tory teaches us the lesson, that no people ever have maintained their rights. by yielding to injustice and wrong, and that every surrender of principle to unauthorised power has invariably been followed by fresh demands and increased exaction. property of We hold that the Government of the United States is one of limited and specified powers; "that the powers not delegated to it by the Constitution are reserved to the States respectively or to the people ;" that the States, who are its constituents are equal sovereignties; that the Territories of the United States acquired by purchase, with the common funds of the Union, or otherwise are the common property of all the States, in which they have equal rights; that the Constitution of the United States, does not recognise in Congress, or in any department of the Federal Government, the right, or power, to discriminate, between property held by the South and that held by the North, or to prohibit the entrance of the citizens of any of the States into the Territories with their whatever description it may be. That upon the acquisition of foreign territory by the United States the Constitution is Ipso facto extended over it, and with the Constitution, all the rights, privileges, and immunities, which belong to the States, as sovereign members of the Union, are secured to them in such territory; that any law previously existing in the purchased or conquered territory, in conflict with the Constitution, and the rights of the States guaranteed under it, are thereby rendered null and void, and therefore the assertion that the laws of Mexico (if any there be) in conflict with the rights of the South, are still in force in the territories of California and New Mexico, is unfounded in truth, and intended to bring the obsolete enactments of a conquered country, in aid of unconstitutional legislation by Congress, to trample upon and destroy the rights of the Southern people, in acquisitions purchased by such large contributions of their treasure, their bravery and their blood. Perfect equality between the States of this Union is the corner stone which upholds the structure of American Liberty; remove it and the edifice tumbles into ruins. The States will be remitted to the position they held before the adoption of the Constitution, of individual existence, or the South by submitting to oppression and wrong, must sink into a state of inferiority and political degradation, the unpitied object of insult and plunder to an heartless sectional despotism, and valued only for the weight it may exercise in the game of Presidential ambition. The Abolition party, at first composed but a small portion of the Northern people. It was a faction, which for some time, kept itself aloof from both the great political parties of the North. Holding the balance of power between them, it has been alternately caressed and courted by both; at last there seemed to be a rivalry between them, to propitiate the smiles of this fanatical prostitute, until her meretricious embraces have corrupted the virtue of both, and Abolition now stands the undisputed mistress of the fields of Northern politics. Under its guidance, many of the Northern States have abrogated the Constitution, with regard to fugitive slaves; their Legislatures have declared it felony in their State officers, to aid or assist a Southern man, in the recovery of his property, and he, himself, is liable to the punishment of a felon, if he attempts to regain it. Their courts have refused to carry into effect the law of Congress, declaring the rights of slaveholders under the Constitution. Southern citizens, going in pursuit of their property, have been assailed by mobs, and in several instances, have lost their lives. A citizen of Maryland, has been lately thrown into prison, and doomed to be tried as a felon, for attempting to carry his property from the State of Pennsylvania, which he had a perfect right to do, under the laws and Constitution of the United States, and according to the judgment of the Supreme Court, pronouncing all State laws, intended to hinder or delay a slave owner, in the re-capture of his slave, unconstitutional and void. They have established regular Societies for the circulation of Incendiary Publications, of the vilest character, through the Southern States, thereby encouraging the slaves to insurrection, and endangering the peace and lives of our people. They have hired slanderers, whose business it is to traverse the Northern States, and utter the coarsest and most vulgar abuse, against the South and its institutions, and even their pulpits are made the vehicles of unjust and unfounded denunciations against us. They proclaim their determination to prohibit the introduction of slavery into any of the territories acquired from Mexico; to abolish slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, in the dock yards and arsenals. of the United States, within the limits of the slaveholding States, and ultimately to abolish the slave trade between the States. They have encouraged a mixed medley of Chinese, Sandwich Islanders, South Americans, Indians, and adventurers of all sorts, in California, tenants, by sufferance, upon the property of this Union; with no fixed or permanent interest there; unacquainted with our country, or its institutions; without laws regulating the elective franchise; without a census of the people, in disregard of the powers of Congress, and the rights of the Southern States, to usurp sovereignty over that vast and unsettled region, and arrogantly to declare, that one half of the people of the United States shall be forever excluded from it. This is that chain of systematic aggression upon the rights of the South, which she is called upon, by every motive which can animate a free people, to resist. A submission to one, leads onward to the next encroachment, and there is no safety but in resistance at once, "at every hazard, and to the last extremity." We do not desire a dissolution of the Union, and we believe that the firm and united action of the Southern people, is the only method to avert that, and greater calamities. We think that all means ought to be adopted, calculated to give a concentrated force to the opinion of the Southern States, upon this vital question, and thereby convince the Northern people, that we are in earnest, when we tell them, that we do not intend to submit to degradation and oppression. We are of opinion, that a Convention of all the Southern States, composed of their wisest citizens, may have the happiest effect, in arresting the mad spirit of Abolition, and preserving the union of the States. Therefore, Resolved, That we cordially approve of the Preamble and Resolutions, lately passed by the House of Delegates, with regard to the subject of Slavery, and the Southern Convention, to be held at Nashville, in June next. On the motion of Dr. William S. Fowler, Resolved, That these proceedings be forwarded to all the Richmond papers for publication, and that a copy be sent to each of our Senators in Congress, to our Representative in the District, and to our Senator and Delegate in the Legislature. CLAYTON G. COLEMAN, Chairman. JOHN HUNTER, Secretary. BILLS REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE OF ROADS, &c. Resolved, That the printer to the senate be directed to print for the use of the general assembly, 200 copies of a statement made by the clerk of the committee of roads and internal navigation of the house of delegates, shewing the bills passed at the present session, authorizing subscriptions and loans for works of internal improvement by the Board of public works; also those reported by the committee and not passed—and a statement of the bonds guaranteed by the state for such works. BILLS REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE OF ROADS, &c. For extension of Louisa railroad to Covington, 3-5ths, To connect the road running from the Richlands in Tazewell to the Appropriation or 420,000 Passed by senate 30th January, for 12,000 7,200 Passed by house. 600 Passed by senate 1st February. 3-5ths of additional capital of Hampshire and Morgan turnpike co., 13,000 7,800 75,000 45,000 To complete the Brandonville and Fishing creek road to the Ohio, 3-5ths capital of North river navigation company, Passed 31st January by senate. Appropriation to complete the Beverley and Fairmont road, and for bridges, 18,000 do. do. do. 3-5ths for road from Buchanan in Botetourt to Blue Ridge in Bedford, 3-5ths for road from Shinston in Harrison, to the Salem and Sis 3-5ths of stock to extend Morgantown and Bridgeport road to a point near Clarksburg, |