EMTSD If
?11 wood rubor A Edwta Do Leon.
TERMS.
DAILY, f 10 00
TRI-WEEKLY, - 5 00
WEEKLY, - - - - - ' ? 00
qy* Subscription* parable in advance. Any pernor
procuring live subscriber* shall receive one copy
jjTiitis. All letter* to the Editor* to be ItWT-rxiD.
PRINTED BT O. A. IAOB.
Oi'PlCE, I'enns) Ivania Avenue south aide, between
3d and 44 street*.
'Addreo to the People of the Southern
States.
At a large meeting ot Southern members
of Lota Houses of Congress, held at the Capitol
on the evening of the 7th ultimo, the
Hon. Hotkins L. Turn et, of Tennessee,
having been appointed Chairman at a previous
meeting, took the Chair; and, on motiou
of the Hon. David Hubbard, of Alabama,
the Hon. William J. Alston, of Alabama,
was appointed Secretary.
Whereupon, the Hon. A. P. Butler, of
South Carolina, from the committee appointed
at a preliminary meeting, reported an Address
to the Southern people, recommending
the establishment, at Washington City, of a
newspaper, to be devoted to the support and
defence of Southern interests; which was
read, and with some slight modifications,
1 ' 1 'UP.'""11 V
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<p?
\ ' 3s ' "*
. 1. 1 ..LI'U I 1 I I II II , , ,' lagg-B-BH , ,.1 SSSS~SSB < '
THE SOUTHERN PRESS. :1
*
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DAILY..
_._ , "
Vol. 1. Washington, Friday,'July 1*J, 1N50. .Wo* 29.
. ... -. i . ??
atiopieu.
The following resolution was offered by
the Hon. Thomas L. Clingman, of North
Carolina, and unanimously adopted by the
meeting.
JUaoloed, unanimously. That the committee, in
publishing the Address, tie instructed to give with it
the names ot tUe Senators and Representatives in
Congress who concur in the proposition to establish
the Southern Organ, as manifested by their subscriptions
to the several copies of the plan in circulation,
or who may hereafter authorise said committee to include
their names.
Maryland.?Senator: Thomas G. Pratt.
Virginia.?Senators: R. M. T. Hunter,
J. M. Mason. Representatives: J. A.
Seddon, Thos. H. Averett, Paulus Powell,
R. K. Meade, Alex. R. Holladay, Thos
S. Bocock, H. A. Edmundson, Jeremiah
Morton.
North Carolina.?Senator: Willie P.
Mangum. Representatives: T. L. Clingman,
A. W. Venable, \V. S. Ashe.
South Carolina.?Senators: A P Butler,
F. H. Elmore. Representatives:-John
McQueen, Joseph A. Woodward, Daniel
Wallace, Wm. Colcock, James L.. Urr,
Armistead Burt, Isaac E. Holmes.
Georgia.?Senators: John McP. Berrien,
William C. Dawson. Representatives: Jo
seph W. Jackson, Alex. H. Stephens, Robert
Toombs, H. A. Haralson, Allen F.
Owen.
Alabama.?Senator: Jeremiah Clemens.
Representatives: David Hubbard, F. W.
Bowdon, S. W. Inge, W. J. Alston, S.
W. Harris.
Mississippi.?Senator. Jefferson Davis.
Representatives: W. S Featherston, Jacob
Thompson, A. G. Brown, W. W. McWillie.
Louisiana.?Senators: S. U. Downs,
Pierre Soule. Representatives: J. H. Harmarison,
Emile La Sere, Isaae E. Morse.
Arkansas.?Senators: Sdon Borlan !, W.
Sebastian. Representative* R. W. Johnson.
I Texas.?Representatives: Vol. E. How
ard, 1). S. Kaufman.
J\Ji"souri.?Senator: D. R. Atchison.
Reprospntat:ve: James S Green.
Kentucky.?Representatives: R. H. Stanton,
James L. J-.hnson.
Tennessee.?Senator: Hopkins L. Turney.
Representatives: James H. Thomas,
Frederick P. Stanton, C. H. Williams,
John H. Savage.
Florida.?Senators: Jackson Morton, D.
L. Tulee. Representative: E. Carrington
Cat ell.
And upon motion, the meeting adjourned
HOPKINS L. TURNEY, Chairman.
Attest :
Wm J. Alston, Secretary.
THE ADDRESS
The commi'tec to which was rejerred the
duty 11 preparing an Address to the people
of the slaveholding Stales upon the
subject of a Southern Organ, to be established
in the Ci'y of Washington, put
^ forth the following :
Fellow-citizens: A number of Senators
and Representatives in Congress from
the Southern States of the Confedeiacy de'ep:?-- ?-J
o wncp nf lhe dancers
ly linpico?u ~
which beset those States, have considered
carefully our means of sell-defence within
the Union and the Constitution, and have
come to the conclusion that it is highly important
to establish in this city a paper, which,
without reference to political party, shall be
devoted to the rights and interests ol the
South, so far as they are involved in the questions
growing out of African slavery. To
establish and maintain such a paper, your
support is necessary, and accordingly we
address you on the subject.
In the contest now going on, the constitutional
equality of fifteen States is put in
question. Some sixteen hundred millions
worth of negro property is involved directly,
and indirectly, though not less surely, an incalculable
amount of property in other forms.
But to say this is to state less than half the
doom that hangs over you. Your social
forms and institutions?which separate the
European and the African races into distinct
classes, and assign to each a different sphere
in society?are threatened with overthrow
Whether the negro is to occupy the same
social rank with the white man, and enjoy
equally the rights, privileges, and immunities
of citizenship?in short, all the honors
/if one iohr 10 o nnpcf inn n!
UI1U Uigmuvo "i m/viwij to u ?|uv>7?ivii wi
greater^moraent than any mere question ol
property can be.
