The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, June 21, 1850, Image 2
will be exacted?and when nil are conquered,
will the evil be .arrested? In fifty years, twenty
new non-davein >ldiug States may be added to
the Union, whilst some which are now slaveholding
may become non-slnvcholding StatesThere
then will be no need as now openly to
put aside the Constitution to reach their object
If they will deign to do it, the non-slaveholding
States will then have the power, by two-thirds
in Congress and three-fourths of the States, to i
amend the Constitution, and then have its ex- !
press sanction to consummate their policy.? j
Your condition is progressive
If from the past transactions we have narra- j
ted we learn our condition in the Union, they j
teach us also that our past policy of uoii-actiou J
and submission to aggression cannot bring us !
peace ami safety. When the doors of Congress j
wr?rA thrown nneti to .Tntntion oil the subject
" " 7 ' I O o
of slavery, if the Southern States-had moved !
with energy to avert a state of things unconstitutional
itself, and surely tending to bring the
slaveholding and non-slaveholding States into
collision, although late, it might not have been
too late to stop subsequent encroachments upon
our rights. But the Southern States were passive,
and their forbearance has had the effect of
inspirmgthe Northern people with the belief
either that we value a union with them more
than we value the institution of slavery, or that
we dare not move from a conscious inability to
protect ourselves. You have ungenerously stood
still, whilst your supporters and the defenders
of the Constitution in the Northern States, in
Ur.;.. vnn frmn thft mritfltions I
of slavery io Congress, have been politically annihilated
or have turned your foes. You have
tamely acquiesced, until to hate and persecute
the South has become a high passport to honor
and power in the Union. You have unwisely
' stood still, whilst year after year the volume of
anti-slavery policy and sympathy has swollen
into unanimity throughout all thenon-slaveholdingStates,
and the sections of the Union now
face each other in stern collision. You have
waited, until the Constitution of the United
States is in danger of being abolished, or, what
is worse, of becoming what the majority in Con^ "1'
nmnaiitn mito it TTint crrpjit nrin.
t ^i too iiumn j/i vja-i' kv ui?nv ?* ? ? * ? >? j? -? .
ciple on which our system of free government
rests?of so dividing the powers of government,,
that to a common government only those powers
should be granted which must affect all the
people composing it equally in their operation,
whilst all powers over all interests, local or sectional,
should be reserved to local or sectional
governments?is in danger of being uprooted
from their Constitution. Local and sectional
interests absorb the time and business of Congress
; and thus a sectional despotism, totally
irresponsible to the people of the South, consti
tuted of the Representatives in Congress from
the non-slaveholding States, ignorant of our
feelings, condition, and institutions, reigns at
Washington. These are the fruits of your past!
forbearance and submission.
If we look into the nature of things, such results
will not seem to be either new or strange.
There is but one condition in which one people
can be safe under the dominion of another people?and
that is when their interests are entirely
identical. Then the dominant cannot oppress
the subject oeople without oppressing j
themselves. The identity of interest between I
them is the security for right government. But t
as this identify can scarcely ever exist between
any two people, history bears but one testimony
as to the fate of a subject people. They have
always been compelled to minister to the prosperity
and aggrandizement of their masters. If
this has always been the case under the ordinary
difference of interests and feelings which exist
between States, how much more certainly
must the experience of history be realized between
the people of the Northern and Southern
States. Here is a difference of climate and
productions throughout a territory stretching
along the whole belt of the temperate zone, af- '
fecting the pursuits and characters of the peo- j
rile inbftliitinT it Rnt the ?rrent. HiffernnirG ? the
one great difference?the greatest which can
exist among a people, is the institution of slavery.
