ted, to the statesmen of our country whose duty it is ; but we entreat you to examine "the open evidence of facis" which we lay before you-facts which have been deduced under an imperious sense of duty to God and our country, and which we would have rejoiced to have seen presented by some abler hand. It is a truth, a most appalling incontroverti ble truth, that the Abolitionists already wield a powerful influence in Congress-that they are determined to obtain the supremacy-then to pass a law of general emancipation-then to coerce the states to submission peaceably, if they can by the doctrines of the Proclamation and Force Bill, otherwise, by virtue of the sword. Mark the words of our own illustrious Drayton, “unless the South erect herself and interpose the only shield that can ward off the blow, ere long the shout of exulting rapine will go forth, and the shriek of murder and violence, be heard in Heaven." Where is that Shield-the shield of State Sovereignty—to Liberty and the Union, the only "Helmert of Salvation?" Ask where it is? where is that shield that is “to ward off the fatal blow?” and echo from the darkest page of your country's Records will tell you, the Proclamation and Force Bill have torn from the States, the sacred bequest of our Fathers.-Behold members of one Confederacy, followers of one Lord, flocking to "the Banner of Liberty" on which is engraven the crimson motto, “ Knell shall be tolled on Knell, Hearse follow Hearse, and Caffin rumble on Coffin, until the last surly slave-owner shall say to his slave depart to Africa the home of thy Fathers”—ask, why this embattled Host? and they will tell you, go to the 66 Proclamation and Force Bill, and from them you shall learn that the citizens of a Sovereign State, at the peril of their lives, dare not arrest the enforcement of a law passed by a majority of Congress. Alas! for those doctrines-those instruments of destruction to Constitutional Liberty. But thanks, unfeigned thanks to Heaven, the calamities with which they threaten us, are suspended for a season. Our country may yet be saved from the destroying "Angels of Mercy"-the South may yet be rescued from the vengeance of a "Godly Host." She has friends. in the North-friends who breathe the spirit of Liberty-friends who have been nurtured in the genuine principles of Jeffersonian State Sovereignty friends who are ready to risk their all in defence of her Constitutional Rights and the perpetuity of the Union. Let her own sons be true to her honor and integrity, and all will yet be well. Let the voice of her rights and wrongs be heard throughout her borders, and let not her Priests refuse to respond. No-let them remember that when Adonijah usurped the domin ion of Israel, and seized the treasures of the people, and feasted his minions, and threatened proscription and halters for all who refused to bow to his will and share his spoils, ZADOCK and NATHAN, "Priests of the living God," were the first to call upon the Tribes of Israel to rise in the majesty of their Covenant Rights, and Israel's Rights, and put down the Usurper. Let the Standard of State Sovereignty be once more uplifted-let every man be determined that the South shall present one undivided, formidable frontthat her Legislative Halls shall be filled with the ad vocates of the Reserved Rights of the States-that her Representatives in the next Congress shall be men, who will unite with her friends in the North, in restoring to the States their SOVEREIGN POWERSthen will the prayers and anathemas of our " Godly" enemies cease to be heard then will our National maladies be healed, and our country once more free from the grasp of a despotic construction of her rights will again be hailed as "the pride of nations and the glory of the world." But reverse the scene-fill her councils with the votaries of "the right of Petition" -"the Sovereignty of the Government"-and "the subordination of the States"-let these doctrines be maintained, and the day is not far distant, when the Abolitionists will enact a law, the enforcement of which will cause our cities to be demolished, our fields laid waste, and our rivers reddened with the blood of our wives and children. FINIS. ERRATUM. Page 36, 11th line from top, for distinction read distribution. |