- lutiott of France, namely, tiirfl if Government union *hich I knew. With you the evils of acts _ against the law every cit'zcn has disunion nro happily but matter of npprehen sion ; with me, unhappily, matter of living knowledge. I nm like a man who knowB the plague, because he has been in 'the east where ue witnessed its ravages; you only know it from description, ana easily, may it be understood why I shudder when I hear persons speak of tne' plaguo with trifling flip pancy, or courting the nppalirig distemper lo come and make its pleasant home among us as n sweet blessing which Providence hns never yet vouchsafed to us. There are those who seem to imagine that the Union might be broken up arid a new confederacy ho formed with the base and precision with which the glazier breaks his brittle substance along the line wliich his tiny diamond hns drawn, forgetting thnt no peat institution, and, least of all, a country, ins ever broken up or can break up in peace, and without a struggle commensurate to its own magnitude ; snd that, when vehement passion dashes down a noble mirror, no one can hope to gather n dozen well-framed looking-glasses from the ground. There nre those even who think thnt the lines along which our Uaion will split are ready-marked, like the grooved linos in some soil substance, intended, from the be ginning, to be broken into parts for ultimate use. rhere nre those who speak of the remedy of secession—a remedy, as ampulaion would be a remedy, indeed, to euro a troublesome corn, or ns cutting olio’s throat would remedy migraine. There are those even, it seems to mo, who have first rashly conceived of accession ns a remedy., and now adhere to it as the end and object to be obtained, when they are shown that it would not cure the evils com plained of, but, on the contrary, would in duce others infinitely greater and infinitely more numerous. They fall into the com mon error of getting so deeply interested in the means that the object for the obtaining of which the means wore first selected is for gotten. But the error to of daily occur rence, it is a fearful one in this case, because tho consequence would be appnlling.— They olwnys remind us of these good people in Tuscany who had contracted so great a fondness for St. Romualdus that when tho saint had concluded lo remove from among them, resolved in a grave town meeting, to slay their patron saint, so that they might have at least his bones and worship them ns sacred relics. We have heard much of secession. It is still daily dinning in ours. . What is secession i Is it revolution, or is it lawful remedy to which n Slate is permitted to resort in right of its own sovereignty ? Many persons — and there nre some of Ugh amhority in other matters among them—maintain that even though it might not be expedient in the present case, it cannot be denied that the right of seceding belongs to every State.— 1 have given all the attention and applied all the earnest study to this subject that I am capable of, and every thing—our history, tho framing of our Constitution, tho corres pondence of the framers, the conduct of our country, the actions of our States—all prove to my mind that such is not the case. It hus often been asserted thnt the States are so vereign, and thnt they would not be so could they not. among other things, withdraw from the Union whenever they think fit. This is purely begging the question. The question is what sovereignty is, and what in particular it monns when tho term is applied to our confederate States ? No word is used in more different applications than this term sovereign ; but in no sense, whntever width and breadth bo given lo it in this or in any other case,,does it mean absolute and unlimi- table power, if wo speak of men. There is but one nbsolulo ruler, ono truo sovereign— God. Unlimited power is not for men ; and the legal sage, Sir Edward Coke, went so far ns to declare, in the remarkable debates on the petition of rights, thnt “sovereignty is no parliamentary word.” This is not the place where so subtle nnd comprehensive a subject can be throughly discussed, but I may he permitted to touch upon a few points which mny be examined here without incon venience. What is light for the ono State must needs be right for oil the others. As to South Car olina, we can just barely imagine the possi bility of her secession, owing to her situa tion near the border of the sea. But what would she have said a few years ago, or what indeed would sho say now—I speak of South'Carolina, less the secossionists—if a Slate of the interior, say Ohio, were to vindi cate the presumed right of secession, and to declare that, being tried of a Republican Government, she prefers to establish a moil- aicliy with some