This aloi:e sets apart the Southern States
as a peculiar people, with whom independence j
as to their internal policy is the condition of
their existence. They must rule themselves, or
perish. Every colony in the world where African
slavery existed, with one exception, has
been destroyed; and if this has been the case
under the old and effete govern merits of Europe,
will it not prevail under the dominion of the
restless people ol the Northern States? They
do not practically recognise the inferiority of
the African to the Caucasian races. They do
not realize, because the circumstances of their
condition do not compel them to realize, the
impossibility of an amalgamation between the
races. Exempt from the institution of slavery,
it is not surprising that their sympathies should
be against us, whilst the dogma on''Which they
profess to build their system of free government
* ?the absolute rule of the majority?leaves no
barrier to their power in the affairs of the general
government, and leads them to its consoli
elation. Religion, too, false or real, fires their
enthusiasm against an institution which many
of its professors believe to be inconsistent with
its principles and precepts. To expect forbearance
from such a people, under such circumstances,
towards the institution of slavery, is
manifestly vain. If they have been false to the
compact made with us in the Constitution, and
have allowed passion and prejudice to master
reason, they have only exemplified that frailty
and fallibility of our nature which has produced
the necessity of all governments, and which, if
1 ?1?J ??/v/Jiiaao iiri*Arirv Tkn inotitn.
lliiCHCUKt'U, ever |huuuuvo mung, <> <, tion
of slavery having once entered the popula1
mind of the non-slaveholding States for actio.,
and control, the rest is inevitable. If unrestrained
by us, they will go on, until African slavery
will be swept from the broad and fertile South.
The nature of things, therefore, independent of
experience, teaches us that there can be no safety
in submission.
To sabmit to evils, however great, whilst
they are endurable, is the disposition of every
people?especially of an agricultural people,
living apart, and having no association in their
pursuits. But the responsibility of preserving
a free government rests with all its members,
whatever may be their pursuits, and not alone
with those who have the power or will to destroy
it. A minority, by submission, may as
much betray the constitution as a majority by
aggression. The constitution does not protect
a majority; for they have all the powers of the
government in their hands, and can protect
themselves. The limitations of a constitution
are designed to protect the minority?those who
have no power, against those who have it ?
Hence, the great motive and duty of self-protection
is peculiar to a minority, independent of
that faith to the constitution which they owe
in common with the majority. They must
protect themselves, and protect the constitution;
and if they fail in this double duty, they arc at
least as culpable as those who, in aggressing
upon their rights, overthrow the constitution.
And the public opinion of the world is in conformity
with these views. The oppressor is ha
ted?but the unresistingly oppressed is despised.
More respect follows the tyrant than the slave
who submits to his power. The Southern States,
therefore, although a minority, are not exempt
frotn the responsibility of preserving the constitution,
and, in preserving it, to protect themselves.
In what way shall they preserve the constitution
and protect themselves?
As a general rule, it is undoubtedly true, that
when, in a government like ours, a constitution
is violated by a majority, who alone can violate
it in matters ol legislation, it cannot be restored
to its integrity through the ordinary means of
the government; for these means, being under
the control of the majority, are not available to
the minority. It is for this reason that frequent
elections of our rulers take place in our system
of free government, in order that the people,
by their direct intervention, may change the
majority. But his resource cannot avail us in
the violations of the consntution which now
press and harass the South. By changing their
representatives, how can the people of the South
affect the majority in Congress and restore the
constitution? Their Representatives are true,
and have done all that men can do to preserve
the constitution from the aggressions of the majority.
Removing them, and putting other Representatives
in Congress, could have no effect
in restoring the constitution. It has been broken
by the representatives of the people of the
Northern States, who sustain them in the violations
of the constitution. It is clear that the
ballot-box in the South is powerful tor its protection.
And the same causes which induced
the violations of the constitution by the North-,
ern majority, prevents its restoration to its integrity.
Throughout the Northern States there
has been no indication of any change in their
policy. On the contrary, the majority against
the South is greater in the present Congress
than in the last, following the usual course of
every successive election for years pa6t. Nor
have we seen in the action of the States, with
few exceptions, any proof of a returning sense
of justice to us, or of reverence for the constitution.
