The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-24 00:00:00

CAROLINA.

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and the House of Repre-
sentatives,—l appear before you in obedience to your com-
mands to take upon myself the discharge of the important
duties you have imposed upon me. The office of chief
magistrate of this state is at all times one of high dignity
and trust, and assumes at the present juncture very great
and fearful responsibility, and believe me when I say I en-
ter on its duties with a sincere distrust ref my own abi-
lities. These considerations have not deterred me, how-
ever, from attempting the discharge of the duties confided
to me, convinced that every man owes a duty to his
country which he is bound to perform at every sacrifice.
In accordance with the general principle which has re-
gulated my public life I yie'd an implicit obedience to the
pubic will, and you will bear with me when I say that I
feel sensible of the difficulties with which I shall he sur-
rounded. The intense excitement that prevails in the
bosom ofour state, the evils with which we are threatened
frown without, and the embarrassments that exist at home,
satisfy me that exigencies will arise, during which let our
Chief Magistrate act as he may, he will be compelled to
encounter reproach and reprehension. These difficuties
will, nevertheless, not shake my determination to march
forward in the path of duty. In this way only we may
confidently expect that our mutual eff ir a for the recovery
of our rights and the restoration of our liberties will be
eventually crowned with complete success.
In the great strut gle in which we are engaged, I pledge
mysif at all times to assert and uphold the sovereign au-
tnority of the State, and will with alacrity and cheerful-
ness enforce its sovereign will. I acknowledge no alle-
giance p +remount to that which we all owe to the State,
and I here most solemnly decl ire that I shall hold myself
under the highest Wig itione to carry into full and com-
plete effect the ordinance of the Convention of the State,
and every act of legislation, and every judgment of our
courts, founded up n the same. My duty in this behalf I
will endeavour faithfully to perform.
In adm nistering the ordinary duties of the office I will
endeavour to reconcile the discontent that prevails among
I the people, to allay party animosity, and to bring all our
citizens to the recollection that we are members of one
family, and that our highest and constant air, should be
in the greatest degree to promote each other's happiness.
When I look forward to the prospect before us, sur-
rounded as it is with gloom, and doubts, and darkness, I
see new incentives arising which will prompt us to eo
forward, as becomes men in the discharge of their duty.
After 10 ye irs of unavailing remonstranee, in common
with the other southern States, South Carolina has, in
the face of her sisters of the Confederation ar.d of the
world, put herself upon her sovereignty. She has de-
clared, in the most solemn manner, that the acts of Con-
gress imposing duties on the importation of foreign com-
modities for the protection of manufactures shall not be
enforced within her borders.
All the hopes that have been so long entertained, and so
anxiously cherished by her citizens, of a returning sense
of justice in her oppressor, and of a change in the policy of
the Government in her favour, have vanish. d. Sue was
compel ed to assert her just rights or sink into a state of
colonial vassalage. What step will be taken in the pre-
sent emergency by the other States it is impossible for us
to foresee.
If South Carolina is not relieved, either by a satisfac-
tory adjustment of the tariff or by a general convention of
all the States, she has declared before God and man that
she will maintain the position she has assumed; nor will
she change it unless her wrongs be redressed, or until some
mode is pointed out that will relieve her of her burdens.
She is anxiously desirous of peace; she has no wish to
dissolve the political bands which connect her with the
other States, but with Thomes Ifferson she does not
regard the dissolution of the union as the greatest of evils.
She regards one as greater,—viz , submission to a Go-
vernment of unlimited powers.
She has regarded the present tariff as the settled policy
of the Government, hot if deceived, she is willing to be
undeceived. South Carolina desires that the question
may be settled, wether the general Government possesses
the power to make it the unalterable policy of the country.
She appeals, to the Constitution as it was originally
adopted, not as it is at present, converted into an instru-
ment if oppression. Standine on the basis of the Cu
stitution, she cannot think that an attempt will be made
to drive her from her position by force. She will regard
any attempt to force her into submission as severing a tie
that connects her with the confederated States. She be-
lieves she will sec-ive from the sovereign Stares of the
Union nothing less than a favourable sympathy, as it is
for the common interest, certainly that she should not be
forced from the Union.
But if an unhallowed attempt should be made to cement
the union with her blood, she will reeard the compact as
at once destroyed. The spirit of our institutions, the
spirit of the age, forbids the idea that force will be re-
sorted to by either of the parties in this controversy; but
if South Carolina is deceived, she stands prepared to meet
danger, and to repel an invasion of her territory. She
has warned the general Government of the inevitable
consequences of an appeal to arms. Toe innocent blood
that may he shed in the conflict will in the last great day
of accounts rest on the heads of those who attempted to
exercise an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. Her sacred
soil shall never be stained with the footsteps of an invad-
ing foe, and if in resisting such an enemy the blood of her
children should be demanded, no son of hers, whether