prince, imported, all dress ed and legitimate, from that country where thev grow in abutidnnee, and wiiere Greece, Belgium, and Porlugnl have been furnished with ready-made royalties—what would we say ? We would simply soy this cannot be nnd must not he. In forming tho Union we hnve each given up some attributes to re ceive in turn advantages of tho last impor tance, and we have in consequence so shap ed nnd balanced all our systems that no member can withdraw without deranging nnd embarrassing all, and ultimately destroy ingtho whole. But docs not the Constitution say that ev ery power not granted in that instrument shall be reserved fur each State f Assuredly it docs. But this very provision is foundod upon the supposition of the existence of two powers—tho General and the State Govern ments. The Constitution is intended to reg ulate the affairs between them; secession, however, annihilates one party—the Gener al Government—so far as tho seceding State is concerned. The supposition that the Constitution itself contains tho tacit ac knowledgment of tho right of secession would amount to an assumption that a prin ciple of self-destruction had been refused by its own mnkers into the very instrument which constructs the Government. It would amount to much the same provision which ,was contained, in,thq first democratic cqnsti-1 tho duty to tnko up arms against ft. This was, indeed, declaring that Jacobinical de mocracy tempered by revolution, ns a writer has called Turkey a despotism tompored by regicide. Aud’Can wo imagine that men so saga cious, so far-seeing on the one hand, and so thoroughly schooled by experience on the Other, ns the framers of our Constitution \vero, hnvo just omitted, by some oversight, to speak on so important a point ? One of tho greatest jurists of Germany said to me at Frankfort, when the constituent Parliament wns there assembled, of which lie wns a member: ‘‘The more I study your Consti tution, tho more I nm amazed ut tho wise forecast ol its makers, and the manly for bearance which prevented them from entei- ing into any unnecessary details, so easily embarrassing nt a inter period.” Thoy would not deserve this praise, or, in fnct, our respect, had they been guilty ot a neglect such ns has been supposed. Can wo, in our sober senses, imagine that they believed in the right of seressinr tt hen they did not oven stipulate a fixed time necessary to giro no tice of a contemplated secession, when they knew quite ns well ns wo do that even a common treaty of defence nnd offence—no, not even one of trade and amity—is over entered into by independent Powers without stipulating the periou which must elapse he- tween informing the otlioi parlies of nn in tended withdrawal and the time when it ac tually can take place; and when they knew peifoctly well that unless such a provision is contained in treaties all international low in terprets them ns perpetual; when they knew thnt not even two mechants join in part nership without providing for the period nec essary to give notice of an intended dissolu tion or the house f It seems to me prepos terous to supposo il. The absence of all monlion of secession must bo explained on the same ground on which the omission of parricide in the first Roman penal laws was plained—no one thought of such a deed. Those that so carefully drew up our Con stitution cannot ho blamed for not having thought of this extrsvngnnce because it had never been dreamt of in any confederacy, ancient, medieval, or modern. Never hns there existed nn architect so presumptuous as to consider himself able to build an arch equal to its purpose nnd use, yet each stone of which should be so loose that it might be removed at nay time, lenving a sort of ab stract nrch fit to support abstractions only— as useful a reality os a knife would be with out a blade and of which the hnndlo is mius- ing. If the Constitution says nothing on seces sion; if it cannot be supposed to exist by im- itication; it we cannot deduco it from the Ttllja *t>f uovoroigntjrj moy bo worth .nUT. while to inquire into the common law of mankind on this subject. The common law in this ense is history. Now, I have taken the pains of oxamining all confederacies of which we have any knowledge. In none of the many Greek confederacies did the right of secession ex ist, so far as we can trace their fundamental principles. In some rare cases an unfaithful member may hare been oxpulsed. But in the most important of all these confedera cies, and in that which received the most complete organization, resembling in many points our own—in tho Achicn League there existed no right of secession, nnd this is prov ed by the following case : When the Ro mans had obtained the supremacy over He! las, and Greece was little more than a pro vines of Rome, tho jEtolians respectfully waited upon the Roman ngeut, Gallus to so licit permission to secede from the Longue. He sent them to the Senate, and the seces sionists obtained at Romo the permission to withdraw—no “leading case,” suppose, for Americans. The Amphictyonic Council al lowed of no secession. It wns Pan-Hel lenic, and never meant to he otherwise. Tho medieval leagues of tho Lombard cities, ol tho Swabian cities, and of the Rhenish cities, permitted no spontaneous withdrawal; but the fortunes of tho fiercest wnrs waged against them by nobility would occasionally tear off a member and produce disruptions. 