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THE CONSTITUTIONALIST.
EDITED BY
P. C. 6UIEU & R. M. <HH>DM \N.
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AtJGUSTA, GEO,
THURSDAY MORNING, Jl LY 11. 1844.
O' See first page for proceedings of public
meetings in Jasper, Morgan, and Washing
ton Counties; also a communication under the
signature of •‘Observer,” besides two articles
on “Protection” and the whig Tariff of 18 42.
ID'The wings frequently have in their
newspapers, speeches in Congress, and at
public meetings, declared that the name of
federal wbigs attached to them by their ad
versaries, was a slander and very inappropri
ate. If it he a slander, we must confess that
we have been guilty of it. But if it was a
slander a year ago, it will have to bo admitted,
that it is not slander at the present time; for
the whigs are pursuing a course, especially
in one particular, which identifies them with
the federalists of 1800 and subsequent years
to 1815. Those who were living ac those
times and observed the public conduct of the
federalists and democrats, and those who,
born since, have read the annals of the politi
cal contests of the two parties at those exci
ting and critical times, will certainly recollect
that the federalists were arrayed against their
country and the men into whose hands the
people had confided the administration of the
government. They will recollect also, that
England and William Pitt were praised to the
skies, not only for the policy they pursued
against Bonaparte, but for the policy they pur
sued towards this country and the neutrality
Jefferson and Madison were endeavoring to
maintain between the great belligerent powers
of Europe. For this Jefferson and Madison
were abused and vilified; they were charged
with treason, and guilty of crimes deserving the
halter. When Cojtenhagen Jackson was sent
to this country as minister from England, he
was received with open arms by the federal
ists; he acknowledged the kindness by insult
ing every member of the then administration.
The general mass of the people of this coun
try, more keenly alive to the insults of a foi
eign emissary than the federalists, resented
them in a manner which did not render it safe
for Copenhagen Jackson to travel through the
country. lie soon found that lie had to deal
with a different government and people, than
the government and people of Denmark. lie
had to leave the United States almost imme
diately after he had put his foot on our soil,
with threats of vengeance. What did the
federalists do on this occasion? Did they re
sent the insult to our government? Not at
all. They censured the administration and
defended the conduct of Copenhagen Jackson,
who was succeeded by other ministers from
England, who, it they did not succeed in pre
venting war, at any rate behaved in an unex
ceptionable manner in their negotiations with
this country. And what do we now behold,
in 1844, as regards the conduct of the whigs
towards our government ? Is not the adminis
tration abused and censured by the federal
whigs, in their prints and public speeches,
and Lord Aberdeen with Mr. Pakenham, the
British minister, defended in their diplomatic
correspondence with Air. Everett and Mr. Cal
houn? Is not the British government, as in
1809,1810 and 1811, represented as faithful to
treaties, as true in its diplomatic declarations,
and as honorable in its policy towards foreign
nations ? We have read in the newspapers,
and in whig speeches, for about a month or
two past, a comparison made between our own
government and that of England, and the ad
vantage placed on the side of our most formi
ble adversaries in trade, commerce, navigation,
manufactures, and industrial pursuits. We
have seen our Secretary of State. Mr. Cal
houn, vilified by Americans, and Lord Aber
deen, the natural enemy of our country, prais
ed to adulation, his declarations received with
respect, and belief expressed of the sincerity
with which they were made. Is it not a sin
gular parallel between the conduct of the
federalists a few years before the declaration
of war in 1812, and the conductor the federal
whigs in 1844 ? If under such circumstances
a war with England should unfortunately oc
cur, is it not natural to conclude that, with
their present temper, the federal whigs would |
take the same stand against the war that the
federalists did in 1812 ? Would they not
paralyze the arms of the country, and lament
the victories that the American arms might
obtain I This paragraph is long enough for
the present; the parallel we have drawn shall j
be extended in another paper.
