54
TEXAS STATE Li.BRARY
No. 1?7. ADDRESS: DOCTRINES OF THE STATE RIGHTS AND UNION PARTIES IN GEORGIA. LAMAR [Columbia? Georgia 1833 ?] FEI,LOW CITIZENS As I cast m)' eyes o~er this assembly and see depicted upon every countenance deep eµiotion and exalted feeling, the question very nat- urally presents itself, for what have you all gathered together?- Surely there must be something in contemplation more than the ordi- nary transactions of private life. Have you assembled as guilty con- spirators against the liberties of your Country? Or have you assem- bled as patriots, high-spirited and devoted, for the noble & exalted purpose of consulting upon the happiness and safety of your State? I read it in the public prints; I hear it in the highways, that a large portion of the intelligent and industrious population of Georgia, weary of a free government, are seeking its destruction by the formation of a J acobinical Associations and the promulgation of heretical doctrins. Can such be the character of this Assembly? Am I to look upon you, fellow citizens, as men who are ready to throw off your allegiance to your State- as foes to the land of your birth or home of your adop- tion? Am I to consider you as enemies prepared to invite and sus- tain upon the soil of Georgia, the army of the United States for the purpose of enforcing by the bayonet upon your own brethren, a law which you yourselves denounce as not only unconstitutional, but op- pressive and unjust? If such be your desire or design, I make bold to brand you to your faces as recreants to freedom, with whom I hold no sentiment in common and can cherish no fellowship of feeling. But such I know is not the character of this assembly. Ye are no Jacobins; ye are no traitors. I see intelligence in every eye; integrity on every brow, and can such people be the foes?- no they are the friends of Georgia. Sure I am that there is not in the sound of my voice, a solitary man who would be willing to join in a crusade against the honor and sovereignty of his State; who would be willing to rally under the banner of an invading army, whose march was to be marked by the dessolation of his own country, and whose reward was to be the spoils of his own ruined people. No. A hired soldiery, raised by Congress and headed by the Executive for the purpose of forcing Georgia into obedience to unequal and unconstitutional legislation, will never find an ally in an Assembly like this, where ev[e]ry individual is less tenacious of life than he is of his honor and his rights. True to the principles of the Revolution; and ever faithful in allegiance to the Sovereignty and soil [of] your injured State, I know that you will never be found in the ranks of her oppressors; and instead of invit- in~ amon~st us the army of the United States, commissioned on the unh111lowed errand of State-!mbjugation, my knowledge of your valor an<l rirtues enables me to vindirate your violated fame, by boldly as- serting that you would be the first to meet the invnders on the borders, and dri,·e them thence or fertilize the soil with their blood. Brar{' associates in a common cause, welcome to you all! I rejoice to see you rallying 11round the stan<lard of State Rights- I rejoice to see you bolcl in the 11rnwal of your principles, and inflexible in the mentainance of thnt free<lom ancl independence which your doctrins
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