Xii.
But Mr. Cameron thought differently; and on the 8th of August, in orders to Gen. Butler, he said:—‘It is the desire of the President that all existing rights, in all the States, be fully respected and maintained. Nor will you, except in cases where the public good may seem to require it, prevent the voluntary return of any fugitive, to the service from which he may have escaped.’ The General remarked after reading this despatch, ‘This is too ridiculous to be laughed at.’To sweep away the last doubt on the subject, a week later, Mr. Smith, Secretary of the Interior, at a dinner in Providence, R. I., said:
The minds of the people of the South have been deceived by the artful representations of Democrats, who have assured them that the people of the North were determined to bring the power of this government to bear upon them for the purpose of crushing out this institution of Slavery; but the government of the United States has no more right to interfere with the institution of Slavery in South Carolina, than it has to intefere with the peculiar institution of Rhode Island whose benefits I have enjoyed:—Referring, we suppose, to a good dinner; nor, from the well-known habits of Mr. Smith, can we attribute the utterance of such a sentiment to the befuddling influence of the proverbially fine wine the gentlemen of Rhode Island drink.
