Banner Of Liberty (Newspaper) - February 6, 1861, Middletown, New York gn ll VOL XIII anb tje Constitution anb uje Union anb deposing anb all as Cognate Is N T NO C JAN wore received from Mr Douglas of IH introduced n tory of the act of and the act of ii relation to fugitive blaven Referred to th Committee on Judiciary Mr Iverson of Fend to the Secretary of the Senate the information which have received that on the inst the peopl of Georgia in Convention assembled passed th following Secretary then read Ordinance o Secession of Georgia mid also Mr Mr paper which law just read informs the Senate what has already beer announced to the public that tho State o Georgia by a solemn act of sovereign Conven tion has withdrawn from tho Federal Union She is no longer one of the United States o America but has resumed all the powers grant by her to the Federal Government and as her independence us a separate and sov State In performing this important am solemn act she has been influenced by the de liberate and firm conviction that her safety her interest and her honor demanded it The opinion of her people has been gradually tend ing to thin point for the last ten years and re cent events hare confirmed and an over- whelming majority of the people have elected delegates to a Convention and expressed in that election a determination to withdraw from the Federal Union And tho Convention by a like majority has passed the ordinance of secession Georgia is one of sis States which in less than sixty days have dissolved their connection with the Federal Union and de- clared their separate independence and now in progress to form a confederacy of their own and in a few weeks at the farthest a provisional government will be formed giving them ample powers for their own defence and with power to enter into negotiations witli other nations to make war to conclude peace to form treaties and to do all other things which pendent nations may of right do Provisions will be made for the admission of other States to the new it is confidently believed that within a few months all the Southern States of the lato confederacy will be formed into a Union far more homogeneous and fore far more stable than the one now broken np I have only to say that this action of my own State and of her Southern neighbors and meets the approval of my well ered ami deliberate judgment and as one of hor native sons and subjects I shall cheerfully cast my lot with her and them And sink or swim live or die I shall be of and with her and them to the last the secession of the ern States and tho formation of a Southern con- federacy two great and momentous alternatives will devolve on the federal government You may acquiesce in the revolution and edge the independence of u great confederacy or you may make war on the seceding States and attempt to force them back Jf you knowledge our independence and treat us as one of the nations of tho earth you can have friendly relations and intercourse with us You can have an equitable division of the public property and of the existing public debt of the United States Hut if you make war upon us wo will seize and hold all the public property in our borders and in our reach and we will never pay one dollar of thu public debt the law of nations will extinguish nil private and public obligations between tho States The first federal gun that is fired upon the drop of blood of any of our people shed by the cancel every public and private obligation of the South which may be due either to the federal ment or to thu Northern people We care not in what slupe or form or under what pretext you undertake coercion We shall consider all efforts to exercise authority over us as acts of war and shall meet and resist them ly You may send armies to invade us by land or you may send ships to blockade our ports and destroy our trade and commerce with other nations You may abolish our ports of entry and by an act of Congress attempt to collect federal revenues by You may the do all or any of these or similar acts They will be acts of war and so understood and con- and in whatever shape you make we will fight you You of your superior and strength but remember that the race is not always to the swift nor tho battle to the strong You have one hundred thousand fighting men So have we And lighting upon our own soil and to preserve our and vindicate our honor and defend our homes our firesides our wives and children from the in- vader we shall not be conquered You may possibly overrun us onr fields burn our dwellings lay our cities in ruins der our people and reduce ns to beggary but you cannot subdue and subjugate tts to your will Your conquest if you gain over ns will amount to but little a victory You will have to keep a standing army of men costing millions of money only to keep us in subjection You may whip us but we will not stay whipped We will rise again and again to vindicate our rights and liberty and to throw off your oppressive and accursed yoke and we will never cease the strife until our whole white race is and our fair land given over to desolation You will have mav have none You may blockade our ports uiui lock up our We can live if need be without commerce But when von shut up our commerce from the looms of ropo we shall whether other nations will not have something to say and something to do upon that subject Cotton is and will oblige you to raise your blockade and draw olf your I know that great hopes arc raised and great efforts made to retain the border States in Hie Union But let coercive measures be commenced against the Southern cy or any of the seceding States and all such topes will vanish into thin air The first act of and social intercourse And in thus wishing them each a long lifo of prosperity and peace I bid them farewell Mr Higler presented the of the Legislature of Pennsylvania which were read The President's Message was then read on motion of Ifr Mason A KKOH TIIK To TIIK AMI Horse or nv deem it my duty to submit to Congress a series of tions adopted by the Legislature of the luth irist having in view the peaceable settlement of the existing questions which now threaten the Union They were delivered on Thursday the ex-President Tyler who has left his honored and dignified ment itf the hope that he may render service to his country in this hour of peril The resolutions it will be perceived extend an invitation to all States whether ing or willing to unite with Virginia in an earnest effort to adjust the present controversies In the spirit in which the constitution wai originally formed and consistently with its so as to ford to the people of the States adequate guarantees for the security of their rights to appoint commissioners to meet on the day of February in the city of ington similar commissioners appointed by Virginia to consider and if practicable agree upon some suitable adjustment I confess I hail tho movement on the part of Virginia with great satisfaction From the of ancient and renowned we have the fullest assurance that what has undertaken she will accomplish if it can be done by able enlightened and ing efforts It is highly gratifying to know that other patriotic Slates nafc appointed nnd appointing Commissioners to meet