holders for the extension of slavery, is met in the North by a more settled resolution on the part of the radical party, to attack the institution of slavery with every weapon that offers; not sparing to wrest the Constitution itself, if that were possible, and to direct the forces of the nation upon the liberties of the Southern States. Ultra abolitionists are as eager for a dissolution of the Union, as the most devout admirer of Mr. Calhoun could desire, even to the end of seeing him made president of a Southern republic; for it is their first desire to remove the Southern States from under the guaranties of the Constitution, in order that they may be set off in a relation of hostility, and afford a perfect justification for such secret or open measures for the liberation of slaves, as might be taken by the agents of fanatical associations. Nor would the Northern States, in case of such separation, hesitate to protect the runaway slave. A border line, dividing the North from the South, would become a boundary, over which the slave would have but to set his foot, to become a freeman. The soil of the Northern States, like the soil of England, would thus confer freedom upon the negro; a condition which would very soon resolve the problem of the continued existence of slavery in the northern tier of slave States, and soon after in those next to them. Southern statesmen have not, perhaps, considered with sufficient care with what a degree of kindness and forbearance these things are looked at by intelligent and sober citizens of the North. Well assured, as they might be, of the certainty of an extinction of slavery to follow upon the division of the Union, their regard for the safety and prospects of the nation, but especially of the South and West, forbids them to allow that consideration to operate in their minds against the spirit of union and brotherhood. Agreeably to a previous notice, eighteen southern members of the Senate of the United States, and fifty-one southern members of the House of Representatives, met in the Senate-chamber at Washington at seven o'clock on the evening of December 23d, 1848. The object of this meeting, understood to be called and organized under the advice and influence of Mr. Calhoun, was to adopt a series of resolutions, and to address a warning to the southern citizens of the Union, expressing the opinion of the delegates in regard to the long agitated question of slavery, and to inform their constituents regarding what is and is not constitutional or within the power of Congress in legislation, affecting the institution of slavery. General Thomas Metcalfe, Senator from Kentucky, was elected president; Mr. Gayle, of Alabama, first vice-president; Mr. Atchison, of Missouri, second vicepresident, and Mr. Venable, of North Carolina, secretary of the meeting. Mr. Bayly, of Virginia, presented a preamble and resolutions. The resolutions express a firm determination to support the Constitution, and, constitutionally, the government-declares their attachment to the Union, as they understand its objects—because a faithful observance of its principles, as they understand them, can alone secure liberty and union to themselves and their posterity. That the government of the United States is one of delegated powers, limited by the plain sense and intention of its Constitution, and that all powers not delegated by the Constitution to the general government, nor prohibited to the States, are, by the express terms of the instrument reserved to the States respectively, or to the people-that no authority is conferred by the Constitution to impair or destroy the right of property in slaves, either in the States, the District of Columbia, the territories of the United States, or in any other place whatsoever, nor to prohibit the transfer of slaves from one place to another, except in the power delegated to it over the foreign slave trade, which has been exhausted, that an act of Congress impairing property in slaves, or prohibiting the transfer of slaves, would be a violation of the Constitution; and that, moreover, with such a power conferred or insisted on, the Constitution could not have been adopted; that the recent efforts to interfere with domestic slavery in the District of Columbia and the territories, and to prevent the transfer of slaves between different parts of the Union are to be regarded as alarming and dangerous, and, if persisted in, must lead to a dissolution of the Union. That there is a necessity for a more ef fectual interposition to arrest these efforts --that there is a perfect equality of rights among the States, and that as the districts and territories of the Union are the common property of all the States, that equality would be violated were any conditions or restrictions with regard to property to be imposed upon the citizens of some of those States, passing into the territories, which were not imposed on other citizens. That a law of Congress, prohibiting citizens of any of the States from holding any property they may possess, in the territories, could not by free men be submitted to with honor.