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united their efforts to defeat that policy, being evidently bent upon giving evidence to the world that the "irrepressible conflict" so much bruited at the time was not a mere figment of fancy, but a solid and fearful reality!

QUIET UNDER THE COMPROMISE.

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CHAPTER X.

Country completely restored to Quiet under the Compromise Measures, except in several of the Southern States.-Exciting Contest in Georgia and Mississippi in 1850, '1, upon the Disunion Issue, in both of which States the Union Cause is finally triumphant.—South Carolina, failing to obtain co-operative Aid, at last subsides into a State of Quietude.— The Election of Mr. Pierce to the Presidency as an avowed Supporter of the Finality Principle, who calls Mr. Davis to the Department of War, and the Slavery Agitation is at once renewed. Mr. Pierce's gross Infidelity to his Pledges, by whose Indiscretion and Misconduct the Conflict of sectional Factions is again revived.-Mr. Douglas unfortunately yields to the Counsels addressed to him from various Quarters, and introduces the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.-Sectional Excitement greatly increased and intensified by that Measure. - Notice of the Decease of Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, and of their commanding intellectual Powers and interesting Traits of Character.

THE compromise struggle terminated in Congress during the summer of 1850, and gradually made its way into the affections of the people every where, a great majority of whom were well pleased with the work performed by Mr. Clay and his patriotic co-operators. Fanatical agitators in several of the Northern States still continued for a time to rail against what had been done, and to accuse the wisest and most conservative statesmen that the republic contained of having perpetrated the most criminal violation of the great and fundamental principles of universal liberty and equality; while in the far South, agitators equally excited, and bent upon disturbing the public peace, were pouring forth fierce and violent harangues for states' rights, secession, and a sep

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arate Southern republic. In Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, the compromise enactments were cordially acquiesced in. In Alabama, after a very short struggle, the governor and Legislature imitated the noble example of the states just named. In South Carolina movements soon occurred which clearly indicated that a majority of her people, misled by the delusory teachings of some of the most ingenious and plausible political agitators that our hemisphere has yet known, were fast making up their mind no longer to remain in a Federal Union which they had learned to detest, or submit to the authority of a government which they regarded as menacing them with intolerable oppression. There were public men even in South Carolina who were exceedingly opposed to all rash and fatal measures, and who were by no means ready to try the rash hazards of such an experiment as that in which they were now invited to participate. Among these was the present provisional governor of South Carolina, Mr. Perry, so judiciously selected a few months since by President Johnson to assist in the important work of reconstruction, now in such successful progress, and whose conduct in this high and responsible station has gained for him a position so enviable in the estimation of his countrymen every where. It is a somewhat curious and pleasing coincidence that Governor Perry, of South Carolina, and Governor Sharkey, of Mississippi, without knowing each other personally, as I am informed, not only took the same moderate and patriotic course in 1850 and 1851, but some six or seven years later distin

STRUGGLE FOR DISUNION IN GEORGIA.

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guished themselves alike in opposing the reopening of the African slave-trade; and now, for the rendition of similar patriotic services to their country, they have both been called to take a still more prominent part in the councils of the nation as co-members of the United States Senate. Georgia and Mississippi were, in 1850, the only states in the South, except South Carolina herself, who had not yet yielded formal assent to the compromise measures, and whose ultimate action in this regard was at all doubtful. In the former state a Union organization was speedily set on foot, mainly under the auspices of Messrs. Stephens, Toombs, and Cobb, which very soon, in entire disregard of ancient party prejudices and obligations, brought into hearty and effective co-operation all the conservative elements of the state, and a large proportion also of the ability which had previously displayed itself in this intelligent and populous commonwealth. A well-known struggle had at that period its progress in Georgia, which resulted in the signal triumph of Mr. Cobb for the office of governor, and in obtaining an emphatic popular endorsement of the principles embodied in what has been known as the Georgia platform. No one can now doubt that, had this important contest resulted differently, the civil war which has of late so unhappily occurred would have had its dark and doleful progress ten years earlier. South Carolina only waited for the co-operation of a single state beyond her own borders, and was prepared to consummate her well-matured project of separation whenever it should be ascertained that she would not stand absolutely alone in the contemplated struggle.

The course of events at the same period in Mississippi is a part of the painful history of the country, and must therefore be passed in review; but I shall labor to be as concise on this branch of the subject as is possible, by reason of my own personal connection with the scenes. which then occurred. It had been my fortune to stand alone in Congress in 1850, from the State of Mississippi, as a supporter of the compromise enactments. All my five colleagues in the two houses were zealously opposed to these measures, and closely banded themselves together, in order to make their opposition to them more effectual among the people of Mississippi than it had been in Washington City. The governor of the state, General Quitman, was in close alliance with them, as were more than two thirds of the Legislature, and as large a proportion of all the public officers of the state. The Legisla ture was persuaded to censure me by formal resolutions, which had been most widely disseminated. Nearly every newspaper in the state condemned my conduct in · Congress, and I was daily subjected in their columns to such bitter and violent denunciation as few men, I am persuaded, have been fated to experience. A new political organization was set on foot at the capital of the state, which was quickly ramified into every county and neighborhood in Mississippi, whose avowed aim it was to unite with the State of South Carolina in the extreme policy which she had avowed, and into this organization were invited all who concurred in opposing the measures of compromise, without regard to their former party ties or designation. It was most manifest that I had now naught upon which to rely save the protecting aid of a

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