i CONDENSED PROCEEDINGS OP THE SOUTHERN CONYENTION, HELD AT NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, JUNE, 18^0. Publislied by Authority. JACKSON, MISS. FALL rs. Newton and (Gordon, of Virginia; Barnwell and Hammond, of South Carolina ; McDon- ald and Benning, of Georgia ; Cainpl)ell and Murphy, of Ala- bama ; Clayton and Boyd, of .Mississippi ; J. P. Henderson, of Texas ; Roane atid Powell, of Arkansas ; Pearson and Forman, of Floroda ; and A. V. Brown and Nicholson, of Tennessee. After receiving many resolutions relorred to them, the commit- tee, on the icili June, reported to the Convention, the following address and resolutions : ADDRESS To the People of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South ■ Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Mississippi and Arlcansas : Fellow Citizens — In obedience to the commands of those we represent, we have assembled toj^ether to confer with each other concerning your relation with the General Government and the non-slavehokling States of the Union, on the subject of the insti- tution of slavery. We deem it proper to lay before you as briefly as the subject will permit, the result of our deliberations and councils. In order that your condition may be u)]derstood, and the con- clusions at which we have arrived be justly appreciated, it is ne- cessary briefly to refer to a few past transactions. It is now sixteen years since the institution of slavery in the South began to })e agitated ii\ Congress and assailed by our sis- ter States. Up to that time the people of the Northen States seem to have respected the rights reserved to the Southern States by the constitution, and to have acted under the conviction that the subject of slavery being beyond the legislation of Congress, all agitation with respect to it on the part of Congress, was equally forbidden by the constitution. But at this time, a portion of the people of the North began to assail, in Congress the institution of slavery, and to accomplish their object of dragging into the vortex of Congressional agitation, they claimed the right of petitioning Congress upon all subjects whatsoever. As a petition is only the first step in legislatiion, it was clear that a right to petition a legis- latve body, must be limited by its pov/ers of legislation. No one can have a right to ask of r'nother to do that wliich he has no moral or legal right to do. Nor can any tribunal have the power to receive and consider any matter beyond its jurisdiction. The claim, therefore, to present petitions to Congress on the subject of slavery, was considered by the Southern represesitatives generally, as an attempt indirectly, to assume jurisdiction over the subject it- self, in all parts of the Union. The object, without disguise, was the overthrow of slavery in the States ; but our assailants framed the petitions presented, chiefly against slavery in the District of Columbia and our Territories, and against what they call the in- ternal slave trade — that is the transmission of slaves from one Southern Slate to another. Conscious of the fatal tendency of the agitation of slavery in Congress to destroy the peace and sta- bility of the Union, an eftbrt was made, supported by a large por- tion of the Northern representatives, to suppress it by a rule in the House of Representatives, v.'hich provided that all petitions on the subject of slavery, should be neither considered, printed, or re- ferred. This rule was assailed by the people of the Northern States, as violating that clause of the constitution which prohibits Congress from passing laws to prevent the people from peaceably assembling and petitioning lor a redress of grievances. In De- cember, 1^11, this rule fell before the almost unanimoijs voice of the North ; and thus the unlimited power of introducing and con- sidering the subject of slavery in Congress, was :i«se:it.-iJ. In the mean time, the coiu'se of the Northern people showed clearly, that the a;L;itation of slavery in Congress was only on? of the means th'-y relied on to overthrow this instifuiion ihronghout the Union. Newspapers were set up amongst them, and lecturers were hired to go abroad to excite them against slavery in the t?outliern Slates. Oriianizalions were tbrmed to carry oft" slaves from tJie South, and to protect them by viol.mce from recapture. Althipiigh the constitution requires that fugitiv<' slaves, like fugi- tives Irom justice, should bo rendered- up by the States to which they may h;ivi' fled, the legislatui-es of almost every Northern Stale, faithless to this treaty stipulation between the States, pa.ssed laws designed and calculated to entirely defeat this provision of the constitution, without which the Union would never have ex- isted, and by these laws virtually nullified the act of 1794, passed by Congress to aid its enforcement. Not content with the agita- tion of slavery in political circles, the Northern people forced it also into the religious associations extending oVer the Union, and produced a separation ol-the Methodist and Baptist