native or adopted, will be f wad raising his parricidical arm

. .
against our common mother,—tio so❑ of hers will he-
sitwe to fly to the rescue and lay down his life in her de-

fence.—[Here the Governor was interrupted with a bursi
of applause.] _ _

Fellow.ciC,zens,—South Carolina cannot be drawn from

the proud eminence she occupies but by her own hands.
If she succeeds in the present struggle, it will be glory
enough tor her to have led the way in a reform of the
government ; but if she fail, if she is to reap hitter fruits
as the reward of her patriotic devotedness, the pages of

Future history will attest her virtu•. It she is to be made

the vassal of a greet consolidated Government, which is to
ride over her ploughmen and beggar her yeomanry,—if
the light of liberty is to be extinguished, and the state
broken into fragments,—if nothing is to remain but the
melancholy monuments of the patriotic struggle in which
we are engaged—the friends of our country will in future,
with repentance and unavailing tears, lament that they
permitted the occasion to escape when liberty might have

been rendered secure, and tjte Union p aced-on a founda-
tion as lasting as the immuttlile rocks. Some of us may

not survive the issue of the present contest, but if we are
true to our duty our ex inple will be a rich legacy to those
. .

who succeed tp; which in itself is a remuneration for a life

of generous devotion to the public good. It will be suffi-
cient glory for us when we shall have left the busy scene,
of this earth to have inscribed on our tombs—" Here Iles
the man who sacrificed his life in a magnanimous effort to
renovate mail redeem the constitution, and to restore the
lib-rties of his country."
Fellow- eirizens,—This is our own, our native land—the
soil of Carolina is rich with precious blood she shed in de-
knce of those sacred liberties we have received as our he-

ritage, and which we are bound to transmit unimpaired to

posterity. Here all the endearments that render our liv,s
pleasant are lound. Here are the cherished monuments of

our former h.ippiness. Here repose in everlasting silence,
the bones of our ancestors. Here are treasured up all the
hopes that bind us to our country. Let us resolve, then,
that, whatsoever others do, although they may desert us
in the present struggle, and give atd and succour to our

enernie-, we will veutuie our all fur Carolina.—(Applause.)
Cud grant that our councils may at all ti i.es hegoverued
by wisdom and patriotism, and that our efforts in the

cause of our country may be crowned with success. But
if i❑ the purpose of an inscrutable God, it shall be so or-
dried that we are to be assailed from abroad and drserted

at home, let us resolve that we will give no cause of ex-
ultation to our enemies. We will through weal and

through woe, through evil report as well as through good
report, go fot Carmina.—(lmmense applaus_..)
Let me conc,ude by assuring you, that my prayers shall
be continually offered up to Hun who omits in Ins hands
all our debt tales, that he will p. osper tile means employed
for the restoration of our rights, and that he would at all
times have our whole country in h►s holy keeping. I an.
nounce myself ready in the boletnn form prebetioed in the
consti,utiou, to inhere mysell to the service of the state.