Several of them, lest false inferences
might be drawn as to their position, have taken
care lately to reiterate in the most offensive
forms their former declaration against our
rights; and when a great Senator, representing
one of them, anxious for the perpetuation
of the Union, has ventured to advocate
something of justice to the South, he has
been rebuked bv the Legislature of the State he
represents, and virtually denounced for his fidelity
to the constitution. This resource then, under
the ordinary operations of the constitution,
is of no avail. And how is it with the present
Congress, the only other source of redress
in the usual administration of the
constitution ? For six months it has been
in session, and during this whole period of time
slavery has been the absorbing topic of discussion
and agitation. Yet nothing has been done
to heal the discontents which so justly exist in
the South, or restore a bleeding constitution.
All we have received has been bitter denunciations
of our institutions by many members of
Congress, and threats to coerce us into submission.
Although nothing has been done, a
report has been made in the Senate by a com
I 111 LLC U Ul villi LCC11 IIICIIIUCI ?, WHICH 13 IIUW pi'llding
in that body; and as the measures it proposes
have been pressed upon the South as
worthy of her acceptance, we deem it proper to
lay before you a brief consideration of the matter
it contains.
This report embraces four distinct measures
? 1st the admission of California as a State,
with the exclusion of slavery in her constitution.
2d. Territorial Governments to be erected over
the territories of Utah and New Mexico, with
nearly one half of Texas to be added to the latter.
3d. The prohibition of the slave trade
in the District of Columbia; and 4th., provisions
for the recapture of fugitiue slaves in the
non-slavoholding States. To understand whether
these measures are consistent with our rights
and worthy of our acceptance, each of them
must be considered separately.
The South Ss excluded by the bill from the
whole of that part of California lying on the
Pacific, including one hundred and fifty thousand
square miles of territory; and if this is done
by the legislation of Congress, the mode in
which it is done is of no importance. Califor
nia helongs to the United States, and all action
by the individuals in that territory, whether
from the United States or from the rest of the
world, appropriating the soil to themselves or
erecting a government over it, is of no validity.
They constitute a people in no proper sense of
the term; but are citizens of the States or countries
from which they have come, and to which
they still owe their allegiance. When therefore
Congress attempts to carry out and confirm
the acts of these individuals, erecting Califoro
a State and excluding slavery thereit
it is the same thing as it Congress had
iginnlly passed a law to this effect, without
the intervention of these individuals. The ex?!
I ? ?l / n j I
uiusiuu ui slavery irom ^amornia is uoiio uy
the act of Congress, and by 110 other authority.
The constitution of California becomes the act
of Congress; and the Wilmot proviso it contains,
is the Wilmot proviso passed and enforced
by the legislation of Congress. Here then
is that exclusion from this territory by the act
of Congress which almost every Southern State
in the Union has declared she would not submit
to, plainly and practically enforced by this
bill. A free pebple cannot be satisfied with the
mode in which they are deprived of their rights.
A sovereign State will disdain to inquire in
what manner she is stripped of her property,
ami degraded from an equality with her sister
States. It is enough that the outrage is
done. The mode is of little consequence. There
is therefore in the mode of extending the Wilmot
Proviso over the territory of California presented
by the bill nothing to mitigate the indignation
of the Southern States, or to baffle their
determination to redress the wrong if inflicted.
They are excluded from the whole Territory of
California, a Territory extensive enough to contain
four large States.
If the Constitution proposed by California
contained nothing about slavery, would the
iNorth allow her to enter into the Union ? Such
were the territorial bills proposed for California
at the last. Pnmrress hilt thev relented them
because the South was not excluded from this
territory in express terms. The inhabitants of
this territory have been left without any civil government,
solely because the South would not
consent to be legislated out of them with her
institutions; and now that this object is accomplished
by the Constitution presented by California.
these conservatives?these advocates of
law and order?are eager to admit her, without
right or precedent, into the Union. We are
aware of the inconveniences the inhabitants of
California may have suffered lor want of a civil
government established by Congress, and
therefore are prepared to yield much on account
?1 . *1 L_..n
ui uiu ciruumsuiiirvB iu wuiuu uicjr uavo ucc?
placed. ,
The next measure is in perfect keeping with
this first feature of" the report" It takes from
Texas territory sufficient for two large States,
and adds them to New Mexico. What the bill
contains with respect to slavery will be of little
consequence; for it is designed that new
Mexico, thus constituted, shall follow the example
of California and be admitted as a State
with a Constitution excluding slavery from its
limits?for without such exclusion she cannot
hope to be admitted into the Union. The effect
will be that territory, over which slavery
now exists, equal to two States, will be wrested
from the South, and will be given up to the
aou-slaveholding States. The pretext is, there
is some doubt as to the boundaries of Texas.