churches. Th^ result of all these various methods of absailing slavery in the Southern States was, that it became ihe grand topic of interest and discussion in Congress and out of Congress, and one of th':> most iniporlant elements of politics in the Union. Thus, an institution belonging to the Southern States exclusively, was wrestetl from their exclusive control ; and instead of that prot'^'ction which is the great object of all goverm"aents,and which the con dilution of the United States guarantees to all the States and their inslitutions, the Northern States, and Congress under their control, combined to- gether, to assail and destroy slavery in the South. The Southern States did nothing to vindicate their rights and arrest this course of things. The 3Iexican war broke out, and instead of that pa- triotic co-operatioi: of all sections of the Union, which would have taken place in the better days of the Republic, to bring it to a just and honorable conclusion, in the very rirst appropriation bill to carry it on, th'j North endeavored to tlirust the subjecj of slavery. Throughout the war, they kept up the agitation ; thus clearly manilesting their determinatian that the General Govern- ment, in none of its opei-ations, internal or external, shall l)e ex- empted from the introduction of this dangerous subject. The war closed with honor; and an immense territory was added to the U. States. Their previous threats were realised, and the non-shive- holding States immediately claimed the right to exchule the people ol the Southern Stages from all the territory acquired, and to ap- propriate it to thomsi'lves. If this pretension arose from a mere lust ol power, it would l>e hanl to bear the supL'riority and mas- tery it implie>*. It would degrade the Southern States from being the equals of iho Northern States, tf) a position of colonial infe- riority. But when your exclusion is not from a mere lust of power, but is only a l'urth'*r step in the progress of things, aiming at the abolition of slavery in the States, by the extension and multiplica- tion of non-slaveholding States in the Union, the pretension is seen to be as alarming as it is insulting. The Southern States, in their legislatures, set {*»rth with great unanimity the rights in our terri- tories belonging to them in common with the Northern States, and declared their determinauon to maintain them ; and finding in the Northern States no disposition to abate their demands, the Con- vention in which we are assembled, has been brouglit together to take counsel as to the cou.rse the Southern States should pursue, for the maintenance of their rights, liberty and honor. Such is a brief but imperfecc statement of past transactions, and they force upon us the question, in what condition do they place the Southern States ? And first, what is their condition in Congress ? The time was when our representatives in Congress, were neither offered, nor would they endure reproach in your be- half. But for many years past, they liave heard you in Congress habitually reviled by the most oppro])riou3 epithets on account of the institution of slavery. If their spirits are yet unbrolvcn, they must be chilled by a sense of huniiliation at the insults they daily receive as your representatives. You are arraigned as criminals. . Slavery is dragged into every del>ate, and Congress has l:)ecome little else than a grand instrument in the hands of abolitionists to degrade and ruin the South. Instead of peace and protection, ag- gression a,]id insult on the South characterise its proceedings and councils. And what is your condition, with respect to yonr sister States ? Where is that respect and comity, which (due from all nations to\v'ards each other) is more especially due from States bound together in a confederacy, and which was once displayed hi all their intercourse. Instead of respect and sympathy — de- nunciation and hostility, on account of your institution of slavery, have for years past characterised the communications addressed to you by the Northern Siate^'. And what is your condition in the Union ? The non-slaveholding States stand combined, not only to wrest from you your common property, but to place upon your front the brand of inferiority. You are not to extend, on account of your institutions, but they are to increase and multiply, that the shame and sin of slavery, may by their philanthropic agency, be extinguished fi-om amongst you. But the worst feature of your condition is, that it is progi-essue. As low and humiliating as it now may ]:>e, it is destined if not arrested, to "a lower deep." Every efiect is a cause, and the spirit of fanaticism brooks no de- lay in the progress it creates, li' you were to yield every thing the North nov/ requires — aiDolish slavery in the District of Colum- bia — sul^mit to be legislated pirates for conveying slaves from one State to another — let the trial be by jury and the writ of Habeas Corpus, wrest from you in ^he Northern States every fugitive slave — give up all your territories to swell Northern arrogance and