O' An Indiana Whig paper,(the American.)
the editor of which seems to have a little j
more honesty and candor than most of his
brethren, writes as follows :
“R e (Mr. Clay) never received the vote of j
Ohio or Indiana, and it is worse than idle to
calculate that he ever trill. We have hereto
lore exerted all our strength for the election
!of Henrv Clay—and we now believe him su- 1
perior to any man living—but it is worse than 1
folly to endeavor to sustain him. whom the i
people have so often condemned, and although
we would rather sec him President than any
man that has been named for that station, still
we believe that he will be distanced more than
10,000 votes in the State, at this or any time
to come.”
I7*As it is a pleasure to ns to correct any
error or misstatement which either ourselves
or any of our correspondents may have com
mitted. we have to corroborate the statement
of Mr. Miller in the following note to us.—
From all the information we have obtained,
from citizens who were present all the time,
the whig meeting adjourned before twelve
o’clock on Saturday night:
Augusta, July 10th, 184 4.
Messrs. Editors: —You will oblige me by
1 correcting an error into which your corres
pondent Milo has fallen. Speaking of the
whig rncetingon Saturday, and of Mr. Toombs
speech at night, he says —“the latter gentle
man, 7 think , spoke (ill Sunday morning;
from which it may be inferred tha.t the meet
ing continued till after 12 o’clock. Mr.
Toombs commenced bis speech about fiiteen
minutes before ten o'clock and spoke till
about eleven, when the meeting adjourned.—
‘ Milo savs ‘die heard hut about half an hour
of the speech;'’ —from which I infer that be
left some time before the adjournment, and j
j has been misinformed as to the length ol the
! speech in question.
Your ob’t. serv't.
A. f MILLER.
LOUISIANA ELECTIONS.
We had yesterday but few papers from New
Orleans, and they contained nothing of a po
sitive character of the result of the late elec
i tions in Louisiana. The following article, !
| from the Mobile Tribune of 6th instant, is all
we have been able to gather;
Louisiana Election. —The last two mails j
from New Orleans brought very little addi- |
tional news of the Louisiana election. The ,
■ whig papers state that in New Orleans six
j whigs and five democrats have been elected !
| to the Convention. To the legislature seven i
l whigs and three democrats. Slidell is elect
ed to Congress without opposition. The re- ■
I suit in the case of Laßranche, for the se
| cond district, was still uncertain.—The Tro- ;
[lie thinks he is defeated; the Republican en
| tertains hopes of his success.
There is some intimation in the papers of
I a determination to contest the election in the
j city. _
! EIGHTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. !
Convention to meet at Augusta on the Ist !
| Monday, sth, of August.
DELEGATES APPOINTED.
! Richmond. —J. G. McWhorter, John Phi- i
! nizy, sen., andEtheldred J. Tarver.
Hancock. —Richard P. Sasnett, George
j Bell, and John W. Rudesill.
Wilkes. —D. M. Andrews, Thomas W.
| Thomas, and Lewis S. Brown.
Warren. —W. H. Blount, Thomas Neal,
; Edmund Cody, and Dr. Adkins.
Burke. —Quintillian Skrine, W. S. C. Mor- ;
■ ris, Amos G. Whitehead, and Gen. John A. |
I Walker.
1 Washington. —Samuel Field, Benjamin \
j Skrine, J. A. Jordan, and Dr. J. P. Welch.
ELECTORAL COLLEGE OF GEORGIA.
The Executive Committee of the Demo- i
cratic Party, met at Milledgeville on the 2d '
instant, and adopted the subjisSped resolutions, j
They have nominated for electors at large:
Charles j. McDonald,
ALFRED IVERSON.*
The electors nominated by the districts are
the following:
1. Robert M. Charlton^
2. Barzillai Graves,
3. ,
4. W. F. Sarnford,
5. Charles Murphey,
6. W. B. Wofford*
'• ’
8. ,
CANDIDATES EOK CONGRESS.
1. Charles Spalding,
2. Seaborn Jones,
3- ,
4. H. A. Haralson,
j # j
5. John 11. Lumpkin, *
6. Howell Cobb,
S. .
[From the Federal Union.]