-That in cases like the present, threatening the rights of States and their citizens, it is proper, where their representatives in Congress have exhausted their power of resistance in vain, for the States whose people are aggrieved to propose the means of redress. After which follows, presented by Mr. Calhoun, from a committee of fifteen, "THE ADDRESS OF THE SOUTHERN DELEGATES IN CONGRESS TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS." any of these,) and to make every allowance in this estimate for the influences of birth, of education, of remoteness, and of institution. In the first resolution we find the members of the body assembled expressing a firm determination to defend and maintain the Constitution of the Union. It is perhaps fair, and does not savor of a too jealous disposition, to infer from this expression that the adopters of the resolutions feel that they are engaged in a line of conduct which draws upon them the ill opinion and perhaps the just suspicions of those who value the integrity of the nation above all other considerations-above all price. To guard themselves against the ill-will of such, they have simply said, that they intend no hostility against the present order of things, with this reservation, that their own opinions and designs are more sacred and absolute in their own thoughts, than the existence of the nation itself. They love the Union, but they love it temperately, judiciously, and with a well-weighed and interested affection. They "most solemnly declare a warm attachment to the union of the States." Upon the construction of those few words "the union of the States"-hang conclusions of infinite moment; for we have now to inquire whether by the union of the States is meant a union of the States, or a union of the individuals who compose the nation. What is a State, in the meaning of the Constitution? Is a citizen of this nation a citizen merely by virtue of his allegiance to his State, or is he a citizen by virtue of a principle-of a nationality-over which State sovereignty has no control, into which State sovereignty cannot look? State sovereignty cannot alter cannot confer or take away the rights of individuals. State sove The resolutions adopted at this meeting, expressing the sense of a body respectable for its character, its numbers, the importance of the interest which it represents, and the occasion which assembled it, are given to the country as an expression of deliberate opinion, and as a ground and reason of the intended future conduct of the members of that body, and of, at least, a respectable portion of the citizens whom they represent. It is necessary, therefore, for all those who make the proceedings of public bodies a subject of inquiry and of remark, to consider carefully and weigh accurately the open, and, if possible, the implied and hidden meaning of their resolutions; not for the purpose of predicting consequences rashly, not for the purpose of exciting public indignation or its contrary, not to excite the passions of one part of the nation against another, not to blow up the fires of rebellion, not to ex-reignty cannot say to this man, do this press the contempt of an individual; but, and do that; possess this, resign that, if possible, to ascertain how far they are merely because it is sovereignty? The likely, by their real force, to affect the rights of individuals are based upon the policy of the nation, to sway its counsels, ancient laws-laws which take their origin and to urge it toward evil or toward good. from the decrees of God. "Thou shalt It is necessary also, at the same time, to not steal," is a command laid not only separate the ostensible from the real in upon individuals, but upon sovereignties. these resolutions; to show, if it can be shown, what there is in them of prejudice, of sophistry and of falsehood, (if there be Thou shalt not deprive thy neighbor of his property without an equitable reason." These are principles, these are laws, older, The resolvers declare that the government of the United States is one of delegated powers, limited by the plain sense and intention of the Constitution, which is the only legitimate source of them; and all powers not delegated by it to the general government, nor prohibited to the States, are by the express terms of the instrument reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. more venerable, than State sovereignties; | to separate large bodies of citizens from they cannot be violated. But greater than the nation of which they are integral parts these, and necessary to their accomplish- and members; in what light are those ment, is the right of the citizen, by his allegi- who endeavor this to be regarded by ance, to his nationality. State sovereignty, the sincere and patriotic citizen? a member of the great system of powers, cannot impair the validity of that great first contract-the contract of allegiance and protection between the citizen and his nation. It cannot even look into and examine the grounds of this contract. The resolvers declare that it is their "duty to watch over and oppose every infraction of those principles which constitute the only basis of the Union, because a faithful observance of them can alone On casting an eye over the Constitution secure its existence, and the blessings of of the United States, we find no such liberty to themselves and their posterity." | "express terms."* The first terms of that But it is also the duty, in a free nation, of instrument are, that "we, the people of every citizen to whom nature has accorded the United States," for several reasons, the power of thought and of speech, and "do ordain and establish this Constitution who believes that governments are moral for the United States of America." The organizations, to watch over the laws and PEOPLE of the United States are in mass liberties which protect him; and espe- a power superior to any one State, else cially to notice and comment on the move- would they not have the power to establish ments of public bodies which assemble to a Constitution for all the States, or rather declare intentions and express opinions af- for such State or States as may by the fecting the existence of his nation. With act of union concede this power to the humility, but with earnestness and sincerNATION. The nation is thus possessed of a ity, he is permitted to speak in defense of power in its sphere, fully