Sucn is the contest now going on?a contest
in which public opinion, if not the prevailing,
is destined to be a most prominent
force ; and yet, no organ of the united inter
ests of those assailed has as yet been established,
nor does there exis any paper
which can be the common medium for an
interchange of opinions amongst the Southern
States. Public opinion, as it has been
formed and directed by the combined influence
of interest and prejudice, is the force
which has been most potent against us in
the war now going on against the institution
of negro slavery; and yet we have taken
no effectual means to make and maintain
that issue with it upon which our safety
and perhaps our social existence depends.
Whoever wiM l? h to the history of this
3Ufstion, and to the circumstances uner
which w? are now placed, must are
that our position is one of imminent danger,
and one to be defended by ail the meant,
moral and political, of which w# can avail (
ourselves in the present emergency. Then
warfare against African slavery commenced, '
as is known, with Great Britain, who, after j
having contributed mainly to its establish- j
raent in the New World, devoted her most |
earnest ;'florts, for. purposes not yet fully ex- j
plained, to its abolition in America. How |
wisely this was done, so far as her own col- j
ouies were concerned, time has determined; i
and all comment upon this subject on our
part would be entirely superfluous. 11, i
however, her purpose was to reach and embarrass
us on this subject, her eliorts have j
not been without success. A common origin I
a common language, have made the English
literature ours to a great extent, aud the ;
eflorts of the British Government and people !
to mould the public opinion of all who
speak the English language, have not been;
vain or lruitless. On the cotitrary, they'
have been deeply felt wherever the Eng- ,
lish language is spoktn; aud tha more'
efficient and dangerous, because, as yet, j
the South has taken no steps to appear and 1 :
plead at the bar of the world, before which i
she has been summoned, and by which she >)
has been tried already without a hearing. , i
Secured by constitutional guaran.ies, audi,
independent o( all the world, so far as its:
domestic institutions were concerned, the
< South has reposed under the conciousness
of right and independence, and loreborne to
plead at a bar which she knew had no juris
diction over mis particular suoject. m mis
we have been theoretically right, but prac-!
ticaliy we have made a great mistake. All
means, political, diplomatic, and literary,
have been used to concentrate the public
opinion, not only of the world at large, but
of our own country, against us; end resting
upon the undoubted truth that our domestic
institutions were the subjects of no Government
but our own local Governments, and
concerned no one but ourselves, we have
been passive under these assaults, until
danger menaces us from every quarter. A
great party has grown up, and is increasing
in the United States, which seems to think
it a duty they owe to earth and heaven to
make war on a domestic institution upon
which are staked our property, our social
organization, and our peace and safety.
Sectional feelings have been invoked, and
those who wield the power of this Government
have been tempted almost, if not quite,
beyond their power of resistance, to wage a
war against our property, our rights, and
our social system, which, if successfully
prosecuted, must end in our destruction.
Every inducement?the love of power, tlu- ;
des.re to accomplish what are, with less t
truth than plaus hility, called "reforms"? (
all are oliered to tempt them to press upon ;
those who are represented, and, in lact, ,
seem to be an easy prey to the spoiler. Our |
eqality under the Constitution is, in ellect,
denied; our social institutions are derid.d
and contemned, and ourselves treated with
contumely and scorn through all the avennes
which have as yet been opened to the public
opinion of the world. That these ,
assaults should have had their effect is not
surprising, when we remember that, as yet,
we have offered no organized resistance to
them, and opposed but little, except the isolated
efforts of members of Congress, who
have occasionally raised their voices against
what they believe to be wrongs and injustice.
It is time that we should meet and maintain
an issue, in which we find ourselves involved
by those who make war upon us in
regard to every interest that is peculiar to
us, and which is not enjoyed in common With
them, however guarantied by solemn compact,
and no matter how vitally involving our
prosperity, happiness, and salety. It is time
that we should take measures to defend our- i
selves against assaults which can end in <
nothing short of our destruction, if we oppose
no resistance to them. Owing to accidental
circumstances, and a want of knowledge of
the true condition of things in the Southern I
States, the larger portion of the press and of
the po'itical literature of the wotld has been i
d.rected against us. The moral powe of
public opinion carries political strength along
with it, and if against us, we must wrestle i
with it or fall. If, as we fiimly believe, truth \
is with us, there is nothing to discourage us
in such an effort. ,
The eventual strength of an opinion is to i
be measured, not by tne number who may !
chance to entertain it, but by the truth which ]
sustains it We believe?nay, we know, that .
truth is with us, and therefore w; should not I
shrink from the contest. We have too much ?'
staked upon it to shrink or to tremble?a I
property interest, in all its forms, ofincalcu- s
lable amount and value ; the social organiza- ]
tion, the equality, the liberty, nay, the existence
of fourteen or fifteen States of the Con- federacy?all
rest upon the result of the 1
struggle in which we are engaged. We :
must maintain the equality of our political *
position in the Union ; we must maintain the f
digr.ity and respectabil.ty of our social posi- <
tion before the world; and must maintain ?
and secure our liberty and lights, so far as 1
mil- nnil#?:l #>ffnrts ran nrotect them : and, if <
possible, we must effect all Ihb within the;
pale of the Union, and by means known to I
the Constitution. The union of the South
upon these vital interests is necessary, not
only for the sake of the South, but perhaps;
for the sake of the Union. We have great
interests exposed to the assaults, not only of j
the world at large, but of those who, constituting
a majority, wield the power of oun
own confederated States. We must defend
those interests by all legitimate means, or;
else perish either in or without the effort. To)
m ke successful defence, we must unite with
each other upon one vital question, and make
the most of our political strength. We must
do more?we must go beyond our entrenchments,
and meet even the more distant and
indirect, but by no means harmless assaults,
which are directed against us. We, too,
can appeal to public opinion. Our assailant.