NOMINATION OF ELECTORS.
At. a meeting of the Executive Committee,
of the Democratic party in Milledgeville, on
the 2d inst., the following resolutions were
passed:
Resolved, Tiiat the Committee nominate for
the Democratic party, two electors of Presi
dent and Vice President.—leaving the ticket
to be filled up by the nomination of one elect
or from each Congressional district.
Resohed, That we recommend to the seve
ral Congressional Districts, which may have
omitted to do so, to nominate without delay,
one candidate to be put on our electoral tick- i
! et, and also a candidate for Congress.
Resolved , That we earnestly recommend,
the formation of Democratic Associations in
; every county in which it has not been done,
! and that we urge on these associations, the
| absolute necessity of disseminating light and
' truth amongst the people, on the subjects now
presenting themselves for political action.—
! That we specially urge the necessity of circu
lating amongst the people, political tracts and
newspapers containing the best essays on
these subjects, and as a paramount obligation,
we recommend the patronage and support of
the Democratic papers of our own State, on
j which the power and ascendency of the party
I must always rely.
: The Committee nominated as candidates. .
for electors of President and President,
Ex-Governor Charles J. McLmnald and the
Hon. A. Iverson, of Columbus, Geo.
T. FORT, Chairman.
JU Extract of a letter from a correspon
j dent of the New Y'ork Journal of Commerce,
dated Baton Rouge. Louisiana, June 24.
“I travelled with an English gentleman
from New Orleans to this place, who states
i he has resided for the last five years in that
country. He said he was intimate with Capt.
: Elliott*the British Charge d’Afiaires in Texas, i
In the course of conversation he let slip, per- j
haps unwittingly, a piece of British diplomacy, ;
which, he said he obtained from Elliott him- I
self, it was to this effect; “ that England
had advised Mexico under no circumstances
to acknowledge the independence of Texas,
but to keep up an armistice with her as long
as possible; and in case a successful attempt
at annexation between the United .States and
Texas, took place, then to go to war, and En
gland would back her in the contest.” The
Englishman who communicated this tome,is
a very respectable and intelligent gentleman,
who himself has purchased a large estate in
Texas, which he is cultivating in sugar, or
preparing to do so. From the developments
of English Texian policy, as farasknown.it
fully sustains the declarations of Capt. Elliott
to this English gentleman.”
FT We omitted to notice the following in
formation, given in the Federal Union, iu re
gard to the looseness with which our legisla
te proceedings are carried on. We have
more than once called the attention of the peo
ple of Georgia to the evils resulting from has
ty legislation. It is to be hoped that with a
reduced senate and house of representatives,
more attention will be devoted to the business !
of legislation, especially during the week pre
vious to a final adjournment.
ACTS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF 1843. |
Some time since the Macon Messenger al- i
hided to an act of the last Legislature, which
was passed, “ To compel the Justices of the i
Inferior Court of Bibb comity, to appoint three 1
Commissioners in each Captain s district, far
the purpose of returning alt the paupers in their
respective districts, who they consider objects of
charity , cIV," and in reference to this bill,
alleged that the State Printer had omitted to
publish this law in the copy of the laws print
ed of the last sesion.
We have carefully searched for the act in
question, without being able to find it in the I
Secretary of State’s office or elsewhere, un
: til a few days since. : 'Pis true it was not |
included in the published acts, though passed i
by both branches of the Legislature and en
grossed for the sanction of the Governor.—
The bill never received the Governor’s sanc
tion, and therefore did not become a law. The
Slate Printer published the entire list of acts,
as appears by the registry in the Secretary I
ot State's office, which were approved by the
Governor, and the act mentioned by the Mes
senger, is not comprised in that list. Sever- 1
al bills were returned by the Governor for con- 1
stitutional and other objections, and we learn i
also, from his Excellency, that several bills j
were never submitted to him for approval, ■
] which are stated to have been passed by the i
| last Legislature.
LATER FROM ENGLAND.