predominance — would things stop there ' These are all means aiming at one great end — the abolition of slavery in the States. Surrendering one of these means you will but inflame the power by which another will bs exacted — and when all are 8 conqiierod, will tlie ovil be arrested? In fifty years, twenty new non-slaveholdin;,' States may l»o adder] to the Union, whilst some which are now slaveholding, may become non-slaveholding States. There, then, will be nn need as now, openly to put aside the con- stitution to reach their obj'-ct. If they will deign to do it, the non-slaveholistent with its principles and pre- cepts. To expect forbearance from such a people, under^ such circumstances, towards the institution of slavery, is manifestly vain. If they have been false to the compact made with us in the constitution, and have allowed passion and prejudice to master reason, they have only exemplified that frailty and fallibility of our nature, which have produced the necessity of all governments, and which, if unchecked, ever produces wrong. The institution of slavery having once entered the popular mind of the non-slave- holding States, for action and control, the rest is inevitable. It unrestrained by us, they will go on, until African slavery will be swept from the broad and fertile South. The nature of things, therefore, indpendent of experience, teaches us that there can be no safety in submission. To submit to evils, however great, whilst they are end^rab^^ is the disposition of every people — especially of an agricultural peo- ple, living apart, and having no association in their pursuits. But the responsibility of preserving a free government rests with all its members, whatever may be their pursuits, and not alone with 10 those wlio have the j>.o\ver or the will to deslroy il. A minority, hy siibinis.-ioii, may as much betray the constituliou, as a majority by ag^'ressioii. The constiiiitiou does not protect a majority ; for they have all the powers of the government in their hanilsaiid can protect themselves. The limitations of a constitution are designed to prot<'ci the minority — those who have no power, against those who have it. Hence, the great motive an^i duty of self-pnjtcc*ioa is peculiar to a minority, independent of that fai'h to the constitu- tion which they owe in common with the majority. They must protect themselves, and protect the constitution ; and if they fail in this double duty, they are at least as culpable as those who, in ag;LCressing upon their right-, overthrow the constitution. And the publii- opinion ol the world is in conformity with these views. The oppressor is hated — but the unresistingly oppressed is despisijd. More respect loliows the tyrant, than the slave who sulimits to his power. The Southern States, therefore, although a minority, are not exempt trom the responsibility of preserving the constitution, and, in preserving it, to protect themselves. In what v.ay shall they preserve the constitution and protect themselves? As a general rule, it Is undoubtedly true, that when, in a govern- ment like ours, a constitution is violated by a majority, who alone can violate it in matters of legislation, it cannot be restored to its iutei-rrity through the ordinary means of the government ; for these nie..u>, Iieing under the control of the majority, arc not available to the minority. It is for this reason, that frequent elections of our rulers take place in our system of free government, in order thnt the people, by their direct intervention, may change the majority. But this resource cannot avail i:s in the violations of the constitu- tion, which now press and harass the South. By changing their representatives, how can the people of the South affect the majori- ty in Congreps and restore the constitution ? Their representa- tives are true, and have done all that mon can do, to preserve the constitution from the aggressions of the ma-jority. Removing •'' '■. and putting other representatives in Congress, could have no in restoring the constitution. It has been liroken by the -entatives of the people of the Northern States, who sustain • ii» their violations of the constitution. It is clear that the '•box in the South is powerless tor its protection. And the causes which induced the violations of the constitution by llie Northern majority, prevent its restoration to its integrity. Throughout the Northern States, there has been no indication of any chiinge in their policy. On 'he contrary, the majority against the South is great-r in the present Congress tlnn in the last, fol- lowing the usual course of every successive election for years past. .N'or have we seen in the action of the States, with tew excep- tions, any proof of a returning sense of justice to us, or of rever- ence for the constitution. Several of them, lest false inference- uii^'ht be drawn as to their position, have taken care lately to reit- crate in the most oflensive fonns their former declarations against our rights ; and when a great senator, representing one of them, 11 anxious for the perpetuation