Texas, by her laws, when she was admitted intn
ITn inn knH Kiit nna kniinftarv tnu'ords
the West, and that boundary was the Rio
Grande. Congress, in the resolutions admitting
her into the Union, rocognised this boun.
dary by laying down a line of limitation between
the slaveholding States?(being the Missouri
Compromise line of 36 deg. 30 min. parallel
of north latitude)?through that very part
of her territory her right to which is now quostioned.
Her boundary of the Rio Grande to
its source alone gave her this conntry; and i
was thus recognised and ratified by the resolutions
of annexation. To vindicate this boundary
for Texas, as a member of the Union,
the Mexican war took place; and in the treaty
of Guadaloupe Hidalgo It was finally vindicated
and settled, by a clause in the treaty designa.
ting the Rio Grande as the boundary between
Mexico and the United States. Thus, by the
laws of Texas, by the legislation of Congress,
and by a solemn treaty of the United States,
the Rio Grande is the western boundary of
Texas. Yet the pretension is setup that her
territory does not extend to within three hundred
miles of fh<? Missouri (lumnrniitiso lino.
where Congress, in receiving her into the Union,
determined tli.it her territory should be divided between
the slaveholdiug and non-slaveholding
states. Texas is the only State in the Union which
has the solemn guarantee of the Government
of the United States in every possible form to
her boundaries. Yet this is the Government
which disputes them; and, under the pretext
that they are very doubtful, proposes to take
from her nearly one-half of hor territory.?
It is by virtue of such pretensions, that by the
bill two States are to be taken from the Southern
and given to the Northern States; and this
wrong is aggrava'ed by compelling us to pay it
through the Treasury of the United States.
It is undoubtedly proper that Texas should
be quiet as to ber boundaries; but she should
be quieted by a law of Congress, plainly acknnwledfrinf*
them. If. after her boundaries
are settled, the General Government, to carry
out the purposes of the constitution, or in good
faith to fulfil all the obligations the annexation
of Texas to the Union requires, should think
proper to purchase any territory from Texas,
the arrangement may be unobjectionbblc. But
any arrangement concerning her territories,
which leaves a shade of doubt as to tho right of
the people of tho South to enter an v portion of
the territory, which, according to the terms of
annexation, are now free to them, neither Texas
nor the General Government have any right
i i._ ? ?
Ill IlllltlU. 1IIC ICilllS VI iHIIICAflLIUll VUUM11ULC
the compact of union between Texas and the
other States of the confederacy?and this compact
secures irrevocably to the people of the
slaveholding States the right of entering with
their property all her territory lying south of 36
deg. 30 min. north latilude?whilst*from all her
territory lying north of that lino they aro excluded.
The bill in the Senate makes no provision
for carrying out these terms of the cornpact,
but leaves in doubt the right of the Southern
people, throughout all the territory proposed
to be purchased; whilst many who support
the bill declare that in effect it excludes entirely
the people of the Southern States from all
the territory purchased. The least evil, therefore,
the bill can bring to the people of the
Southern States on entering if, will be contention,
harassment and litigation.
But you will have a very inadequate conception
of the importance of the territory taken
from Texas by the bill, if you confine your views
'InvoG If vnn will look at the man nf the
United States, you will perceive that the territory
[imposed to bo surrendered by Texas lies
throughout its whole extent along the western
frontier of the Indian territory. This is now
a slaveholding country; and must be considered
as a pnrt of the South. Place along their whole
western boundary two non-slaveholding States
and how long will the Indians be able to maintain
the institution of slavery ? If the agency
of Congross is not used to abolish directly slave- i
ry in the Indian territory, this end can be easily
accomplished by the very means now in operation
against slavery in the Southern States,
which the Indian will have but little power to
resist. The effect will be, that the Indian territory,
large enough for two more States, will
.y
he controlled by the non-slsveholding States.