_ . iL ? .
aci U|?OII mcvijf, iu men hicuij nc uau u|ipose
experience. They reason upon an
imaginary state of things to, this we may
oppose truth and actual knowledge. To do
this, however, we too must open up avenues j
to the public mind ; we, too, must have an I
organ through which we can appeal to the
world, tod commune with each other. The 4
want of such an organ, heretofore, has been
aerhaps one of the leading causes of our prelent
condition.
There is no paper at the Seat of Governnent
through which we can hear or be heard
airly and truly by the country. There is a
taper here which makes tiie abolition of sla- '
irery its main and paramount end. There |
ire other papers here which make the main- j
enance of political parties their supreme and j
outrolling object, but none which consider'
he preservation of sixteen hundred millions
)f property, the equality and libertv ot lour- 1
een or fifteen States, the protection of the j
white man against African equality, as para-'
nount over, or even equal to, the inaiuten- '
lance of some political organization which is j
to secure a President, who is an object of
interest not because he will certainly rule, or
perhaps ruin the South, but chiefly lor- the
reason that he will po3sess and bestow office
and spoils. The South has a peculiar position,
and her important rights and interests
are objects of continual assault from the majority;
and the party press, dependent as it
is upon that majority lor its means of living,
will always be found laboring to excuse the
assailants, and to paralyze all etforts at resistance.
How is it now? The abolition party
:an always be heard through its press at
:he Seat of Government, but through what
irgan or press at Washington can Southern
nen communicate with the world, or with
;ach other, upon their own peculiar interests?
So far from writing, or permitting
inything to be written, which is calculated
:o defend the rights of the South, or state its
;ase, the papers here are engaged in lulling
he South into a false security, and in manjfacturing
there an artificial public sentiment,
suitable for some Presidential platform,
:hough at the expense of any and every ineiest
you may possess, no matter how dear
)r how vital and momentous.
This state of things results from party obigations
and a regard to party success. And
:hey but subserve the ends of their estabishment
in consulting their own interests,
ind the advancement of the party to which
;bey are pledged. You cannot look to them
is sentinels over interests that are repugnant
:o the feelings of the majority of the selfsustaining
party.
In the Federal Legislature the South has
some voice and some votes; but over the pubic
press, as it now stands at the Seat of
Government, the North has a controlling inluence.
The press of this' city takes its
tone from that o! the North. Even our
Souther n press is subjected, more or less, to
:he same influence. Our public men, ye3,
>ur southern rten, owe their public standing
ind reputation too often to the commendation
ind praise of the Northern press. Southern
newspapers republish from their respective
party organs in this city, and in so doing,
reproduce?unconscious, doubtless, in
most instances, of the wrong they do?the j
northern opinion in repaid to puoiic men
and measures. How dangeious such a state
of things must be to the fidelity of your representatives
it is needless to say! They
are but men, and it would be unwise to suppose
that they are beyond the reach of temptations
which influence the rest of mankind.
Fellow-citizens, it rests with ourselves to
alter this state of things, so far as the South
is concerned. We have vast interests, which
we are bound, by many considerations, to
defend with all the moral and political means i
in our power. One of the first steps to this >
great end is to establish a Southern Organ
here, a paper through which we may commune
with one another and the world at
large. We do not propose to meddle with
political parties as they now exist; we wish
to enlist every southern man in a soulhern
cause, and in defence of southern rights, be
he Whig or be he Democrat. We do not
propose to disturb him, or to shake him in
his party relations. All that we ask is, that
he shrll consider the constitutional rights of i
the South, which are involved in the great j
abolition movement, as paramount to all!
nartv and all other nolitical considerations, i
I J - I
And surely the time has come when all
iouthern men should unite for the purpose of
self-defence. Our relative power in the
Legislature of the Union is diminishing with
every census; the dangers which menace us
ire daily becoming greater; and, the chief instrument
in the assaults upon us is tlie public
press, over which,owing to oursunineness,the
North exercises a controlling influence. So
lar as the South is concerned, we can change
?nd reverse this state of things, it is not
:o be borne, that public sentiment at the South
should be stifled or controlled by the party
press.
Let us have a press of our own, as the
North has, both here and at home?a press
which shall be devoted to Southern rights,
ind animated by Southern feeling; which
ihall look not to the Worth but the South for
he tone which is to pervade it. Claiming
;ur share of power in Federal Legislation, let
is also claim our share of influence in the
iress of the country. Let us organize in
:very Southern town and county, so as to
;end this paper into every house in the land. |
Let us take, too, all the means necossarv to
naintain the paper by subscription, so as to 1
ncrease its circulation, and promte the
ipread of knowledore and truth. Let everv 1
mrtion of the South furnish its full quota of
ale t and money to sustain a paper which
>ught to be supported by all, because it will
je devoted to the inter* st of every Southern
nan. It will be the earnest effort of the
'ommtttee who are charged with these ar- ,
angements, to procure editors of high talent
ind standing; and they will also sec that the I
japer is conducted without oppoaiti /*i, and
without reference to the political parties of i
he day. With these assurances, we feel I
ustilied in calling upon you, the people of (
he Southern States?to make the necessary ,
lforts to establish and maintain the proposed ;1
japer.
A. P. BUTLER,
JACKSON MORTON,
R. TOOMBS,
J. THOMPSON.
Cholera at Lobisville awn Na?hville.?
L.ob?tille, July 9?Our city is very healthy.
Vwcasea of cholera occurred.
In Naahville the cholera exiata in a very maignant
ahape. The newapapera have euapended
a cooaeqaence.
SPEECH OF
MR. T. H. AVERBTT, of Virginia,
On the proposition to admit California as a
State into Ih* Union, delitered in the House
of Representatives, March 27, 1850.