By last evening’s mail we received the New ;
I York Sun extra, containing three days later
dates from Liverpool brought by the Great I
Western, which, it seems, is to resume her
line from England to New York, by the dis- I
solution of the contract of sale by her proprie
tors with the Levant Company. The foreign
news is not very important. We shall in
1 our next extract some items of interest,
i What follows relate to the condition of the
i markets.
The cotton market is active and buoyant,
j The recent large imports, paradoxical as it
j may seem, so far from depressing the demand,
i has increased it. The trade is now coming
I forward and buying liberally, which is met bv
! holders in a corresponding spirit, and although
j the demand is great, prices, while they have
1 improved, have not risen much* Nevertheless,
I the advance this week has bee * fully an
! per lb., making, with Hie improvement ot the
1 last fortnight, fully a farthing. r J his week
1 the arrivals have not been so large as previ-
I ously, and the stock which has yet to come in,
1 being comparatively light, buyers and sellers
j are thus enabled to guage pretty accurately
j the total result of the crop; they now know
: their relative positions, and will act accord
ingly. The business which is now doing is
j healthy and legitimate, and one which in all
probability, will extend itself. The sales this
| week amount to 51,150 bags,and the market
closed firm yesterday, but with less appear
j ance of activity.
The weather has broken, and the country,
j almost burnt up by the long drought, lias at
i length been favored with some genial show-
I ers. The improvement in the face of nature
, is striking, and its influence might be read
i in the countenance of the brokers and dealers
on the Corn Exchange yesterday. The hay
: crop, owing to the want of rain, has been ruin
| ed, but some hope now existed that the second
crop will make amends for the almost total
j loss of the first. Food for cattle of all kinds
, has risen alarmingly in price, which the con
i tin nance of the present weather cannot fail to
reduce.
Money continues to be abundant, and may
i be had at low rates to any amount. In short,
the prospects of the country, both at home and
abroad, are very flattering, and these pros
pects, reacting on trade, give to every one en
gaged in it, like the season, a hopeful and
cheering appearance.
Extract of a letter received in this city, dated,
“ Ll\ ER£OOL, June 224, 1844. i
‘•The demand /or cotton has continued good with ;
a further advance of 'ld. per lb., in the middling I
qualities, but there was not so much doing yesteY j
day as previously, and the market closed with less j
animation. This morning the demand is moderate, ;
ami the quotations for fair remain as given on the I
18th inst. Ordinary qualities have become more '
plentiful on the market and not so readily sold.— '
The sales for the week, ended last evening, were
51,050 bales, of which 19.150 were Upland at 31 a j
si, 19,450 Orleans 31 a7. and 3120 Alabama and i
Mobile at 31 a6. About 10,000 bales were taken i
on speculation, and 2700 for export.
The weather has become showery, and favorable 1
for the crops of grain, and the corn markets very
dull.”
LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKETS—Week
ending June 21.—Our market has maintained the
same degree of activity and firmness noticed in our
hist report. The trade have continued to purchase
with confidence, and speculators have also opcrated
to a fair extent. The demand has been freely met
by holders, w ho do not entertain any sanguine ex
pectations of prices advancing much further in the
face of the increased stocks. An advance of jd per
pound, is. however, quoted this week on American
descriptions, hut the amendment is nut so apparent
in Bowed as in Orleans and Mobile. Surats are
barely ?d per pound dearer, and Brazils and Egyp
tians remain unchanged. Business closes more qui
etly to-day, and the sales since Friday last amount
ed to 51.050 bales; of w hich speculators have taken
10,6000 American, and exporters 2,300 American, j
360 Pemam, and 100 Surat.
UTTho Charleston Courier of Tuesday last,
says:—“We are requested to caution the pub
lic against counterfeit Twenty Dollar Notes |
of the Bank of Geogetown, S. C., now iu circu- j
lation. The spurious bill has for vignette, a
view of the Office of the Bank of the United
States, Philadelphia; the Bank of Georgetown
has no such plate. The vignette of the gen
uine bill is Commerce, represented by a fe
male figure and a ship in the distance. No
other plate has ever been used by th c Bank
for hills of this denomination. The counter- j
feit is signed D. L. M'Kay, Cashier, and J. (
\V. Coachman, President. The Cashiers j
name is a good imitation of his signature.but
that of the President is badly executed, and
evidently written by the same hand as that
of the Cashier.
