| Summary: | The first item is a letter from Senator Buford, in which he discusses sectional division over the issues of territorial expansion and slavery; he suggests a convention of the Southern states to address the "impending results of the northern abolition agitation." The second article argues that such a convention might lead straight to secession, so it offers another way to resolve the problem: "In view, therefore, of the threatening evils which are hanging over us, let some state, of known loyalty to the Union, set forth our rights, and draw plain and distinct lines around them--let her, in a spirit of love and loyalty, prescribe bounds to the encroachments of the North--let her resolve, that when these limits are passed over, the union of these states shall be dissolved--let every southern state follow in her footsteps, and adopt the same resolutions." Despite a strong commitment to the union, the article advocates Southern liberty above all: "A people, determined to be free, are sufficient for their own protection, whether in or out of the Union. A people which tamely submit to oppression, are slaves, no matter what may be the form of their government."
|
|---|