those of ginia in council When assembled they will a body entitled in an eminent degree o the confidence of the country The General Assembly of Virginia have also resolved that ex-President John Tyler is federal legislation looking to coercion the first by appointed by the concurrent vote of each gun fired tho first federal ship which branch of the General Assembly a lakes its station otf a Southern port will bring President of the United States all tho Slates including Maryland as and Judge John Robertson is hereby seems to be in the vindication of bound ed by lUlke vote a Commissioner to the State into obedience and alliance of South Carolina and the other States that ler Southern sisters And thus united have seceded or shall secede with instructions and defy all your efforts There j respectfully to request the President of the Uni- those who surrendering all hope of ted States and the authorities of such States to the destruction of tho Union und agree to abstain pending the proceedings con- the existing state of facts yet hope to by the action of this general it reconstructed Sir a war between the lily from anv and all acts calculated to pro wo sections will forever close the door to any duce a collision of arms between the and project I will not say that the Southern States if let alone even after they have formed k Southern Confederacy will not INen to of reconciliation Let the North makii hem and we will consider them The r n people have heretofore cherished a firm and reverence and attachment to the Union uid nothing but stern necessity could have con- them of the propriety of leaving it or ould driven them to the alternative of from it ami when they shall see if t be not too long delated a fraternal sense of and feeling to the Northern lind and heart and when they find ient and reliable for their rights nd equality in the Union they their action and rejoin former For myself I am free to declare lat unless my opinion shall be greatly changed shall never agree to a reconstruction of the deral Union Tho Rubicon is parsed and it never witli my consent be hit in this sentiment I may be overruled I lay safely say that will them the recognition of equality the of lio of domestic slavery and the of their constitutional rights for which iey have been so long contending in the Union nd the denial of which has forced them to attitude of self-defence It rennins for le now only to express my grateful tents and thanks for the uniform courtesy ami indues with which I have been by those Senators with whom I have had Hie government of the United ever strong mav be my desire to in such an agreement I am convinced that I do not the power Congress and Congress alone under the war making power can cise the discretion of agreeing to abstain from any and all acts calculated to produce u ion of arms between this and any other ment It would therefore be a usurpation for the Executive to attempt to their hands by an agreement in regard to matters over which he lim no control If were thus to act they might pass laws which ho should be bound to obey though in conflict witli his agreement Under existing circumstances my present actual power is confined within narrow It is my duty at all times to defend and protect the public properly within the seceding States so far as may be practicable and to employ the constitutional to protect the property of the United ami to preserve the public peace at this the seat of the federal government If the seceding States abstain from any and all to duce a collision of arms then the danger so much to be deprecated will no longer Defence and aggression has been the icy of the administration from the beginning Hut I can into no engagement Mich as that I cordially commend it to Congress with much confidence that it will meet their approbation fo abstain from pacing any law calculated to produce a collision of arms pending the contemplated by the action of the General Assembly of Virginia I am one of those who will never despair of the republic I ret cherish the belief that tho American will perpetuate the Union of the States on some Jutland honorable for all sections of I trust that tho mediation of Virginia may be destined means the providence of God of this are the memories of her past history such an achievement both in relation to her own and welfare of the whole country would them all J AMI'S BUCHANAN In Virginia House or Delegates on Thursday Jan 17 the following important joint report of both branches of the Legislature was Whereas it is the deliberate opinion of tho General Assembly of Virginia that unless tho unhappy controversy which now divides States this confederacy shall be ly adjusted a dissolution of the Union is itable anil the General Assembly ing the wishes of the people of the wealth is of employing every able means to avert so dire a calamity ami de- termined to make a final effort to restore tho Union and the in the spirit in which were established by thu fathers of the republic therefore 1 Resolved That on behalf of the wealth of Virginia un invitation is ex- tended to ull such whether or as are willing to unite with Virginia En un earnest effort to adjust present unhappy controversies in the spirit ia which the constitution was originally formed and consistently with its principles so as to ford to the people of the slaveholding States adequate guaranties for the security of their rights to appoint meet on the 4th day of February next in the city ol Washington similar appointed by Virginia to consider and if practicable agree upon some suitable adjustment 2 Resolved That five Commissioners be pointed bv the Assembly whose ty it shall be to appear in the city of ton on the day designated in the foregoing to meet such Commissioners as may bo appointed by any of the States in accordance with the foregoing invitation if said after full and five conference shall agree upon any plan of adjustment requiring amendments of the federal constitution for the further security of the rights of the people of the slaveholding States they be requeued to communicate thu proposed amendments to Congress for tho purpose of having the same submitted to thai body according to the forms of the tion to the several for J That if said Commissioners not agree on such adjustment or if agreeing refuse to submit for ratification such amendments may be proposed then tho of this State shall immediately communicate tint result to the of Him Commonwealth to be bv him laid before thu Convention of the people of Virginia and tho General Provided That said Coni- nt nil times to the control of tlie General Assembly or if in session to that of the Slate Convention That In opinion of the General Assembly of Virginia the tions embraced in the resolutions presented to the Senate of the United States by thu Hon John J embrace the of Mich an as would bo accepted by the people of this Commonwealth That copies of the foregoing resolutions be forthwith telegraphed to the of the several A vote being on the committee's report the preamble rocc thu first by a vole of to 19 nays the second and third without objection the fourth resolution amended on motion of Mr of Richmond by making the subject to the control of the Assembly or Convention