of the Union, has ventured to advocate something of justice to the South, he has been rebuked by the le- gislature of the State he represents, and virtually denounced for his fidelity to the constitution. This resource, then, under the ordinary operations of the constitution, is of no avail. And how is it with the present Congress, the only other source of redress in the usual adniinistratiou of the constitution ? For six months it has been in session, and during this whole period of time slavery has been the absorbing topic of discussion and agitation, let nothing has been done to heal the discontents which yo ju:-tly ex- ist ia the South, or restore a bleeding constitution. All we have received has been liitter denunciations of our institutions by many members of Congress, and threats to coerce us into submission. Although nothing has been done, a report has been made in the Senate by a committee of thirteen members, which is now pend- ing in that body ; and as the measures it proposes have been pressed upon the South as worthy of her acceptance, we deem it proper to lay Ijefore you a. brief consiJerrtion of the matters it contains. This report embraces four distinct measures — 1st, the admi=^sion of California as a State, with the exclusion of slavery in her con- stltution. 2d. Territorial governments to be erected over the Terriiories of Utah and New Mexico, with nearly one-half of of Texas to be added to the latter. 3d. The prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia ; and 4th. Provisions for the recapture ot fugitive slaves in the ncn-slaveholding States. To understand whether these measures are consistent with our tialiis and vv-orthy of our acceptance, each of them must be con- sidered separately. The South is excluded by the bill from the whole of that part of California lying on the Paciiic, including one hundred and fifty thou.>and square miles of teriitory ; and if this is done by the legislation of Congress, the mode in which it is done, is of no importance. Caliibrnia belongs to the United States, and all ac- tion by the individuals in that territory, whether from the United States or from the rest of the world, appropriating the soil to themselves or erecting a government over it, is of no validity. They constitute a people in no premier sense of the term ; but are citizens of the States or countries from which they have come, and to which they still owe their ellegiance. When, therefore, Congress attempts to carry out and confirm the acts of these indi- viduals, erecting California into a State and oxcluding slavery therefrom, it is the same thing as if Congress had originally passed a law to this effect, without the intervention of those individuals. The exclusion of slavery from California is done by the act of Congress, and by no other authority. The constitution of Cali- fornia becomes the act of Coiigrc-s ; and the Wilraot proviso it contains, is the Wilmot proviso passed and enforced by the legis- lation of Congress. Here, then, is that exclusion from this terri- tory by the act of Congress, which almost every Southern State in the Union has declared she would not submit to, plainly and :> 12 practically (^ntiiiced by tliis bill. A froo people cannot be satisfied with tho mode in which they are deprived of their rights. A sov- crcigii Stale will disdain to enquire in what manner i^he is strip- ped of her jtroperty, and degraded from an equality with her sister i^Jtates. It is enough that the outrage is done. The mode is of little consecjuence. There is, therefore, in the mode of extending the Wiiniot proviso over the territory of California presented by the bill, nothing to mitigate the indignation of the Southern States, or to bailie their doteiniiinition to redress the wrong, if inflicted. They are excluded Ironi the whole territory of California, a terri- tory extensive enough to contain four large States. ll" the constitution proposed by California contained nothing about slavery, would the North allow her to enter the Union ? Such were the territorial bills proposed for California at the last Conirress. but they rejected them, because the South was not ex- cluded from this territory, in express terms. The inhabitants of this territory have been hft without any civil government, solely because the South would not consent Jo be legislated out of them with her institutions and now that this oliject is accomplished by the constitution presented by Calitbrnia, these conservatives — these advocates of law and order — are eager to admit her, with- out right or precedent, into the Union. We are aware of the in- conveniencies the inhabitants of California may have suffered tor want of a civil government established Ijv Concress, and there- lore, are prepared to yield much on account of the circumstances in which they have been placed. The next measure is in perfect keeping with this first feature of "the report."' It takes from Texas, territory suflicient for two large States, and adds them to New Mexico. What the Ijill con- tains with respect to slavery will be of little consequence, for it is designed that next winter New Mexico thus constituted, shall fol- low the example of California, and be a'imitted a& a State with a constitution exfluding slavery from its limits — lor xvithout such exclusion she cannot hope to be admitted by the non-slaveholding States into the Union. The effect will be that territory, over whi< h slavery now exists, equal to two States, xvill be wrested from the South, and will be given up to the non-slaveholding States. 