[cuNCLUDEU-]
Sir, the history of the civilized world hears no ,
record of a more cruel, wicked, and heurtless warfare
than that now waged by the Northern against
the Southern people. And here, sir, 1 beg leave ;
to suy to the philaiithrvpic gentleman from Penn-1
sylvaitia, [Mr. Steven*,] who preached the fune-1
rul of Old Virginia the other day, in a sermon
abounding in obscene slanders, that I do not
mean to defend " the mother of States and of
statesmen" against any charge which he and :
others have urged against her. She needs no de-1
fence. But I cannot refrain from remurking, that
neither her white laborers, itor the masters of her
black laborers, have ever been in the habit of begging
for special benefits or protection at the hands
of this Government, and at tiie expense of others;
and that, so far as there is any truth in the picture
which he has drawn of her impoverished condition,
it is owing, in purt, to the fuel, that too
many of her wurm-hearted mid open-handed people
have broken down their fortunes by lavish
expenditures, which have gone into Northern
pockets mid coffers, by the special favoritism of
thin Government to Northern mendicants at its
footstool. Let the archives of Congress answer
whether the musters of negroes, or the master
manufacturers have been the most importunate
beggars. Why, sir, floods of ink have been shed,
and volumes written to prove that twenty, nor
even forty, per cent, advantage over the rest of
the community, could save the people of the North
from ruin. 1 mean no disrespect to the working
men of the North. In by-gone days, they have
been considered as the " natural ullies of the
South." 1 believe them no still. They are interested
with us in resisting unathorized assumptions
of power by this Government. They ure
beginning to learn that high protective tariffs, like
all other systems of monopoly, tend to enrich the
few at the expense of the many.
But, to return from this digression. If the gentleman
from Pennsylvania will consult facts, instead
of iknatical fancies, he will find that the apparent
decline in cerhrin portions of Virginiu is not
owing to the existence of slavery, but to the fact
before stated, and to the further fact, tliut our
slaves are migrating to regions where their labors
are more profitable, and that the North is not only
reaping a large share of the proceeds of the truffic
in slaves sold in Virginia, but increased profits fVom
their more profitable labors in the States to which
they are migrating. He will find, furthermore,
thai the ingress of free while labor begins to supply
the loss by the egress of slave labor, and that, under
the united energies of both classes of labor, and (
under a true free-soil system, Virginia may well i
compare with any part of the world, in all oT the |
essentials of human excellence and happiuess.? j
Why is it that he cannot find it in his heart to rejoice,
instead of indulging in obscene slander,
when be aces our slave population thinning, und
our free white population thickening ? If he consider
slavery a curse, why cannot he rejoice at the
prospect of diminishing it, at his very door? Sir,
I tell him, as I told the gentleman from Connecticut
[Mr. Bittlkr] the oilier day, his philanthropy
is like most modern philanthropy?it is regardless
of his brother at his door, and is expended upon
far distant and almost unknown lands. If it was !
h true, old-fashioned philanthropy, the gentleman
would rejoice in the results of our free-soil system
?allowing labor, whether free white or slave labor,
to seek employment wherever it can be most
judiciously and profitably employed rather than
follow the lights of a fanaticism, at war with every
principle of jus* ice and humanity, ami which, if it
be successful, can nttuin that success only through
heartless cruelty to the while and black races.?
Sir, what demoniac cruelty do we behold in the
scheme of penning slavery up within narrow limits,
and choking it out? Disguise it as you may, that
is the scheme of Northern philanthropists?that is
the scheme which is swaying the minds of popular
masses. Now probe it to the bottom?traee
it to its ultimate and inevitable results, if it be not
thwarted?and it contemplates the extinction of
either the white or the black race of the slaveholding
States. And what result would follow
such a catastrophe, supposing the slaveholders
annihilated, and the sluves left in sole possession
of the fertile regions of the South ? Sir, we have
slaves, it must be admitted, who are of vicious
and rebellious dispositions, and who, reckless of
consequences, may be incited to mischief in certain
quarters; but the great mass of our negroes know
top much of Northern cupidity, to believe for one
moment that they are ever u> be placed upon a
footing of equality with white people, and left in
free possession or our rich rice, sugar, cotton and
tobacco fields. They know better than that?they
know that if they could get rid of their present
masters, they would instantly incur a worse bondage
than that which now binds them; and I tell
all Northern philanthropists, that even our most
rebellious slaves would prefer to serve their Southern
masters, rather than be placed under the control
of Northern taskmasters, under the pretence
of any mere theoretical freedom. I tell Northern
gentlemen, that if they will look at home, they
will see better reason to fear and tremble at the
prospect of strife between clnsses in their own section
of the Union, than to glory, as some on this
floor have done, in the supposed weakness of the
South, because of the tendency to mischief in our
Klnnlr nnnnlitfinn Onr Nnrthprn nliilnnlhroniRtK
have fAeir "hewers of wood und drawers of water."
We have more than once seen developments of
discontent among them. The laboring white
man, who delves in ditches, who grovels upon the
earth and in the earth, and is, by his necessities,
compelled to perform the menial offices incident to
every farm, nousehold, town, village, or hamlet,
begins already to inquire what it is. in the workings
of Government, and the rules of society, that
dooms him to hard labor, drudgery, and poverty,
while those who "neither toil nor spin,, revel in
the luxuries of the four quarters of the globe, by
the proceeds of the labor of others. Take care, gentlemen
! Remember that it is dangerous for those
who "live in glass houses to throw stones."
But, sir, I beg pardon for wandering from my
purpose thus widely. My main design was, to
call back this House to the line of its duty, in
making "all needful rules and regulations respecting
the territory of other property of the
United States." Why should we wait for schemes i
of compromises IVom political leaders in this or
the other end of the Capitol I Why longer
tantalise an anxious and excited community ?
