WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1851
263
fugitive slave law, and that Massachusetts has cle facto annulled it-that the casus foecleris has arisen; and he appeals to Virginia to move forward. Now, it must be very obvious that the sources of General Hamilton's intelligence are not very trustworthy; for nothing is clearer to those who are on the spot, and can judge for themselves than that the anti-slavery agitation in the free States is in a great measure subsiding; that the demagogues who were participating in it are deserting its ranks, and that it is fast falling into the exclusive hands of the thread ~are white fanatics like Garrison and Gerritt Smith, and those of the negroes who belong to the Fred Douglass order of runaway patriots. The unwarranted agitation that prevailed has been productive of one most salutary result; and that is, to arouse the popular attention of the sober, quiet, patriotic masses of the free States to the character and danger of these abolition machinations. The moment they arrested public notice, that moment they were destined to be crushecl.-We see the process daily going on; the Union movement is heaving up society from its greatest depth of feeling, and abolition fanaticism is vanishing before its mighty power as chaff is driven before the whirlwind.-The action of Vermont took place during the extreme violence of the fanatical fever in her legislative bodies; and even as it was, the act passed by a fraudulent trick, and, since its exposure, has excited in the breasts of the people the most determined hostility. It is believed they will hasten to repeal it, and to wipe out the disgrace it has entailed on the State. So far as Massachusetts is concerned, only a single case has occurred there to warrant General Hamil- ton's remark, and no well informed citizen of hers believes it will be very soon followed by another of a like nature. There are three other points in these extracts deserving of consideration- General Hamilton thinks Virginia should lead off at once in favor of a southern convention to be held in Richmond, that a convention of all the States would be the fruit of this movement; and that the federal constitution should be amended, so as to secure new guarantees for the rights of the South and a fresh understanding of the bargain.-Now, to all and singular of these things I object, because they are totally unnecessary. This south- ern convention is the bantling of the abortive Nashville con- vention, and could secure no good end, but to protract agitation, and furnish a sort of safety-valve for the over-charged patriots of South Carolina and Mississippi to let off their ea:t·ra gas.- This can be just as well done in town meetings, legislative
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