IMVORTANT FROM VIRGINIA.
As every movement In deithetative bodies rehit•
ing to the stand taken by South Csrohna Is of the
utmost importance, ire hare in,erted the long report
made by a committee of 21 to the Legislature of
Virginia on the 22d instant, on the subject of hunt-
fic,,tion. Tile report says they cannot, %Yahoo,

alairn, witness an attempt by an individual S.ate to
assume unwarranted rights ; that they deplore the
oppressive system of the tariff, but cannot approve
of the mode resorted to by South Carolina, nor can
they partii•ipate in the precipitate measures she has
resorted to to enforce it; that they, however,dissent

d enter their protest against toe principle, con_
tamed tit the premdent'k proclamation, and wit. h

ate iu d„," hostility to the doetiities iepratedly as-
:•wears udoi
iedb):Le
d Vtlify iini:idepada 'tiejatethte present CJllStittliloll
States, and that any

State has the right to withdraw peaceably from the
Union whenever she shall think it necessary. That
citizens are not traitors who advocate and carry out
these principles, and while they implore Sou h Ca-
rolina to pause in her course, they request the Pre-
sident to stay the arm of force, and that Congress
immediately interpo4e and repeal the obnoxious fea-
tures of the tariff; that unless that is done this ses-
sion a convention of the States be called, that two
members be despatched to the Legislature to induce
them to listen to theadvice and mediation of Virginia.
The following is the report of the committee of
21, which was submitted to the House of Delegates
to-day :