Why cheat them with the idea that the fate of
this Union depends upon the movements of any
particular leader, or attempt to compromise the
slavery question ? Sir, we have, to our sorrow,
tried compromises. For the sake of peace, we
have more than once submitted to usurpations,
and we have found, that instead of getting peace,
we have got a furlong of aggression for every >
inch of concession which we have ever made. I
The slave question does not belong to these halls;'
kick it out, and then let it alone. We of the j
South are all ready for that. What better com- j
promise can be demanded of us? Can we, with-1
out disgracing ourselves, and degrading the peo-1
pie whom we serve, sanction any other?]
"Agreed," say some of our northern friends?i
" slick to your doctrine of non-intervention?let |
slavery alone, the people of California have set-1
tied it for themselves?admit her into the Union,
and all is settled."
They must allow me to say, that this appeal is
not only disingenuous, but the people of the
South will look upon itas adding insult to injury.
I re|>eat that this House has already intervened, in
a spirit of determined resistance, to every eflorf to
;ive government to California and New Mexico,
unless coupled with a proviso destructive of the
equal rights of the South. The Executive has
iiready intervened, nnd lent his aid in smuggling
California into the Union as an abolition Slate,
without a title of legal or constitutional authority,
i?d in utter forgetfulness or rccklesnes* of the
plain duty incumbent upon us, to lake jurisdiction
over our territory, and adopt measures with
the primary and only legitimate object of secur- i
ing tne rights and interests of the whole United
Slates, We are bound, sir, by solemn constitutional
obligations?by a regard for the rights of
every section of the Union?to intervene in determined
opposition to the intervention, which seeks
to take the reins of Government out of our hands,
and to subject the property rights of the United
States the conflicting jurisdiction of a rareripe
State government, luwless in its origin, alien in
the materials of which it is composed, and
which cannot fail to embarrass us in every attempt
to administer fhirly upon our newly acquired
estate.
Sir, I feel us deeply interested in the prosperity
and welfare of our own hardy adventurers in
California, as any member on this floor. It is
cheering to look upon this new field of enterprise,
and to see men born to poverty, or reduced by
misfortune to adversity, flocking thither, building
up their fallen fortunes. They deserve our care
and protection. They know that settlers upon
the territory of the United States have ever been
cherished with maternal affection by this Government,
and when organized into territories, governed
and protected by this Government, they
have ever been its pampered pets. Let ub take
them now under our government and protection,
nnd my life upon it, they will gratefully thank us
for it. And if 1 could command the aid of my
immediate neighbors on litis floor, we could soon
bring forth a bill, that could organize ail army of
niuiers and minute nu-n in California, alternately
working the mines and performing military duty,
that would give efficiency to law, and a sure
guarantee for the security of the vast interets
hanging upon the destinies of our Pacific possessions.
Mr. Chairman, it was not my intention, when 1
first determined to address the House, to assail
any member who has engaged in this debate, nor
is it my intention now ; but the gentleman from
North Carolina [Mr. Stanly] has thought proper
to redicule the idea of resisting the Wilmot Proviso,
and to utter a sentiment which grates
harshly upon southern ears, and which, I venture
to sav. is not the sentiment of the southern
people ; 1 am sure it in not the sentiment of the
a>le whom I represent. Raising his voice to
ighest pitch, he proclaimed that " North Car
olina goes for the Union, WilmotProviso or no
' Wilmot Proviso ," and for this expression he
was loudly applauded hy the galleries, and many
northern members. Now, sir, I never have been
a disunioni.it; 1 must frankly say, thut I have
never yet broughtmy mind to the conclusion, that
disunion was our only means of protecting southern
rights against northern aggression ; and.yet,
sir, I dure not utter such a sentiment as that which
fell from the lips of the gentleman from North
Carolina. The southern people know that they
are wronged, that their rights are invaded, and
that not only oppression, but degradation, will result
from a submission to abolitionism and frecsoilisin.
They will devise some plan of defence
and self-protection, and he that plan whnt it may,
I venture to say that all collessions of individual
opiinions will be buried in the unflinching determination
of all true hearted southern men to defend
southern rights, " at all hazards, and to the
laRt extremity"?to go for the South, nnd with the
South?in the Union, or out of the Union. This,
sir, I apprehend, is a much fairer expression of
southern sentiment than that uttered by the gentleman
from North Carolina, I understood him
to say, that resistance meant nor more nor less
than bloodshed and civil war. Sir, are the Abolitionists
and Free Boilers now waging a civil war?
We all know what they lmve already accomplished,
by organization in primary meetings, conventions,
great nnd small, nnd through the instrumentality
of State governments. Are the people
of the South spiritless? Are tluir State
governments powerless < Have we no means of
repelling wrong, hy retaliation, nor by any means
8hortoftbe sworo? Sir, I uppreheud we have
conclusive proofr before our eyes, that different
sections of tikis Union, when in hostile array, have
potent means of crippling and annoying each other,
without disunion or civil war. i speak, sir, in no
spirit of bravado, but in the language of sober
truth, when I proclaim, that the southern people
are earnestly.medituting some mode and measure
of redress. Whether they will seek defence und
redress through the instrumentality of a Snulherr
Convention, or in another mode, it.is not my province,
but the province of my people, to decide :
but 1 cannot, in juatice to myself, or my constituents,
refrain from expressing my indignant feelingt
toward those wlio denounce a Southern Covention
as treasonable, when they themselves are bui
instruments, executing the decrees of NORTHERN
CONVENTIONS, great and small, under
various names and organizations?differing as they
may in other respects?all agreeing in a systematic
warfare against southern institutious. What superlative
arrogance! Might I not with propriety
retort in the courtly language of a gentlemnn whe
addressed the House the other day, on the other
side, " What cool impudence," that they whe
are the creatures of Northern Conventions, which
have moulded northern legislatures to their will
and well nigh obtained the mastery over this Government,
should brand southern men as traitors,
for meeting in convention to deliberate upon the
means of self-protection
Sir, the people of tire South hegin to feel the degration
of continuing to lavish their treasure upon
communities who nre daily warring against their
dearest rights. It requires but a very superficial
glance at tire commercial and manufacturing statistics
of the country, to perceive how it is, and
to what extant Southern slave labor and Sonthern
capital are tributary to Northern prosperity. And
our Northern assailants may rely upon it, that the
South will find means to arrest the current which
wafts Southern productions into Northern pockets,
unless they let us alone, and leave us to the^
Eenceable eiyoyment of our equal rights in tire
'nion. That, sir, is nil that we ask. We would
scorn to nsk, at the ands of this government,
any undue advantages over our brethren in other
ections of the Union. And is it n t passing
strange, that, contending for this, and no more,
we are treated her-e at though we were the wrung
doers? And when we merely utter our cornplaints,
in facts that are undenied and undeniable,
we encounter taunts and sneers from thofo who
frrofess to be our friends. Sir, 1 leave those who
lave thus treated us to their own reflections.
