Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 15, August, 1851Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 15, August, 1851
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
In _Mississippi_ the State Rights Convention was held June 16th, at
Jackson. Resolutions were passed reaffirming the policy indicated by the
Convention of October, 1849, which was in the main as follows: A devoted
and cherished attachment to the Constitution, "as it was formed and not
as an engine of oppression," was expressed. The institution of slavery
was declared to be exclusively under the control of the States in which
it exists; and "all attempts on the part of Congress or others to
interfere with this subject, either directly or indirectly, are in
violation of the Constitution, dangerous to the rights and safety of the
South, and ought to be promptly resisted." The right of Congress to
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, to prohibit the slave-trade
between the several States, or to prohibit the introduction of slavery
into the Territories of the United States is denied. The Wilmot Proviso
is declared to be "an unjust and insulting discrimination, to which
these States can not without degradation submit." The Legislature is
requested to pass laws to encourage emigration of citizens of the
slave-holding States into the new Territories. The resolutions of the
Nashville Convention of 1850 are sanctioned and approved. The Convention
declare the admission of California into the Union to be the "enactment
of the Wilmot Proviso in another form," as set forth in a letter from
the Congressional delegation of the State, under date of June 21, 1850.
The Compromise measures are disavowed, particularly the admission of
California, the division of Texas, the action on the subject of the
slave-trade in the District of Columbia; and the course of the southern
members of Congress who voted for those measures is most warmly
condemned. While the "right of a State peaceably to withdraw from the
Union, without denial or obstruction," is affirmed, the Convention
"consider it the last remedy, the final alternative, and also declare
that the exercise of it by the State of Mississippi, under existing
circumstances, would be inexpedient, and is a proposition which does not
meet the approbation of this Convention." The platform of the Union
party, as adopted by common consent, declares "The American Union
secondary in importance only to the rights and principles it was
designed to perpetuate." It is represented that in the spirit of
compromise which enabled the original thirteen States to found the
Union, and which the present thirty-one must exercise to perpetuate it,
they have considered the whole series of the Compromise measures, "and
while they do not wholly approve, they will abide by it as a permanent
adjustment of this sectional controversy." It is declared that, as a
last resort, Mississippi ought to resist to the disruption of the Union
any action by Congress upon the subject of slavery in the District of
Columbia or in places subject to the jurisdiction of Congress which
should be inconsistent with the safety or honor of the Slaveholding
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