TEXAS STATE Lrnn.\nY
liO
I am persuaded that a large portion of the people nttached. to_ the Union Party are not aware of the nature and extent of the prmc1ples advocate<l by their leaders; they are not aware of the attitude of hos- tilitv to their f:Hate which these principles forr.e them to assume. The time has been when a man could not more effectually ruin himself in public estimation than to attempt to proselitc his fellow citizens against their own rights- to persuade them into a crusade against the Sov- creignt_v and Soil of their native State. Such a thiug was never heard of until 1825, when the people, divided and inflamed by party- yield- ing themselves up to the dominion of infuriated passions- many were induced to welcome amongst us, the swaggering bragadocia of the Genl. Govt., sent for the purpose of trampling upon our rights, and insulting the authorities & dignity of Georgia. Volunteering under this Crononhotonthologus of war, they rejoiced at the prospect of a military invasion of their State, prepared in feelings to co-operate with the inrnders in the unnatural work of dethroning their own power & Sovreignty and subjugating them~elves. Prior to that period the fed- eral doctrins were almost entirely unknown amongst us; but when a desire for personal and party revenge had triumphed over the judge- ment & better feelings of man, what doctrins so arceptal.lle as those which permited an exasperated faction to forswear their allegiance to their State and encouraged them to take up arms against the objects of their malevolence! Such were the circumstances nncler which the Union doctrins of submission and treason found admittance into Geor- gia. They ha\·e since· adrnnced with the advance of party malignity & violence; and should they ever become predominant in the country, it is obvious that iheir triumph must he upo11 the extinction of our most sacred rights and the prostration of liberty fore,·er- Twenty years ago you might haYe tra\·elled from Dan to Beersheba- from one extremity of our State to the other, and you would not have found in the whole extent a solitary man who would have felt himself justified in c·onsciencc or justified in doctrine in taking up arms against the home o( his natiYity or adoption, under any circumstances whatever, ancl c:-pecially to force upon his brethren a law which he knew was ruinou:; an,1 unconstitutional. To haYe hinted to a Georgian the bear po~sibility of his being capable of cherishing such a sentiment, or per- forming such a service, would have kindled in his bosom the most un- appesable resentment. But that, at which CYery manly breast, at one time would haYe shrunk with ahhorrence, there are now hundre1ls- perhaps thousands-who are ready to perform with elacrity & delight: that which was once felt to he a crime too foul to be thought of- so unnatural that the guilty, if <letected would ha\·e blushed into cinder- is in these dl 1 generate clays publicly proclaimed as a duty an<l defended as a drtur. I put the question to the conscience o[ every individual in this nsr-:emhl~-, (if any there he) who are prepared to deny the Smwrignt~· of hi;: Stntr- io cliscarcl his alli~cance to her & to take ,-idr•:: agai11:-:t h<•r in a :-I n1.'.!i..rh· for h<'l" rights, i I' tlierr has not hern a prrirnl in hi:-: lif,, wlw11 lw ll"oulcl IHl\"C' J,,lf that in nil thi~ there was somrthin.!! wron_!(' \\"h_r 111111· tlor:: he feel that it i:; all right? Why clo1•:-: II\' ft•(•! that it i:: l n·11s,111 to oppo::p opprP::::io11? \\"h_\" doe:; he feel it to l,l' l n •11.~u11 iu fi:,.d1t in clrfrnt'l' of hi:-: Stal<• \rlll'n ,lriren to the last d(':-jll'l"lltC strn,zi..rl<• ai..raiw.:t intolrrahlr wro11g:-:: I will tell him why.
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