Unless their minds have been so poisonod by sectional
prejudice, that tliev will not look the truth
fairly in the face, and will not mete to us evenhanded
justice, they will take back tireir bard
words, and join us in so administering upon our
Mexican possessions, as to rebuke Executive intervention
and usurpation, and make all needful
rules and regulations respecting those possessions
?guided by the Constitution?conformably to
the pnst usages of the Government, and with an
eye to the rights of every section of the Union.
If those now invested with power in these hulls will
not do this, I shall still have a lingering hope that
tliere are Northern, and especially Northwestern,
patriots in retirement, who will spring forward as
advocates of the Constitution as it is written,
und the equal rights of the States and people.
This is not the first time that the advocates of
strict construction and equal rights stood in a
powerless minority in Congress. In 1798, Virginia
and Kentucky stood alone in opposition
to Congressional and Executive agression.
Their opposition and their doctrines were denounced
as treasonable and revolutionary; and
yet, sir, the promulgation of those doctrines
among the people produced n reaction, which, in
1800, brought Jefferson into the presidency, revolutionized
Congress, and stumped those doctrines,
though branded as treasonable, with the people's
sanction. Sir, we must come back to those doctrines,
and take the Constitution as strictly and
honestly construed, as the rule and guide of our
conduct, else we shall soon cease to enjoy the
blessings of civil lil>erty and popular rights. The
ship of State must be brought back to the true
republican tack. This Government must confine
its action strictly to its constitutional limitations.
It is by, overleaping them, that we have been
brought to the present fearful crisis. Local interests
and sectional sentiment must he left to the
guardianship of State legislation. Corruption,
oppression, and unceasing collisions, will inevitably
result from persistance in the attempt to extend
the powers of this Government over the
domestic interests and concerns of States so
widely dispersed, so diversified?yea, so antagonistic
in sentiments, pursuits, and interests.
\nd if we would restore peace to the country
now, let us kick out this slavery question, with
which we have no right to meddle, and return to
Jie path of constitutional duty. It is plainly
marked?let us walk in it, neither veering to the '
North nor the South, and we can soon calm the
:onvulsions which now tortutre every part of the
>ody politic,
NOTES.
. tA'l
Our Mexican m>il is not free, according to the
! prevalent Kree Soil doctrine. The President has
' declared Mexican law in force ; under it there is a
worse bondage than exists anywhere else on this
continent. The peonage system makes the debtor
the slave of his creditor ; the miserable peons
of Mexico serve in more abject slavery, than do
our black slaves. Even now, while we of the
South are excluded, the Mexicans and others,
with their peon slaves, are reaping wealth from
our mines ; and 1 nr.i informed by an honerohle
member from Kentucky, [Mr. Morehead,] that
Kentucky negroes ore mining there as peons,
who, according to General Taylor, and certain
lawyers, could not otherwise he held to service.
The property rights of American citizens, upon
American soil, cannot he construed away by lawyers
upon the authority of Vattel, or- iuiy other
foreign authority, as expounded by the Court of
King's Bench, or any other foreign court, while
we have a written Constitution which declares,
that "the power* not delegated by the Constitu
tion, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserI
' ved to the Slates respectively, or the people."?
I Neither OHn our property he confiscated by Mexican
law, when our Constitution declares, that privute
property shall not he taken even for public
use without just compensation. The People of
the South will not tamely submit to an usurpation
which makes a distinction between them and
the people of the North, in or on the territory
of the United States, when the Constitution de'
clares, that " the citizens of each State shall be
'entitled to all privileges und immunities of citizens
' in the several States."
[C-J .
To calm the outraged feelings of the South, we
have again and ugain been told, that California is
not adapted to slave labor, and that therefore we
! are contending for a mere abstraction. Now,
some may honestly think so; but better information
will satisfy them that there is not a spot on
the globe in which slave labor is more needed, or
could better thrive. Read the following extract
from a speech of Mr. Semple, iu the California
v. uu vciiuuii) u^aiiisi me uuiuioaiuu ui ucc iicgroes
:
" Let us look at tlie inducements, and see
whether these fears are without foundation; let us
see what is the probable value per annum of an
uhle-hodied negro man in the Southern States.
They hire there, at from Nixty to a hundred dollars
a yeur. I have known them to hire for as
much as two hundred, but never more. 1 was
raised in a slave State, nnd I believe they more
frequently hire nt n less sum than sixty dollars,
than over that amount. Let gentlemen reflect for
a moment, and see how many of these negroes
are producing their absolute value?paying interest
on cost. The life estate is from frrnr to six
hundred dollars. Physician's fees, and occasionally
other expenses, have to be deducted out of
their hire, so that the income from this sort of
property at the present period is very Bmall. Suppose
you pay seven hundred dollars to get a slave
nere, und set him free, on conditon that he shall
serve you for one year. He produces, according
to the ordinary rates in the mines, from two to
six thousand dollars. There arc many of our
Southern friends who would be glad to set their
negroes free and bring them here, if they produced
only half of that amount. "
Look, too, to the message of the Governor of
California!!, sn quoted by my friend from Kentucky,
[iVfr. Staktok,] and you see that the peo
pie are depending upon uncertain supplies oi l
damaged and unwholesome food from abroad.