'The great Hanseatic League, which by its powerful union of distant cities becamo one of the most efficient agents in civilizing Eu rope, and which, ns Mr. Huskissqn stated in Parliament, carried trade and manufacture into England, knew nothing of secession un til the year 630, when the princes, avid for the treasures of her cities, had decreed her distruction, and forced many members to secede. This is no leading case either. The Swiss Confederacy, the Germaic Fed eration, knew and know nothing of secession; nor did the United Slates of tho Nether lands, so much studied by some of our fra mers, and Washington among them, admit the withdrawal of any single State. All these confederacies consisted of it far looser web than ours. None had a Federal Government comparable to ours, yet they never contemplated such a right. And should we do so—we, with a firmer union, a bettor understanding of politics, a nobler consciousness of our mission ns a nation, and greater blessings at stake ? Should we, in deed, of all men that ever united into feder ations, treat our Government, by which we excel all other united Governments, as a sort of political pick-nick to which the in vited guest may go nnd carry his share of viands or not, ns he mny move him ? . , 1 ask, will any ono who desires secession for the sake of bringing about a bouthcru Confederacy honestly aver that ho would insist upon a provision in the new constitu tion securing the full right of socessidu whenever it mny be desired by any member of the expected’confederacy ? To secede, then, roquires revolution. Revolution for what ? To remedy certain evils.. And how aye they to be remedied? It is a rule laid down among all the authori ties of international law and ethics, to bo jus tified in goiug to war, it is not sufficient that right be on our rule npplics with far g -ac tions. The Jows who roso nguiiis sian had all tho right, 1 dare say, on their side; but their undertaking was not a war rantable ono for nil that*. We, however, would' wo Imvo suffic'ont right on our' side for plunging into n revolution—for letting loose n civil wnr ? Does the system against which we would rise contain within its own bosom no peaceful lawful remedies 1 Nor would Ihe probability of success ho in our fnvor, since it is certain that secession cannot take place without w ar, and this wnr must end in ono or the other of two wavs. It must oithcr kindle a general conflagration or we must suffer, single-handed, tho conse quences of our rashness—hitter if we could succeed in lopping ourselves oft from the trunk—hitter if we cannot succeed. Unsuc cessful revolutions nre not only misfortunes; they become stigmas. And what if tho con flagration becomes general, of which there is no expectation ? Lot us remember tliut it is a rulo which pervades nil history, because it pervades every house, that the enmity of contending parties is implacable nnd veno mous in the same degree ns they have pro viousiy stood near each other, or ns nature intended Ihe relation of' good will tj exist between them. It is the secret of all civil nnd religious wnrs—it is the secret of divid ed families—it is tho explanation of unre lenting hntred between those who once were bpsom friends. Our war would ho there NUMBER 46. petition of the Peloponesian wnr, or of tho Gprmnn Thirty Years’ war, with still great er bitterness between the enemies, because it would he Inr more unnatural. It would shed the dismal lure of barbarism on the nineteenth century. Have they that long for separation iorgotten that England, first behind Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, rapidly outstripped all, hacause earlier unit ed, without permitting the Crown to absoib the People's rights ? The separation of the South from tho North would speedily pro duce n manifold disrupture, mid bring us back to a heptarchy, which was no Govern ment of seven, but a state of things whore many worried nth If there he a book which I would recommend, before nil others, to road this juncturo, that book is Thucydides. It is as if it had been written to make ns pause; as il the orators introduced