ITAnother riot occurred in Philadelphia,
on the sth instant, but by the timely measures
adopted by the police officers and commanders ;
of the militia, the disturbance was suppressed.
PERIODICALS.
We have before us the July number of
Hunt's Merchants’ Magazine, containing, as
usual, valuable and interesting articles. The
article on “Ships and Ship Building of the
Ancients,” is able and highly attractive.—
| It contains a continuation of those able ■
sketches of Commercial Legislation. Every i
O -
department of this number is well filled, i
; with useful tables, important to all classes of
the community.
We have also before us the July number of
j the Democratic Review. Its contents will ,
j show the interest with which the articles will
be read. “Mr. Van Buren.” The Reannex- !
I . j
ation of Texas, in its influence on the duration
of Slavery.” “Influence of European on
Asiatic Civilization,” The articles of a light
er character are interesting. This number
contains a fine portrait of James Fenimore
! n
! Cooper.
[communicated.]
“WATCHMAN—WHAT OF THE NIGHT !”
It is a wise admonition, to take occasional |
reckonings—to see that our barque is coursing |
its way to its destined port, and that the hea- ;
j vens present no threatening storm.
Have the people of the south become so lost ;
I to reason—or bound in fetters to the car of
j party —or bewildered in the giddy mazes of ;
j the grand whig trampoline, as to sacrifice
themselves to gratify a blind and reckless pas
' sion for a mere man ?
Whigs of the south, who are tillers of the
soil, “What of the night?” In your devotion |
: to Henry Clay, stop, and calmly reflect upon !
; the position you occupy, and the means by ;
! which you gradually attained to it. How
: stands the matter? When Jackson removed .
; the deposits from the United States Bank,
| many of us regarded it as an act of usurpation.
We sympathized with the falling fortunes of
I the Bank, until we became its friends and i
| supporters —when we became so, our pride i
i and reasoning resources afforded us means to j
j defend our views.
i When Clay's compromise bill was passed !
! by Congress, vve thought the tariff' difficulty |
■ was finally over, and we became attached to j
I the man who had settled, amicably, a question j
which threatened the permanency of the !
Union. Our respect grew from admiration :
to devotion to Clay—as a consequence, we j
imbibed, gradually, his views upon important '
affairs of governmental policy.
By slow gradations the whig party at the I
south have become identified with the whig |
party at the north. The ultra federal rnea
! sures of Clay, Adams, and Webster, are |
; now the ruling principles ui’ ilie whig party j
; throughout the country.
I To sustain the whig policy of a 50,000,000 !
1 national bank, the authority of Washington i
J & |
| is offered, who approved of one of ten millions. I
I To sustain a tariff* ranging from 35 to 100 :
per cent, the authority of Washington is again I
; adduced, who approved of a tariff" ranging j
from four to seven per cent.
What an absurdity, to produce the authori
ty of moderation to justify extravagance!— j
What an outrage upon the intelligence of our i
1 people, to attempt to sustain whig extrava- |
| gance and misrule, by asserting that the gift- i
j ed Washington was in favor of measures i
| somewhat similar in their nature, but vastly I
j disproportioned in their character, details and i
! objects.
As well might a physician’s authority be 1
i cited to sustain the administration of 35 to 1
100 grains of a medicine, whose practice and
j policy had ever been, never to administer more j
; than four to seven grains!
Away, then, with the canting slang of our |
: modern whig orators. If it is such a tariff'
as was sanctioned by Washington, that the j
: whigs would accept of, then the democracy of j
i the Union are ready to give it their support. |
If it be such measures as was sustained by |
! the republican administration of Jefferson, j
; then we send in our adhesion—but no such
\ extravagant or latitudinous constructions as |
i Webster, Adams, and Clay are anxious to j
| force upon the country.