No free man can lie induced to till the noil, tinder '
the stronger temptation* of the gold mines.
What a field fot* slave labor!
[D.]
The following extracts from the Democratic
Review, for the month of January, 1850, will
show the extent to which the different sections of
our Union are tributary to each o'V r; but especially
will they show the extent to which Southern
slave labor and capital are tributary to northern
prosperity. If space could be allowed nie, I
would gludly quote more freely from tliat admirable
and well-timed article.
" The imports and exports of the Union were,
for 1848, us follows:
Imports. Exports.
Free States 127,367,826 75,985,050
Slave Stales 17,631,102 78,051,386
Total $154,998,928 $154,036,436
This embraces the large exports ol furm produce
from the Nortli for the famine year, and is,
therefore, above an average for that section.
Under the estimate that one-half of the imports
a e consumed at the South, then $60.131,638 must
pass through northern hands, leaving at least fifteen
per cent, profit?say $9,000,000, including
insurance, &c. In return for this, an amount of
bills, drnwn against southern exports, must be
sold in New York, equal to the difference between
southern imports und the amount of their exports,
Isnv *60.000.000. The netrotiat on of these, trives ,
nt least #1,(tOO,000 more to the North, On data
furnished by the census of 1840, it was ncertained
that the value of the. manufactures of the New
En? and and middle States was $189,945,317, inI
eluding 500,000 bales of cotton worked up at the
North. Of this, one half-?say $90,000,000 finds
sale in the southern States, and those of the west,
which delivering their produce on the great watei
course.", necessarily forni part of tliut region, at a
profit to manufacturers, jobbers, forwarders, expresses,
insurance, &c., of 25 per cent., or $22,250,000.
There arrived at New Orleans Inst year, by the
Mississippi river, of produce from all the western
States, a value of $36,119,098, and probably
$14,000,000 more found sale in the slave States
through smaller avenues, and at shorter distances,
making?say, $50,000,000?for nil which was received
in return, sugar, coffee, tobacco, materials
of manufacture, ana domestic bills drawn on the
North ugainst produce and bills of exchange.
These sales of produce probably realized 20 per
cent, profit ; ana it is from the proceeds of their
sales of produce to the South, that the west pays
for its purchases of goods at the east. There is
njso, prohnhly $20,000,000 of Northern capital,
diuwiug large profits in Southern employments?
stocks, shares of companies, and interests in firms,
which, with the amounts expended by Southerners
coming North in the summer season, must
yield $6,000,000. These rough estimates of the
profits of the North, by Southern connection,
may be summed up thus :
Freights of Northern shipping on
Southern produce, $40,186,728
Profits derived on important the North
for southern account, 9,000,000
" of exchange operations; 1,000,000
" on Northern manufactures sold at
the South, 22,250,000
" Western produce descending the
Mississippi, 10,000,000
" on Northern capital employed at
the South, 6,009,000
Total earnings of the North per annum,
$88,436,728
"These estimates are exceedingly small, and j
do not emhraee a variety of transactions, which
I form the basis of most corporate profits. It might i
| nlso embrace the profits on sales to western owics
which are enabled to pay by their sales to the
j South. Now when you reflect, that the whole of
; the transactions out of which spring these profits
enumerated, and also the employment of a very
| large proportion of the Northern people, an well
as one half of the whole external trade of Great
Britain, with all those remotely dependent upon
the persons actively engaged in the trade, we begin
to form some idea of the magnitude of the crime
premeditated by the Vau Buren Free Soil Abolition
party.
"If we throw together the capital and numbers
of persons occupied in the manufacture of cotton j
with the number of bales required annually to keep
them in employ, we arrive at something like the
following result:
Bales consumed, Hands Capital ,
in 1849. employed. invested
Great Britain 1,819,422 480,000 $366,000,000
Europe, 983,943 233,000 183,000,000 i
United States, 520,000 160,634 122,000,000 j
Total .... 3,323,363 873,634 $671,000,000;
! The Southern PiOM,"-Tii-weekly
U published on Tuosdayi, Thursdays and Saturday*
of each week.
' The Southern Prees,"?Weekly.
Ia published every Saturday.
ADVERTISING RAT El.
For one square of 10 line*, three insertions, f 1 fX?
" every subsequent insertion, 35 ,
Liberal deductions made on yearly advertising.
87* Individuals may forward the amount of their
subscriptions at our risk Address, (|>ost-paid)
ELLWOOD FISHF.R,
Washington City.
"Of this large consumption 2, 800,000 bales were
furnished by the Southern StateH, and it is supports,
through the prohu of its fabrication, not
less than 4,000,000 whites, and the cloth so produced
furnishes comfortable clothing lo roi'lions
more, who otherwise would suffer from want of
it. If, by any convulsion, the supply of raw materials
should he cut off, how wide spread would
be the resulting destitution and ruin to all nations?
The Northern Stales have rapidly increased of
late years in their anility to worn up the cotton.
Thus in 1841-S2 the growth was 1,683,574 bales,
and the United States manufactures too(c267,850,
or 15 per cent. The average growth of the iiast two
years has been 9,500,000 bales, and 508,400 bales
or M per cent., has been wrought up in the United
States. TIiun the national industry of the North
is developing itself with u rapidity that in a fewyears
will cause it to require the whole of the
Southern production, to the exclusion of European
rivals. The progress in this direction is precisely
the in the ratio of the increa.se of capital. - Superior
wealth is all the advantage which England has
over the Union, and she is fast losing that ndvnntnge.
The only way in which she can check this
tendency, is by promoting sectional jealousies, in
the view to cause a political dissolution of the
Union.