there Imd spokon expressly for our benefit, ns if tho fallacies or our days had all been used nnd exposed nt that early time; nnd ns if in that hook a very minor wore held up for our ad monition. Or wo mny peruse tho history of cumbcred-ailing Gfirmuny, deprived of uni- ty, dignity, strength, wealth, pcuco, nnd lib erty, becauso her unfortunato princes have pursued, with never-ceasing eagerness, what is called in that country particularism-, \.hnl is, hostility ot the parts to the wholo of Ger many. Tho history of that country which Ksas* been Ia Kft it.flUllIn finlfl nf rope these three centuries, will tell you what idol wo would worship wore wo to toss our blessings to the winds, and wore wo to deprive mankind of the proud oxnniple invit ing to imitation. I liuvo nlready gone far beyond the proper limits of a communication for tho purpose for which the present ono is intended, and must abruptly conclude whore so much may yet he said. 1 will only add,in conclusion, that 1, for one, dare not do any thing to thedisruption of tho Union. Situated tts wo ere beetween Eu rope and Asia, on a fresh continent, I seethe finger of God in it. I believe our destiny to be n high,:ivgreat, and a solemn one, before wliich the discussions now agitating us shrink into much smaller dimensions than they appear if we pay exclusive attention to them. 1 have come to this country, nnd » od n voluntary oath to ba faithful to it, will keep this oath. This is my coun try from the choice of manhood, and not by the chance of birth. In my position, ns a servant of the Stato, in a public institution of education, I hnve imposed upon myself the duty of using my influence with the young in tbis'discussion, neither ono wny nor the other. I ba«'e scrupulously and conscien tiously adhered to it in nil my teaching nnd intercourse. There is not a man or a youth that can gainsny this. But 1 am n man and n.citizen, and as such I have a right, or the duty, ns the case may be, to speak my mind and my inmost convictions on solemn occa sions, before my fellow-citizens, and 1 hnve thus not hesitated to put down those remarks. Take them, gentlemen, for wliat thoy may be worth. They nre, nt any rale, sincere and fervent; and, whatever judgment others may pass upon them, or whatever attacks may be levelled against them, no one will be able to say that they can have been made to promote any individual advantages. God save the Commonwealth 1 God save tho common land ! $5,000 Reward- We arp authorized by capitalists in this city to offer the abovo reward for the delivery in'Atlanta of any citizen of Georgia, who can produce satisfactory evidence that ho is suffering from oppression by the Government of the United Stales, Now hero is a faro chnnce for a fortune, and surely some of those gentlemen who nre tell ing the people that thoy are degraded nnd oppressed, will ho able to pick out one who is so. Perttaps Governor McDonald can bring him in; the reward would pay. all his treating expenses from this till tho election, nnd purchase liquor enough to rnshon tho ar my which lie is to raise against Uncle Sam into tho bargain.—Atlanta liepublican (jQ, There is a female now resident in Clark County Georgia, who is one hundred and thirty-tfiree years of age. She is quite active, lively and clieorful—confluontly, reads well without glasses. Stic says she does not feel the effect of her age, except as regards her hearing—she is slightly doaf. This, too, is partly tho result of accident.— She has, now living within one mile ot her residence grand children of Ihe sixth genera tion. So says the Augusta Constitutional- Athens, August 12th, 185 Gentlemen I did not receive your le ter until my return from the lower part of the Stnto, nboul the first of the present month, and Imvo not, therefore, replied to it at on earlier day. As 1 have received communications from other parts of tlid Stnte, on the same, and kindred subjects, I havo determined in thief reply, to consider iho questions involved at some length, as J desire that it mny bo con sidered ns responsive lo the various commu nications to which 1 hnvo referred. Your letter propounds the two following interrogatories : 1st. “Do you believe that n Slate by vir- tuo of her sovreignty, has the right peace ably to secede from iho Union, or is it your opinion, that the general government 1ms the Constitutional nutiiorltj to coerce her to re main in iho Union? And should n call be made upon tho militin to nid in ntlcmpting to coerce a seceding Stnte, would you if in the Executive office, obey such requisition ? 