equal to all the what is dear to him. A citizen of the exigencies and necessities of the nation; North is bound to every citizen of the but, more than all other powers, with that South, if not by the sacred and pathetic of maintaining the unity, the existence of ties of kindred and of friendship, yet by the nation as a whole, or, in other words, the bonds of a common language, a com- of guarantying to every citizen his nationmon origin, a common principle, a com- ality. In the fourth section of the fourth mon country, and, above all, by a com- article we find the Constitution guarantymon nationality. This tie, which connects ing to every State in the Union a repubevery citizen with every other, which lican form of government. This power of binds every citizen with every other, is guaranty implies a power of protection maintained and represented by one supe- against internal changes or external force, rior power, able to protect and bound to possessed and to be exercised by a third protect every citizen against every other. party, superior, by the terms of the This is the end of government, that the one shall be protected against the many, that the minority shall be protected against the majority. But if, renouncing, in a heat, their allegiance, the minority remove themselves, or attempt to remove themselves, from under the protection of the nation, and at the same time endeavor, by assuming the power of State sovereignty, to be what it is not-to break and divide the bonds of the nationality of others, their fellow-citizens; threatening by the mere act of a provincial sovereignty, *The only "express" reservation of power to the States is for their appointment of militia officers. On the other hand, not only by no express terms, but by no terms whatsoever, are any legislative or executive powers reserved to the "people." The people sanctioned and adopted the Constitution, and in that Constitution they have laid certain commands upon the State governments, and restricted their powers within certain well-ascertained boundaries. They have guarantied them their liberties. Is it not possible that the gentlemen who drew up these resolutions had no copy of the Constitution near them at the time? guaranty, to either of the contesting parties. By this guaranty the people bind themselves in their united capacity as a nation to exercise that imperial power, conferred upon them by their nationality, over rebellious elements. The Constitution, therefore, has, conferred upon it, a power of the most exalted kind-a power of enforcing by command, by threat, and, when necessary, by force of arms-compelling the establishment in permanence of a particular form of government. Such a power carries with it all the conditions necessary to its exercise. By no presumption of authority, by no conditions while the guaranty is maintained, can a single citizen be withdrawn by the act of other citizens from under the protection of such a power. did they embrace any of those conditions of nationality upon which, and for which, merely, the general government was established. The general government, therefore, is inspired (so to speak) with another soul; the soul of the whole people, and not with that subordinate, provincial soul, as inferior in grade and dignity, though it be as free and inviolate in its functions, to the national soul, if we may be pardoned the mysticism, as the soul of a lower grade of spirits might be to a seraphic grade. It is usual to speak of a social contract; but there is a contract of a nature not to be violated by the will of the contracting parties-that natural and unwritten contract, which, being founded in a physical and moral necessity, unites man with man in the observance of common humanity and of common justice, in the various relations of life. It is a contract which no agreement can dispense with. Men cannot agree to be enemies, nor to live in a state of barbarism, or of mutual distrust. Almost every action of our lives is wholly, or in part, affected by an unexpressed consciousness of the unity of society, and of the soul of justice and of honor, of faith and of forbearance, which creates and maintains that unity. Society is in this sense, indeed, a contract. The terms of its agreement, coming out from the past, reach forward through succeeding generations. Divisions, feuds, the separation of interests, these are but violations of that great unwritten contract which is the life of a nation, of which its constitution, its laws, its history, are but a documentary evidence. The aim of this contract, nay, its very essence, is nationality; the union of as many as can be bound by the ties of kindred, country, language and a common destiny. It is therefore the first and greatest of crimes to attempt lightly, or without causes unspeakably pressing, to create civil war, or to draw lines of division cutting the body of the state along those vital parts where nature has made an union, which must, in ceasing, let out the life and soul of the nation, and reduce it from an Nor do we find "by the express terms of the instrument" a reservation of powers to the States respectively on the one hand, and on the other to the nation; as though the States as a body were set off against the people as a body, and had made, as equal powers, a certain equal division of equal rights. The rights of a State arise of necessity, as do those of the nation; but the necessities which give rise to State rights, though absolute and imperative within their sphere, like those of the nation, are yet inferior in extent to these, and do not stand upon the same level with them;-just as, from the height of his individuality looking downward, the duties of a man are perfect and his rights perfect, yet differ in degree