How do the whigs now appear before the :
| country ? Not content with the federal doc- I
i trines of 1798, they have advanced upon them, ;
and are now more ultra-federal than any party j
; ever known to this country.
The whigs of the south are now support- I
ing men, who are not only federal in all their j
notions, but are absolutely pledged opponents
of the southern institution of slavery! DENY
THIS WHO DARE, and the authority is
ready in an hour, to confound them! Yes.
supporting men, who voted in Congress for
the circulation through the mails of incendia
ry pamphlets, calculated to renew the appal- j
ling tragedies of Southampton.—wrap in j
flames our happy homes—and bathe in blood i
the widows and defenceless females of the j
; south!
Aye, these are friends of the south !—these
I are the men who have been bought over like
sheep from the fold, —these are the Judas
I Iscariot’s of the land, who intend to betray the
south, and sell their inheritance for a mess of
pottage.
Farmers of our country, upon you, the last
j hopes of freedom have ever turned ! “What
i of the night ?” Are you sleeping while the i
artful Delilah is shearing your locks ? Are
you reposing in fancied security while your
liberties are undermining—your property de
preciating—your produce scarce worth car
rying to market—and your security for your
operatives rendered doubtful in the extreme? f
Let your voices be raised at once for your
country, your altars and your fire-sides—you
are beset with snares—but while there is yet
time, arouse up, and assert the dignity of your
nature, and oppose those enemies of the south,
whose touch is contagion, and whose embrace
is death.
Tell those canting whig friends, who hover
over the country to go to the abolition towns
of the north, and preach up for Clay and Frc
linghuysen ! Tell them that no avowed oppo
nents of slavery can obtain your support —
that no humbugging politician who prates
about high tariffs making goods cheap is
entitled to your confidence —tell them to
croak such political economy to the marines,
for old sailors never will believe it.
RICHMOND.
[ COMMUNICATED. J
WHAT EFFECT WOULD MR. CLAY’S
ELECTION HAVE UPON THE AN
NEXATION OF TEXAS?
The circular of John Quincy Adams and
his anti-slavery associates in Congress, ad
dressed “to the citizens of the free states,”
was alluded to in the last article of “Jacinto,”
; tocall attention to the quarter where the odium
should properly rest, of raising the cry of dis
j union in connection with the Texas question.
In the bosom of that furious old man, the fires
of fanaticism wax hotter and fiercer, beneath
the snows of age, and like the flames of Hecla
i °
seem more unquenchable from the contrast.
The menace of disunion is hurled at the south,
not by the south. This disorganizing spirit
j sprang up amongst the anti-slavery portion of
: the anti-annexation party. It is industriously
i nursed and fanned into a consuming blaze by
j some of the leading wiiigs of the north. Their
I circular to the free states preceded in point
of time any threats of disunion, or any refer
ence to the possible necessity of a dissolution
of the Union, in connection with the Texas
question coming from the south. It issues
from men high in office, and in the confidence
of the whig party of the north. They assert
for themselves an intimate knowledge of the
disposition of their constituents in reference
to the slave question, and for them make the
declaration that they “ought not to submit
1 and will not submit to an attempt to eternize
an institution and power so unjust, so injuri
ous to their interests, and abhorrent to their
feelings.” Its threat of disunion, and its
whole tone and spirit are bullying, menacing,
and dictatorial, and in the highest degree in
! suiting to the southern people,
i As an illustration of the anti-slavery spirit
fomented by the fanatical bigots of the Adams
I school, and for the purpose of fixing upon the
proper persons and the proper party the odium
i and the responsibility of involving the scheme
I of a dissolution of the Union with the Texas
| question; read one of a series of inflammatory
i resolutions passed by the citizens of Milford,
1 Massachusetts, March 25th, 1844:
Resolved, That we are on the verge of a
revolution; that a terrible alternative is he
| fore us; that the official promulgation of the
rumored treaty, ought to be regarded as the
: death knell of the present federal Union; that
i the commonwealth of Massachusetts having