'J'he jiretext is, that there is some doubt as to the boun- daries of Texas. Texas, fjy her laws, when she was admitted into the I'nion, had but one boumlary towards the West, and that boundary was the Rio (irande. Congress, in the resolutions ad- milling her into the I nion, recognised this boiuulary, by laying down a line of limitation between the slaveholding and non- slaveholding States — (l)eing the .Missouri compromise line of 36 deg. :\0 min. parallel of North latitude) — through tiiat very part of her territory, her right to which is now questioned. Her boun- dary o| thi' Rio (Jrande to its source, alone gave her this country; and was thus recognised and ratified f)y the resolutions of annex- ation, 'i'o vindicate this botnidary for Texas, as a member of tlie Union, tiie Mexican war took place ; and in the treaty of Ciuada- loupc Hidalgo, it was finally vindicated and settled by a clause in 13 the treaty, designating the Rio Grande as the boundary between Mexico and the United States. Thus, by the laws of Texas, by the legislation of Congress, and by a solemn treaty of the United States, the Rio Grande is the western boundary of Texas. Yet the pretension is set up, that her territory does not extend to within three hundred miles of the Missouri compromise line, where Con- gress, in receiving her into the Union, determined that her terri- tory should be divided between the slaveholding and non-slave- holding States. Texas is the only State in the Union which has the solemn guarantee of the government of the United States in every possible form of her boundaries. Yet this is the Govern- ment which disputes them ; and under the pretext that they are very doubtful, proposes to take from her nearly one-half of her ter. ritory. It is by virtue of such pretensions, that by the bill two States are to be taken from the Southern and given to the North- ern States ; and this wrong is aggravated by compelling us to pay for it, through the treasury of the United States. It is undoubtedly proper, that Texas should be quiotted as to her boundaries ; but she should be quieted by a law of Congress, plainly acknowledging them. If after her boundaries are scttfed, the General Government, to carry out the purposes of the consti- tution, or in good faith to fulfil all the obligations the annexation of Texas to the Union requires, should think proper to purchase any territory from Texas, the arrangement may be unobjectiona- ble. But any arrangement concerning her territories, which leaves a shade of doubt as to the right of the people of the South to enter any portion of the territory, which according to the terms of annexation are now free to them, neither Texas nor the Gen- eral Government have any right to make. The terms of annexa- tion constitute the compact of Union between Texas and the . other States of the confederacy — and this compact secures irrevo- cably to the people of the slaveholding States, the right of enter- ing with their property all her territory lying south of 36 deg. 30 min. north latitude — whilst from all her territory north of that line, they are excluded. The bill in the Senate makes no provi- sion for carrying out these terms of the compact, but leaves in doubt the right of the Southern people, throughout all the territory proposed to be purchased ; whilst many who support the bill, de- clare that, in effect, it excludes entirely the people of the Southern States from all the territory purchased. The least evil, therefore, the bill can bring to the people of the Southern States on entering it, will be contention, harassment and litigation. But you will have a very inadequate conception of the impor- tance of the territory taken from Texas by the bill, if you confine your views to Texas. If you will look at the map of the United States, you will perceive that the territory proposed to be surren- dered by Texas lies throughout its whole extent along the western frontier of the Indian territory. This is now a slaveholding coun- try, and must be considered as a part of the South. Place along their whole western Vjoundary two non-slaveholding States, and how long will the Indians be able to maintain the institution of 14 slavery ? If the agency of Congress is not used to abolish directly slavery in the Indian territory, this end can be easily accomplished by the very means now in operation against slavery in the South- ern States, which the Indian will have but little power to resist. The etll'ct will be, that the Indian territory, large enough for two more States, will be controlled by the