and in rank from those of his neighbor, so the rights and duties of the State are perfect in their sphere, though inferior to those of the general government. Neither were the rights of the States established, as might be inferred from the words of our resolvers-so vague are the terms of these important resolutions by a concession from the people to the States in that imaginary division of equal powers between equal parties. Previously to its establishment by Constitution, the government of this nation existed potentially, only, as the necessity of things made a place for it. Its elements did not lie dis-organized and perfect whole to a number tributed among the States-the powers of the general government are exercised over all persons and over all States equally, but the powers of a State did not ever extend beyond its geographical boundaries, nor of convulsed and antagonizing members. Whoever attempts without reasons of the most sacred character to impair the unity of a nation, commits a sin against humanity, both in the past and in the fu ture; for he not only subverts what has been established by the best efforts and the wisest care, by the blood and toil of all good men who have gone before us; but he extinguishes in hope, nay, stifles in their birth, the future generations of his race; since not only the pride of a people, but its power, its growth, its advance in wealth, in knowledge, and in morality, depend almost entirely on the preservation of its nationality and its unity. Our resolvers declare that no authority is conferred by the Constitution of the United States upon the Congress to impair or destroy the right of property in slaves (for we are come now to the issue) in any place whatsoever, nor to prohibit the transfer of slaves from one place to another, except in the power delegated to it over the foreign slave trade; and that any act of Congress designed to impair the right of property in slaves, or to prohibit the transfer of slaves, would be a violation of the Constitution. Not to repeat here what has been already said in regard to the power of Congress over territory acquired by the United States,* we can only declare that we see no impropriety nor unconstitutionality in an act of Congress forbidding or pronouncing contraband any species of property which may be transported into the new territories, and which in the view of the majority of Congress may tend to impede the settlement of those territories *While the territories remain unorganized or are in process of occupation, the people of the United States as a nation possess a threefold interest and right in them. First, as the imperial control over all national affairs has been acquired by the act of union or naturalization, which confers upon the general government the powers enumerated and implied by the Constitution. Second, as particular states or foreign sovereigns have ceded their chartered or legitimate Sovereignty over their several territories. By these arts of cession, all the powers of a king or a sovereign state over its territory were necessarily transferred to the people or nation of the United States. Third, as owners of the soil the people exercise certain rights. It appears by this examination that the authority of the government of this nation is perfect over the territory which they have acquired, for it originally includes the threefold power of imperial control, of State sovereignty, and of ownership.-Am. Review for August, 1848: Article on Oregon Bill. by the free citizens, whose arms and whose taxes have secured it to the nation. The question of the population of these territories is between the negro and the white man. Shall it be possessed by the negro, to be rendered back at last like St. Domingo to its original barbarism, or shall the free white southern emigrant possess it in common with his brothers of the North and with the naturalized citizen? The object of the resolvers is to secure to themselves and to a portion of their constituents, the valuable privilege of introducing into the new territory a species of property, which must have the effect of excluding almost every other species; of colonizing a soil which is the rightful property of the white man, with the inferior race of Africa; of excluding the adventurous free emigrant from the new and untried country of his hopes, and of extending an institution incomparably inferior, not only in moral dignity, but in all its economical and social effects, to those of pure republics. We do not mean here to contend, that in countries suited by their climate to the temper and habits of the African race, the institution of slavery may not be preferable to that of negro or Mexican barbarism. The institution of slavery, as it exists in our southern climates, presents the singular spectacle of a republic of landholders, governing with a despotic power a nation of slaves. To the slave, the white man is an aristocrat, an hereditary lord paramount. Republicanism founded upon slavery is the purest and most exclusive form of aristocracy, or, in other words, a predominance of a superior over an inferior race. The Saxon governs the Celt with an imperfect, hardly acknowledged, superiority the South Carolinian governs the negro disturbed predominance. We have now with an unquestionable, a confessed, an unneither time nor inclination to enter upon a discussion of the merits of Southern slavery, compared with other institutions of slavery. Whether the caste of India, the helotage of Sparta, the serfdom of Saxon England, the bond service of the Mexican Indian, the despotism of the Turk, the social, intellectual, subordination of the Chinese, the vassalage of the landlaborer, or the legalized penury of the English pauper; whether these, or any |