Thus by these two points in the report, the
South will lose four large States in California,
two in Texas, and two in the Indian territory.
Nor is this all. The non-slaveholdiug States
will be brought to the western boundary of
Missouri and Arkansas, along their whole extent
and will bound Texas on her whole northern
and western frontier. Thus the Southern
States will be hemmed in by the non-slaveholding
States on their whole western bordera
policy which they have declared essential
to the end of abolishing slavery in the Southern
States. What can compensate the South for
such enormous wrong and spoliation.
cut this is not the end of your concessions by
this report. We must not yield to the interests
but to the prejudices of the Northern people.?
Slavery existed in the District of Columbia when
Congress accepted the cession of the territory composing
it from the States of Maryland and Virginia.
No one can suppose that Maryland and
Virginia, slaveholding States then and slaveholding
States now, could have designed to gwe Congress
any power over the institution of slavery in
this territory. Independently of the wrong to the
people of the District to emancipate their slaves,
it would be an intolerable evil to have a district
between them,, where emancipation prevails by
'the authority of Coiigress. Congress, in the bill
reported as a part of the so-called compromise,
now begins the work of emancipation by declaring
that if anv slave is hrnnvht intn the District
for sale,- he stall be "liberated and free." If a
slave is liberat< d because he is brought into a district,
the next step, to liberate him because he is
in the dislrct, is not difficult. The power to emancipate
the slaves in the District of Columbia is
thus claimed and exercised by Congress. Many
of the ablest men of the South have denied that
Congress possesses any such power, whilst all
agreed, until lately, that for Congress'to interfere
with this institution, whilst slavery existed in Maryland
and Virginia, would be a gross breaclyrf
faith towards those States, and an outrage upon
the whole South. How long will that facility
which yields to the prejudice against the buying
and selling of slaves be able to resist the greater
prejudice which exists against the holding of
slaves at all in the District of Columbia ?
For all these sacrifices to the interests and prejudices
of the people of the North, the South is
tendered the last measure of the compromise?the
fugitive slave bill as they propose to amend it.?
To understand the extent of the concessioh the
South receives on this point, we must look to the
rights the constitution confers.
The framers of the constitution were perfectly
aware that the General Government could have
but little power to secure to them their fugitive
slaves in the non-slaveholding States. The whole
intenlal police of a State must be under the control
of the State, and by this chiefly could slaves ,
be re-captured. The constitution therefore, not
rolying on the legislation of Congrpss alone, requires
that a fugitive slave, escaping into a nonslaveholding
State, shall be " delivered upon claim
of the party" to whom he belongs. Fugitive (
oil True era mil rtn tlin CtMin/v aT fiirtitirTn /tin mi no la
aii' jiui VII uir iwuiiiip uj |V4^IIIV^ i iiii uairj
and are to be delivered up by the State authorities.
If these authorities do not enforce the re- J
quirement8 of the constitution, and aid In the re
capture and recovery of fugitive slaves, Congress I
can do but little to enforce them. The bill provi. ,
ding for the co-operation ot the few officers of the (
United States Government in a State, is praeti- 1
cally quite insufficient to accomplish its aim.? 1
What can they do in such a State as Pennsylva- 1
nia to recover fugitive slaves? Yet if Congress |
does all that it can do by legislation to enforce the
constitution, it only does its duty to the South.
There can be no concession or favor to the South, 1
in giving her only what she has a right to have i
under the constitution?unless, indeed, the cousti- .
tution for her has no existence. The bill then, is,
in the first place, quite inadequate to restore to us
our fugitive slaves, and in the second place, gives (
the South nothing but what she is entitled to. If (
this was all. there would be nothing in the bill for .
which we should concede anything to the North. ]
U Ir, ..II U
xjui ii ir? uui ?nif uuurr uir pirirAi vi u? owwiiig
011 us a benefit, It perpetrates a usurpation on the
reserved rights of the States. It provides that a
slave may arraign his master, by the authority of
laws made by Congress, before the courts of the
States and the United States, to try his right o
his freedom. If Congress can legislate at all between
the master and slave in a State, where can
its power be stayed ? It can abolish slavery in the
States. Thus a power is assumed in the bill
which virtually extends the jurisdiction of Congress
over slavery in the States. And this is a
benefit to the South! Under a guise of a benefit,
the bill is useless as n remedy?and worse than
useless in its usurpations. Such are the various
measures which constitute the compromise.