non-slaveholding States. Thus by these two points in the report, the South will lose four large States in California — two in Texas, and two in the Indian territorv- Nor is this all. The non-slaveholding States will be brought to the western boundary of Missouri and Arkansas, along thfir whole extent, and will bound Texas on her whole northern and western frontier. Thus tlie Southern States will be hemmed in by the non-slaveholding States on their whole western border — a policy which they have declared essential to the end of abolish- ing slavery in the Southern Stati's. What can compensate the South, for such enormous wrong and poliation ? Hut this is not the end of your concessions by this report. We must not only yield to the interests, but to the prejudices of the Northern people. Slavery existed in the District of Columbia when Congress accepted the cession of the territory composing it from the States of Maryland and Viruinia. No one can suppose that Marylantl and Virginia, slaveholding States then, and slave- holding States now, could have designed to give Congress any power over the institution of slavery in this territory. Indepen- dently of the wrong to the peo])le of the District, to emancipate their slaves, it would be an intolerable evil to have a District be- tween them, where emancipation .prevails by the authority of Congress. Congress, in the bill reported as a part of the so-called cojupromise, now begins the work ol emancipation by declaring that if any slave is brought into the District for sale, he shall be ♦' lil»erated and set free."' If a slave is liberated because he is brought into thr District., the next step, to liberate him because he is in the Dislrirt, Is not difficult. 'Hie power to emancipate the slaves in the District of Columbia is thus claimed and exercised by Congress. .Many of the ablest men of the South have denied that (Congress possesses any sueh power, whilst all agreed, until lately, tha« tor Congress to interlbre with this institution, whilst slavery existed in Maryland and Virginia, would be a gross breach of faith towanls those States, and an outrage upon the whole South. Flow long will that facility whieh yields to the prejudice against the buying and selling of slaves be able to resist the greater prejudice which exists against the holding of slaves at all in the District of ('olumbia? For all these sacrifices to the interests and prejudices of the people of the North, the South is tendered the last measure of the comproTuise — the tiigitive slave bill as they prrd a giiaratee of an early and satisfactory determination. 11. Ri sol vrd, 'l'\iM ill the c\enl a donunant majority shall re* fuse to recognise the great constitutional rights wc assert, and shall continue to deny the obligations of the Kederal (iovenmient to maintain them, it is the sense of this Convention that the territo- ries should be treated as properly, and divided between the sec lions of the I nion, so that the rights of' both sections be ade- quately secured in their respective shares. That we are awar^ this C(»urse is open to iirave olijeclions, but we are ready to acqui- esce in the adoption ot the line of .'lb degree 1)0 minutes north latitude, extending to the Pacific ocean, as an extreme con. cession, upon < on-iiieraiimi* of what is due to the stability of our institutions. 19 12. Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Convention this controversy should be ended, either by a recognition of the consti- tutional rights of the Southern people, or by an equitable partition of the territories. That the spectacle of a confederacy of States, involved in quarrels over the fruits of a war in which the Ameri- can arms were crowned with glory, is humiliating. That the in- corporation of the Wiln;uPt Proviso in the offer of settlement, a proposition which fourteen States regard as disparaging and dis- honorable, is degrading to the country. A termination to this controversy by the disruption of the confederacy, or by the aban- donment of the territoritories to prevent such a result, would be a climax to the shame which attaches to the controversy which it is the paramount duty of Congress to avoid. 13. Resolved, That this Convention will not conclude that Con- gress will adjourn without making an adjustment of this contro- versy, and in the condition in which the Convention finds the questions before Congress, it does not feel at liberty to discuss the methods suitable for a resistance to measures not yet adopted, which might involve a dishonor to the Southern States. 