2d. “Do you believe that the Into acts of Congress, termed Iho “Compromise,” were constitutional, just and cquiluhlo ?” I shall, consider these questions in the invetse order in which you hnve proposed them. In order that I mny bo distinctly 'under stood, in reference to the late nets ef Con gress, termed the “Compromise.” I con sider it proper to mukc n brief reference lo cacti of tho six bills, which composed that compromise; and shnll, in that way, lie ena bled to give the most satisfactory answer t» your second interrogatory. Tho bills establishing territorial govern ments fur Utah nnd New Moxico, test upon a great constitutional principle, whieh'has al ways received tho warm ana cordial support . of southern men, and by nona advocated with more zenl, than those now politically associated with yourselves. That principle is, “the right of the peoplo to determine for themselves, whether or' not slavery, shall. constitute n part’of their social system.” In' these hills on the slavery question, is found this provision—“And said Territories shall he received into Ihe Union with, or without slavery, os their constitution mny prescribe,- nt the timo ol their admission.” It this im portant principle, sn long contended for by the South, nnd so lore. rosisted by the North, ho now repudiated by the South, thin these bills are obnoxious to the objection* urged against thorn by tho disunionists; but if the South be content to abide tho opera tion ol hor own cherished doctrines on this subject, then those bills nre in strict conform ity with the requirements of tho South, and 1 should ho entirely satisfactory to us. It is too Into to tnik about tho repeal of the Mexi- port'by tiielloprcs'ontntlvcs oP*t]te'SoutIi"oI the Clayton Compromise Bill, which no> moro repeals those laws, than tho bills wc are now considering; nor wore our Repre sentatives in lheir ndvocoey of the Clayton - Compromise Bill rnoro united, than were their constituents in their approval of the votes of those Representatives. The eight Southern Representatives who voted against that bill, on the ground thnt they requi.ed the repeal of tho Mexican laws, were de nounced ns traitors to the South, for making' the demand, by thoso who\ are now most noisy in their complaints against Southern* Representatives, for not requiring the repeal of the Mcxicnn laws. 1 voted for the Clay ton Compromise Bill, and 1 wns universally sustained in Goorgin iii that vote. Why is it, that l am noW condemned for my sup port of thoso hills by tho men who then ap proved of my course ? . The Clayton Compromise Bill contained no express guarantee for tho admission . ot slave stales, if the people desired it—whilst these bills pledgo tho faith of tho government to admit these territories ns States, v. ith, or without slorery, as the people may deter- mine when they come to organizo their State constitution. These bills received the’ support of a majority of tho Representatives of the South. Your own Representatives from Georgia were unanimous upon the sub ject. The only violent nnd decided opposi tion mode to them, proceeded from the abo litionists nnd free soilera, who saw in the provisions to which 1 have referred, the re pudiation of lhair favorite doctrine of con gressional interdiction of slavery in the tar- sincare ritories, nnd the recognition of our own fa vorite doctrine, of leaving lo the people the decision of the -question—whether or not* they would have slavery among them. The bill to settle tho disputed boundary’ between tho U S. nnd Texns, rests upon* equally sound nnd constitutional principles;- its provisions simply contain a proposition' from the General Goverement to the State' of Texns, to settle the boundary between the territory of the U. S. Bnd the State of Texas, by adopting a certain line w-that boundary; and in consideration- that Texas* will yield the claim which she had made to the coded territory, the United States agrees to pay her the sum of ten millions of- dollars. There was no* threat- n i cjcrc’oft* on the part of Congress to compel acqui escence in their proposition. It wns a mat-; ter for the calm and patriotic judgment off tho people of Texns to determine—and the terms were agreed to by her, with unpnrnl- iollcd unanimity. It is equally unlruo, and- unjust to the brave nnd patriotic people o- Toxns to impute their action on this subject, to liio fear of Federal power, the equally of fensive consideration of bribery amt corrup tion. As 1 would not tolerate‘such an inf pulntion upon the cijizons of our own Slate, under similar circumstances, 1 will not in dulge in the-ungenerous and unfounded re flection upon tho hones'y and integrity of nur young nnd prosperous sister. This disputed boundary thus ssttl itwann tlie United Slates and iexos, between the United Slates tho only modi ’ ! such nn issue < the Ge State of t rail

Georgia Historic Newspapers

Rome courier. (Rome, Ga.) 1849-18??, August 21, 1851, Image 1