| repeatedly protested against the said sinnex
j ation, with no other response than repeated
i contempt from the slave holding states, will
| then be absolved from all political obligations
to those states, and that her inhabitants as
| with one great soul, will be bound to refuse
| all countenance and support to the Federal
i Government, in carrying on the wars pro
voked by such unprincipled and monstrous
aggressions.” This is not, as was the Circu
lar, an official, “by authority,” announcement
coming from men in power and place. But
| it is the voice of a voluntary assemblage of
| citizens, similar to those few assemblages in
I South Carolina, that since that lime have given
i expression to the belief that “the same terri
ble alternative is before us.” There is how
ever this difference in the two cases. At the
| north the cry of disunion emanates from dis
tinguished, influential and honored political
men of the whig party, holding high and re
sponsible offices. The cry is echoed back by
their constituents. At the south, a few res
tive spirits,possessing neither power nor place,
j goaded and enraged by the arrogant and
1 overbearing tone assumed by their whig op
| ponents, who dictatorially proclaim that an
| nexation is identical with disunion, have re
torted by assuming the antagonist position,
i This position emanates from them. Has it
; met with a response from their leading polit
! ical men, occupying responsible stations?
j The contrary is well known to be the fact,
j And how striking the contrast, in the pat
; riotisrn of the two positions. At the north,
j it is a matter merely of speculative morality,
i Yet to vindicate an opinion—an ethical ab
! straction, they would travel away from their
j own domestic concerns—intermeddie with
| the concerns of their southern fellow-citizens
—make war upon one of the fundamental
institutions of their society—proscribe it as
disgraceful—and coolly threaten that the
annexation of Texas, advocated at the south
from the clearest dictates of seif preservation,
to secure slavery and slave labor from being
openly attacked or insidiously undermined by
a foreign power, seeking a dominant influence
I on thei r south-western frontier, is to be de
| seated if need by a dissolution of the Union.
At the south, the annexation is a measure
felt to be just and righteous in itself—dictated
by tiie great laws of nature inscribed upon
the geographical world—invoked by the voice
ofhumanit\ r , and the dearest ties and sympa
thies of the heart—a measure essential to
give repose and security to our homes and
protection to our property, guarantied to us
by the constitution of our country—a protec
tion, alike needed against the influence of
foreign legislation—against the designs of
foreign cupidity, and against the combined
operation of two tremendous antagonists with
which we are threatened to be hemmed in
and inclosed—Foreign and domestic aboli
tionism. 1 iiese are one in origin—in mo
tive and design—dictated by British craft and
i cupidity—inflamed by the hellish tires of a
reckless, bloody and ferocious fanaticism, and
moving on to the atrocious scheme, the abo
lition of slavery, at whatever sacrifice of life
and happiness—utterly reckless of the deso
lation it will spread over a now peaceful and
contented region. In view then, of these
consequences, some southern men have given
strong expression to their opinion of the para
: mount necessity of the annexation of Texas.
The language used, however seemingly in
temperate, proved not that they “loved Cai-
I sar, less, but Rome, more,”—not that they
I no longer loved the Union, but that they be
' lieved that the combination of faction and fan
! aticism in the whig party of the country, if
I successful, would precipitate a state of things
j upon us, in which the Union could no longer
i be to us a blessing. The privilege of an hon
| est expression of opinion, under all the solemn
circumstances of tiiese great issues before
the country, will only become a crime in the
south when faction has done her worst—
; when torn by distracting councils among
i ourselves, through the venality of our public
j men, in whom a blind confidence has been
; reposed, we cease to be powerful—we cease
to be respectable, politically or morally, but
sink servilely in the dust, to enjoy
“The bondman’s peace, who sighs for all he lost;
Yet with smooth smile, his tyrant can accost;
And wield the slavish sickle, not the sword.”