We do not believe that those in the South who, j
at an early day, expressed a willingness to support
it, had well considered its import or even cjiitemplated
supporting it without material amendments.
We fully appreciate and duly honor the
t - 11 i a !I*A_ t
motives oi inose woo wouia restore tranquility 10 j
the country, nor shall we impugn in any form
those who have assisted to frame or who have
yielded a support to the measures. Why the
hon-slaveholding State:? do not support these .
measures we are unable to understand, unless it
be that a haughty fanaticism, inflated with success,
disdains accomplishing its objects by indirection.
If these measures, however, were really a
compromise, in which the South had equal gains
with the North, it would be of doubtful expediency
for the South to propose it. Three times in
Congress, during-this controversy, the South has
proposed the Missouri compromise, which has
been three timet* rejected by the North. Twice
she has proposed a compromise by which she
consented to leave it to the courts of the United
States' to determine her rights. Instead of requiring
sternly their recognition by Congress, fifteen
sovereign States have consented to be carried in
to the courts of the country, and there to submit
their sovereign rights in a territory belonging to J
them to their final arbitrament. Their humilia- *
tion did not win the respect or confidence of the f
North, and the proposition was twice rejected.
The South, in our opinion, might accept one
other compromise, not because it is co-extensive
with our rights, but because it has been twice ?]
sanctioned by those who have gone before. If
the North offers the Missouri compromise, to ex- .
tend to the Pacific ocean, the South cannot reject !
it, provided a distinct recognition of our right to '
enter the territory south of 36 deg. 30 min. north
latitude is expressed in the compromise. We s
should take this line as a partition line between g
the two sections of the Union; and beside this, l
nothing but what the constitution bestows, Al?
though the Northern States would acquire by this ,
compromise three-fourths of our vacant territory,
they will have renounced the insufferable preten- c
ninn nf restricting and nreventlnff the extenRinn nf
the South, whilst they should extend indefinitely.
Having thus, fellow-citlzens, laid before you a
statement of your condition?.your rights?and *
the iemedy whichi under present circumstances,
you should aopept, we leave you for a brief space
of time. It Is proper to state to you, that while
we are unanimous in approving the jesolutions
which accompany this aadress, the delegates to
this convention are not entirely unanimous in ap- r
proving all the arguments contained in it, particu. e
larly such as relate to this compromise bill pend-*
ing in the United States Senate, though none are
in'favor of that bill unless it be amended in conformity
with our resolutions, or in such manner
as shall satisfactorily secure to the South the
rights asserted in them. Until Congress adjourns
we cannot know what it will do or will fail to do.
We must therefore meet again after its adjournment,
to consider the final condition in which it
will leave you. We recommend to you, and exhort
you to send delegates from every county and
district in the southern States to meet tu when
ae again assemble. It* is no ordinary occasion
which has assembled us together. The constitution,
and the Union it created, so long dear to
your hearts, are to be preserved, and your liberties
and your institutions maintained.
inane mwmAJL "
CAMDEN, S. C.
FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 91, 1850.
??F*Hon. J. L. Obr will please accept our
thanks for various public documents.
The Southern Address.
To-day we publish the Southern Address. It.iV....
an able expositibn of ouf'wrongs, and points div-.'
cidedlv to the rertiedw. We ?re a\aA it.AaaA -
so mueh unanimity, prevailed?and hope, a! the" '
reaset mbling of the Convention not one Southend
State will be unrepresented. The day to decide*
whether we will be slaves or freemen, has arrived
?let those who would be slaves, oppose the Southern
Convention, and favor a degrading concession,
miscalled a "compromise." ''
Ths Southern Prsss '
Is on our table. It is a large and handsome
sheet. El wood Fisher and Edwin DeLeon; Editors.
