Lynchburg Virginian

The Legislature of Georgia assembled at Milledgeville on the 3d inst. Governor Cobb, the newly elected Governor delivered an Inaugural Address, from which we make the following extract:

At the commencement of the last Congress the country was convulsed with a bitter sectional controversy, growing out of the institution of slavery as it exists in the Southern States. The ablest heads were appalled with the magnitude of the danger that threatened the integrity of the Republic and the stoutest hearts faltered under the weight of responsibility. It would be inappropriate to this occasion to review the history of that angry and threatening controversy—nor would I necessarily refresh your memories with many of its painful reflections—but there are lessons and admonitions to be drawn from its consideration, which cannot be too deeply and forcibly impressed upon the public mind of the country.

This threatening issue was ultimately brought to a close in our National Legislature by the adoption of a series of measures familiarly known to the country as the Compromise. That Compromise was based upon two important principles:—

The first recognised the great American doctrine of the right of every people, in the organization of the State government, to determine for themselves whether or not they would have the institution of slavery as a part of their social system, a principle dear to every republican heart, and one upon which rests the whole fabric of American institutions, thus repudiating that other doctrine, so justly odious to the people of the South, of the right and duty of Congress to reject a State applying for admission into the Union because her constitution tolerated the institution of slavery.

The other cardinal principle of the Compromise recognises the constitutional obligation to deliver up our fugitive slaves when they may escape into the non-slave holding States—a duty expressly imposed by the letter of the Constitution, and the enforcement of which is essential to the permanence of the Republic. After the adoption of this Adjustment by Congress, circumstances imposed upon the people of Georgia the important duty of pronouncing the first authoritative judgment upon it. To our action the eyes of the whole country were directed, and our fellow-citizens every where looked to our movements with anxious solicitude. It was under these circumstances that Georgia was called upon to speak. She spoke, and her voice breathed a mingled spirit of ardent devotion to the Union, and of patriotic warning to its northern friends, looking to the past, and considering the rights and interests that had been involved in the contest, the dangers and difficulties which had surrounded the country, and the important principles upon which the final action of the Government was based, she solemnly declared her determination to stand to and abide by the Compromise as a permanent and final settlement of this dangerous and vital issue—its finality, and faithful enforcement in all parts, constituting essential elements to commend it to the favor and support of herself and her sister States of the South. Looking to the future, with reference to the menaces of threatened aggression which had been so freely indulged in by a portion of the people of the North, and regarding the adoption of these measures against which she raised her warning voice, in the fourth resolution of her convention, as invidious blows aimed at her most vital interests, she has calmly but firmly said to this maddened spirit of fanaticism—Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther. Her position was taken with calmness in 1850—it has been reaffirmed with deliberation in 1851, and I now renew the pledge of my hearty co-operation in maintaining it with firmness and decision.—

Georgia has thus placed herself upon a broad national and patriotic platform, and invites her sister States of the Union to stand by her in the preservation of the happiest and freest Government on earth—upon these great principles of right and justice Her policy and principles look to the preservation of the Union: and the maintenance of the Constitution as one and inseparable. Ambition can seek no higher and nobler object than the transmission to posterity of this inestimate legacy: A Union of sovereign States, connected by a Constitution dispensing equality and justice to all its members—a Constitution consecrated by the wisdom of the great and good men of revolutionary memory—a Union whose flag floats upon every breeze, is honored in every land; and regarded throughout the world as the emblem of constitutional freedom. The maintenance of such a Constitution and the preservation of such a Union is worthy of the united and untiring efforts of patriotic men North and South, East and West—worthy of their best energies and purest devotions. Assembled here in the capital of Georgia, around her time-honored and consecrated altars, let us unite in one common prayer to the great Ruler of the Universe, that this Constitution and this Union may be perpetuated to our latest posterity.