Thus much has been devoted to this sub
ject, on account of the disgraceful efforts of
a few whig presses to make political capital
out of the cry of Texas and disunion.
There are some editors who seem to feel
in duty bound to their party, to make up for the
narrowness ot their intellects by the elastic
properties of their consciences—to compen
sate for their conscious want of abilities by
the exhibition of unscrupulous zeal. With a
serene mendacity that would even put Young
; Wilding in “The Liar” to the blush, they
i will range through every gradation, from
; covert misrepresentation to open falsehood,
i and will plume themselves upon the decep
, tion in proportion to its success, regardless
! of its enormity. These, and such as these,
aided by a few stump orators, as unscrupulous
as themselves, have sought to affix upon the
advocates of annexation the wholesale calum
ny of disaffection to the Union, and of adopt
ing as a party device, the motto, Texas and
Disunion. This contemptible little conceit
is designed, perhaps so far as Georgia is con
cerned, to operate on the Union men, emphat
ically so called, from old recollections, who
; are members of the great democratic party,
j Apt lecturers those upon the value of the
, 1 Union.
The cool impudence of those who, mil
i lifiers in days past, now rhapsodise on the
inestimable value of the Union, and as
sume to be the peculiar expounders of its
blessings, presents a ludicrous picture. It
would be on a par with Henry Clay preach -
! ing a homily upon the immoralities of card
i playing, or Frelinghuysen exhorting the
I Cherokee Missionaries, Worcester and But
, j tier, to submit like good citizens to the laws
| of Georgia.
The opposition to the annexation of Texas
to the union on the sole ground of hostility to
j slavery, and to any additional political strength
! to the south, is not of very recent date. Du-
I ring the session of 1837-’B, Congress was
memorialized upon the subject from New Eng
land, and the admission of Texas into the
union was objected to on the distinct ground
of the existence of slavery in her institutions.
The questions of national law sought to be
involved in the present controversy, and which
are adroitly thrust into the fore-ground to give
them a magnitude disproportioned to their real
consequence, were not then dwelt upon. This
spirit of opposition to slavery is the same
1 which has always exhibited itself upon eve
ry occasion which could elicit it. Tho dele
gates from the south had to meet it and con
tend against it, in the convention which fra
med the constitution. That constitution was
the result of the first compromise. It is the
same spirit which opposed the purchase of
! the territory of Louisiana in 1803, and the ad
, mission of the State of Louisiana in 1812. It
i is the same spirit which well nigh caused a
dissolution of the union, on the question of
the admission of Missouri into the union,
! and which was allayed by the second com
promise by which the privilege of holding
; slaves north of latitude 36 degrees 30 min
i utes was relinquished. Results may prove
j that this was an error and a weakness in the
| south—that it was an unfortunate concession
1 to the growing spirit of anti-slavery. It may
, be that it should have been met at the thresh
| °ld—that this was the Thermopylae which
| should have been defended to the last. The
' concession may imply an acquiescence in the
justice of all the epithets of opprobrium with
j which slavery and slave owners are stigma
tised. But the concession then made has en
couraged a louder tone of arrogance and dic
j tation. Should it succeed in carrying the
| present great question .by the exclusion of
| Texas from the union, it will not stop there.
It will then demand in tones of loud authority
; the reception of abolition petitions, to which
j Mr. Clay is favorable, and action upon them by
Congress. It will next demand the abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia. It will
next demand the abolition of slavery in the
j territories of the United States. Finally, it
will demand in tones of thunder the abolition
of slavery in the slaveholding states of the
union. By the legislation of the anti-slave
i ry party in the federal Congress, aided by its
British allies of the same school, who will
; flank us on the Texas line—we will be forced
| to do their bidding. It is useless to say that
’ the constitution will protect us. When there
| is a will to commit a wrong, there is always
away. We can be driven alongto the brink
of the precipice, and over the precipice by the
irresistible force of circumstances which our
enemies direct at will. The forms of law may