e part of that body to transcend the clear,
well-defined limits set by the Constitution to govern and control their
action." The action of Congress, it is held, has been grossly injurious
to the South, for of the whole domain acquired from Mexico, not a foot
is left, worth having, for the occupation of the slaveholder. Nothing
ought to reconcile the South to this action, but the hope that it may
settle forever all agitation of the question of slavery. But if peace
and quiet can be thereby restored, if the Constitution can be respected
and the Union maintained, these sacrifices, great as they are, may well
be regarded as light in comparison with the objects attained. But should
this expectation prove fallacious, and the slavery agitation be renewed,
it will furnish, the Governor says, "proof, convincing and conclusive,
of that fixed and settled hostility to slavery on the part of the North
which should and will satisfy every reasonable man that peace between us
is impossible; and then a necessity stronger than all law, the necessity
of self-preservation, will demand at our hands a separation from those
who use the relationship of brotherhood only for the purpose of
inflicting upon us the worst acts of malignant hostility." The
supineness of the South upon this subject is very warmly censured, and
the hostility evinced in the Northern States toward the fugitive slave
law is referred to as among the indications that peace and harmony have
not been restored. Virginia, and all the slaveholding states, he thinks,
"can and ought, calmly and explicitly to declare that the repeal of the
fugitive slave law, or any essential modification of it, is a virtual
repeal of the Union. The faithful execution of the law is the only means
now left by which the Union can be preserved with honor to ourselves and
peace to the country. Such a declaration on the part of the South will
give strength and great moral weight to the conservative patriots at the
North, now struggling for the Constitution and the supremacy of the
laws, who are, in truth, fighting the battle of the Union, in the bosom
of the non-slaveholding States. If, however, no consideration of
prudence or patriotism can restrain the majority from the
non-slaveholding States in their headlong career of usurpation and
wrong, and should they repeal or essentially modify the fugitive slave
law, the most prompt and decisive action 'will be required at your
hands'. In either event, I would