14. Reeolved, That the true boundaries of the State of Texas are defined in the treaty of May 14th, 1830. signed by the Presi- dent of Texas and the members of the cabinet thereof, on the one part, and by the authorised representatives of the government of Mexico, on the other part, setting forth the lines of demarcation in the tbllowing words, to wit : " The line shall commence at the estuary or mouth of the Rio Grande, on the western bank thereof, and shall pursue the same bank up the said river, to the point where the river assumes the name of Rio Bravo del Norte, from which poiut it shall proceed on the said western bank to the head waters or source of said river, it being understood that the terms Rio Grade and Rio Bravo del Norte apply to and designate one and the same stream. From the source of said river, the princi- pal head branch being taken to ascertain that source, a due north line shall be run until it shall intersect the boundary line estab. lished and described in the treaty negotiated by and between the government of Spain and the government of the United States of the North ; which line was subsequently transferred to and adopt- ed in the treaty of limits made between the government of Mexi- co and that of the United States ; and fi-om this point of intersec- tion the line shall be the same that was made and established in and by the several treaties above mentioned, to continue to the mouth or outlet of the Sabine river, and from 'thence to the Gulf of Mexico." That the said State of Texas asserted sovereign au- thority over all territory comprehended withtn the boundary set forth in the foregoing resolution before the date of the recognition of her independence by the government of the United States, and before the date of her annexation to the United States ; and her claim to these boundaries, was well known to the government of the United States, as evidenced by a map distinctly setting them forth, published for the use of our government, at the time of the annexation of Texas, and extensively circulated by members of 20 Congress and other public agent.s. That by the terms of the joint resohition tor anm-xing Texas to the I nited States, it is expressly provided that the government of the United States should have power to adjust all questions of boundary which might arise with other governments ; that no such question of boundary has been adjusted with any other government, so as to contract or vary the boundaries of Texas. That Mexico, by the the treaty of (luada- lupe Hidalgo, exprciisly relin(|uished all claim to all territory com- prehtnded within the boundaries heretofore described, whereby the claim of Texas became settled, and her jurisdiction and au- thority became complete. That the State of 'I'exas should not be hindred or disturbed by any authority whatever, in the exercise of all such sovereign and supreme power over all territory within her limits as may be lawfully exercised by any other sovereign Stale of the confederacy over territory within its ascertained limits. I'j. Resolved, Thai all the territory within the limits of the State of Texas, t)eing now slaveholding territory, it is of vital impor- tance to the Southern States that no portion of it should be trans- ferred to the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, without the most explicit declaration, that the same shall be slave territory in the hands of the United States, as fully as it now is in the hands of Texas. That no agreement between the United States and Texas tor a cession to the former of a part of the territory of the latter, should discharge the Government of the United States from the oldigations to admit into the Union four new States, to be ere. ated on the territory of Texas, with the institution of slavery, and provision should be made in the article of cession to preserve said obligation. 16. Resolved, That it is the duty of the whole South to oppose the attempt of Northern fanatics to get possession of any part of the territory rightfully belonging to Texas, for the purpose of ex- cluding therefrom the people of the South, and especially the Tex- ans themselves. 17. Resolved, That while the position of Texas, in the very breach through which this assault may be made on the constitu- tional rights of the South, entitles her to the assurance of cordial and resolute support trom every slaveholding State, these States have a like right to expect that she will not be so false to herself, and regardless of their intere.sts, as to accept any .sum of money a.s a consideration lor a were adopted by the unanimous vote of the whole Convention. The address was adopted by the Convention with only nine dissenting votes ; and the Convention closed its session on the i2th June with the following proceedings : Mr. McKae. of Miss., (tflered the following resolutions, which were imanimously adopted : Resolved, That the cordial thanks of this Convention are here- by tendered to the Odd Fellows of this city, for the generous offer •1' their Hall, lor the sitting of the Convention; and, also, our Dioht cordial thanks to the Trtistees ot the McKendree church for the use of their church for the meetings of the Convention, and that our gratitude for their kindness be expressed by recording this resolution on the journal of the Convention. Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention are hereby ten- dered to the Tennessee delegation for the prompt and kind man- ner in which they have provided everything requisite for carrying on with facility and convenience the Convention. Also, our thanks t