LEGISLATION OF VIRGINIA.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FEDERAL RELATIONS.
The Select Committee, to whom were referred
the relations existing between South Carolina and
the Government of the United States—the conse-
quences likeLy to result to each, and to the common-
wealth of Virginia especially, from an Ordinance and
other proceedings adopted by a Convention recently
assembled in South Carolina—a proclamation by
Andrew Jackson, President of the United States,
and the communication of the Governor of this com-
monwealth on the same subject, have carefully ex-
amined these various documents, and devoted to the
important subjects involved their anxious reflection
and profound consideration; and they recommend
to the general Assembly the adoptio❑ of the follow-
ing resolutions :-
1. Resolved, That we are painfully impressed
with a sense of the difficulties and dangers, as well
as the responsibilities and importance of the im-
pending crisis. That we deeply deplore the occur-
rence of recent events in precipitate succession,
which are of alarming import, and threaten alike the
preservation of those rights of the States, as poli-
tical communities, which we can never abandon—
the stability of that union which we cherish with
ardeot attachment, as essential to the prosperity and
tranquillity of all—and the peace and happiness of
our common country.
2. Resolved, that next to the blessings of civil
liberty, to secure which the union of these States
was originally formed, we appreciate the blessings
arid advantages of that union. That so far from
desiring to impair it, we most anxiously desire to
preserve it, by the only means, which, in our opinion,
can insure its preservation—by keeping on one
hand, the general Government, instituted principally
with a tefarence to our exterior relations and in-
terests, and on the other, the Governments of the
several Sates, constituted with a view to their in-
terior and local concerns, and made the residuary
depositaries of every power not conceded to the
former, strictly confined in the discharge of their
relative duties, within their constitutional limits.
That we regard any aberration from the prescribed
sphere, by which either shall attempt an unautho-
rized accession of power, as weakening to bo h, and
injurious to all. And, therefore, that we cannot,
without anxious solicitude and alarm, witness any
attempt by an individual Sate, to assume to herself
rights unwarranted by the political compact
to which she is a party, inconsistent with the rights
of the other States, arid with the existence of the
Union ; nor, on the other hand, the assertion of
principles, or the usurpation of powers by the ge-
neral Government, subversive of the rights of the
States, not guaranteed by the Constitution, and
which, if silently a< quiesced in,might soon be erected
into the authori y of precedents, and ultimately
lead to other arid more dangerous assumption's.
Trott the former, if persisted in, might end in re-
volution and bloodshed, while the latter would pave
the way to that result, not less disastrous in its
consequences, in which all efforts at free government
have hi,herto unfortunately ended—a powerful con-
solidated Government, and an absolute despotism.
That we look on the al,erriarives with equal appre-
hension—anarchy on the one hand—unlimited power
on the other.
3. Resolved, as a declaration of our principles
and opinions, as to the relative powers and duties of
these Governments respectively, that we deem it
unnecessary to undertake on the present occasion,
any new exposition of the articles of our political
creed. That they were or ginally asserted, after
great deliberation, at an interesting and memorable
epoch in our political history—that they have sub-
sequently, on various occasions, been substantially
reiterated by our General Assembly, as the settled
doctrines and opinions of Virginia—and that no new
assertion of them, departing from the original and
consecrated text, could tail to lose in strength, sim-
plicity, a►rd dignity, to the extent of such departure.
That we have carefully revised these several resolu-
tions, and the arguments then adduced to sustain
the conclusions asserted—and especially that cele-
brated report made by a Committee of its body to
the Legislature in 1799. That these important
documents have been long before the people of the
United States, and canaot have failed to attract
general interest and attention—and that, therefore,
we regard it as only necessary now (arid at this
perilous crisis we do regard that, as our bounden
and solemn duty), to assert and declare to our Sis-
ter States, to the Government of this great confede-
racy, arid to the world, our firm and unalterable
adherence to these principles and resolutions.
4. Resolved, as our deliberate conviction, That
the Acts of Congress, usually denominated the Ta-
riff Laws, so far as they were passed palpably arid
avowedly for the exclusive protection of particular
species of industry, are not only unequal in their
operation, oppressive, and consequently inexpedient,
but are contrary to the spirit, true intent, and mean-
ing of the federal compact.
5. Resolved, That we can never acquiesce in the
present system of duties, as the settled policy of
the Government—that we will, by all constitutional
and proper meals, oppose its continuation—and that
we sincerely believe it to be due to a spirit of mu-
tual conciliation and harmony—to a proper respect
for the opinions and interests of large portions of
the community, and essentially necessary to the
preservation of the Union, that its burdens should
be gradually but speedily abated, to the imposition
of such duties only as the exigencies of the Govern-
ment may require for its ordinary revenue.
6. Resolved, That we will cordially co-operate
with our brethren of South Carolina, and of the
other States more immediately operated on injuri-
ously by this oppressive system, in effecting by all
proper means, its abatement to the extent which
we believe was contemplated by those who formed
the federal compact, and the understanding of the
States who were the parties to its ratification.
7. Resolved, That while we concur with our
brethren of South Carolina in reprobating this po-
licy, we must sincerely regret and deplore the mea-
sures they have recently adopted to obviate its e%ils.
Tura we cannot approve the remedy which that State
has resorted to, and still less the precipitate mea-
sures she has adopted to enforce it. That we can-
not but regard that remedy as compromising the
trite rights of ihe States as sovereigns, by asserting
them under the sanctio❑ of the Federal Const to-
lion, arid, as obviously tending, if persis.ed in, to
eternal convulsion and civil war. That we depre-
cate and deplore the principles assumed in the ordi-
nance of her recent convention, aid the measures
which her Legislature seem likely to adopt to carry

litem into execution. Arid we regret especially
the precipitancy manifested in prescribing so early a
day for its execution, without having pleviously re-
sorted to and exhausted every constiturional means
to obtain redress—without having communed with
her sister States, whose interests ate identified with
her own—whose sympathies are cor tally excited
by common wrongs and sufferings—and who aie
attached to each other by ties as strong as ever
bound communities together. That we regret that
so early a per rod has been selected, because it prac-
tically exciudes that very interposition of the pre-
n Congress r
e she invokes, as the liec,.strary
timee t
t.o
:0 is not allowed to Inca body
sent sbs e
ra which
te a e
tll
were it disposed to redness her grievances by a re-'
auction of tine tariff—because it excludes the pussi-
tnury the in eiposition of the other States, by
means of a general convention, or their tendering
that mediation from which the happiest results
might fairly have been anticipated—and more than ,