" The South is now, with its institutions and
capabilities, possessed of that on which half the
manufacturing and commercial interests of the
world depends. It is the source whence the only
means or employing and feeding at least 5,000,060
whites can be drawn, and without which nearly
fl,000,000,000 of active capital in ships and t'aclorries
would be valueless A country and met unions
so important to the welfare of humanity at large,
are not to be trifled with. This country forms
one half of our glorious Union, on terms agreed
upon by those immortal men who separated from
England, because they would no longer suffer the
continuance of the African slave-trade; but in its
independent position,the South holds the welftire
of other nations almost entirely in its keeping.
The capital and laboring abilities of England are
such as to afford the South an outlet for its staple,
should it exclude all other customers. The result
of such a movement would be, to force other countries
to draw their goods from England only. On
the other hand, the manufacturing progress of the
North is such, that in a few years she may absorb
the whole of the Southern staple, and place herself
at the head of the manufacturing interest for
the supply of the world. To the South, it is com
paraiiveiy 01 small importance wneiner rmgiaiiu
or the North obtains this mastery. Between the
North arid Knglund it is a mortal duel, and yet in
the crises of this struggle, there are to be found
persons at the North so destitute of nil moral
sense nnd political acuteness, as to attack, in violation
of the sacred pledge of the Constitution,
those institutions which it guarantees, and which
are so necessary to the interests of humanity.
" The continued harmony of the United States,
permitting the industry of each section to fhrnish
materials for the enterprise of the others, the reciprocity
of benefits, nnd uninterrupted interchange
of mutual productions, facilitated by continually
increasing means of intercourse and accumulation
of capital, are laying the foundation
for an empire, of which the world's history not
onlj affords no example, but the magnitude of
which the wildest dreams of the most imaginative f
of the world's statesmen has failed to conceive.
In this undisturbed progress, the condition of the
black race is being elevated on the swelling tide of
white progress. Inasmuch as thut the first slaves
imported were, under their new masters, vastly
superior in condition to the nude cannibals by
whom they were sold, only because avarice
triumphed over appetite, so is the condition of the
slave of the present day far above that of his progenitor
a few generations back. The black race,
in its servitude to the whites, has undergone an
improvement which the same race, in its state of
African freedom, has failed to manifest, By
whatever degree, physically and morally, the
blacks of the United States are superior to the
nude cannibals of Africa, are they indebted to the
white race Cor its active, though not disinterested,
I agency. That process of improvement hns not
ceased, hut is ever progressive in tlie train of
white advancement. The huge lumber-car has no
vitality of itself, but attached to the resistless locomotive,
moves forward with a vigor not its own.
To cast off that race, in independence on it3 own
resources, is a singular manifestation of desire for
its progress.
A Good Idea.?At a mooting of the Sons of
Temperance, Canada, a few days since, a young
mail in addressing the ladies, said:
" Let me urge you, ladies, one and all, not to
countenance any young man who will not become
n tee-tot Her. I would also beg of you
to advise the young men to beeome Suns? and
if vou cannot accomplish this, make jailers of
them /"
,
To Southern Gentlemen or Literary Institutions.
4 young man, a graduate of Si. Mary's Ch 'lege,
Raltiinore, wishes to obtain as if tint inn
as Assistant in an Academy, or Private Tutor.?
He is qualified to teach the highest brunches of
Greek, Latin, French, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry,
Mathematics and Engliah Literature.?
The highest testimonials an to character and qualifications
can be produced. Address, poRt-pttid,
C. X. Y. Post Office, Pnltimore, Md.
PROSPECTUS OF A NEW SERIES OF
The Southern Quarterly Review.
Commenced tiie 1st of A run., 1850, n
Wu kkr &, Rithards, Prcpritlwb ?, rvblsthers.
TERMS?$5.00 per nnntini, payable in ad'
vance.
The publishers of the Southern Quarterly
Review beg leave to entreat the attention of (he
public to that Work, to return thanks for the invariable
indulgence which has smiled upon its
progress hitherto, and to express the hope that
this countenance will not be withdrawn, now that
the publicution, passing from the hands of the
former publisher into their own, makes, as it
were, a fresh start in the pursuit of a well known
progess. They cannot allow themselves to doubt,
that?with all their former contributors, with the
addition of many new ones, not less valuable and
distinguiahed?under the conduct still of Mr. W.
tin.more Simms, its sole Editor during the past
year?and with the assurance which the subscribers
now beg leave to give, that the work will be
henceforward issued in a style very superior to
that of the past, on better paper, with a fine new
type, and with a regard to neatness and finish,
which will leave it second to none in the country?
they will continue to receive that patronage which
tliair own endeavor and the claims of such an organ
seem reasonably to demand.
The writers for the Review include the greater
nnmber of the best and ablest names of the
country. They represent the highest literary
talent of the South, and reflect truly, with a native
earnestness, force, and fidelity, the real policy
and the peculiar institutions of our section.
We entreat the people of the South, who feel
ihe importance of such a periodical as the Review,
to ezcuse its deficiencies, and generously lend
themselves to its assistance. With their counte-?_
- l
nance and concurrence, it can become me esmulisdted
organ of domestic opinion?the champion
of our rights and character ubroad?the guide and
counsel to intellectual progress and proper taste
at home?the arena in which the better minds of
the country may always distinguish themselves,
and find the proper provocation to execution and
performance?the wholesome authority to which
we may always turn for the correction and restraint
of crude and undigested speculation. These
are ail objects of the last necessity to a civilized
people, who have anything to gain by enterprise,
or any tlung to lose by remissness and indifference.
Once more, we ask from the patrons of the
Review, indulgence for the past, and such sympathy
and support for the future, as are due to the
vital interests which it failhftilly serves, and ths
character which it seeks to establish.
rCJ- All communications should be addressed
WALKER & RICHARDS,
PwMisAm Southtm Quarterly Reruns,
0 >