G. H. Sage and Her. H. Heath, Publisher.
Their debut is strong but temperate?firm and decided.
It should be a visitor at evert man's fire
side in the South. The great object of the paper
is the defence of w Southern Rights." The Union,
Intelligencer and Republic are devoted to the North
?fab e colors have been thrown over the tree
state of things by those Organs?while the South,
in the minority any how, has had not one voice
raised in her behalf Terms, Daily, $10 >TriWeekly,
5; Weekly, 2.
Mr. Soole'a Amendment.
It will be seen that this distinguished Senator
has offered an amendment in the Senate,- providing
that the Territories shall come in as staveholding
States if the inhabitants so decide?which
was passed by a large vote. With due deference
to the man of all others in the Senate, we would
pay, this is dangerous ground for the South.
Facts stare us plainly in the faoe. California will
come in on those grounds. The dreadful Wilmot
Proviso threatening, will be brought to life again
by the North, in order to frighten the slaveholders
away from the Territories until Yankees enough
can get there to make another California constitution,
and thus will they eventually accomplish
what they dare not directly. Is that our best,
bopef Is it not then, at least, the best philosophy to
3ee the worst. They will pass, by these very
means, the Wilmot Proviso over every territory?
admit them as free States?and then legislate to
i-uit themselves.
The Washington Runaways ?It is supposed
that the largp number of slaves who recently escaped
must have gone off with Dan Rice's Circus,
and that they concealed themselves in the wagous.
None have been recovered.?Otniik Carolinian.
iliatis good?we only warn tins distinction,
shat those who patronize those Northern nuisances?whether
they come as Circusplsyers? joujk
leymen pieachf-re or school teachers?-notion;venders?or
elsewise, should be the ones to lose the
legroes. We like the course pursued by the E1sto
Islanders last week. A yankee youth, came
lowu and offered his services to teach the-young
Edisto ideas bow to shoot?his preference howev-i
jr for the M darkies," soon induced several Genie
men to putin force against him, that unwritten
aw, part of which Is found inside a pine, and part
>n the back ot a goose. After receiving his coat,
le was gallantly escorted out of the Distinct.
Miami*, Jane H?9 P.M.
Fatal affray at Memphis?Men KiUedr-rQn
Saturday evening, the ease of the Farmer's and
Merchant's Bank came up before Court, on the
mrt of Dr. J. Fowkes and others, that the assets
)f the Bank should "be placed under their conrol.
The motion was resisted by Gen. Coe, as
ittorney for a portion of the creditors. The
jleneral read a commonicatioo previously, sign*
fd by King dc Trigg, to the effect that such re*
listance on bis part would be treated by them
is a private1 and personal matter. The argument
waaMeferred tovome other diy.v f ^ ;
Messrs. CoeajidCoanel left the court room*
tnd were met by Triggandhis friends* when a
personal assault occurred. Pistols were fired*
.. .. m /. k 1" J Lill J m
ind in the melee, uoe snoi ana iiuw
\ general fight followed, when Coe was attack*
id by three different parties, and shot in the
>ack. He fell mortally wounded. Others besame
engaged in the afcay, and a man named
jraines, closed in a contest with Connel, both
ailing to the ground, evidently seriously injured.
Hie greatest excitement prevailed. ^
The Nashville Convention adjourned on
rhursday last.
The followingig the substance of a telegraphs
o despatch reoetyed in this eitv on Saturday
ast, from Nashville, from one or ita members i
"The Convention has adionmod to meet
igajn in this city on the sixth Monday after the
adjournment of Congress. Great harmony add
i|gh spirits prevailed.
The address and resolations were mdftntevi
>y the vote ot every state, a tew (wkIoai*
lissenting.
Tennessee delegation nuaefcoe*^.
Mr. Clay's compromise rejected throughout,
The Missouri eomproarise declared to bo the
ixtreme concession.
Rights of Texas unanimously sustained.
Southern Pre?t.
At Boston, on the 18th, the Court refbaed th?
notion for a new trial tp the case of Prof. Wets
ter.